Writing is RE-Writing

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GonnaBeFamous

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I'm finishing up my 3rd revision of a spec script which was sort of biographical of things that happened to me a long time ago. The story had repetitiveness, too many characters, and the protagonist was too much unlike one. For the first 2 months I didn't think it needed much changing mainly just dialogue and minor tweaks. I take off 3 weeks spend time writing a different screenplay and come back to it and it takes me now 6 weeks of spending an hour or 2 of each day major rewriting and/or thinking of how I could do things differently. I butchered out over 20 pages and replaced them with over 10 pages of new scenes and changed certain aspects of the structure and it's much better. At first I wanted to protect it. Same thing with another screenplay I'm doing. You need to stop protecting things. If you take a few weeks off and look at it and it doesn't make sense or sounds stupid or pointless for the story, get rid of it. If you pause in your reading and think about it, imagine what someone who isn't biased will do?

I'm sure most of you know this, but thought I remind this since I think it's important.
 

StephieM

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I agree. When you spend a lot of time on one script you become blind to your own mistakes. You want to think your script is the best thing you have ever written, but give it a few days and it doesn't look so great anymore.
My biggest problem in writing, is that I am a perfectionist, I will spend hours on one page just to get it right. ( which is a lot of wasted time), I have notebooks full of pages with one liners, it's crazy. But the truth is, it's never going to be perfect. No matter how many rewrites you do, no matter how much time you spend, there is always going to be something you want to change. I read somewhere that once you have your script as ready as it's going to get, it's best to hire someone else to type the final draft. I think it's like a dollar a page. The point is not to be stuck doing last minute changes, which could ultimately hurt your script rather than help it.

But like you said, writing is rewriting. But there has got to be a limit. Otherwise I'll be rewriting the rest of my life. :)

Steph
 

GonnaBeFamous

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Stephanie76 said:
I agree. When you spend a lot of time on one script you become blind to your own mistakes. You want to think your script is the best thing you have ever written, but give it a few days and it doesn't look so great anymore.
My biggest problem in writing, is that I am a perfectionist, I will spend hours on one page just to get it right. ( which is a lot of wasted time), I have notebooks full of pages with one liners, it's crazy. But the truth is, it's never going to be perfect. No matter how many rewrites you do, no matter how much time you spend, there is always going to be something you want to change. I read somewhere that once you have your script as ready as it's going to get, it's best to hire someone else to type the final draft. I think it's like a dollar a page. The point is not to be stuck doing last minute changes, which could ultimately hurt your script rather than help it.

But like you said, writing is rewriting. But there has got to be a limit. Otherwise I'll be rewriting the rest of my life. :)

Steph

One thing I've been trying for a little bit is I take a month off btw each rewrites and work on SOMETHING ELSE. I'm an extreme noob soI can't say it works 100 percent, but I think after 4 to 6rewrites which takes 5 to 8 months, from start to finish, due to taking a month off between revisions will give you such a clear picture that you will hardly have to revise it by revision 6.

I do agree though that you can get stuck editing lins over and over, I've been doing that, but thats why I came up with a sytem like the above, it eliminates you from excessive overwriting lines day and day out for 6 months straight. INstead by taking extended breaks between rewrites and taking your mind onto rewriting or making a new script you won't be tempted to go back and change something cause you'll be focused on theother, you clear your mind completely of it for a month, then go back to it until its "OK" again.
 
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zagoraz

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Writing is re-writing, but I think there is still something to be said for your first, most original ideas. I try to keep as much of the first draft as I can, mainly because I spend so much time in prep that my re-writes only end up being minor tweaks anyway.

Billy Bob Thornton took his first draft of Sling Blade, made no changes and filmed it exactly as he wrote it. Won him an Oscar. Too bad we're not all Billy Bob Thorntons.
 

Writer1

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Too bad we're not all Billy Bob Thorntons.

That is an INCREDIBLY scary thing!
 

GonnaBeFamous

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zagoraz said:
Writing is re-writing, but I think there is still something to be said for your first, most original ideas. I try to keep as much of the first draft as I can, mainly because I spend so much time in prep that my re-writes only end up being minor tweaks anyway.

Billy Bob Thornton took his first draft of Sling Blade, made no changes and filmed it exactly as he wrote it. Won him an Oscar. Too bad we're not all Billy Bob Thorntons.

Not for me, what sounds good in the outline turns out to be a major overhaul for whatever reason by revision 2 or 3. I think I may have one script upcoming that may not have as much work, but I doubt it once I look at that one again I think its going to go through a dreded overhaul too and not just minor tweaks.
 

GonnaBeFamous

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Sorry never could get into slingblade.

However Wizard of Oz is the greatest screenplay IMO probably ever. Guess what it had? Like 14 writers. Obviously all those rewrites did it good. Never underestimate a good overhaul. If all your doing is minor tweaks to your screenplay either you got REALLY lucky or you're just not admitting it's crap yet. :)
 

zagoraz

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Screenwriting has nothing to do with luck. It's not like winning the lottery, which takes no skill, only a dollar. You aren't going to get lucky and sell a screenplay. There's a difference between good timing, which you will need to sell a spec, and luck.

That you would assume anyone's writing is crap without having ever read their work is presumptious and makes you sound tactless and amateurish. For all you know you could be talking to Charlie Kaufman here, and who's going to tell him his first drafts are crap?

All I merely did was bring up a good example of a film that was made without re-writes, a film that won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay that year. A film that was critically lauded. I'm not saying it's the 'better' way to do things. There is no right or wrong.

Screenwriting has more to do with God-given talent than some would like to believe. Talent can be nurtured to a point, but the fact is you either have it in you or you don't. I'd rather read a first draft by DPAT or Joe than a 15th draft by some of the writers who posted here in the past. You can write and re-write until you're blue in the face, but if it sucks it sucks. And I'm not saying that your writing sucks, I wouldn't presume as much. I've never read your writing, much like you've never read mine.
 

icerose

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I must fall into the really easy going writer catagory because I try to get it right the first time so I can avoid endless re-writes. There is always some editing that needs to be done, but *shrug* I guess some writers are more obsessive than others. Not saying one is better than the other just saying that each of us have our own way of writing. And just because someone doesn't do extensive re-writing doesn't mean its bad writing, perhaps they just did a better job the first time around and didn't need six or ten wacks at it. To me writing is writing and re-writing is editing. Those are two different matters with me, perhaps because I hate editing.

Sara
 

GonnaBeFamous

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I'll tell you why your wrong icerose.

You said it yourself, you HATE editing. Things we hate we find a REASON to not do even if it's subconcious. If you really look at your screenplay after the first draft no matter how much you thought about it before you put it on paper I guarantee it will need one major overhaul unless your lucky. I still disagree with the previous poster some screenplays you getlucky, meaning once in awhile you get a screenplay that you can't find much of anything wrong with it, others you think it over and go oh you need this and that done. And if the editing is significant enough it becomes a slightly different story.
 

GonnaBeFamous

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zagoraz said:
Screenwriting has nothing to do with luck. It's not like winning the lottery, which takes no skill, only a dollar. You aren't going to get lucky and sell a screenplay. There's a difference between good timing, which you will need to sell a spec, and luck.

That you would assume anyone's writing is crap without having ever read their work is presumptious and makes you sound tactless and amateurish. For all you know you could be talking to Charlie Kaufman here, and who's going to tell him his first drafts are crap?

All I merely did was bring up a good example of a film that was made without re-writes, a film that won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay that year. A film that was critically lauded. I'm not saying it's the 'better' way to do things. There is no right or wrong.

Screenwriting has more to do with God-given talent than some would like to believe. Talent can be nurtured to a point, but the fact is you either have it in you or you don't. I'd rather read a first draft by DPAT or Joe than a 15th draft by some of the writers who posted here in the past. You can write and re-write until you're blue in the face, but if it sucks it sucks. And I'm not saying that your writing sucks, I wouldn't presume as much. I've never read your writing, much like you've never read mine.

I said either they are lucky or they are crap. If they are lucky then it isn't crap. LIke i said in my last post you can get lucky. It's up to the writer himself to learn if his work is crap or if its brilliant on first write. A great writers crap will be better then Joe schmoe down the street's crappy first draft. Some stories are so vivid and easy that you can easily do it without any tweaks. Others seem good at first and before you know it it hardly looks the same anymore. You're implying that because someone does one script well that they will always do that or vice o versa, sorry it doesn't work that way. :rolleyes:

I do agree with you about talent though. The first paragraph was all wrong and I think you just said it because you wanted to get on your soap box and hijack my thread. :D
 
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JustinoXXV

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I too think any screenplay after the first draft likely needs one major overhaul. You should get it read by industry professionals to see where it needs work. After your 2nd draft you probably would only need to tweak and edit.
 

icerose

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GonnaBeFamous said:
I'll tell you why your wrong icerose.

You said it yourself, you HATE editing. Things we hate we find a REASON to not do even if it's subconcious. If you really look at your screenplay after the first draft no matter how much you thought about it before you put it on paper I guarantee it will need one major overhaul unless your lucky. I still disagree with the previous poster some screenplays you getlucky, meaning once in awhile you get a screenplay that you can't find much of anything wrong with it, others you think it over and go oh you need this and that done. And if the editing is significant enough it becomes a slightly different story.

You are welcome to read it if you want. I am terrible at judging my own work which is why I always get others to read it and help me work out the kinks. This has been read 4 times and no one offered any helpful suggestions or comments. So you are certainly welcome.

Sara
 

zagoraz

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"You're implying that because someone does one script well that they will always do that or vice o versa, sorry it doesn't work that way."

Gonnabefamous,

Seriously, dude, are you making this stuff up as you go along? That makes no sense whatsoever. It's like telling Tiger Woods that he got lucky and landed the green two feet from the cup. He did it because he's done it a thousand times before. By learning, practice and repetition. Same with screenwriting. So you're wrong by saying if someone does one script well that they won't always do that. Tell that to the writers selling scripts one after the other, after years of dedication and struggle.

I fear you'll eventually discover that your seemingly self-created, all-knowing yet naive screenwriting ethos won't make you too many friends around here.
 
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GonnaBeFamous

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zagoraz said:
"You're implying that because someone does one script well that they will always do that or vice o versa, sorry it doesn't work that way."

Gonnabefamous,

Seriously, dude, are you making this stuff up as you go along? That makes no sense whatsoever. It's like telling Tiger Woods that he got lucky and landed the green two feet from the cup. He did it because he's done it a thousand times before. By learning, practice and repetition. Same with screenwriting. So you're wrong by saying if someone does one script well that they won't always do that. Tell that to the writers selling scripts one after the other, after years of dedication and struggle.

I fear you'll eventually discover that your seemingly self-created, all-knowing yet naive screenwriting ethos won't make you too many friends around here.


You're right to an extent. Read what I said closely, I said a good writer's crap on first draft wil be BETTER then someone else's lousy writing. Maybe you are right though, all rough drafts of every good writer is almost flawless. Am I being too presumptious? I doubt it. How do you even know a lot of these writers aren't throwing away half their stories?
 

GonnaBeFamous

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I just confirmed what I said earlier today. I read a script that had only 1 revision after the original draft(And the revision was minor) and the thing was damn near hollwood quality(Well cheesy hollwood movies ;) ), I mean it wasn't probably PC enough for hollwood and I have to switch some of the scenes around and reduce one character trait that is showing up that I don't want to, but overall the thing is pretty damn good, the dialogue is cheesy, but its very snappy and the scenes are funny and it's a fast read and very hollwood comedesque(new word ;) ). I was shocked how much I liked it after all this time. On the contrary my first and 3rd script are getting rewritten like mad when i stepped away from them for awhile. You can get lucky and write a good script with minimal work. I seen the evidence. I'm convinced writing a good screenplay on first draft is luck. I actually planned this script out WAY less then the 3rd one and i'm doing 3 times as much rewriting and restructing on the 3rd one.
 
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JustinoXXV

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I don't think writing a good screenplay on first draft is lukk. If someone is able to write a good screenplay (at any draft), that means he or she had TALENT and that they had KNOWLEDGE of the craft.

Even if a professional screenwriter with a long list of box office hits throws away half of his/her stories, that doesn't mean they the screenwriter was lucky on the ones that were good.

Luck implies something which happens on a totally random basis. Like what good luck, I had, I just found 5 dollars. Or what good luck, you one the lottery. Luckk is something you have no control over. Luck requires no skill or ability.

A writer does have control over what he or she writers.

GonnaBeFamous, you claim you produced this high quality screenplay with minimal effort. But those are famous last words. Have any industrial professionals read and analyzed your work?

If you let people read your work, and if a lot of qualified people find the same flaws, that may indicate that you have more work to do than you'd like to admit.
 

icerose

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I think you all take yourselves too seriously.

:poke:

I just write because I love to write and hope to make money from it too. Others have said I'm good at it so I see no reason to quit. I am exploring the screenwriting genre because my agent requested a script and I had no idea what I was doing. So I grabbed my friend and we co-wrote it and learned a lot of things along the way. Since then I have written another script and am working on another co-written script with my friend because she asked me.

Maybe I don't take myself serious enough, but I don't know. If you think your work is good, then go with it and test it against the industry. If you think it needs more work, work on it.

If you can afford to send your script to proofreaders for hundreds of dollars, more power to you, some of us can't. Some of us have very tight budgets that the stupid 20$ registration fee makes us cringe. Does it make us any less writers? No, it just means we have limited resources and we do what we can.

Anyway, I have rambled enough.

Sara
 

Joe Calabrese

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I think we can all agree that different people can write at different levels and can come up with different levels of quality in few or many drafts. However, the story/concept weighs heavily on that too.

I've written a few scripts that were near perfect after the first draft and others that took a dozen stabs at it. Most times it takes two drafts and a few polishes.

Each script is different, with different nuances and paths to take. They have a life of their own which doesn't always go the way you conceived them.

Just like raising children, some kids need little nurturing and become self aware and independent quickly while other brats make you pull your hair out for years until they finally develop into their own.

You just to keep plugging away until you feel it's right.

But like dough, too much handling will make the bread stiff as a board.

You got to know when to hold em. You got to know when to fold em. Know when to walk away-- know when to run.

(Wow. Three analogies in one post. I think that's a record for me.)
:hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray:
 

GonnaBeFamous

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Joe Calabrese said:
I think we can all agree that different people can write at different levels and can come up with different levels of quality in few or many drafts. However, the story/concept weighs heavily on that too.

I've written a few scripts that were near perfect after the first draft and others that took a dozen stabs at it. Most times it takes two drafts and a few polishes.

Each script is different, with different nuances and paths to take. They have a life of their own which doesn't always go the way you conceived them.

Just like raising children, some kids need little nurturing and become self aware and independent quickly while other brats make you pull your hair out for years until they finally develop into their own.

You just to keep plugging away until you feel it's right.

But like dough, too much handling will make the bread stiff as a board.

You got to know when to hold em. You got to know when to fold em. Know when to walk away-- know when to run.

(Wow. Three analogies in one post. I think that's a record for me.)
:hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray: :hooray:


I agree that most take 2 major overhauls plus minor tweaks.

That last part is interesting about holding, I'm an advocate of during the rewrite to spend 2 to 6 weeks rewriting/polishing then walking away from it and forgetting about it for a month and then repeat over again 1 to 3 more times. Do you do anything similiar?

Anyways I was over presumptious yesterday about my screenplay(it doesn't look as nice once night fell ;) ). When I started to write down the things wrongwith it before I could fall asleep the list started growing ;), BUT i don't see large amounts of scene aditions and deletions like my other scripts. If you have to do a lot of deletes and replace or add scenes thats what I call a major rewrite.
 
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JustinoXXV

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"If you can afford to send your script to proofreaders for hundreds of dollars, more power to you, some of us can't. Some of us have very tight budgets that the stupid 20$ registration fee makes us cringe. Does it make us any less writers? No, it just means we have limited resources and we do what we can."

If year after year after year, you've been sending off screenplays, then you have already spend hundreds of dollars on paper, on the electricity required to run the computer, on the internet used to access this message board, on ink, on postage, on brads, etc.

You have to be able and willing to invest money if you intend to be a writer.

I'm not telling you to definitely use a script consultant (and they are not proofreaders as anyone can merely proofread your work). However, I'll say that everyone who I've come across or read about it as a screenwriter either had formal training (professors in classes or used paid consultants) or, if you're REALLY lucky , had a mentor in the industry may teach you or analyze your work for free. Maybe some people in a writer's group well help you (this isn't always the best, but assuming the others are experienced writers, it may do it).

Regardless of how it's done, it has to be done. I have gotten quality analysis on a script for free, and I've used paid services (including Script Pimp). Now, if you find yourself getting a bunch of rejections (but people like your concept enough to want to read your script) chances are you do have flaws in your script that need addressing. So somehow you will need feedback from a qualified person. Hey, if your uncle or best friend from high school is in the industry, they might do it. If not, you really should consider a consultant as people are unlikely to want to do much work for people they don't know.
 

Boo_Radley

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I don't think it's imperative for someone to have had some form of formal training to succeed as a screenwriter anymore than I think Beethoven spent thirty years learning piano. Sure, the vast majority of working screenwriters may have had some kind of schooling, classes, training, maybe even a mentor...but then, I'm sure there are also a good amount of people who earn a living as screenwriters who've never taken the first lesson and learned strictly from books.

Please know, this is NOT me bragging in any way, shape or form:

I've been writing screenplays for a few years now. Never any formal instruction - I live in Bum F**K Indiana, people around here wouldn't know a screenplay if it jumped up and bit them. All I've had is books -- Screenwriter's Bible, Syd Field's Screenplay, and a few others.

The very first script I ever sent out to anyone was a script I was writing for a filmmaking friend of mine when we realized we had a lot in common and decided to try a collaboration -- I'd write it, he'd direct it. I sent him the first forty five or so pages -- roughly the first act and part of the second. He in turn showed these first draft pages of an uncompleted screenplay to some poeple he knew. Based on those first draft pages alone, all the independent film actors (B-actors, to the non-PC) responded with things like "I HAVE to read the rest of this!"

Once I was finished with the script I sent it to my friend and he showed it to the actors again. Both the actresses I wrote parts for -- actresses well known and loved in the world of low-budget horror -- enthusiastically declared their intention of appearing in this movie. On the strength of that, I submitted it to the Shriekfest Screenplay competition. And, it looks like we have a really good chance of some of my friends filmmaking cohorts putting up the dough for us to film it, IF I don't sell it to someone else first. All this based on the first screenplay sent out from an amateur in Nowhere, Indiana with no formal training whatsoever.

And incidentally, it cost me ZERO to write this screenplay. I typed it on a version of Final Draft I downloaded from Limewire, and my girlfriend, who's the production manager at a local newspaper, ran the copies of it for me. The only money I spent was twenty bucks to register it with the WGAw, and the two bucks it cost to ship it to the Shriekfest screenplay competition.

Now, tell me again how impossible it is to be even remotely successful without training and money?
 

icerose

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Look Justino, you don't know me. I just started writing scripts in May. I have an agent on one and could have an agent on another if I wanted. I have been writing forever, but scripts are new. I started writing novels when I was 12 and became serious when I was 17. I now have 4 finished novels and 2 finished scripts both of which are getting read by producers. I would be more than happy to invest money if I could, but I can't. And I have done very well at avoiding costs thus far. When I have more money, I will invest more in my writing but it is hard enough to come up with excuses for a 30 dollar ink cartrige and a ream of paper so I can print out a novel and pay for the postage to send out to publisher. I never said I wasn't careful with my work, nor did I say I am a slacker on my writing.

I work very hard and care very much about my writing. The other stuff is already being paid for so I might as well use it. I haven't spent hundreds of dollars on anything, my husband would strangle me lol.

All I'm saying is we all have priorities and needs and food tends to be higher on the list then paying someone to say if they like my script or not. There are writers who have made it without the higher opinions. I personally don't know anyone in the industry but that doesn't mean things can't happen without that direct relationship.

Anyway, I will say goodnight as it seems my headcold has put me in a not so understanding mood.

Sara

JustinoXXV said:
If year after year after year, you've been sending off screenplays, then you have already spend hundreds of dollars on paper, on the electricity required to run the computer, on the internet used to access this message board, on ink, on postage, on brads, etc.

You have to be able and willing to invest money if you intend to be a writer.

I'm not telling you to definitely use a script consultant (and they are not proofreaders as anyone can merely proofread your work). However, I'll say that everyone who I've come across or read about it as a screenwriter either had formal training (professors in classes or used paid consultants) or, if you're REALLY lucky , had a mentor in the industry may teach you or analyze your work for free. Maybe some people in a writer's group well help you (this isn't always the best, but assuming the others are experienced writers, it may do it).

Regardless of how it's done, it has to be done. I have gotten quality analysis on a script for free, and I've used paid services (including Script Pimp). Now, if you find yourself getting a bunch of rejections (but people like your concept enough to want to read your script) chances are you do have flaws in your script that need addressing. So somehow you will need feedback from a qualified person. Hey, if your uncle or best friend from high school is in the industry, they might do it. If not, you really should consider a consultant as people are unlikely to want to do much work for people they don't know.
 

JustinoXXV

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First of all, even purchasing books costs money. And as I said, paper, internet service, electricity, ink, and other computer related matters must be paid for as well. The computer itself cost money. Postage costs money.

You must have funds if you're going to write.

Boo, everything you're telling me about your script may sound good. It may even be good. But until the project is filmed, don't count your chickens before they're hatched. And even if it is filmed, that doesn't necessarily count for much, as most indie films don't find distribution. And even if it finds distribution, it doesn't necessarily mean it will make money.

Sara, you say you have an agent, but having been out in LA there are plenty of writers who have "reps" for years and who never get sales.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone (aimed at you Joe, since you have said I'm overly pessimistic). But I think it would be doing people a disservice to let people think becoming a professional screenwriter on the level of people like Simon Kinburg (who has a MFA) is as simple as reading a couple of books on screenwriting while you live in the middle of nowhere.

And I'm not telling people where to live, but too be realistic, it's going to take a lot of work to get anywhere with your writing. Joe, who recently had a sale (or what it an option) has been writing for many years, has used script consultants to improve his writing, etc. I seriously doubt you Boo, or Sara can name one working screenwriting who didn't either have formal instruction or a mentor. And even if you can find that one, rare exception, it doesn't mean it's the best path to pursue for most people. In general, anyone who wants to make a living as a writer should have formal instruction, or get a mentor. The same is true of most other professions.

Anyone who acts has taken acting lessons, studied drama (even if only a couple of classes), and/or had a mentor. People who sing or have other musical talents typically study music, perform in church choirs (which in and of itself is a sort of apprenticeship). People who play sports often learn how to do so at least initially under the guidance of a coach (or had a parent or someone else who could teach them). People who want to be directors go to film school.

So why then are two of you so upset with my saying that working screenwriters, like other working artists/entertainers or even sports figures, have had training? And often they pay for this training (singing and other music lessions, acting lessons, drama,etc.)
 

TheRuleofThirds

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JustinoXXV said:
Sara, you say you have an agent, but having been out in LA (1) there are plenty of writers who have "reps" for years and who never get sales...I'm not trying to discourage anyone (2) (aimed at you Joe, since you have said I'm overly pessimistic). But I think it would be doing people a disservice (3) to let people think becoming a professional screenwriter on the level of people like Simon Kinburg (who has a MFA) is as simple as reading a couple of books on screenwriting while you live in the middle of nowhere...And I'm not telling people where to live, but too be realistic (4), it's going to take a lot of work to get anywhere with your writing.

Justino, I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and hope I don't find myself wishing ill of anyone, but extending you this courtesy is becoming a real challenge. I'm really at a loss to see what kind of positive contribution you're making to this community with your opinions. All I see is that by living in LA, you've developed a holier-than-thou attitude. You feel it's doing everybody a "service" to keep reminding them that they're never going to be as good as you because of that. You don't come right out and toot your own horn like your work (which I have yet to read) is all that great, but you do act like you've got a lot of credentials that we should be impressed with. So far, you've failed to win me over. You think by living in LA and being exposed more to the "real" world of writing, you deserve my trust and respect. Sorry, pal. No dice.

Now, to a broader audience. You can write in the middle of nowhere. I think as long as you know right from wrong with what you're doing, then you're okay. Don't let Justino here fool ya...I think the smog's getting to him. :crazy:

:)
 
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