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It’s a new year!
Hope time!
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But this is the screenwriting biz, so it might be
the case that things have happened in the past year to temporarily dash your
hopes.
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Don’t be dashed.
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Here are ten reasons to persist:
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Most other jobs suck. That’s why screenwriting is so competitive. I remember back when I was a lawyer, one of
my depressed colleagues sighed and said to me, well nobody pays you to go to an
amusement park. It turns out that’s not
true. If you love to write,
screenwriting is a Disney World kind of life.
And sometimes some people do pay some people to do it.
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Dashers are dicks. You know the type — the ones who love to
criticize, to tell new writers how stupid their ideas are, preferably via
anonymous Internet posts. Most dashers
are bitter and unsuccessful, not worth your energy.
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Life is short.
You’re not going to lie on your death bed wishing you spent less time
screenwriting and more time doing mundane crap.
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Every new draft is a time to correct your
mistakes. Not all script notes come from
dashers. Some make sense. It’s okay for a draft to be less than perfect.
That’s why they call them drafts. Every next draft is another chance to be
great.
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It’s your life.
Nobody else can tell you how to spend your time. Even if it’s a long road to success, if
screenwriting is something you love, anyone who loves you will understand.
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There are more and more opportunities. Some people say the business is getting
harder. That’s not true. It’s always been hard to break in. But nowadays, with endless cable channels and
limitless streaming, there are more and more places to realize the dream of
getting your work on screen.
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If screenwriting is what makes you happy, you
need to keep doing it. If you’re not
happy, you’ll never be a positive influence on the world.
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Lots of other people secretly envy you. If you’ve managed to complete a script, to do
something truly creative, that’s an amazing accomplishment in and of
itself. It may not always feel like it,
but you’re already a rock star.
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It’s all about flow. If you’re like me, then when you write, you
get lost in what you’re doing. Time
passes, and you don’t even know it.
That’s called flow, and it’s a huge source of human happiness. (This is
a good time to go back and read reason seven.)
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It does happen.
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Writers do get agents. And they do sell their screenplays. And they do get produced. It happens.
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And it’ll happen again in 2017.
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> Script Coverage Chronicles — December 2014 Three Thoughts On Writing For TV > style=”text-align: left;”> I talk about movie scripts a lot, but I’ve given feedback on many TV scripts as well. Based on my experiences as a writer, a screenplay consultant and a competition judge, here are three thoughts on writing for TV: style=”text-align: left;”>…
style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> What is the one thing every script needs to be if it’s going to get produced? style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> Unique? style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> Hardly. True originality often hurts more than it…
style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> I’ve had producers mean very different things when they’ve asked me for a “synopsis”. Some have meant a one page “pitch” for my script. Others have meant a full-on multi page “summary” of the story (otherwise known as a treatment). These are very different things, and it’s important to…
style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> You’ve been working for months on your latest script, and it’s almost ready to market. Frankly, you’re just about out of steam. Of course you are. Screenwriting is hard work – at least if you’re trying to do it well. But it’s not all so damn laborious. Here are…
style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> In a prior blog (December 2015), I talked about avoiding coincidence in screenplays. I opined that 95% of the time, your story is better off if you take the coincidences out. style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> But what about the other 5%…
style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> All screenwriters deal with it: the dreaded negative review. Does it mean you have no talent? Does it mean you should give up? Absolutely, positively not! Here’s why: style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> Every Script Gets Negative Feedback > > I remember…