Reality Skewed...
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Articles
Easy answer, start writing.
Harder answer, keep writing.
This article is not about how to "make it", get that big break and launch a career. It's more basic than that. This article focuses on the vocation of writing for the screen; how to start, sustain and continue to enjoy writing for the screen, regardless of potential for success. It is an attitude that is a requirement for any hope of a sustainable career if that big break does come. And it's a way to keep the joy of creation alive in the mean time.
The answer will be quite determinative as to your sustainability in the craft.
There are much more successful ways of getting that big paycheck than choosing the path of a screenwriter. That's not to say that some screenwriters don't luck into big windfalls, even for their first sold scripts. It is to say that to be realistic those windfalls are nearly all only the stuff of legends. The more accurate depiction is that the bulk of successful screenwriters are those who, after selling several scripts, are still writing their product using the dining room table as their desk and working a second job to pay the bills. So, if they're not in it for the money why are these screenwriters writing?
If you can, let it go. It is the hardest dream to realize the way you envision it and is the easiest way to be disappointed since so many things need to go just so for your view to be realized.
If you can't let it go, write it and let it go. Maybe the catharsis of writing down the ideas in your head will be enough to satisfy your desires to get the concept out. You can take pride in the fact that you've created a complete, whole idea and it remains as pristine as the images in your mind.
If you can't let it go at this stage, try to sell it to someone and let it go. They will probably try to change it and make it their own. You can either accept the new evolution of your idea or stick to your guns and insist on your vision. If you cannot bring yourself to compromise you may lose the chance to see your vision made into a movie.
If you can't let it go at this stage and can't find someone to produce your vision, try to produce it yourself and let it go. If you can scrape together all the funding and support of people who share your vision you might be able to bring your ideas to the screen. But be aware that most self-production is a struggle between reality and ideals and usually reality wins. And even if you buck all the odds and end up producing exactly the movie you had in mind at the beginning you may have tainted the dream by the experiences of the struggle to get it made. If you still need to try, by all means give it your best shot. It is an uphill struggle against the tallest of mountains in the dead of winter, but, nothing is impossible, just very, very difficult.
See the theme? A writer is the creator of the germ of the idea, but, movie making is by nature collaborative. It has to be. It is a rare individual that can allow the diversity of influences not to affect their creative endeavor. Most good films rely on the collaboration of all parties to make a film that is greater than what any of the individual voices could create on their own. The orchestration combines the music of many instruments to create the symphony. It is a rare virtuoso who can perform the entire composition unassisted.
That is probably not going to work. Among other things, timing is against you. It is extremely difficult to predict what will be popular in the future at the cinema complexes. (If you have that prognostication ability you shouldn't waste it trying to become a screenwriter. Go straight to head of a studio.) Two years from the sale of a script to the movie's opening weekend is a fast-track. Trying to determine what will be the next big hit is a near impossibility. And most of those who try end up writing something that is less than what they truly believe in. Without investing yourself and your talents into what you write you'll probably end up with hackneyed and stale ideas and disappointment. Worse yet, you won't even be pleasing yourself, the first true audience you must win over.
If you change your sights from Hollywood and focus on the next great independent feature you have a wider field of potential connection. Independent producers look for smaller, more eclectic stories with much more acceptance of the off center, out of the norm appeal. Besides being a wider target where you might find a genre that strikes a chord with your own sensibilities, the potential for a genre to be passé by the time you finish the script is much lessened among independent subjects than the blockbuster of the week. Still, the idea of writing to a genre instead of something you truly believe in is a much harder path to follow to long term happiness. You set yourself up needing to be accepted by someone else in order to achieve your goals, which is always more difficult than needing to just please yourself.
Then write, write and write.
This is the best attitude for a writer to take in order to have the best chance at sustainable happiness in the pursuit of your craft. When you follow your own desires with what you want to express you have the greatest chance of achieving success and happiness as a writer. If you aim to write something you want to see written and you complete it you can be happy with that result regardless of any future the script may have from that point. This is the crowning achievement of a writer, the truest goal of creation you can pursue. A writer can earn the appellation by achieving this goal and sustain the drive to continue by focusing on it. There is no need for external validation to earn the title. You are a writer and no one can take that away from you by their opinion.
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