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Marching toward freedom with The Ten Mistakes New Writers Always Make (even though they think they know better). The list so far: Mistake #1: Going Out with your Script Before It's Ready; #2: Going Out with your Script Before YOU'RE Ready; #3: Going Out with your Scripts Before The Industry is Ready; #4: Taking the Easy Road; and Mistake #5: Taking the Hard Road.
So you've addressed all those problems you had with creating scripts. But if you think about it, we've really been talking about METHODOLOGY so far. We haven't yet broached the subject of...THE SUBJECT. That is, we haven't talked about WHAT you write about, what the story is that you're telling in those 110 pages of gold. "Well, that's easy," you say, "I have a great story. It's got action, suspense, humor, sex, aliens, teens, animals, guns, CG effects, and ghosts. It can't miss."
Oh yeah? There are more than a few of you out there who are, at the same time as you create your fabulous, commercial, blockbuster-caliber screenplays, committing the very mistake that will prevent them from ever getting past that first reader...
Mistake #6: Not Writing From Your Heart.
"Yeah, yeah, heard it all before. Write with passion, write what you really care about. Please..."
Don't you "please" ME, mister or missie! I know how you guys think, I've taught too many of you not to. And something I see a lot of (granted, not always, maybe not even the majority of the time, but a lot) are writers who think up a slick idea, maybe even a "high-concept" idea (the Holy Grail of movie-thinking-updom) and who then go to town hammering out scripts to service the concept. Now while I won't deny the appeal to studio folk of these concept-driven, potentially very commercial attempts, they often fall flat on their brads. And why? Because these writers have done just what I described: they've THOUGHT UP something that they THINK will sell, and they haven't really FELT it.
"Oh come on, you mean to tell me that all that commercial junk out there was the product of somebody's heart? I'd hate to meet that person." Well, sometimes, yes, it's true (and you WOULD hate to meet that person.) But plenty of times a heartfelt effort is de-heartened through the development and production process. Sometimes a slickster gets lucky and a heartless effort gets set up (this happens mostly with writers who already have track records, in case you were wondering). Most of the time, the movie idea comes from the studio, and the writer is just the hired gun.
But let's get back to what this means to you, the New Writer, who's keys to industry entree are spec scripts. Does this mean you shouldn't write commercial material? No, it doesn't (and I'll tell you why next week.) But you had better be damn sure that there is SOMETHING animating your pages, some kind of convitction, some kind of emotion, something that comes from that part of you that makes you human. Because, guaranteed, a reader/development person can pick up on this quality just as easily as they can pick up the heartless, by-the-numbers approach. The former makes them look more closely, even if other elements are missing. The latter makes them snooze, even if the story in question is "commercial."
And, after all is said and done, nobody really knows what is and isn't commercial. All you have to do is survey the formulaic genre and star-driven pics out there, some of which had irresistable commercial elements, that bombed. And then look at the so-called "surprise"hits, those that nobody in charge had thought would click, and yet do. You need go no further than the original Star Wars for an example of a project that virtually no one in Hollywood thought was commercial, yet ultimately turned out to redefine the very concept of commerciality. And you'd better believe that George Lucas' heart was in every word of that screenplay. If it hadn't been, he would never have had the stamina to keep trying until he got green-lit.
So take heart, and write with it. Never even START a script unless you feel that muscle beat quicker whenever you think of your story. And believe me, if you take this approach, you can't go wrong.
Oh, wait, what am I thinking? Of COURSE you can go wrong. And to find out how, you know where to find me next week.
p.s. I almost forgot, I promised to weigh in on the Writer's Strike which, as we all now know, is not to be (at least this time around.) The contract that will most likely be ratified by the Guild (I'm certainly voting for it) made modest economic gains, at most. There was also some progress made (and some NOT made) in the area of "respect" for the screenwriter, and this topic has become a central one for the guild in the past few years.
My view on the subject of respect, at least as far as most of you not-yet-professionals (the intended audience for this column) are concerned is this: respect cannot be legislated or committee-made. It has to come from within. And among the loud voices calling for the aformentioned courtesy to be given to writers, there are those writers out there who do not deserve it. There are writers out there, some very well paid, whose outrage at lack of respect is more heartfelt than their committment to their craft. Of course, there are just as many (maybe more) who are deserving of more respect than is being given. But somehow, their voices tend to be more modulated, their brows less furrowed. They feel the respect defecit less, because they have an internal supply from which to draw.
So for all of you who no doubt will someday be guild members yourselves, just remember that respect, like charity, begins at home. If you dedicate yourself to writing, respect will never be a problem for you. |
