Treasure Seeker

A screenwriter seeks the elusive truth by following maps, inspired by those before her.

It was right there the entire time. 

But you wouldn’t have known it a few weeks back.  It had taken her every day for almost three weeks solid for her to find it.  She knew it was there, but it was blotting her focus.  Like a spot on someone’s face, you don’t realise it’s there until you notice it and then you can never ignore it.

The process of finding it was gruelling.  Home-life was disruptive, sleep was fitful, and there was a great many swear words hurled at the four walls.  There was a map, of course, there’s always a rough map, a guide to by which all is holy.  Like all treasure maps, the guide is rough and the pitfalls many. 

 

But she found it.

 

Perseverance is key.  A willingness to pursue the goal millions before have chased, with only a miniscule per cent revelling in the glory. 

 

Beside her were the various incantations of other maps, but all poorly scribbled with different pen marks and short-hand words that resembled code.  One stood out more than most as it had a crisp pink note attached: “Almost, but not quite. You’re nearly there.”

 

All these maps are significantly necessary for the process, and in reality, to find it, she had to become a master sculptor like those miniscule per cents before her.

 

Now, these sculptors are not ordinary people.  They don’t gently wield a knife lightly here and there to create a pattern or a face.  They are savage beasts.  They chop off huge pieces, sometimes the most dearly loved pieces, take whole sections out and replace them with much smaller parts, swap sections around like some macabre operation.  By the end, the sculptor is usually exhausted, spent creatively and emotionally, but in front of them is the treasure.

 

Now, to find this metaphorical gold, she did not go outside, except to take in some crisp Massachusettsian air, or to complete the necessary motherly tasks expected of her.  No, instead she had to look within herself, within her study, within her home.  Some days were harder than others, and some days she sculpted better than anyone before her.

 

It should be noted though, that despite the apparent solitude that comes with seeking something so profound and so elusive, you cannot achieve the goal without help.  It’s just not possible.  So when you think you are on the pinnacle of finding it, you can’t climb that peak without another set of eyes - without another sculptor.

 

But she found it.

 

On the day she found it, she sat back and sighed, both in relief and pleasure.

 

There was a knock at the study door, and a head popped round.

 

“Well?”, he enquired softly.

 

“I got it.  I nailed it.  I knew it was there all along; I just had to sharpen it to make it stand out.  I've completed the final draft.”

 

For screenwriters are not just dreamers with a pen. 

They are savage editors with a cutthroat eye.

They are treasure finders with many drafts.

And they do not, ever, give up, until the story is shining and bold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

Final story in the First Sentence Project (the first sentence given by an Instagrammer), all stories are written in under 30 mins (so typos , editing etc are minimal, so go easy)