Why do I want to tell THIS Story right now?

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Tim Schildberger - Script Magazine - September 17th, 2025

All writers share a common bond. They’ve all committed time and energy to creating something. Unless they used AI, in which case they aren’t writers, they’re jerks. Writing takes effort. But how many of us stop to think about why we’re making that effort? I’m not talking about why we are willing to spend hours, days, weeks, months and years working on one idea. I’m talking about why we’re so passionate about that particular idea at this particular time. From a screenplay viewpoint, if you can figure out WHY you want to write this specific idea right now, you go a long way to making your script more impactful and better.

There are as many stories out there as there are grains of sand. Don’t believe the morons who tell you there are like 7 original ideas, and the world’s story jar is empty. That’s stupid. Choosing what story to write can be a challenge. Maybe you have a few ideas rattling around that giant brain of yours. Maybe you don’t have any. Maybe you are thinking about the marketplace, the box office, about deals being done, and you’re trying to catch the wave. Maybe you kind of think you want to tell a story, but worry it will reveal too much and make your family worry you might not be who they think you are.

Usually…not every time, but often…you’ll think rational thoughts like ‘I should write this’ or ‘this would make a great movie’, and that idea lies in the back of your brain, and rarely comes to the front, because as smart as it would be to explore it, you just don’t have the required passion. But that other random idea about clowns on the moon…that one keeps pushing its way into your psyche. Why is that? Why are writers drawn to one particular story, at one particular time?

Humans, hopefully, are ever-evolving creatures as they meander through life. If you have all the same life perspectives at 50 that you had at 20...then chances are something’s wrong with you. From a writing perspective, this hopefully means your passion for particular stories is also evolving. Your underlying emotional state is also evolving, meaning you probably find yourself more attracted to specific stories, based on what’s specifically going on in your life right now. Not enough writers take the time to think about this, and it’s their loss.

Let’s say your kids are about to go off to college, and you find yourself toying with story ideas that involve loss. Or you’ve moved around a lot, and you’re drawn to a historical figure who fought to keep the family estate in the face of war/natural disaster. Maybe you hate your job, and violent horror stories feel more interesting than they did a few years ago.

I’m no therapist (yet), but based on the thousands of scripts I’ve read and the hundreds of chats I’ve had with writers, I’m confident in saying there is usually a strong emotional connection between the writer and the current script they are writing. And very often, the writer doesn’t fully connect the dots. Which means the script lacks the emotional authenticity it could have, because the writer is holding the script at arm’s length, and isn’t diving into all the possibilities.

Continue reading the rest of the article (and find the clown movie references) at Script Magazine