Two years ago, I was given the opportunity to take an idea of mine and have it worked on by a group of people. This idea in particular, a story about a high school super hero learning that saving the day isn’t an easy task, was very near and dear to my heart. I had been working on it for a number of years before this and I wasn’t very keen on letting others, to quote a writing mentor of mine, “play in my sandbox.”
Fortunately for the continuation of my story, I had been working with this group for a number of years already. We had bonded over trying to continue on a series that, in our minds, had been canceled too soon before it stopped being enjoyable. When the company owning the property told us to stop, we needed new ideas. That’s when I pitched my idea and it chosen amongst several others.
Even with the voting process seeming to go in my favor, I was then confronted with the matter of letting others critique and suggest new stuff for my world. I knew this would happen and did my best to be supportive of what was being said. It was hard though when the suggestions started to take it in a different direction, like changing the sexuality of a character solely on reaching a specific audience or pushing for a new character no matter how left-field it may seem. Though I have trouble recognizing certain parts of my series, the product now is strengthened through collaboration and debate on what is allowed in this universe and what is not. There have been rules and limitations put in place, and I never could have set this up without them.
Two years ago when I was given this opportunity, I was a screenwriter in the group. A year later, the head of the project stepped down to work on other projects within the company he had made and made me the Project Manager of my series. Truth be told, this didn’t make me any more in control of the project, just a load more responsible for getting things done. I have never been in a leadership position this important or with this much responsibility, so I probably am not doing all that I could possibly do.
Luckily though, I am never alone. I have the company of a wonderful group of multi-talented friends who are working beside me to making an idea of mine blossom into something that everyone is going to really enjoy. It’s a slow process, but we are all sticking it out because we don’t want to end this thing that we have all come together for over several years. If anyone has the passion to make something truly wonderful and worth seeing, it is going to be us.
Now, perhaps I just need to hand out some of the responsibility to the group and see how much quicker stuff can get done. Or perhaps that will be the straw that causes them all to scurry away. Ha ha ha.
