The past few days have been rather productive. I worked my way through three more of Aaron Sorkin’s lessons and had long conversations with two very good friends, Chris Smith and Ian Sobel.

These friends are talented writers and good men fiercely dedicated to their craft. They work hard to constantly produce, and I admire their discipline. We spoke candidly about the movie industry, stories, motivation, and goals. And staying accountable to those goals.

I’ve also upped my game when it comes to reading scripts. I read two since Thursday, one of them, Chewie by Van Robichaux & Evan Susser, standing out in particular. This heartfelt fictionalization of the making of Star Wars takes us through the tumultuous production of a film that would eventually change the movie making industry and start a worldwide phenomenon. We live the trials and tribulations through Peter Mayhew’s (Chewbacca) eyes, watching the humanity of the now larger than life George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford. We feel the drama, pain, and suffering that goes into a passion project nobody had ever seen before.

Robichaux and Susser did a great job. The script left me blissfully and nostalgically emotional at the end–whether the emotion came from their quality writing or because the subject matter is so important to me, I’m not positive. Either way, it gave me hope. I want my movies to make people feel like this one made me feel.

In hindsight, Star Wars is a no-brainer. In actuality, it was an extreme risk and faced incredible opposition.

I like to believe, deep down, that Hollywood giants still have the constitution to take risks on something new and different. And that audiences have the courage to spend their dollars on stories they’ve never seen or heard of before. Time will tell.

I also took a few minutes to update my IMDB page.

Finally–and most importantly–I continued to craft the world and story for my post apocalyptic, sci fi idea. I wrote over a thousand words, and I’m only at the very beginning. Building the world from scratch is a thrilling, but challenging process. What is this world I’m creating going to be like, and how are those things important to the plight of my characters? How much of the world is really important to show to an audience? What kind of people might live there? How would they behave? What is a day in their lives? Who are my characters, what do they want, and what’s going to stand in their way?

There are a thousand questions to ask and answer as I force this idea to take shape into drama. I’m making something from nothing, and it’s exciting. And scary. What if nobody else likes this idea that I’ll pour hundreds of hours into? What if they don’t get it? I guess I can’t worry about those things. I gotta start with what interests me. I gotta start with what drives my passion. There’s no more room for fear.

Work hard, my friends.

But if you need a moment to escape, I recommend taking a few minutes to check out Chris’s sketches on YouTube.