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More of The Ten Mistakes New Writers Always Make (even though they think they know better.) Mistake #1 was Going Out with your Script Before It's Ready; #2: was Going Out with your Script Before YOU'RE Ready. Now let's say that you've developed a number of scripts, and done the work they require so that you have a portfolio of highly-developed pieces. You go out, pound the pavement, and do everything in your power to hock your quality wares. But there's no sale. For a long time. A very long time. What went wrong? Well, you probably made...
Mistake #3: Going Out with your Scripts Before The Industry is Ready.
'Okay, Stephen, this time you're totally incomprehensible. What are you talking about?' I admit, this one will take a little explanation, so here goes:
You've taken the time to develop your chops, you've built up your supply of amazing material, but you seem to be getting nowhere. Now I know you're not thinking this will be YOUR story, but let me assure you that this is the way this particular movie (the one titled Breaking into The Biz) goes almost every time. So what gives? If you have the product, armed with quantity as well as quality, and your competition is all of those newbies out there who're hocking their first, pathetic effort that just reeks of amateurism, then why aren't you kicking butt?
The only thing I can tell you is Life Ain't Fair. And as fair as life ain't, in the entertainment industry it ain't fair times a billion. So what do you do? How do you avoid this mistake?
Well, the mistake is only a mistake if you let it change your thinking. If you let the constant rejection and seemingly Sysiphus-like struggle cause you to give up, then you've screwed up (see my September 21 column on the Seven Myths of Screenwriting.) So if the answer is not to give up, and yet your efforts are not paying off, then what do you do?
What you do is take the only other option left after you've decided not to give up: keep on going. Find some way to weather the long, lonely road that you'll have to travel to make it, and keep writing and improving and cranking out script-after-script along the way. It sounds simple, but this is where almost everybody falls by the wayside. I know I've said this many times in different ways, but the key to getting anywhere in this business is longevity. Harrison Ford once said "I REALIZED EARLY ON THAT SUCCESS WAS TIED TO NOT GIVING UP. MOST PEOPLE IN THIS BUSINESS GAVE UP AND WENT ON TO OTHER THINGS. IF YOU SIMPLY DIDN'T GIVE UP, YOU WOULD OUTLAST THE PEOPLE WHO CAME IN ON THE BUS WITH YOU."
There it is. Three words: Don't Give Up. If you don' t give up, you WILL eventually get to where you're going. Trouble is, most people, when they're on that long, lonely road, can't see to the end. But if you stay on that proverbial bus, you will, whether it takes just a few months or several years, get to your stop. The only way to fail is to get off the bus.
Fine, so now you know that even armed with a bunch of great scripts, this could take awhile. You're willing to do it, to ride out the journey to the end. So NOW are you ready?
Come on, you didn't think I'd let you off THAT easy, did you? See you next week.
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