The big project continues, but I’m definitely in the home stretch now. Feeling very confident and rejuvenated about wrapping it up in the next couple of days. Planning to offer up all the sordid details once it’s completely finished.
While all energies are focused on that, here is another throwback post from a long time ago in a galaxy not so far, far away. From me, anyway.
And yes, I still have the t-shirt and chopsticks.
Okay, I admit it. I daydream about being a successful screenwriter. Who doesn’t?
“That mega-hit blockbuster? Yeah. I wrote that.”
It’s nice to think about, but again, it’s still just a daydream. I’m not counting on it. I’d be happy just to make a decent living at it, and that’s what I’m working towards.
I try to be realistic about this, learning from my mistakes and missteps. I’ve been extremely fortunate to be able to ask advice of writers with more experience than me, and I have heeded that advice to the best of my ability.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen a lot of activity online involving writers (usually in the early (read: uninformed) phase of their careers) asking questions regarding a wide variety of topics.
A majority of the time, they get quality answers from seasoned (read: informed) writers. In theory, the original askers respond with “Thanks! That really helps!”, or “So glad you told me!”, or even “Great to know!”. These do happen. On occasion.
And then there’s the other response.
“You’re just trying to kill my/their dreams!”
“What do you know? You only have X credits on IMDB!”
“You just don’t want the competition!”
“I’ve never heard of you, so your advice is worthless!”
“What makes you so important?”
Sigh.
People are going to believe what they want to believe, or are more likely to believe advice that works in their favor, rather than the cold, hard truth. And if that cold, hard truth runs counter to the answers they want (despite them claiming to “seek” them), the harder they’ll reject it.
You may not like the fact that there’s not a snowcone’s chance in hell a major studio/agency/prodco will look at your script, let alone greenlight it for production, even with your without-a-doubt absolutely certain belief they’d grab it in a second if they’d only read it to see how totally awesome it is, but getting angry (and even berating) at somebody who tells you “that’s how it is” makes you look foolish and amateurish. And you’re also setting yourself up for continuous disappointment.
One of the things a screenwriter needs to accept early on is that there are certain truths about the industry and how things work within it. Unless people are completely blown away by the sheer genius of the writing in your first or second draft, (which they will not be. Trust me on this one.), you and your script are not going to be the ones that “change all of that”.
Learn the way things work. Ask questions of those who know better (and more) than you. Accept the answers and adapt. You need to. The industry has no interest in and will not be adapting to you.
No matter how many tantrums you throw.
**Shameless self-promotion! I had the good fortune to be interviewed by my pal Justin Sloan, who hosts The Creative Writing Career podcast, which covers a wide variety of fields and types of writing careers. We had a great time discussing trying to make it as a screenwriter. You can listen to it here, or subscribe to it on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
Let’s face it. This is a business of severe ups and downs, and given our druthers, we all prefer the ups.
But it doesn’t always work out that way, hence the downs. Which also significantly outnumber the ups. By a lot.
Who among us doesn’t have a story where something seemed like a sure thing, and you’re thinking “This is it! My big break is just around the corner!”, only to find out that that break is actually forty blocks away, there’s a transit strike and the Indian food you had for lunch is drop-kicking your lower digestive tract?
Yep, been there.
But I’ve also been fortunate to have had a pretty good share of ups.
Some moderate contest success. Management come and gone. The ultimate goal getting a little closer each time, always seemingly just out of reach with no sign of changing.
Used to be I would get all upset and distraught, and filled with self-doubt.
Not anymore.
I’ve become that dangerous combo of talented, patient and determined.
My writing’s improved, so I’m very confident about the quality of my scripts and the skills I’ve developed to get here. My scripts may not be the absolute best, but if anything, they’re damned entertaining.
There are going to be bad days. There are going to be shitty days. Accept it.
But there will also be good days. There may even be phenomenal days. Days where you feel invincible and unstoppable. These will be few and far between, so enjoy them. Hold onto that feeling and feed off it for as long as you can. It’s definitely not easy to maintain a positive attitude, especially when everything around you feels so negative.
This is just part of the neverending obstacle course we all have to work our way through. At first, it seems impossible, but the more you do it, you’ll find it gets a little easier each time after that.
Surf’s up, chums.
The Chinese restaurant script got the standard “Just isn’t what I’m looking for” response from a producer.
Years of experience has taught me how to properly respond to this kind of situation.
“Well, that sucks. Okay. Moving on.”
Thus the struggle continues to gain a new foothold on this constant uphill climb. But I’m in it for the long haul.
Sure, it’s frustrating to get yet another “no” about a script, but getting upset about it won’t do me any good.
And what better way to get over it than by working on something else with the intent of making this one that much better? And there are plenty of something elses to keep me occupied.
A revamping of the outline of an older script continues, with pleasantly productive results (along with some phenomenal feedback on the logline). More insightful notes have come in for the comedy spec. Setting up a few more get-to-know-you meetings with other local writers*.
(*A meeting last week with one writer about her current project resulted in me being able to offer up some suggestions to another writer feeling frustrated about his. He, in turn, felt very encouraged with a renewed sense of hope, and was excited about some possible new avenues to try. I’m just happy to help.)
Hearing “thanks, but no thanks” still stings, but only for the briefest of moments. It’s taken a very long time for me to get to this point.
A few months ago, all that pressure I’d been putting on myself just went away. And I’m a lot better for it now.
And patient.
Success will happen when it happens.
But having it happen sooner rather than later would still be much appreciated.
Over the past couple of days, as notes for the low-budget comedy spec were being compiled, I considered jumping right in to the rewrite, but instead opted to take a break and put it on the back burner for now. It’s been the focus of my attention for a while, and I didn’t want to risk burning out on it.
No big deal. All of the material will still be there when I get back to it.
So what now? Work on another script, natch.
But which one?
I just didn’t have it in me to work on the few that were still in plot-development stage, nor did my brain feel totally ready to tackle assembling the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that is the mystery-comedy.
Since I’ve been on a bit of a low-budget kick, I delved into my stash of long-ignored stories to see if there was a suitable candidate.
And I found one. A comedy I haven’t worked on for a good number of years that would make for another great low-budget production.
It had gone through several better-than-I-remembered drafts of the outline, each one with elements similar to the others, but also with its own uniqueness. Looking them over, there’s a lot of material to work with and develop into a new version.
Plus, it’s a fun story, which is always enjoyable.
(Moral of the story – never throw anything away.)
Working on the previous comedy spec also helped boost my confidence regarding my comedic writing skills. It’s not perfect, but better than it was. There were already some good jokes among these earlier drafts, and coming up with new material is still somewhat of a challenge, but not as daunting.
So the next couple of weeks will be all about combining, editing and fine-tuning this story, and then cranking out some actual pages.
Exciting times, chums.
Maximum Z 