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Don't Try to Sell Mittens to a Man With No Arms
My Fellow Writers,
As the show I'm working on nears the end of the season, there's a bit of a scramble for one-hour scripts. This happens fairly often - as the season goes on, the scripts come in increasingly closer to the deadlines. Shows often get behind. And the potential writer's strike won't make things any easier.
Anyway, in the past couple of weeks, I've read some of the beauties that have come in for consideration. And I say that with absolute facetiousness. There's no point in singling out the writers - as I happen to know that a number of them have written some strong scripts before. But with these spec submissions, there are several problems. First, even if the scripts were written perfectly (which they aren't), they wouldn't be anything near an episode of the show I'm working on. So not only does the writer get his or her script passed on, but they're putting forth this script as a sample of their talent. And now, some of the writers I've known to do good work have gone down a notch in my mind.
I know I'm being a little snobbish about this. It's only because I'm in a bit of a mood at having to waste time reading so many bad scripts that would never be an episode of this show. Mind you, I've made the same mistakes myself - submitting a script that wasn't quite up to standard, believing that the reader would appreciate the underlying story or some element of the script. Well, I was mistaken, because now that my schedule is wall-to-wall, I realize that it's a mistake to send out something that you know isn't absolutely, 100% ready.
That being said, I know that shows often don't take scripts that are specs of that particular show. I'm not suggesting that you get them to try to change their policy. What I'm saying is that you should be cognizant of what your reader is looking for - whether you're submitting to a one-hour show or a feature company. If you don't know, ask. The key is that you need this script to represent you well, and if you're sending in the wrong kind of script in the first place, you're in a no-win situation.
By the way, they've resolved the problem on the show by having some of the writer-producers write drafts of scripts in a week - all while doing all of their other duties, too. You can bet they all wished that they had found the perfect spec in the pile. Hopefully next time!
Back to it for me. Keep going.
Deadlining,
Grady
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