So yesterday’s guest post created quite a lot of discussion, as I figured it would. Facing the prospect of “giving up” as a screenwriter is one of the most terrifying things any writer can go through. Because we all have those questions on our mind, some of us right there at the tip of our forehead, and some buried deep within our subconscious. “Should I quit?” “Is it better to get a real job while I’m still young?” “Do people back home think I’m a talentless hack for not making it yet?” The questions get harder when you find a spouse and have children. Now you’re not just affecting yourself with your decisions. “Is it right to keep going?” “Am I spending enough time with my kids?” “Does it not matter since screenwriting is based so much on luck?”
The first thing to know is that everybody’s situation is different. Nobody can base their decision to write (or not write) on the experiences of someone else, because the experiences of others are probably nothing like yours. And you don’t know all the circumstances anyway. If someone says they gave up after five years, but failed to mention they were only writing a couple of hours a week, wouldn’t it have been foolish to let their decision influence your own?
Or take Randy from yesterday. From what he told us, he didn’t like mainstream material and wrote smaller character-driven faire. This is a mainstream material driven business. If you’re not writing mainstream material, it’s going to be very hard to break in. The indie world is more about “do-it-yourself.” It’s more about writing and then directing your own material. That tends to be the only way those movies get made. So if you’re in the same boat as Randy, you might want to shift your approach from trying to sell specs to trying to make them. And if directing isn’t your thing, become a writer-producer and find other people to make your movies.
I also think information helps. You need to study how the system works in order to increase your chances of becoming a professional screenwriter. Through the evolution of this site, for example, I’ve learned what genres have the best chance of selling. Knowing that piece of info right there increases your chances of selling a script a hundred-fold (probably more). I also know how important it is to write an interesting main character that an A-list actor would want to play. That also increases your chances. If you keep picking up and learning all these pieces of information (of which there are hundreds if not thousands), you continually position yourself higher and higher on the ladder for breaking in. Which is why it usually takes screenwriters so long to break through. Cause they don’t know all this stuff at first.
I also want to say something about managers and agents. Guys, you HAVE TO STOP thinking agents and managers are the end-all be-all. These people only do something for you twice – with your first big spec that they like, and then (if that spec doesn’t sell) when you’re generating consistent income for them. Between those two times, they don’t do anything for you because they don’t have time. They have 20-30 other clients, and those are the ones who are paying their bills. You wanna hear something scary? I know this up-and-coming writer-director who just made a movie with one of the hottest character actors in the business, a guy who had one of the biggest TV shows ever. A couple of months after he finished production, his agents called him. “Hey, we just read your latest spec,” they said. “We like it. We want to send it to a few people.” “Umm, I finished shooting that movie two months ago,” he replied, laughing. That’s how freaking clueless these guys are about you unless you’re making them money.
Oh, and I also met with an agent from one of the Big 3 agencies, and we were going through a list of professional scripts I liked. It just so happened, he represented five of the writers of those scripts. He noted, as he went down the list, “I represent that guy. Haven’t heard from him in a year.” “I represent that guy. I have no idea what he’s doing right now.” And so on and so forth. And it was just this kick to the head. I realized that these guys can’t and won’t do anything unless you’re creating quality material for them that’s making them money. For that reason, it’ll always be your job to write as much as possible and create your own jobs. Do you know how Sam Mendes ended up directing the last Bond? It wasn’t because his and Daniel Craig’s agents decided they should meet. It was because they saw each other at a party and Craig suggested the possibility to Mendes. The more I learn about this business, the more I learn that it’s up to YOU to create your own breaks and forge our own career. Nobody is going to do it for you. Your agents just legitimize you and facilitate your deals.
And now to the big one – the reason I wanted to respond to yesterday’s article. Should you move to LA? Put simply, moving to LA increases your chances of selling a screenplay and becoming a working screenwriter. There is no question about that. And I’ll tell you why. One of the biggest complaints from aspiring screenwriters watching all these other writers break in is, “Yeah, but they knew that famous actor or that famous director. That’s the only reason they got that opportunity.” Well yeah, no shit. And guess how they met those people? Cause they moved to LA! This is where you meet all the folks who make movies! So if you’re out here and active, chances are you’re going to meet someone who can give your script to someone who can give your script to someone else. And maybe it sells.
And if it doesn’t? If it only gets people interested in knowing you? Then you take meetings and gain more contacts based on the quality of that spec. Something that’s hard to do if you’re not in town. It’s kind of like trying to break into the popular clique at high school when you live half-way across the country. How are they going to remember you over the 20 other guys who they see every day?
Now, with that said, I do NOT think it’s impossible to break into Hollywood from outside of Los Angeles. But I will tell you a truth that may be difficult to hear: YOU HAVE TO BE BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. You have to write more. You have to work harder. You have to meet as many other screenwriters online and build the biggest ONLINE screenwriting network you can. You have to enter more contests. You have to cold query more agents and producers. You have write even when you don’t feel like writing. The reason? You have that “not here” stigma attached to you and that works against you. I’ll give you a personal example. Since I’m moving into producing, I want to meet all the writers whose scripts I like. So I try and set up meetings with all of them. When I find out they don’t live here, I’m bummed. I want to put a face to the name. I want to know what kind of movies they want to make. I want to know if their sensibilities match up with mine. I want to possibly make a movie with them! If they’re not here, it’s a lot harder to do that. E-mail is fine. But it’s not the same as being able to get to know someone “for real.”
But. BUT. BUTTTT!!! I don’t care if you live in Santa Monica, Alaska, Iraq, New Zealand. If you write something great, you better believe I will try and do something with it. I will never pass over a great script because the writer doesn’t live in Los Angeles. And I’m sure there’s nobody else in town who would either. There is such a lack of quality material out here, that if a quality script shows up, people will want it. Period. I’m not talking about “good” material. People here in LA can get away with that. When you’re an outsider, it has to be REALLY GOOD. But like I said, that isn’t going to happen magically. You have to out-work all the guys who are in a better position than you are. You need to read all the books, read as many scripts as you can, write more than the dude with a plush Hollywood loft. And then you need to blanket every screenwriting avenue that will read your script. Because a great script doesn’t matter if nobody knows it exists. That’s the only way it’s going to happen for an out-of-towner. Nobody’s going to hand it to you.
So that’s my response. Screenwriting is not a hopeless cause. It’s just hard, like any profession. And if you’re in a situation where it’s a little harder for you than the next guy, you have to work harder than the next guy. That ain’t exclusive to screenwriting. That’s life.
