Many screenwriters seek out wisdom about the craft from books and that is an important part of the learning process, but your experiences in life are equally important. As a screenwriter, you need to constantly take chances and push yourself out of your comfort zone. This is particularly true with regards to the material you write. Never stop challenging yourself because this will keep you growing as you master your craft. Even if you fail miserably with a screenplay, use the experience to learn and grow to become better the next time. This is how you will fill your creative well with great experiences to draw upon for your projects and to give them authenticity.
The key is not becoming too comfortable. The remedy is living a full life and expanding your world outside of your comfort zone. If you’re not observing life and do not have your creative radar set to detect even subtle events, how will you write with honesty? You never know when you’ll observe a person or an interaction that will spawn an idea for a project or maybe another one in the future. Avoid being those kind of writers who just regurgitate what they’ve seen in other movies and television. You must experience life first hand and bring back real stories from your fantastic adventures. When you’re out in the world, listen closely to how people speak, study how they act and react, and constantly record your findings. I collect my observations and write them into a small notebook that I call my “writing arsenal.” I carry it in my briefcase with my laptop and I record various thoughts, ideas, and lines of dialogue that might end up in my current projects or another script some day. My own life experiences also get logged into my writing arsenal.
The late Rod Serling believed: “Theinstinct of creativity must be followed by the physical act of putting it down.” If you experience something unique or observe something that moves you or might be used in some project—write it down. The clue to the writer is not to let your feeling or observation only linger as a memory. Being observant and being open and present will allow you the necessary skills to recognize the events around you that can lead to honest storytelling. Actors and painters use similar techniques of observation and screenwriters can benefit from this process to enrich their craft too.
Acting in a movie that I wrote, “USS Poseidon: Phantom Below.”
The fun part of being a screenwriter too is that your research is an ongoing process of venturing out and exploring different scenarios and adventures. If you’re writing a screenplay about a submarine, get yourself on a real submarine like I did when I was doing research for my naval drama and I was blessed to have a small part in the film.
The journey of any artist is a lifelong adventure and a huge part of the creative process is experiencing life—both the good and the bad. You can’t write honestly unless you’ve experienced the ups and downs and taken advantage of the unique adventures life can offer. The great Orson Welles said in conversation with Peter Bogdanovich,“The great danger for any artist is to find himself comfortable. It’s his duty to find the point of maximum discomfort, to search it out.”
If you stop learning and being curious you are finished.
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“The cave you fearto enter holds the treasure you seek. The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.” — Joseph Campbell
“Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure. But the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. [F]ailure means a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself to be anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believe I truly belonged. [R]ock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life.” ~ J.K. Rowling
“The time we have alone; the time we have in walking; the time we have in riding a bicycle; are the most important times for a writer. Escaping from a typewriter is part of the creative process. You have to give your subconscious time to think. Real thinking always occurs on the subconscious level.”—Ray Bradbury
“There are some things which cannot be learned quickly and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a man’s life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave.”—Ernest Hemingway
Ah, springtime brings positive feelings of renewal and the hope of moving forward with your screenwriting journey. I know that feeling of excitement new ideas, pitches, and completed screenplays brings and the anticipation of feedback as we unleash our works upon the world. If you want to be a screenwriter, writing must always be a part of your working life. I was blessed to sell a pitch to a network late last year, and I just completed the second draft last month and received the good news of a green light for production. You have to keep moving forward and stay busy in all aspects of your writing.
I hope you’ve created new opportunities so far this year that have pushed your career and screenplays closer to success. Trust me, I know if can feel like you’re banging your head against a wall hoping for a breakthrough, and you find the same results of rejection and criticism. I truly hope you’re busy putting in the necessary time to create a solid body of work. I also hope that I’ve been able to offer a few nuggets of advice that have helped you along the way.
Thank you for supporting my blog and here are a few more useful survival tips for your journey…
TIP #1
DON’T BE AFRAID TO SAY, “NO.”
No. It’s a powerful word if used properly on your screenwriting journey. Or better yet, “No, thank you.” If any deal does not feel right or isn’t right for you, don’t be afraid to graciously say, “No, thank you.” Yes, even if you have never sold a screenplay before. Your time is more important than being locked into a crappy deal on a project that could set you back. You come from a place of power when you feel that something is wrong and you don’t cave to your fears out of desperation. You will thank yourself when a better opportunity comes your way and you’re free to take it. Trust me, producers can smell desperation in the room if a writer needs to pay the rent or needs some validation about the work. This is when you unknowingly might allow them to take advantage of you and then you accept a crappy deal that benefits them and not you. Sure, you need to get your foot in the door, but it doesn’t mean they have to break your toes in the process. Any opportunity to work is a chance for you to shine, but your time is important and if you are writing at a professional level to compete, you should come into any situation with a humble confidence. So, what if you find yourself on the side of the cliff dangling by a mere finger hold and running out of time? Hang on! Climb back up and work on another script, and another, and grow as a writer. When you’re at the lowest point is when it really matters how you stay in the game because it’s much easier for you to leave the business when all hope is lost. And time keeps ticking away. It can be your greatest asset or worst enemy especially if you put an expiration date on your screenwriting dreams—“I have to make it by 30!“ When you’re struggling on the side of that cliff, fight for your long term survival. Never allow them to stomp on your fingers so you fall into the void and never to live your splendid screenwriting dreams.
TIP #2
CONSIDER YOUR SPECS AS YOUR CALLING CARDS AND NOT A MILLION DOLLAR SALE.
I know it’s hard to accept the spec you are writing now probably will not sell and may end up being only a writing sample, but you need to put your specs into perspective. If you don’t put in the necessary work with solid rewrites from constructive feedback and create professionally competitive material—your specs could end up in a drawer collecting dust or worse a dumpster and have a negative effect on your career aspirations. Specs are a necessary part of every screenwriter’s journey because they are the scripts you “cut your teeth on” to prepare you for when you do get hired for assignment jobs. My fifth spec is the one that jump started my career and opened the door for the twenty-four assignment jobs that followed. Be smart about your career. Don’t waste time making the same mistakes over and over again. Before you start your next spec and burn precious time, consider how it figures into your overall screenwriting goals—not just the mantra that I hear from so many aspirants, “I have a good idea for a script and I’m sure it will sell.” Many times it’s not a good idea, and if your goal is to be a horror genre screenwriter, why are you writing a romantic comedy especially when Hollywood isn’t producing that genre now? Think, plan, create a checklist, hit your goals, create a solid story treatment before you start pages, and then put your ass in a seat and fill those blank pages.
TIP #3
TALK IS CHEAP IN HOLLYWOOD!MONEY MAKES IT REAL.
You’ll learn the longer you pursue a screenwriting career that talk is cheap in Hollywood and people want credit for their good intentions. Too many times the words become empty promises that end up wasting an eager and hungry writer’s time. Money makes it real. Take everything as face value because talk is the cheapest commodity in Hollywood. Many times interest in you or your script and the endless talk is just that—interest and talk. Many times meetings are just meetings. Many times a producer’s upbeat attitude about your project can become infectious. You want to believe that others see your dream and can realize it. Why not? It’s what keeps us going as screenwriters—belief in our projects and the faith that success is just around the corner. I’m sure when producers and executives tell you that your project is going into production, they just might believe it themselves, but sometimes they tell a writer this to buy more free time. Producers want to keep a writer’s interest in hanging on until they “work out the pesky financing details” and it could be the bait for more free work. If they can’t raise the money for the budget or they have no money in their development budget, there really is no money to pay the writer. Be understanding to a certain point and look at every situation through a risk/benefit filter. Are you willing to risk your free time with free rewrites on the possible chance a project “might” get produced? Get excited when a producer gives you a contract, you both sign it, and you get paid something upfront and for every draft. That’s the professional way—otherwise, you can’t live on the currency of good intentions.
Keep writing and filling your pages because if you stop—you’re guaranteed to never have any shot at success. This is a business with no guarantees even when you do sell a screenplay.
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It’s a long haul journey to reach any level of screenwriting success. If your passion drives you to embark on this crazy adventure of a screenwriting career, you’ll need to prepare for survival in Hollywood’s trenches. Talent is important, but so is your professionalism and ability to endure criticism, rejection, and failure over the long haul. The odds may be stacked against you, but the way to standout in this very competitive business is to create a solid body of work and build a reputation as a team player and collaborator. The rest is just luck — a prepared screenwriter who meets with an opportunity and delivers the goods. “A Screenwriter’s Journey to Success” will help you prepare for your own journey with the necessary, tips, tricks and tactics that I’ve developed over the past twenty years of working in the film industry. It’s time to start living your dream as a screenwriter in Hollywood.
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“Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?” ― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“The time we have alone; the time we have in walking; the time we have in riding a bicycle; are the most important times for a writer. Escaping from a typewriter is part of the creative process. You have to give your subconscious time to think. Real thinking always occurs on the subconscious level.”—Ray Bradbury
“I never feel the need to discuss my work with anyone. No, I am too busy writing it. It has got to please me and if it does I don’t need to talk about it. If it doesn’t please me, talking about it won’t improve it, since the only thing to improve it is to work on it some more. I am not a literary man but only a writer. I don’t get any pleasure from talking shop.”—William Faulkner
“Deliberate practice, by its nature, must be hard. When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend. Regular practice simply isn’t enough. To improve, we must watch ourselves fail, and learn from our mistakes.”—Florida State University’s Anders Ericsson
“If you’re worried about failing, you ought to get into a different business, because statistics will tell you that sixty or seventy percent of the time you’re going to fail. By fail I mean that the movie won’t make money. Just do the best you can every time. And if you’re going to stay in the movies, and you like movies—and I love them—you’d better love them a lot, because it’s going to take all of your time. If you want to be in the movies, it’s going to break your heart.“—Richard Brooks, director of Blackboard Jungle, Sweet Bird of Youth, In Cold Blood, Looking for Mr. Goodbar
“Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure. But the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. [F]ailure means a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself to be anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believe I truly belonged. [R]ock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life.” ~ J.K. Rowling
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