anchor.diff:  There's no [Bootstrap][] story you can load at the beginning and add to.[^savethecat] Sure, you can build off the structure or character or ideas of others.[^remix] But a good screenplay is driven by theme. Those basic story elements shouldn't be interchangeable. They should be carefully chosen to develop and further the core idea.
   
     [^savethecat]: Some screenwriting books like *Save The Cat* offer pre-made outlines for writing films. Having read hundreds of scripts as a working coverage reader in Hollywood, I can say that screenplays written this way are almost always hollow, predictable, and unsatisfying.
  -  [^remix]: <http://www.everythingisaremix.info/>
  +  [^remix]: [Everything is a Remix](http://www.everythingisaremix.info/)
   
     [Bootstrap]: http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/ "Bootstrap"
   
  
positive.code: Coding Never Starts from Scratch
  --------------------------------
  
  Coding is less intimidating than screenwriting because my tools are more expansive and my goals more limited. When I get an itch to code something (for instance a script to convert iCal calendar entries into Markdown), the goal is small, obvious, and concrete. But equally importantly, I never have to start from a blank page.
  
  Depending on what tool I'm using, there are thousands of [projects](https://github.com/popular/starred), [gems](http://rubygems.org/gems), or code snippets to pull from. I can "hack" together a script to do what I want while outsourcing all of the heavy lifting. All I have to do is stitch together pieces created by far smarter, far more skilled programmers.
  
  
  Creative Writing Means Reinventing the Wheel
  
negative.code: Aiming Smaller
  --------------
  
  I can't add functions or loops or libraries to screenwriting, but I can aim for smaller more concrete goals. I'm writing more [tweets][], more blog posts, and also reading up on short fiction. My hope is that by writing more small creative projects, I can feed off the same sense of satisfaction I get from solving small, everyday annoyances with code. Maybe if I do it for long enough, I'll even forget to be scared of the blank page.
  
    [tweets]: http://www.twitter.com/simonganz