I wrote four different Projects based on one idea

This has been a unique writing experience. I wrote a short story that became a short film, but only one particular aspect from the story became a short story. The love story. The original short story was a haunted house story. The short film was just a love story and the next short film was about the haunting again and now the feature script will be about the haunting again.

Each time it has evolved and has helped me structure the next piece of art in the line of different works. I wrote a script called The Twisted Mr. Bendy and let it sit for a couple years before making a new feature length out of the prior forty page screneplay. Character name and plot was the same but everything else was new.

So let that be a lesson out there to any writers. You can totally let one work inspire other future works and one idea can literally turn into four sepearate pieces. Where do we put the lens? That's all I did for the short story and the short film and suddenly a short horror piece became a romantic piece instead.

Just because one work did not turn out the way you wanted does not mean it had no value. If you can take away how to improve it or help you in future projects it was a win. Writers have to micro fail. You will fial over and over but you keep going. Macro failure is quitting. You do not want to macro fail. Writing is a process and is constantly evolving.

I am proud of the other works but even just two pages into the feature I understand the structure and feel the feature has better structure than the other prior works because I know where I am going now. I have added and subtracted characters when necessary and it is all part of the process. Movies are heavily structured.

even just my last draft I didn't set up the haunting prior. You must show us how these ghosts came to haunt the house, at least this was necessary in my script and I am doing so in the current screenplay. Think about the Conjuring. clocks stopped at 3:07. We don learn that till later but in the Amityville Horror we hear the time of death was 3:15 so we know why it is significant later on.

Why does my character weep? She was falsely accused of having an affair. When she returns as a ghost and weeps we know why and if it sounds like her we know it is her just by hearing and not even seeing. And we can subvert expectations because now she could be crying cuz she was dead.

Another ghost in the story was a mimic. Maybe he is all the other spirits. who knows? I have structure and I have a road map to tell my story. Know your story and know your characters. What genre am i telling and what story am I telling? I knew I was telling a horror story but I cared more for the romanctic subplot at first so i finished the horror short and told the romantic one afterward. The first Conjuring was romantic and scary but James wan knew the horror came firs.t

Conjuring four made the horror suffer at the love story's growth. Know the limits of the genre and write accordingly. Is this really the story and genre i want to focus on? Horror does not usually have a strong b plot because it takes away from the horror. Thank you.