Archive for the ‘Advance Notice’ tag
The Three Pillars of A Successful Screenwriting Business (PART 1)
Recently, I attended a festival and was invited to participate in a round table discussion with various screenwriters. It felt a tad like speed dating. Every so often a festival volunteer would ring a bell and I would be relocated to yet another table.
We were not provided with an agenda and I was given no advance notice as to the purpose of this encounter.
Among the sea of screenwriters that I met one asked a very KEY question “What is the key difference between a successful screenwriter and a screenwriter who is not successful?”
I’ll offer the same answer to you that I did to that particular table of screenwriters. Ready?
THE SUCCESSFUL SCREENWRITER RECOGNIZES IT’S BUSINESS.
In my humble opinion, there are three pillars to a successful screenwriting business. And make no mistake… this IS a business.
Pillar #1: The Craft
Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell (gladwell.com), notes the following:
“The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.”
I feel screenwriters Craig Mazin and Ted Elliott offer some valuable wisdom in their blog (Theartfulwriter.com)
“Let’s be clear. Writing is a skill. Talent is a huge part of it, but there’s also a practice part. A science part. A “read yer freakin’ Campbell” part of it. There’s hard work. Self-criticism. Structure. Vocabulary. A memory for movies. Grammar. Story analysis. Philosophy.”
To further simplify — a writer writes. There are tremendous benefits derived from consistently honing your craft. I’ll focus your attention on just three: A) Refine your voice; B) Isolate your strengths and weaknesses; and C) Create an inventory of material.
In a video presentation I heard sometime ago uber-successsful screenwriter John August (johnaugust.com) mentioned he had roughly 50 unproduced screenplays on his shelf.
How many do you have?
