I was working with some writers recently when I hit a brick wall. We were talking about a scene where we’d stop following our protagonist and go along with a supporting character for some time. I couldn’t see it. I’d burrowed into the idea of a singular perspective so deeply that I had tunnel vision.

Thankfully we managed to talk it through and I made my way out, but we debriefed about my brick wall moment afterward. I’d found a bias, and I had to flag it for myself and others so next time I’d recognise straight away if my feelings on a change of perspective were founded in the best interest of the script — or my own tastes.

We all have biases, opinions, likes, dislikes — on and on. It goes with saying. It almost goes without saying. Writing is a process of immense thoughtfulness and analysis — of logic, emotion, sense, audiences, time, pacing, stakes, characters, plot, subtext, exposition — and it’s important to be vigilant when crossing creative bridges.

I find, and I’m not alone, that writing uses huge amounts of physical energy. It’s because of the overtime happening in my mind; a tangible expenditure of blood and oxygen. A lot goes into a script that’s well-thought and well-written. It sounds melodramatic and indulgent, but emotional investment is something I believe is vital. So when it comes to changes you couldn’t imagine happening in the script the day before… it’s time to zoom out and see the forest for the trees.

What happened that day was a failure in this process. It wasn’t a disagreement based on something fundamental that couldn’t change. Later that night I thought through a few techniques of how it could work quite nicely.

The fact is the point became moot, because we threw that path out. But the creation and destruction cycle is vital to finding the film we’re looking for and I was momentarily an obstruction. It’s important to explore as many possibilities you can when you write, because deciding to not take a different path you block yourself off from what could be a million potentials. Some may be lucky enough to constantly find what will work, but in my experience writing is more a series of experiments that tell you where not to go.

So I planted a flag in my mind to remind myself that I, for some reason, have a dislike of unexpected change of perspective. It could be because I have a love of films that focus heavily on a single character. It could be because I worry about encountering the dreaded whose story is this quagmire. Either way it doesn’t matter, because there’s nothing wrong with a quagmires — it’s just another problem to work and find possibilities. And if there aren’t any just start over.

Joshua Lundberg is a Writer and Director at Barking Mouse®, and co-Founder along with Producer Georgia Woodward. Together they create films, web series as well as commercial and corporate content for clients.