thoughts of yourself as a screenwriter!

I am happy to just get paid for doing something I have loved to do for more than half my life. The only way I could love my wife more would be if she had a keyboard sticking out from her chest.

I've optioned scripts for a few thousand in hopes that it is greenlit and I get the rest (have yet to have that happen though).

I've sold a script to people I know will screw it up, but their check was good and it was an old script that served its purpose.

I've rewritten stupid, juvenile and poorly structured cardboard cutout scripts for producers (because they wanted it that way) who were more than happy to pay me close to WGA rates for a rewrite.

I've doctored and/or critiqued other screenwriter's works for as little as a cup of coffee, but usually for a few hundred bucks or more.

All the while, I write specs of those projects I feel passionate about, some big, some small all a labor of love. Hopefully one of those sells big to a producer or studio that feels the same as I do about them.

I personally feel you got to keep writing, keep selling, keep getting your name out there anyway and anyhow, so eventually you become a household name or a hack, but either way you get paid for something you love.

I've never made one red cent from writing, save for some underground mags I wrote for several years ago. And those were pittances.

As for screenwriting, I've rewritten/polished scripts for friends who make their own films for nothing other than the experience (a credit doesn't do you much good when it's a shot-on-video flick about zombies taking over small, Georgia towns and are only available from the filmmaker's website lol) and I've given up a story or two to friends who wanted something they could make on the cheap, just to learn how to shoot a film. But I've never sold anything, never been optioned...not that I've ever submitted. Hell, just a week ago last Saturday I submitted a script for the first time to anyone, anywhere, and that was a screenplay competition.

As for my hopes of making money...I wouldn't mind it if I ended up just a screenwriter who made a living off of options, which I think is perfectly respectable. Of course I'd LOVE to see something I've written on the screen, but I know I'm not that good yet and probably won't be for a long time. Unless I get lucky.

Touchy subject....

Personally, I’m nearing the end of my career as an investigative reporter. It’s been a great ride and I have few regrets. I’m becoming more and more content turning stories I worked on, but never garnered ink for whatever reason, into scripts, and from that I gain a great deal of satisfaction.



I’m not especially creative; I can’t dream up a story out of thin air, but I can draw on my collection of notes and experiences for material, stories that should be told. When you poke around in other people’s garbage for as long as I have, you do collect things to write about. I guess I'm lucky in that respect, although luck is for rabbits.



When, or if, a script sells isn’t important. Telling a story worth telling is.

The thing I'm writing for is just for the pure fun of it. I love to just set down, take ideas off the top of my head and write them down. It is a way for me to forget the problems of every day life and kind of just venture into my own little world for some time.

I know that I'll probably never be good enough to sell a script to Hollywood. The only thing that writing scripts has gotten me is praise from my friends and even had one short looked at for a film. Unfortunatley, that fell through and it wasn't used. If I had my way I'd major in this field but I would rather get a very steady career and write on the side. But for now I just write for the fun of it and because I think I do a pretty good job at it also.

I was pretty much born a writer, I guess. Although in order to write a lot and write well, I feel like you have to read a lot, too. That's not me. But still. Still a lotta spirit.

Actually, my imagination is so overactive that everytime I get an idea, it's like getting a brain tumor. The only way to operate is...you guessed it...with Final Draft (or a legal pad and a pencil).

I've done very little so far. I've written a couple of 5-page scripts for various video and audio projects, one 20-page script for another class project (it sucked big), and a 76-page one for screenwriting. Currently, I'm trying to beef up that 76'er and make it pretty solid. It's a war movie.

Where would I like to see those scripts go? Into production would be nice. But into the trash after I've finished filming them would be ideal. I'd really like to produce a lot of my ideas. Unfortunately, I'm more or less planning on staying here in KY and produce films, so I doubt I'd get the budget or manpower to do anything huge like a movie about the Korean War. Who knows? There are a lot of rich horse owners that may want an easier way to make a buck than betting on horses...

Like the Rule of Thirds, I have been writing all of my life, (Well maybe not all of it.) But pretty darn close. For a long time I wanted to become a novelist, until a few years ago I discovered screenwriting and it dawned on me. "This is what I want to do." The next thing to writing, and reading that I love the most are movies. It surprises me that I didn't come upon it sooner. I still have lots to learn yet, but someday I plan on selling a script. This is what I want to do with my life, and I won't stop until I get to where I want to be. Sure it's fun and I love doing it, but that's not enough for me. I'm a very determined person and am more than willing to do what ever it takes to reach my goal, even if I have to move all the way to Las Angeles from Ohio. To some this might seem a little niave, but I don't think so. You're only as good as you think you are. If I convince myself I'll never be good enough, then I won't be good enough. But if I convince myself that someday, all the long nights I've sweated over a script, will be paid off, then it will. I don't expect to win the "best screenplay" of the year award, but I do expect to someday be paid for what I love doing most.

Steph

I'm rather old-fashioned and I think filmmaking is my destiny. I doubt it's my only one, but someone's definitely done their homework to make sure this is the ride I take. It's as if my interests led me on some kind of invisible bread crumb trail to reach what I'm supposed to do in life.

Case in point. I used to play a Star Trek chat room game on AOL. One night a week, we'd have a live session where we'd sort of act out an episode of our own group's adventure/mission. Aside from that, in order to get promoted, you had to write logs, which were usually prose emails that developed your character more or developed the plot more. One of the leaders on my ships would sometimes write these "logs" in the Courier-12 format. Something about that just ignited an interest in me, so I got the guy to teach it to me. I was like...14 or 15. I played around with it on a few projects in a high school creative writing class. But it wasn't until my freshman year of college that I started writing for real with the format. Of course everybody else in the class was learning it for the first time. It looked like Greek to them, initially. To me, it was a ride around the block.

Now...add that to how I've listened to film scores since birth and always gone through life feeling almost like Truman in The Truman Show...it definitely feels like I belong in film. To me, life is like an on-going movie with no cuts or edits. Whether it'll be distributed and shown someday for entertainment...I'm not sure. I think it will be in the next life. Then again, I'm one of those chrazy Christians who believes in Heaven and Hell and all that jazz. But since life is like a movie and I listen to film music a lot...I often try to score moments with film music. For instance, when we were at Mt. St. Helens a couple weeks ago, I listened to Star Trek The Motion Picture while we drove through there. The V'Ger cues totally evoked the mystery and the destructive potential of the mountain. And it just gave the whole experience this neat dramatic flair. Of course, I get whimsical with it and listen to James Bond while I'm driving around in my car. You don't know fun until you've done that, believe me!

In addition to that, even when I try to go off and do something else as a career, the circumstances just work themselves out to bring me back to filmmaking. Since I've been in college, I've strongly considered two different majors from film: Bible and History. Both times I wound up back in film. And it's not for a lack of trying, either. I was all gung-ho to be a Bible major, gearing up to be a preacher. I was willing to read all those neat, fascinating history books. But the cameras and the creativity's beckoning was too strong to ignore. (Especially, too, when the state threatened to take back a few hundred dollars of scholarship money if you didn't change out of a religious major, too.)

In any case, I'm happy. Well, almost happy. Having my own family might be pretty good too someday.

I'm so busy writing that I don't have time to reply to this thread.

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity.

I've been writing for a while now, at least two years, and I started out in the X-Files fandom. Just recently, I've branched out to writing original stories. The thought of being a screenwriter is amazing to me. If I had the guts to do it, I would. But I don't think I have enough skill, confidence, encouragement and concrit to be one.

Yet, I'm young enough to still have a chance at something I find incredibly pleasing and interesting.

New kid on the block

I have just started writing. I grew up as a TV junkie thorugh the 70's and 80's and I always had an imaganation of writing stories ans scripts.

I always had a desire to write for television and/or movies. I hear how there is so much competition and I'm sure there are many people out there that want to write as much as I do. But, I can't understand why I hear that there is so much competition when there is very little originality out there. Most of what is on the television is reality based and most theatrical films are either remakes of old classics, sequels, or based on old TV shows. I have about 100 original ideas as I'm sure most of you do, so why is it so hard to get them out there?

Like I said, I have just begun to write seriously. Other things I have started that people have read, got very positive responses, but I just didn't know where to go with them. I am always told, "oh, you should write for television." I know most of you have probably heard that too. I am currently working on an idea for a pilot for a situation comedy. I am almost finished with it and I would really like to get it submitted. I have a list of agents from the WGA site that I will submit it to, but if anyone has any advice, I'm a clean slate.

You know...I think I can understand how the rest of you feel. I've always worked under the assumption of maybe sending out a script or two out West, but for me, the big hurdle isn't finding someone who will produce my script, but finding an investor to finance my own production of the movie. I don't think there's any way to make Hollywood to reform from without. But I do think there's a way to change what we see and that's to just find other ways of producing, but distribute those programs/productions through the exact same channels. So rather than making a movie in LA or NY, you make them in Moosejaw, Alaska, get the prints made, and send them out to theaters. At first, you're not going to convince people. Your movies will look cheap and so will your marketing. But that's why you've got to use star power and quality storytelling to bring in a couple of people and win them over, so then word-of-mouth will bring in their friends and other skeptics. Then you earn money and can afford higher production qualities. And Hollywood's vices and unoriginality are dethroned!

I hate writing full stop. Became a first time Author in 2003 and still can't get a grip of the thing. And I would love to see my book made into a film. But then again I could dream.

writersliving said:

how do you think of yourself as a screenwriter. do you see yourself as a big writer making lots of money. Or do you think you can't make it to be just like the biggest writer out there. I belive I can make it big. I have great ideas and I think my writing will sell to someone one day.
I even practice some to see how it is as a screenwriter!

what about you?

Click to expand...

Well I feel that I have a chance to make it as a big screenwriter I am just hoping to get it finished.

Ok, here I go. Would I love to be a big time screenwriter? Yes, of course. Do I think I'm talented enough? Of course, have you seen the crap they put out? Will I be a big time screenwriter? In a few years, maybe a little longer.

Confidence is important. You need it to pick up chicks, you need it to jump start a career. I think I can be the greatest screenwriter ever and you should think of yourself that way too. Never stop writing.

Screenwriter

I have been writing screenplays for about 5 years - my first one picked up this summer by an Independent - I see myself walking down the red carpet to the awards ceremony some day - maybe with a walker or in a wheel chair, but it will happen.......you will only get where you want to go if you take the time and make the effort to be the best that you can be.
If the pages never fill up - the story will never be told....

You Don't Think of Yourself as a Screenwriter--You Just Write

As someone who deals with many aspects of writing every day--in film or in television-- let me tell you that writing for working writers is not about "making it big"--you just write--because that's what you do. The money comes and it's not a fortune but you keep writing, developing relationships, and getting supporters within entities which actually produce entertainment--be it film, television, or books--and then one day, maybe after about 10 years, you realize that your quote--what you make for a draft and a set (in film) or an order of 22 (in television) is quite substantial, especially when you will see a huge amount from your payday in residuals. If you want to see what agents think about for prospective screenwriting clients, look at some of the interviews in the blog section of writingforfilm.com.

I just write from monday thru Saturday, then torment screenwriters on discussion boards on Sunday.

Seriously tho, if you write to make it big, you are in it for the wrong reason.
Rarely will you see a writer writer because he wants to make it big. Writers write because they have to. Or else it causes heartburn to keep it in.

I like to make sure i write stuff that people will remember. You always remember me when you read what I write. Just like on this board. People read what i write and go to another thread and remember what i wrote. I couldn't tell you anything anybody else wrote in this forum. It just didn't hit me. And I've been lurkin for two hours now. I haven't learned a thing or found anything woth remembering. But everybody remembers me for my powerful comments.
I ought to get paid just for bein here.

Not trying to start a fight. But that kind of "I'm better than all of you" attitude does not sit well with me, and I am sure others will fill the same way. Telling everyone here their work is crap compared to yours is absolutely ludicrous, considering no one here has seen your work. You want to make that kind of statement, you better be prepared to prove yourself right.

Also it tells me, your not willing to learn. If you find that your work is flawless, then why be here at all? Anything we say is just going to go in one door and out the other.



There are a few screenwriters here who without doubt have an extroidinary gift to become what they are pushing for. To say that no one here remembers or even appreciates they're work is putting words into everyone's mouth. I remember. I appreciate.

I do however remember the only thing you have posted- a synopsis of a story that needs a tremendous amount of work.

If you haven't learned anything yet, you probally won't.


Pay you for being here? There is better more experienced screenwriters here, who offer their time to help those who are willing to learn, and who don't ask for anything in return.

No offense, but I think we can survive without your egotistical views, and all powerful opinions.

Back up your words and post something we can read. Preferably a few pages of script.

Steph

Jerethal, welcome to the board.

I'm sure you have passion, drive and perhaps even a great talent, but I don't not allow any holier than thou attitudes or posts that in which demean or belittle those around you.

Please read and make yourself familiar with this forum's rules and guidelines at the top of the page.

Even the great and wonderful Oz was just a little man hiding behind a curtain.

Again welcome and I hope that after a few more hours or days, you'll find the worth of being here.

Joe