Alan Mehanna
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A NEW BEGINNING

A NEW BEGINNING

Feb 08, 2022

My experience with discipline, specifically my creative output discipline, has always been a challenge, but then again, artists tend to have quite an interesting relationship with that word.

For some, it's all about the natural flow of creativity. For others, it's about delivering content as constantly as they can. For me, it was never one or the other, it was always depending on the status of both the external environment and the internal environment.

You may be asking, what do I mean by that?

Well, not to sound cliche, but a seed can only grow in the proper conditions: good soil, minerals, water, sunlight, and the list could go on. It has to have the proper ecosystem in order for it to grow, bloom, and expand towards its limitless potential.

The same goes for my screenwriting and my creative output.

If my inner-self is not at ease, and if my outer world is not stable, then neither is my creative output - which makes things complicated considering the two are very much connected and dependent on each other.

Now, I know what you're most likely thinking, taking into consideration that the current state of our world is [fill in the blank here with whatever adjective you'd like to use], then my inner-self must be completely not at ease.

And to that I say...

You see, I currently live in Lebanon, a country that began its free-fall in 2019 years ago and has been speeding up this downward spiral. The current state we are is as follows: inflation, electricity limited to approximately 8 hours a day, limited petrol/gas, and government corruption, add on to the the global pandemic and you've got yourself quite the party.

The country is no longer a habitable environment for anyone, much less a creative, and I do need to preface that I am in no way trying to make my creativity more important than the folks who truly have it worse, or those who lost loved ones in the Beirut Port Blast in August of 2020.

The point of this is to lead me to see how my discipline has been terribly affected by my external and internal landscapes.

And that's when it hit me -- I needed to fix it.

True, I can't necessarily fix an entire nation on my own. I am planning on moving with my partner when his US papers are approved. What about the mean time? Do I just give up and say F*** it?

I'm not. I'm not.

Thanks to the non-toxic side of Twitter, and trust that was a very rare occurrence, I crossed path with a fellow author and since then we have begun building a very positive support system and camaraderie.

We ended launching a small writing group so that we can both workshop our works in progress and though life got in the way a bit, we still do our best to keep ourselves accountable and support each other as best as we can.

So, what did that have to do with discipline?

You see, back when I was still working on my MFA, we had screenwriting deliverables every week. I didn't have time to lament, nor focus on the troubles of day to day life surrounding me. I had to deliver, and that drive helped me get passed everything else that would otherwise not let me create.

With discipline established at the University, my screenwriting was at its peak.

Flash forward to December of last year, and how the Universe it seemed was working in my favor: as I shifted back to screenwriting, after trying to write in prose and realizing that what I all I’ve ever wanted to do was be a screenwriter, I discover a company on my social media feed that leads me to a great opportunity.

A few months ago, I signed on with OpenGate Entertainment, a company that was established to disrupt the traditional way projects get developed and sold in Hollywood. After my initial meeting with their team, I quickly realized the potential this had and took the leap.

The way OpenGate works is simple. They get your project in the hands of real buyers leveraging a real team of industry executives, using a real process which is based on data driven decisions that will ultimately create real results.

I am currently in Phase Two of a Nine Phase process that will breathe life into my passion project that is my drama series INHERITANCE.

A deeper look into how the process with OpenGate works is something that I will be discussing further on my podcast, when it relaunches hopefully later this week and I plan on having a guest speaker from there.

It's strange to think that something as small as a due date can make all the difference in the world for a creative. Structure. Discipline. Accountability.

As I write this, I'm 7 pages into the much needed rewrite of the Pilot, and I couldn't be more excited to be journeying forward with the folks at as they aid in that discipline and the journey forward with my writing career.

Now, back to writing...

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