A recent article in Writer's Digest magazine sums up my experience with screenwriting: I hate "writing", but I love "having written".
I have completed three full-length screenplays at this point, with numerous aborted products in between. Writing the first two screenplays was like being stretched by some medieval torture device. The third screenplay was slightly more gratifying. I have been unable to revise them into subsequent drafts, though. Why relive the anguish of the original nightmare over and over again? I think pyschologists refer to this as post-traumatic stress disorder.
And insanity.
Yet, much like a prostate exam--never enjoyable, but often necessary--there are times when writing a screenplay must be done.
After graduating from film school, it quickly became apparent that if one wanted an above-the-line (see also: non film jobber) gig, he would have to punch his own ticket. Afterall, everyone wants to make a movie. What sets the "haves" apart from the "have nots" is the creativity/skill/and slave ethic that results from, and is illuminated by, the process of creating a screenplay.
Want to direct a film? I hope you can write. If you can, you've got the keys to the Caddy. If not, then you don't deserve the job of translating someone's ideas, hard work, and story structure to the screen anyway.
If I viewed the act of writing a script as pure hobby, with zero expectation of a future sale or production, there's no way I could even finish the first page. Screenwriting is inherently unrewarding, and more treacherous than a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle (structure, anyone?). At least at the end of a novelist's tour of duty, he has something that can be self-published. And read. When's the last time someone plucked a screenplay from a book rack for reading enjoyment? I write screenplays and even I wouldn't read one. There's a reason why crummy manilla covers are the industry standard. No one wants to see or hear from the damned things until they're slated for production with a projected return of at least several million dollars. And maybe not even then. (Samuel L. Jackson is on record as saying he committed to one of his latest projects without having read the script. Wonder why.)
I just finished Augusten Burrough's first two memoirs. Now those actually looked fun and breezy to write. Maybe if my latest screenplay never makes it to production, I'll make the leap to non-fiction writing. At least I'll have something with a cool cover to show friends.
Published book (self or otherwise) equals legitimate author. Completed screenplay equals hack with too much time on his hands.
I say all of this, realizing of course that my relationship with screenwriting is like your average abusive marriage. The screenplay is the abuser, and I am the battered husband. In the end, I'll keep coming back for more because it's all I know. Screenwriting has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and it pains me more to stay away than when I'm immersed in it.
