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THE ART OF KEEPING ONE'S BIG MOUTH SHUT
My Fellow Writers,
Today, I relearned something that I've learned so many times that I can't believe I haven't got it through my thick skull yet. And here it is: When you're turning something in, or pitching something, make damn sure it's ready.
I know, I know, it sounds simple. Yet I still sometimes manage to get myself so excited about the basic concept for something that I'll pitch it before I've worked it out enough to communicate it to others. Which leads to big trouble.
First off, I want to acknowledge that I've talked about this in terms of scripts before -- and quite often. That's mostly because it's so important, but also because I'm always seeing examples of people who send out or talk about scripts before they're ready. Or they go out with stuff they don't believe in. Crazy. You're killing yourself with whoever reads that stuff because they will never trust you again, especially if you do it on the first piece of material they ever see from you.
Anyway, what I'm referring to this week is different -- I'm talking about pitches. In the times before I sold my first project, I had a number of chances to sell an idea to a series or a producer. And I worked on treatments and pitches for them to the point where I thought it was acceptable. But I'll tell you something, I soon realized that I wasn't setting my bar high enough for those things. I was going in with stories that had great concepts, but no characters. Or great characters, but no twists. I was coming up short because the pitches weren't complete and ready.
I must admit that I'm a bit annoyed with myself because I still occasionally fall into this trap - and just did over the weekend. I got very excited about a concept that I was writing for an episode, so I pitched it before I had the whole thing worked out. And then I ran into a brick wall when the guy I was pitching to didn't see the twists and turns and core of the episode I had in mind. Instead of seeing the possibility I saw, he started spitballing his own ideas based on the concept, and now I'm stuck having to try to integrate those things into the story. I'm not saying his ideas were wrong or worse -- just that they were different. And let me tell you, it makes things a hell of a lot tougher. All because I didn't work the story out more fully before I opened my big mouth. All right, I was being lazy. A momentary bout of moron.
I know it's tempting to start blabbering about a great concept. Hell, I'm constantly tempted. But when it comes to concepts and stories and scripts, remember that people can't go inside your head and see what you're seeing. You have to keep in mind that they don't have your imagination. In fact, with many people, you have to assume that they have no creative imagination at that moment because they're just worried about getting on to the next piece of business. So, until you're really ready to communicate your story, either in words (for a pitch) or in writing (for a treatment or script), just keep your big mouth shut.
I'll try to do the same, but I can't promise anything.
Running at the mouth,
Grady
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