Bennett Graebner Explains Why Screenwriters Must Stop Chasing New Ideas

Aspiring screenwriters face a universal temptation. A brilliant new idea appears mid-draft, sparkling with possibility, and suddenly the current project feels like a slog. The pattern repeats until hard drives overflow with abandoned scripts and nothing reaches completion.

Bennett Graebner, who spent nearly two decades as an executive producer on The Bachelor franchise before returning to his original passion for screenwriting, has watched talented friends fall into this trap for years. His diagnosis is blunt: new ideas feel exciting because they remain untested, while screenplays function as lottery tickets that hold zero chance of winning if never completed.

Why do new ideas feel more exciting than current projects?

An idea that exists only in imagination carries no flaws, no structural problems, no scenes that refuse to work. Imperfections emerge only after a writer commits words to paper.

"It's so easy to start something, get excited about it, work on it, and then get frustrated by it," Bennett Graebner observes. "That shiny other thing that's in your head or in your notes, because that thing is like, oh, well that's fun. And that's not that hard."

Screenwriting coach Jenna Avery identifies this pattern as "bright shiny object syndrome," a term she uses in Script Magazine to describe how almost anything else looks more appealing once writers begin hard work on a script.

Untested ideas appear perfect

Current screenplays have problems that need solving. New ideas seem to solve themselves.

"The only thing that's perfect is that idea that you just have the idea for that you actually haven't worked on yet, because that isn't anything," Graebner explains. "You're just like, that's an awesome idea. Well, yeah, it's just an idea."

What seemed like a guaranteed success in imagination reveals complications the moment it becomes a working document. Rather than push through, writers retreat to the next shiny object.

What do writers lose when they never finish?

"They're all just lottery tickets," Bennett Graebner states. "Your chance of getting something made is so slim. But if you don't finish anything, well, you have no shot at all."

Approximately 50,000 screenplays are registered with the Writers Guild of America each year, while spec script sales number in the dozens. Only 11 spec scripts sold in 2023, with just one selling in the first three months of 2024. A finished script at least enters the competition. An unfinished script guarantees nothing.

Writers who never complete scripts cannot build proficiency with structure and pacing. Mechanics of ending a story, of bringing threads together in a satisfying resolution, only develop through practice.

"I think about these friends of mine who are just working the same thing for years and years and years, and it's like, you can't do that," Graebner says.

Graebner taught screenwriting for years and observed the same pattern repeatedly. Students with talent and ambition failed to complete projects, while less naturally gifted writers who finished their scripts moved forward.

"You've got to get to the point where you can at least say, hey, take a look at this," Graebner explains. "As opposed to like, yeah, I'm working on something, which we all do, by the way."

Managers, agents, and producers cannot evaluate potential based on descriptions of works in progress. Finished scripts give them something to read, assess, and champion.

Quitting reinforces itself

Creative professionals who repeatedly abandon projects develop patterns that become harder to break. Each unfinished script makes the next abandonment easier. Conversely, each completed project builds confidence and momentum.

How can writers break the cycle?

"You have to power through and just finish it, otherwise you're just going to be sitting there," Bennett Graebner advises.

Frustration with a current project does not make a new idea superior. Both scripts will present problems and demand effort. Commitment to completion makes the difference.

First drafts mark beginnings, not endings. Eric Heisserer wrote approximately 100 drafts of Arrival before production. M. Night Shyamalan did not discover that Malcolm Crowe was dead until the fifth draft of The Sixth Sense. Writers who abandon projects after two or three drafts may be quitting just before their best work would emerge.

Use new ideas as motivation

Rather than switching projects, Graebner suggests treating new ideas as rewards for completing current work.

"Don't do that. Do not do that," he tells himself when tempted to jump to something new. "But sometimes a little bit of that is good where you're like, I need a break from this thing. But you can't take too much of a break. And then you just have to finish it, even if it's not perfect."

Jon Acuff, author of Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done, recommends placing new projects at the finish line for current ones. Anticipated rewards provide motivation to push through difficult sections.

Completion over perfection

Bennett Graebner acknowledges that he fights the same impulses as every other writer. New ideas arrive uninvited. Current projects grow frustrating. The temptation to start fresh never fully disappears.

"I do it too, man," he admits. "But yeah, I think that you have to power through and just finish it."

His years teaching screenwriting reinforced what his own career demonstrated: talent matters less than output. Writers who generate dozens of ideas but complete nothing remain amateurs indefinitely. Writers who push through frustration and finish imperfect scripts develop the skills, build the portfolios, and create the opportunities that lead to professional work.

A finished screenplay, however flawed, can open doors. It can attract representation, land assignments, or simply teach the writer what the next script needs. A drawer full of brilliant beginnings accomplishes none of these things.

For aspiring screenwriters chasing careers in an industry where the odds already stack against them, Graebner's advice cuts through the noise: stop romanticizing the ideas you haven't tested and finish the work in front of you.