Losing a project

Losing a project for whatever reason is in general very disappointing and depending on how much effort you already put into it can be financially quite damaging. However, it happens to everybody in the business from time to time. Sometimes, a financial backing of a project breaks apart, key positions of the crew get exchanged or there are creative differences that cause you to drop out from the project. There are many reasons but unfortunately none of them are really rare. It just happens and that is how you should see it. Of course, it is also a big ego killer but you should definitely not lose faith in your work and talent when that happens but simply move on. There’s no point in wasting energy grieving about something that you lost instead of putting it into something new. The only advice that might save you a little bit from spending time and effort on something that will not see the light of day is trying to avoid to let you being talked into something like “Hey, you’ll get the contract/payment next week, but could you write something for that already?”. If a project doesn’t look solid, avoid spending too much effort until you have something in your hand.