I’m sure you’ve heard this stat before. 97% of screenplays are bad. Or even 99% of screenplays are bad. Doesn’t take a whole lot of math to figure out, then, that only 1% of screenplays are good. This stat always messed with my head. How does one break into the top 1% of anything? It sounds impossible. So whenever I heard that stat, I conditioned myself to ignore it. Now that I’ve read a ton of screenplays, I can confirm that the stat is correct. But the numbers aren’t as daunting as they seem. By going through the percentages, you realize that a large chunk of the 99% are people who aren’t nearly as serious about this as you are. And from there, it’s a matter of working hard and writing a lot. But we’re going to get specific. Below is a step by step breakdown of how to get you to that coveted 1% Let’s jump into it.
Reaching the top 70% – All you have to do to beat out the lowest 30% of screenwriters is to write a second screenplay. The large majority of screenwriters cling to one “brilliant” story they’ve got (usually their life story or some really cheesy popcorn movie they thought of when they left Transformers 4) and never write anything else. Because these are first scripts, they’re always terrible. This means that by simply writing a second screenplay, you’re ahead of all these numbskulls.
Reaching the top 50% – I realize this is redundant, but it’s true. All you have to do to get to the top 50 percentile is write a third script. Most people who try their hand at screenwriting believe it’s easy. That they just need to get that one great idea down on paper and they’ll be rich. And, if that doesn’t work, oh yeah, they’ve got that other idea. So they’ll write that too. But once that doesn’t shock the world (and why wouldn’t it – everyone masters everything the second time they do it), they consider this practice too hard and give up. By merely writing a third screenplay, you display that you are serious about the craft, and therefore have half of all the screenplays out there beat.
Reaching the top 45% – You read Scriptshadow. No, seriously. If you’re continuously reading screenwriting sites with strong educational content, it means you’re constantly learning. Every tip you can pluck from Scriptshadow and implement into your writing gets you that much closer to the top. It doesn’t have to be Scriptshadow, of course. It can be one of those other sites. As long as you’re constantly educating yourself, you’re getting closer to the top of the mountain.
Reaching the top 40% – Getting structure down. If you’re going to get out of F territory (anything below 60%) you need to know how to structure a screenplay. It tends to take most people 5 or 6 scripts to get a good feel for structure. That means understanding the 3 acts. Understanding basic elements within those acts (inciting incident, mid-point shift, the obstacle-heavy second act, the “All is Lost” turn that takes us into Act 3). Getting this down allows you to properly pace your script and build your story towards an exciting conclusion, so it’s necessary.
Reaching the top 35% – Dialogue. You must overcome your on the nose tendencies. No more bland lifeless chit-chat between characters. No more endless expositional dialogue. You need to learn how to “dress up” dialogue (dialogue that has a bit more spark than every day conversation). Write dialogue individual to each character. Create dialogue-friendly characters. Use subtext. Use dramatic irony. It’s easy to spot amateur writers because of how boring and lifeless their dialogue this. Once you learn this stuff, your scripts become a lot more fun to read.
Reaching the top 30% – You must get feedback on your scripts, and you must get it from more than one person. You can only improve so much if you’re not getting real-world feedback on your writing. As a young screenwriter, I remember thinking I had it all figured out. That I didn’t need second opinions. A friend encouraged me to get feedback, even pay for it (what???) and after a while, I surrendered and got a consultant. One of the first things he pointed out was that my writing had zero voice. It was bland and lifeless. He compared a page in my script to one from a professional script and I immediately realized he was right. So you need feedback to get better, guys. And the reason I say more than one person is that some writers give their scripts to a single person – a friend or family member – who’s too sweet to give hard-hitting feedback, the only kind of feedback that actually helps you.
Reaching the top 25% – You have to be someone who gets their scripts out there. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again. This is a numbers game. The more people who read your script, the better the chance you’re going to find someone who likes it. I’ve seen some writers who had the talent to make it but they didn’t have the hustle. A great example of a hustler is the writer who wrote Final Journey, a script about an eskimo woman who’s forced out of her village and must survive alone on the savage arctic tundra. The writer got a lot of no’s on that script but he hustled. Eventually he found someone in the industry who loved it, sung its praises, and the script ended up making the Black List.
Reaching the top 20% – Concept choice. It’s strange how long it takes screenwriters to figure this out. But unless you’re coming up with marketable concepts and writing inside well-established Hollywood genres, you’re going to have a tough time making it. I realize this lies in stark contrast to the example I used above (Final Journey). But learning to write movies that Hollywood wants to buy is a critical momentum shift in a writer’s career that changes the way their scripts are received. — Oh wow, we’re getting close to the top of the mountain. And there’s been nothing asked of us that’s that hard. Maybe getting to the 1% isn’t impossible after all.
Reaching the top 15% – Understanding character and relationships. This is huge – HUGE HUGE HUGE. You must learn how to make a character sympathetic. How to give a character a flaw. How to arc a character. How to do so naturally (so the character arc doesn’t feel like it came out of a screenwriting book). How to construct unresolved issues between characters and use the script to explore and ultimately resolve those issues. The writer who gets to the point in the journey where they realize it’s not about the plot, but about the characters, is the writer who establishes themselves as a real screenwriter. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. Learning how to do the above effectively takes between 1-3 years, depending on things like talent and how in tune you are with human psychology.
Reaching the top 10% – Keep going. This is going to sound like lip service but I promise you it isn’t. A lot of writers quit at this stage, mainly because they’ve been at this for so long. They feel like they understand the craft really well. And they do. Yet, somehow, they still haven’t made it. It messes with their head. They start wondering if it’s impossible, that you really need to have a famous dad or uncle in the business. And the pain of sending one more script out there that doesn’t stick is too much to bear. So just by the nature of staying in there, of continuing to fight, you give yourself a chance at this.
Reaching the top 5% – This is where the rubber meets the road. Once you’ve gotten this far, you’re competing against writers who are either a) insanely dedicated, b) very talented, or c) both. I remember when I used to play soccer as a 10 year old kid. I’d play against these kids who were sucking their thumbs in the corner of the field while watching squirrels zip around the trees. You could dribble past most kids simply by waiting for them to fall down. Then I made the All-Star team and all of a sudden, everyone was ferocious, everyone was strong, everyone was GOOD. That’s similar to what you’re dealing with when you get to this point. You’re not dealing with people who don’t know you have to capitalize a character when they’re introduced. To me, this section is all about outworking the competition. You have to write more. You have to rewrite more. You have to get your scripts out to more people. You have to keep learning. You can’t slack off once you’re this high on the mountain. Write write write write and then write some more. That’s the only way you rise above the All-Stars.
Reaching the top 1% – To get to the top, you need everything I mentioned above, and a script that displays one or more of these three things: A strong voice, a really strong idea, stellar execution. The first should be obvious. The overwhelming majority of the scripts readers read are boring. It’s so refreshing when they get a writer who sees the world differently. Who writes in a fresh manner that makes the mere act of reading the script fun. Christy Hall (Daddio) is the current poster-child for voice. The second is a really strong concept. A fun exciting concept is the ultimate screenwriting deodorant. All those other script problems disappear while the reader imagines how cool this movie would look in a trailer. Jurassic Park, The Martian, A Quiet Place. The third is for the writer who doesn’t have a crazy-unique style or a killer premise. But they they’ve done all the hard work, they know this craft inside and out, and they’re able to nail every nook and cranny of the screenplay. Pretty Woman comes to mind. The Equalizer. The Goonies. Toy Story. None of these were voice-y world shattering concepts. But the scripts were executed perfectly.
So, you see, once you break the numbers down, it’s really not that bad. The majority of your competition doesn’t take screenwriting seriously enough for you to worry about them. The truth about success in screenwriting is no different than success anywhere. You need to put in the time and the work. If you do that and you have a reasonable level of talent, you can succeed at this. Especially since I just gave you the road map to do so. Now back to writing!
