1. Work on new projects Dr. Ken Atchity, Author/Producer: it was disconcerting
to be validated for something that I believed 22 years ago and that I got a lot of other
people to believe 22 years ago. Including Doubleday to the tune of 2 million
dollars and Disney to the tune of a million and New Line to the tune of a million plus
and so on. And then it didnāt happen and then suddenly
all these years later it happened and people go āYou must feel good to be corroborated?ā And I said āYes I do.ā But the truth is it taught me the most important
lesson of all which is what I wrote into an essay called The Waiting Room [from Kenās
blog]. If I had been waiting for THE MEG to happen
or for any movie that I started 20 years ago to happen, Iād probably be miserable (if
not suicidal). But what you do in the waiting room is you
do something else, thatās how you manager your time. When youāre waiting for something, that
can be annoying and a burden and what you have to do is other things. So what I did was 50 other things and as a
result 30 movies have happened and hundreds of books and a new publishing company and
lots of other things. Yes itās satisfying to see that the world
endorses what Steve Alten [Author of Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror] and I believed in
22 years ago that this was a hugely popular subject for a story. And all the way along brave people especially
Belle Avery who brought it home and Lorenzo di Bonaventura and other producers, they made
it happen too. But I guess what it shows among other things
is donāt waste time hoping for something to happen. Do your work and then put it out in the world
and let the world take care of it, thatās one thing. And then part of it is to trust the work that
happened. When you create this baby (THE MEG in this
case), if itās a good baby it will survive and it will show its muscles when the time
comes. Maybe itās been in hiding for all these
years but suddenly it comes out and everybody knows it. Thatās great but what it tells the artist
I think is to focus on whatās at hand, whatās in your workshop right now and do it well
and then donāt worry about things you canāt control. Focus on what you can control. And I guess thatās my main feeling about
it is that we did a lot of work on THE MEG at the beginning, we created its shape and
it finally came out and it did great and am I surprised? No, Iām pleased but not surprised because
I always believed it but Iām so glad I didnāt hang my own personal psychology on it because
if Iād done that Iād have been locked up by now. Like myself, Steve went on to write eight
more books on different subjects too. And built another career around his talent
and heāll continue doing that. Heās learned that lesson too that. Was it disappointing that it didnāt come
out back then? Well it felt like it at the time but in retrospect,
things are meant to be. And I always say to writers that I manage
that every project has its own clock and the only problem is you canāt see the clock. So what you do is you put in the work the
best you can and then you screw the screws on the cover and send it out into the world
and wish it well and turn to your next project which hopefully youāve done before you finish
this one project and thatās what the creator does. He keeps working on new projects. So this world didnāt turn out perfectly. God creates another world, maybe it is better? 2. What No One Else Can Create? Marc and Elaine Zicree, Screenwriters: And
so what he was doing was creating something that no one else could create. And he told me that he wrote every day for
10 years before he wrote a single line, a single word that was uniquely his. And then one day he sat down and he wrote
the words THE LAKE and he wrote a short story based on the time when he was a little boy. When he was eight years old he and a little
girl friend who was seven went swimming in Lake Michigan and he came out and she never
did (she drowned). And it was a story of her coming back as a
ghost and they told me that when he finished the story, tears were streaming down his face
and he knew that heād written something that no one else could have written and it
came specifically from his experience and his soul. And it took another two years of writing everyday
before he could write something again that was uniquely his. And then he got to where he could do it again
and again and again and he became Ray Bradbury because he was determined to do that. I thought that was a great lesson to say āOkay,
what are you creating? What can you create that isnāt something
of what others are doing, but that is unique to you, that no one else could have created,
that you create something fresh in the world thatās truthful and meaningful and then
you know youāve done something worth doing. So thatās been a great inspiration to me. 3. Six Scripts Corey Mandell, Screenwriter/Instructor: I
love my agent. I think heās the best agent in the world. Iām repped at WME. There is another agent at WME who I think
is the second best agent in the world. Her name is Adriana Alberghetti. And she said something once they I think is
so important for writers to hear. She said that some writers get it and some
writers donāt get it. And the writers who get it are all working
and the writers who donāt get it (most of them) arenāt working. And so as an agent she just wants to work
with writers who get it and this is what it is. A lot of writers think that to write a script
that changed your life to write a script that gets you your first job or to get Ridley Scott
to hire you or to get a show whatever it is youāre aspiring to, you have a career you
are trying to take to the next level, they think itās about having the right script
at the right time at the right place. Thatās not it and thatās a mistake. That surrenders all control and power to the
Universe. The reality is your job is to think in six
script cycles and you have to be writing the right kinds of scripts, pitch perfect authentic
(we talked about that earlier) and assuming you trained yourself to be able to do that. You need to write six of those every two years
and the reason is you write six of these pitch perfect authentic scripts one of them is going
to go out to the marketplace and just fizzle and you will never know why and then two or
three of them will go out and they will start to get some traction but then something will
happen and derail it. And then there will be one or two that is
absolutely going to happen, you have the director attached, you have the stars, thereās a
bidding war, there is no way itās not going to happen and something at the very last second
is going to derail it and one of the six will actually go the distance and sell or it will
be that script that gets you the next three or four years of getting staffed on shows. There will be one of those 6 scripts that
will just catch lightning in a bottle, one of those 6. One of those 6 (you donāt know which one
it will be). So if you are not working right now you ought
to be writing 3 or 4 of these scripts a year because you are thinking in 6-script cycles. So any one script goes out and it does do
what it needs to you do have to feel like a victim. Itās one of 6. This is the key to working, you have two jobs
now. Your day job and your weekend night job. So if your day job is a feature assignment
writer for Ridley Scott or if your day job is you just got staffed on JANE THE VIRGIN
(one of my students just got staffed. Sheās very excited). You have to do everything. You have to excel at that job. But then on nights and weekends you have to
be writing pitch perfect authentic scripts. And if you are not writing 3 or 4 a year,
then maybe you are writing 2 a year. But you donāt stop writing these scripts. Because one of these scripts is going to be
the thing that takes your career to the next level. And so the writers that donāt get it is
Iām working, Iām making money, Iāve made it. Plus Iām busy, I have a family, Iām writing
and there is no other time and I get that. But the reality is the writers that get it
even though they are working they are still always creating this new material and they
think about it in these 6-script cycles. And so a lot of times agents drop the writers
who arenāt doing that. And I get it because when I was a working
studio writer I wasnāt continuing to write these scripts. I was just doing my studio assignment work
and I was making good money, I was just too busy and I didnāt want to do that. My agent kept telling me to do this. I didnāt. And he said at some point your writing career
is going to end badly and I worked non-stop for 11 years. But I was a working writer but I never became
an A-list writer. And the only way I could have become an A-list
writer is to keep writing script. So there was another writer Erik Singer who
wrote a script and started to get all of these studio assignments and making a lot of money
but he kept writing on his own time pitch-perfect authentic scripts year-after-year-after-year. And eventually one of them hit. It was AMERICAN HUSTLE and so he is now suddenly
a huge writer. I know the guys who wrote THE NICK (same thing),
they are staff writers and they are making really good money. They were writing stuff that they really believed
in, THE NICK was one of them and that script just took them to a whole other level. Alan Ball with AMERICAN BEAUTY and you can
just go on and on and on. Often agents drop writers who might be really
great writers but they donāt get it. They donāt keep creating this new absoluteā¦so
itās either they donāt keep creating material or they are not creating the right kind of
material (itās not good enough). I have a lot of friends who are agents and
if you keep creating the right kind of content even when youāre working and the content
is amazing and you play well with others, itās very unlikely that they are going to
drop you because thatās exactly the kind of person they want to represent. And in that case if they drop you, it could
be a conflict with their client base. It could be a lot of things that have nothing
to do with you. But if you are not doing all of those things
and an agent drops you have to look in the mirror. 4. Script Comparison Carole Kirschner, Author/Consultant: I can
go back to Sean Ryan again (the one who was so promising) and he got a job on a sitcom
as soon as he came to Los Angeles and then he didnāt work for 6 years. And what he did is he wrote and I think that
he wrote about 14 spec scripts. And what happened is his scripts were all
good but nothing was getting him traction. And he asked his manager, he said to his manager
send me an example of a script that is getting somebody work and his manager sent over the
script that had the most buzz at the time and Sean compared it page to page and said
heād have three things on a page that were really good. But this one (the one that got the buzz) every
single beat was perfect. And when he realized that he had not been
hitting the mark, he started to write and hit the mark. And in not too long of a time he got hired
on a show and that show led to another show and he developed THE SHIELD. So you just have to keep working. 5. Nothing in Return Danny Strong, Screenwriter/Producer/Actor:
I wouldnāt really call it early success. I donāt even view it that way. I view it as 6 years of no one wanting my
stuff. It was some random person who was very kind
who was interested in a script. But it wasnāt as if all of the sudden I
made it and itās happening now. So it really was a 6-7 year journey to selling
my project which was RECOUNT. And why didnāt give up is because I had
something to say and I loved writing these scripts and they were important to me and
I was working on stories and it just was artistically extremely fulfilling where my acting career
was very frustrating and I worked. I worked on some really terrific shows that
Iām really proud of but I wasnāt actually getting to act very much. So even when youāre working I would do episodes
of GILMORE GIRLS and I would do 4 episodes a season and I would work on it a day or two
and that would be one of my only jobs for 6 months. So itās really about 7 days on set over
a 6-month period so what am I doing the rest of the time? Iām auditioning and trying to get new jobs
but thatās an hour a day maybe? So really it was a creative outlet for me
of taking my creative energy and putting it into something where I can actually just go
do it. Whereas as an actor, you have to be picked
to go do it and then you rarely get picked. So I just found it fulfilling and I also was
getting rejected left and right, script after script, agents, managers, production companies,
everyone didnāt want my work for 6-7 years. And I think I got to a point where I asked
myself āThis is not going well. What do you want from this? What are you doing?ā And I asked myself Would Iā¦and itās one
of the key questions in the movieā¦would I do this for the rest of my life if I got
nothing in return? And I thought yes I would. And then I just kept writing and it wasnāt
as if 6 months laterā¦crack the champagne! It was maybe three years later and I sold
RECOUNT as a pitch to HBO and just kind of went on from there. But there was a certain peace in knowing that
it wasnāt about selling something or success (even though I really wanted it). It was a kumbuya moment, but there was a peace
in knowing that whatever happens you just keep writing. So just keep writing and thatās what I did. 6. Story or Character? Peter Desberg, Author/Psychologist: When Jeffrey
[Davis] and I were starting we took a slightly academic view one day and said whatās your
prediction about the approach they are going to take? Are they going to go more for story? Or are they going to go more for character? And we found out the answer is neither. They went for conflict. So if you were going to give us a premise
to develop, the very first step we would take is Okay whatever the premise is where do we
get conflict out of it? If there are two characters involved, how
can we make them but heads? So if you were to give us a premise to develop,
the very first step we would take is okay wherever the premise is, where do we get conflict
out of it? If there are two characters involved how can
we make them but heads to do something because everything would come out of that. 7. The Name of the Game Gary Goldstein, Producer: Writers (as one
example), I get query letters every day, blind query letters. āDear So and Soā¦ā It could be my name, it could be ācreative
executive,ā it could be my name misspelled, it could be anything. āDear So and Soā¦ā Log line, short description, āCan I send
a script? Iāll sign a release.ā Signedā¦John. Thatās what I get repeatedly all day long
in my inbox. There is not one lick of research. There is not one lick of anything personal,
like why is this the writer (the only writer) who could have written this story? Why was it so compelling that they chose this
out of all the stories in oneās imagination? Why did they choose to send it to me? Now I donāt want to receive the agony and
the ecstasy as a letter but somethingā¦a drop, a kernel, something that stands out
and makes me think. Makes me react. Makes me wonder about this. But they donāt. I can promise you not even 1% do what Iām
describing. So this is what writers learn from other writers
and the actors learning from other actors, etc. They learn the habitual tried-and-true, day-to-day
protocol which is usually very unsuccessful. The ROI (the return-on-investment) in sending
blind query blind query letters has got to be horribly frustrating? If youāre a business, youād be bankrupt. So why do it? Because this is what other people are doing. You need to associate with more successful
people and you need to think about it differently. If you were a fashion designer and you took
that approach, you focus on your craft, focus on your craft, focus on your craft and you
sent out letters saying āHereās my designs. Arenāt I great!ā Youād never have a brand. You have to think in terms of business. You have to think in terms of āWhat more
can I do that others arenāt doing?ā As opposed to āWhat they are doing. How do I stand out?ā Separating yourself out from the herd is definitely
the name of the game and anyone who has invested that blood, sweat and tears, that sort of
soul equity of investing all of that time writing 120 or 110 pages (whatever) of story
and rewriting it until it is just so. But they want to share their wares with the
world. Now theyāre so proud of this. They should invest a like amount of time figuring
out how to market and how to be a business person and how to reach out to people and
how to do things differently than all of their peers. Like thatās a great measurement. Am I doing what everyone else is doing or
am I being somehow, putting myself out into the world and speaking of myself to the right
people in ways that matter? 8. The Great Weakness John Truby, Author/Screenwriter/Instructor:
A common notion (particularly about action heroes), notion was always in the past that
when you have an action hero or especially a super hero that you want a character who
begins as a good person (an upstanding moral paragon) and remains that way throughout the
entire story. But about 10 years ago Hollywood discovered
that thatās not the best way to tell the super hero story. Thatās one of those examples of conventional
wisdom thatās not so. What we care about is to see a character overcome
a deep weakness. Now the audience thinks the story is all about
the hero achieving his goal because then weāve got success and thatās important and in
most stories the hero will accomplish his goal by the end of the story. That is not what the audience is most interested
in. They canāt tell you this but we know from
lots of experience (hundreds of years of storytelling that the real fact is not does the hero accomplish
the goal but does the hero overcome the great weakness because thatās what makes us care
about that character. We see them in pain. We see them in trouble, right? If they are already successful if they are
already good (and in some cases) a perfect person, where do they go? There is nothing for them to overcome. So thatās why itās so important to show
in the very opening pages of our script the internal weakness of our character. Now we may also want to give them qualities
that are likable qualities that the audience can also hook onto. Those are not nearly as important as establish
the weakness up front in the story. 9. Iāll Take A Look At It Jen Grisanti, Author/Consultant: Iāll never
forget when I was a studio executive. There was a certain circumstance where this
happened where we had the network, the studio, the show runner and the writer on the phone. And the writer was so defensive to the network
notes. And it was my job to go to the writer and
say you need to really hear the note, understand the note, and then you pat best response that
isnāt going to put someone on the defense and isolate someone is āI will take a look
at it.ā That helps toā¦first of all itās positive
on the writer. Itās saying that they are open (itās not
saying that they agree with the note) but itās saying that they are open to take a
look at it and thatās all people want to know. What I think the biggest thing writers have
to think about when it comes to receiving notes on their script is that even if they
donāt agree with the note at face value, they have to understand there might be a note
under the note. And the note that they need to make to themselves
is something isnāt working and I have to figure out how to make it work because if
this person who know story is not getting it, there is something going on in my process
that isnāt working and just be open to that. I mean the gift with writing is and what I
always say to writers is that you have to recognize first of all what is the blank page
is the only thing between them and a writing career. And how they fill that page is what makes
the difference. So they can rewrite anything, thatās why
I say to writers I cannot tell you (it was my job) how many show runners I had to talk
off the ledge after they heard notes and after they heard notes. After they heard notes from the studio or
the owner of the company, I had to be the peacemaker and I had to really help them to
see at first okay I think the writers mind may go āOh my gosh. This is a total page 1 rewrite.ā Very often it is not. All it is is really thinking about the note,
understanding the note, and then if they are open to it what Iāve seen (the best writer
for me) knows how to make the note go beyond the note. And that takes openness. That takes advanced ability to really know
āAlright Iām going to make that note there therefore thatās going to effect a later
moment so Iām going to change that later moment so that it links with what I just changed
and they know how to do that. I think the biggest wall note is saying āYouāre
wrong. I donāt agree.ā I think that shows lack of openness and accessibility
and desire to make the story better. Or writers will say I donāt get it and then
the executive or the story consultant will go through it again. And to the person giving the note there is
definitely a tremendous amount of responsibility. I am definitely a believer that if you are
going to give a note. And this is where I think to the person giving
the note there is also tremendous responsibility. If you are going to give a note, give an example. Show them what you mean. So that they understand the note. There are many consultants who will say āI
donāt think thatās my job. Iām not the writer. They are the writer.ā I am a believer. I come from the studio executive perspective
where clarity is key in the outcome of the story. So if you going to give a note and give an
example of why itās not working or what you mean by it then you are going to have
a stronger chance of getting the outcome that you want. Elaine Zicree, Screenwriter: Itās a funny
thing but the thing that most affected me was a very good script doctor that I had and
it was a script that Iād written. It was one of my most favorite scripts Iād
ever written and it was one of my favorite script ultimately. But she said āThis is brilliant. I absolutely love it. Now hereās the notes!ā But the fact that she said that I was brilliant
and that she loved it I thought āWell what the heck? Whatās with a few notes? Iām brilliant.ā So I think crazy flattery is sort of a way
of allowing somebody to feel special. With crazy flattery all those notes seemed
like nothing. You know one of the biggest pieces of advice
was āHey, what you are doing has super value. Now here is the work.ā And just going on that thing where I was allowed
to have super value at the top of the journey really got me through as thought it was nothing
of those notes. 10. How To Build Empathy Karl Iglesias, Author/Screenwriter/Instructor:
For character (and I talk about this in my Pixar seminar) because they are masters of
this. They tell stories about toys, about monsters,
about bugs, about robots, a fish, a rat. They make you care and connect with those
characters. So there are a whole bunch of techniques and
you can see what they do and what the techniques are. For me itās like there are three things
that you do is that you make us feel sorry for that character, there are little moments
where you can create a moment in the story where a character is unjustly abused or unjustly
mistreated or insulted or betrayed or neglected. And so it can be any character and if that
moment is there you are going to feel sorry for that character (at that moment). It takes an instant. So thatās one. If you show that they are like us. If you show their humanity for example. If you show that they care about something
other than themselves, thatās another technique. So thereās a moment in the movie LEON THE
PROFESSIONAL which is about the bad guy right and it opens with him doing something bad
and he hurts someone. You donāt know if heās good or bad. But he goes home and he takes care of a plant
and right away you say āOh? He cares about a plant. So heās okay. Heās human.ā The other part is admiration. So if you are dating somebody or if you are
trying to find somebody who is a good match for you, that list of things that you like
in a person thatās an admirable trait. So if someone is funny, who is responsible,
who is courageous, a whole list of things you can add to a character to say āI admire
this.ā Usually they are like the best at what they
do. The best ad executive or best agent or the
best copā¦courageousā¦I have a whole bunch of them. The list is all in the book. There are all these lists of what you can
do. So if you do all of these things, if you show
clips of the moment you meet the character (itās usually like a three minute scene)
you can see all of these things being applied in like 3 minutes. The opening of WALLE after heās done with
the garbage and he comes to his little house, itās a 3-minute scene and thereās about
20 of these techniques done. This is how you connect with that character
in that one scene emotionally. I also show a clip of an ad (itās a commercial)
about a lamp. Itās a one minute thing. Itās a great ad for Ikea (award-winning
commercial) where they make you care about the lamp. And the joke about it is a guy comes out and
says āYou probably had feeling for this lamp because youāre crazy. The lamp is only a lamp. And the new one is better.ā The new one to replace it. But itās amazing once you know those techniques
and then you see them in action and you go āOh my gosh?ā I kind of always feel (I always give this
caveat with my students and to everybody who hears me speak) that if you love stories (if
you love film) and you donāt want me to destroy the illusion do not listen to me because
I feel like Iām one of the magicians who gives you the trick of how itās done and
then you see the trick and itās not the same anymore. So I always feel bad about that because once
you know the techniques and you see a film youāre are going to see them everywhere. Itās going to kind of ruin it for you so
just fair warning right there that this is how we do it and it creates that effect. 11. A Participatory Experience Michael Hauge, Author/Consultant: Itās not
an audienceās or a readerās job to feel something you have to elicit. So that means you havenāt created sufficient
conflict or emotion in your story to elicit or you havenāt created a premise (a concept
of a story) or you have it structured in such a way that the conflict makes any sense or
can be emotionally involving because youāve given them nothing to route for or you havenāt
created empathy with the hero or whatever it might be. But itās your job to elicit emotion and
emotion has to come naturally from the reader and audience because of what youāve done. They have to be participating in the story
that you created. Thatās why for example empathy is so important
for you to create for your hero because a story is a participatory experience for the
audience and the listener and the reader. We become that character. We want to experience the same emotion as
they do. We donāt go to the movies because itās
interesting to watch people do things. Itās emotional for us to get to do them. We become Jason Bourne. We become Rose as she falls in love with Jack
and sheās on the Titanic. We become the astronaut who is out in space
in GRAVITY. We are a part of it. We are participating in the action, in the
events of that story. But we have no basis, no way to get into the
story if on a subconscious level become the hero of that story and thatās what the empathy
and identification you create at the beginning is going to do. So if youāve created a story with an empathetic
hero so we participate, giving them a clear goal, and created enough logical and believable
obstacles to overcome then the emotion will grow organically out of your audience because
they are in it and youāve created the conflict that will do that. To me all roads lead to the outer motivation
and so if all you are doing is stringing together obstacles to overcome and there is a very
similar mistake and that is people who think comedy is one funny thing after another happening. Thatās not what a story is. Story is a sequence of events experienced
by a hero who is pursuing a very specific goal. So if you are just throwing one obstacle after
another but we donāt care the hero or the hero or itās not clear why the hero is doing
this or what they are trying to achieve or if those obstacles are illogical or if the
pace of the story lags, every thing is at a very high level of emotion and creating
sort of peaks and valleys at an emotional level so you have big moments and quiet moments
and moments of connection and moments of separation and so on. There are all those things that you do in
addition to throwing a bunch of things atā¦you know car chases and fight scenes up on the
screen. Which many people have tried and those movies
donāt succeed. If itās just car chases and fight scenes
itās just a series of videos really. But itās not a story or a movie where people
are going to be involved in. It has to alternate. Itās not a resting point as if you stay
there forever but itās like in a comedy you donāt want jokeā¦jokeā¦jokeā¦joke. Thereās got to be a serious moment or two
and look at any great comedy (look at any decent comedy) and thereās going to be something
very funny and then thereās going to be something touching or sad or romantic or there
is going to be a deeper connection between the characters or there is going to be something
more exciting or there is going to be something softer. You want to vary the peaks and valleys, the
emotional level and pitch of the story as we go steadily toward the finish line that
the hero is trying to reach. So the obstacle is getting bigger, they need
to come closer together so the pace will accelerate but if thereās only obstacles (one right
after the other) with no chance to catch your breath, no chance to participate what might
be coming, no chance to explain whatās going on and no chance to get closer and deeper
into the character, itās going to be a very, very shallow story with very limited emotional
involvement or appeal. 12. Writerās Mindset Erik Oleson, Writer of MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
and ARROW: My process evolves every time I do another
job I realize how much I didnāt know in my prior job. So Iām somebody who reads pretty much reads
every trick, every screenwriting book, every script that I can get my hands on and Iām
constantly trying to evolve as a craftsman. Iām also fortunate enough in this job to
surround myself with really talented people and you learn a lot from other writers. Like there are writers on MAN IN THE HIGH
CASTLE who have won Emmyāsā¦like Martin Scorsese best friend is another one. You want to really kind of learn from the
people around you and that just makes you better. So I canāt say that I have any set process. Although right now as Iām developing something
I have to say that Iām a big fan of the John Truby stuff. I think he kind of hits the sweet spot for
me. But Iāve taken them all, Iāve taken McKee,
Iām one of these guys who likes to read new stuff about the craft and I figure if
I can learn something from any book, if I get one thing out of it and it makes me a
better writer, Iām all for it. Christine Conradt, Screenwriter: Just being
able to recognize your deficiencies and for me when I read a great script and I go āOh
my gosh this is a great script.ā I get really excited and go āWhat are they
doing that Iām not doing. What can I learn from what this writer did?ā And so I think just constantly learning and
constantly reading and constantly researching and having that in the back of your mind all
the time that you want to get better, you will just gravitate towards things that make
you better. Instead of finding that comfortable place
where you know you are good at writing this so I can write this over and over, itās
forcing yourself to stretch. Because I think once you do that itās a
great feeling that youāve written something good and youāve done something youāve
never done before, then you have something you can feel really proud of. You can learn from everyone and thatās the
thing, there are so many people whoā¦I think people just want to feel validated so badly
where they get to a place where they say āIām an expert and everyone should just be listening
to what I have to say about this.ā And itās kind of crazy because yes you may
have put your 10,000 hours in, you may be good at what you do, but you can learn something
from everything that you read, even learning what not to do. Even in really bad scripts you will find these
little moments where youāre like āOh my gosh, that was really well-conveyed.ā So just being open to those things and learning
from other people because people are constantly adding to this body of work that exists in
the world and there is so much for you to be able to read out there. Just be open to what other people are doing. But then again you have to love reading. So many writers donāt love reading. So read, read, read, read. A lot of people want to start writing without
having read a script. I just donāt understand it. Erik Bork, Author/Screenwriter: Probably the
most important perspective has been to see it as something Iām always learning and
Iām always growing and that thatās okay. Itās not like Iām supposed to know it
all or be perfect at it and the things that I write are just going to be great automatically
and others are going to love them. To see it as itās an ongoing quest of kind
of a self-development, self-education, Iām learning with everything that I write, what
works better and not as good so itās like this journey of development that you are going
to sort of enjoy the journey as opposed to I have to get to a certain place which it
is easy to feel that way because the world works that way where I have to get the agent,
I have to get the sale, I have to get something produced, I have to get the money to make
my movie. There are these goals who might have in the
world that are a lot of times out of our control and if you focus only on those goals like
what I can get, what I can achieve instead of what can I express? How can I just do what Iāve decided I want
to do which is be a writer and be learning and growing and find some satisfaction in
that journey. Because when you turn it into there have to
be these quantifiable in terms of money or otherās reactions or whatever, then you
are putting all your power in this thing that may or may not ever happen, that you canāt
for sure make happen no matter what you do. So I think it seems counterproductive because
to be successful (be a professional) you want to focus on the professional goals. Well you do to some extent and you are open
to feedback and you are listening and educating yourself. I didnāt say just go in a hole and do what
you want to do and shut the outside world out. Iām saying engage with the world, with feedback,
with education, with trying to understand and get better so itās growth but making
it a positive growth for your self that is about making me better and making my writing
better not making my results better. Because when you focus on how do I give more. How do I write something that is really going
to impact people? How do I do that? How do I figure out how to do that? How do I get better at it? You are then about giving to other people
and you will achieve success I believe more when you succeed at giving more, you will
get more automatically as opposed to how do I get the success? How do I get the breaks? How do I get the right person to read it? How do I get people to like it? Itās more how do I create something so wonderful
that people will just automatically like it and Iām not even concerning myself with
that. Itās about taking the power into your own
hands and being about how you can improve your stuff and your self as a writer. Having that approach I think is a stronger,
healthier approach that is going to lead to more success more then if you do it the other
way. 13. Not Good Enough Eric Edson, CSUN Screenwriting Professor:
The number one reason why you are not making it is the material is not yet good enough
because especially if you are not reading the stuff that is out there you have no way
of knowing how good good has to be in order to get noticed. Coming in you have to be better than most
of the people who are now making a living at it in order to get noticed. But the contests offerā¦re-objectificationā¦the
contests offer the concrete way to do that. Work on it, work on it, until youāve got
something youāre ready to test. But now pick your contests carefully. The first time you try it out pick smaller
contests (more fringy). I mean do your research. They should be decent, upstanding contests
and so forth. Try it outā¦try it out. Did you make the quarter finals or were you
swept away in the first pass. Okay if that happens, you have learned something,
itās not ready. And you keep working on it. And finally when you get to the mid-level
ranks and your script gets to the quarter finals okay. It did not make the top ten or the top 15. Fineā¦youāve learned something more. Go back, take a vacation from it for a couple
of weeks, try not to think about it, then reread it again, make more notes and go back
to work on it. And itās a way that a lot of neophyte screenwriters
(new screenwriters) donāt do or donāt pursue which is youāve got to be as a writer,
as a craftsperson you must be relentless in your goal of creating quality material. For instance (Iāll give you a for instance). Iām working with a young lady right now
who was one of our grad students a few years ago
(2-3 years ago). Sheās been my class assistant and stuff
like that so we knew each other pretty well. She took her thesis screenplay from (I donāt
know) three years ago and I read it and told her āYouāve got a great idea hereā¦you
really do. I believe in this idea.ā And we had conversations such as there is
no such thing as a bad screenplay, only an unfinished one. And I gave her some pointers and scribbled
things on the pages and she went back and wrote it again (this is a feature film). And I looked it and was āYou know what? This is better.ā And I went through and the sample editing
and the scribble, scribble kind of stuff. And she looks at it and itās a little bit
better. Sheās been through that process (well in
this case with me) it must be 6 times now. I mean years have passed. She had a draft of this when she went up for
her thesis 3 years ago right? But Iāll tell you and Iām reading it once
again. Iāll probably be looking at it again this
weekend, she is so close. I kept telling her keep track ofā¦donāt
lose your draft of your first draft, donāt lose a copy of your first draft because a
day is coming when I would like to have that in my hand and your final draft and put that
together in a binder and use this in class and have people read the first draft and now
read the last draft. It could be a wonderful, wonderful exploration
of teaching writing because this has become viable. She is now close to having an entirely shootable,
casting, really good social commentary screenplay. Film Courage: What changed in those 6 drafts
over the 3 years or however many? Professor Edson: Craft. Craft. Her mastery ofā¦what most of them do is they
write what they mean and when it comes to dialogue, please just blurt it out and itās
called on-the-nose-dialogue. Thatās one of the things you teachā¦stop
it! People do not talk like that, people talk
around what they mean not that there canāt be confrontation and stuff like that under
certain emotional circumstances but it was dialogue and less is more in terms of the
amount of dialogue. It was description, it was about the use of
language and vocabulary and description using irrelevant words - the, and, thereā¦thereās
a whole list of the 9 most utterly useless words. Iāve got it back there in a sheet I pass
out sometimes. All that is is filler. All that does is slow the reader down. It is developing a style in a way you describe
and offer exposition and description in scene, scene heading, slug lines and then what weāre
looking at in stuff like that. Drawing people in, where you put things, building
the plot in an ever better way (you can do more here) that is what has been going on
for all those years. 14. Value Of An Idea Richard Walter, UCLA Screenwriting Chairman:
The most overrated part of the screenplay equation is the idea. Ideas are usually pretty useless and worthless. Forgive me if Iām repeating myself I am
one of those people who believes that BREAKING BAD is one of the greatest achievements in
the history of civilization. I think it is really great drama. So what is the idea that drives it? A high school chemistry teacher gets a cancer
diagnosis so he decides to go into dealing with an incorrigible former student of his
(a criminal) to support his family. Itās the stupidest idea Iāve ever heard. Many, many companies shot that down. And yet it is this triumphant achievement. 62 hours of TV series, every frame of which
is engaging and captivating and involving. So how did that happen? And the answer is they told a good story. Itās where the story, itās really all
about story and at UCLA thatās what I believe. Imagine if someone came up to you and said
āHey I have an idea for a movie. This guys stutters but he has to give a speech. They hire a speech therapist. They work on this speech and he gives this
speech at the end of the movie.ā If somebody told you that thatās going to
win the Oscar for best picture and best screenplay, youād tell them they are crazy. And yet that is of course THE KINGāS SPEECH. And again I think it just demonstrates the
value of story and the valuelessness of ideas. And I think that very young people are more
into ideas, they have great ideas. I like to say if you have a great idea, a
really, really great idea for a screenplay, thatās all youāve got. I mean what remains after that? Everything. The characters have to be invented, the dialogue
they speak has to be created. It has to be punchy and peppy and provocative
and pungent (Iām just getting into Pās now) and poetic and it has to be worth listening
to all for itself just because there is something kind of charming about it. But beyond that it canāt just be all for
itself. It also has to advance the story in a palpable,
measurable, identifiable way. Likewise expand the audiences appreciation
of the characters. It takes time for me to give you an idea about
a movie it takes about a handful of seconds to walk you through the story which takes
the length of the movie (a couple of hours). So thatās where the value is. 15. Story Structure Myth Larry Wilson, Screenwriter: There is a huge
business (maybe an overly-huge business) in teaching screenplay structure. A 3-act structure, a 5-act structure. And I know a fair share of screenwriting gurus
who are at each others throats of which structure is the structure and Iām not saying there
is not a structure. I would be in big trouble if I said there
wasnāt a structure and that a story doesnāt have a beginning, a middle and an end. But this reliance, this absolute need to follow
any structure map thatās out there and if you donāt have a turning point on page 30
you havenāt done it right. Or if youāre on step 5 of 22 steps, youāre
on the wrong step, you havenāt done it right or any of this stuff itās not true. This structure business, itās a business
and you need a diagram to teach structure and you sell a diagram and itās very hard
to say I have the best diagram unless you have a diagram. I mean you need a diagram to sell a diagram. I told you earlier about my diagram that ends
on page 60 with someone dangling down. Itās an emotional diagram. It goes like thisā¦Page 1 Iām going to
do this, this is going to be the best story ever, Page 10 Oh my gosh I can really do this. Everyone was wrong about me. My parents can go F themselves! Iām a writer. On and on emotional and like Page 20 you go
this is really getting hard, the graph starts going down and down and then you get to Page
60 and itās like Iāll never finish this. Itās my struggle. Itās an emotional structure. Itās an emotional diagram. Film Courage: Waitā¦sorry to interrupt but
what happens after the hanging diagram? Larry: Oh well you go into despair for awhile. You put yourself to bed and then you wake
up and start again and it has a happy ending. And at the ending it has a happy ending, big
bags of money, all the love and companionship you ever wanted, power, you win right? But itās obviously tongue-in-cheek and to
make a point. But the real point of it is
have characters who you believe in and you believe that you can write them and they are
in some sense writing you, that they are coming out of a place of truth for you. Put them in the tightest, most impossible
situation you can imagine and get them out of it. And know that you have probably (if you are
writing a screenplay) in a 100 to 120 minutes. And let the story flow and there will be natural
points within you doing that where you will feel needs to go faster, needs to go slower,
that there needs to be more drama, there needs to be a moment of rest, all these things that
structure teaches you and again Iām not saying there isnāt a structure. But those structure diagrams they can assist
you or they can be a cage. They can be an absolute cage and they can
trap you and if you believe that youāre a writer, you have a natural storytelling
gift that you need to honor, that you need to respect or donāt be a writer. Donāt think that you can tell a story if
you donāt have a natural storytelling gift and you canāt tell when things are going
too slowly or things are going to fast and just let if flow and then go back and see
if itās structured right. But this is another thing that will stop people
in their tracts over and over again if your first act is too long. Who cares? Who cares? Youāll figure that out if writing is rewriting. And watch a lot of movies, read a lot of books,
Iām now because of constraints of time sometimes Iām a podcast junkie. I hear the most brilliant stories in podcasts,
stories that have natural, beginning, middle and an end because they are true. Just embrace all of that, embrace the movies
that you love, take them to your heart. And if youāre a storyteller, the story will
emerge and it will emerge with a structure. BONUS - Never forget this one. Blayne Weaver, Actor, Screenwriter, Director,
Producer: The biggest lesson about writing get up and do it. It is a job. Iām the kind of guy that I like a glass
of wine, I like some music going, thatās very romantic and Iām sure Hemingway would
be very proud but thatās not really how you get a script done or how you write that
many scripts and I am always writing so itās like youāve got to get up and spend time
with your coffee. Youāve got to look at it. Sometimes itās just sitting there not being
able to write anything that gets you 2 days later to where you can answer the question
on paper. Celeste Chaney, Author: Everybody says you
have to write and read everyday because itās true. If you are writing everyday, the next day
you are going to write a little better than you did the day before and in 4 years you
are going to be a much better writer than you were 4 years ago. I think a lot of writers are waiting for the
world to give you permission to pursue your craft and you need to give yourself that permission. You need to show up and say Okay Iām going
to do this and Iām probably not going to be very good right now or maybe I am great
and I donāt know it yet. You wonāt know either way unless you put
yourself out there. And sitting down everyday whether thatās
for an hour in the morning, an hour in the evening, somewhere in-between the timing doesnāt
matter and it really doesnāt even matter if youāre writing a 1,000 words or if youāre
writing 50. The important thing is that youāre writing.
I was ready to hate on this video based on the title. But actually there's a lot of great stuff here.
Here's a link to the Waiting Room Essay mentioned in the first segment
Great post, OP!