I've hit a bump in the road.

Life's too short not to follow your dreams. At your age (22 I'm guessing?) you're in a weird spot. Graduated from college, but haven't yet accrued a lot of adult life experiences - experiences that are so helpful in screenplay writing. No one says you have to move to L.A. to be a screenwriter. Not yet, anyway.You're better off not writing scripts in L.A. I wrote four before I moved out here, and I waited until I was 26 to make the move. Just write. It doesn't matter what. Something will stick. Have you completed your first script yet? If not, just sit down and do it. You say you're lazy and lack discipline. Write 3-5 pages a day no matter what. You will have a finished script in 4-6 weeks. It doesn't matter what the script is about or if it even makes sense. It's your first one, and no one's supposed to read those anyway. It will feel great to get one out of the way. It's a huge weight off your shoulders. Join a writer's group in your area. They can be tremendously helpful when you're stuck and need some advice. As far as fear of failure goes - you can't be afraid to fail. Not if you want to be a screenwriter. Failure can happen for 10 years or more before success finally shows up. Be afraid of drive by shootings. Be afraid of identity theft. Be afraid of crazy homeless people that talk to themselves. But don't be afraid to fail. Time is on your side. You just have to find the right path to get where you want to go. Good luck!

RylenolFlu said:

Can I actually make a living writing screenplays? I guess I am searching for some type of motivation.

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I have to write. I don't have a choice. If you have a choice, do what you choose.

Wow, you're in the wrong field if you can't sit down and write. I would strongly suggest for you to look at a different field, though I'm guessing (not to be rude) discipline crosses throughout your life.

I think you have some tough times ahead of you because of it. I would suggest doing what zag suggests, get a managable writing schedule, something that forces you, and you have to be responsible to yourself about everything now. There's no teachers, no parents looking over your shoulder all the time pushing you to accomplish something. Just you.

Becoming an adult isn't easy, it isn't as fun as most of us used to think it would be either.

I would strongly suggest getting a job that doesn't tear you down in the process, you don't want to hit the grind yet. It doesn't sound like you have any responsibilities other than ensuring you don't end up on the street yet, so I would suggest now is the time to explore job possibilities and make a career plan for yourself. Start now. Don't rely on writing either, it can take years and dozens of completed screenplays to make your first sale, and don't expect to become rich off it either. Writing is a very unstable career, some people make it big, most do not. Have your feet solid on the ground, a clear direction and goals, and work some discipline into that life of yours.

the schools of arts never teach the practical stuff -- only the philosophy and theory of. they should give more guidance. i mean, you pay them enough.

no one should ever graduate HS without knowing how to balance a checkbook.

truth is - only you can answer your own question and that really is do you have the drive and motivation and the thick skin to make it in a tough field. anything that has to do with the arts is really tough because the value of everything you do is subjective.

most people in the arts must work practical jobs to pay the bills and enable them to do what they really want to do.

Let me draw an analogy (I'm really big on drawing analogies).

When it comes to getting in my daily exercise (especially the aerobics), I am very lazy and have always been ashamed to admit it. The only good thing I can say is that I am at least aware of my own limitations. Being aware of limitations is a good thing to have a handle on in life-- a lot of people very sadly are blind to their own limitations (not just as far as exercise but many other aspects of life) and attempt things they are bound to fail at. But regardless, I MUST get my exercise in. Admitting my laziness in this area is hard --and I also (just as you do) hate failure and am deeply pained by failure, so this had been a sore spot for me for a long time. But then I read a magazine article that made me feel a whole lot better about it. It said that health club managers have found there are several different personality types as far as exercise goes: those who can do it completely by themselves with no outside motivation, and those who need to do it with a one-on-one personal trainer, and those who need to do it in a class with peers/friends and a strong teacher in charge. I am NOT the kind who can do it myself. I need the personal trainer and I'll settle for the class. But if you left me to my own self-motivation, I would NEVER get to the gym. So after I read that article I went and changed my club membership, and as a result I actually started going to the gym (after plunking down over $700.00 for a year's membership that I was NEVER using!) because my new motivation was now meeting with my personal trainer every day.

The analogy is: not everyone can write by themsleves. Maybe your personality type is that of someone who needs to write in a group, or as a collaborator with a second writer.

Now here's the part where the analogy unfortunately breaks down: ALL people need to exercise, but NOT EVERYONE is a writer. So I think you need to find out ASAP if you are indeed a true-blue writer at heart --if it's your true calling in life. I was 12 years old when I wrote my first story (when I say my "first" story I mean one I took it upon myself to write at home, not as an obligatory assignment at school), and I stayed up all night long to finish it. I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, I didn't shower--at the age of 12! Nothing else on the planet mattered except finishing that story. I was possessed! Now THAT is someone born to write. I had an insatiable drive that pushed me onward and I loved the passion and the drive and enjoyed the energy from scribbling as fast as I could get that pen to move over the page. Nothing else in the universe makes me happier than to be crafting those pages for hours on end.

As for you, maybe it's still possible that you are a natural born writer, but not the kind who fits the classic mold of sitting alone in a room for days at a time, slaving lovingly over a manuscript. Maybe instead you are a natural born collaborator who works best with a partner or in a group (most TV writers work in groups, BTW, and it's critical that they have the ability/personality type to do so). Or maybe you're not a writer at all. Either way, you need to find out before you embark upon this highly speculative career choice.

So try joining a writers group and see if you click with another writer there and see if you can do a partnership script. See if something sparks in you and pushes you onward and totally jazzes you into this fantastic craft. But if even THEN you don't find that magic in your soul over this vocation, maybe you're not a writer after all. But at least then you know you tried and that you made a rational and responsible decision to discard the career choice.

So good luck!

RylenolFlu said:

I am a recent graduate from the University of Miami (FL) where I majored in motion pictures and religious studies. Now I'm done with college and I'm clueless. For the past few years I've taken some screenwriting courses at school and have thought that it was such an interesting medium to write in. But now that I am out of school and the realities of the working world are hitting me pretty hard. I don't really want to venture out to L.A. just yet but I do enjoy writing. My problem, I am incredibly lazy and don't have discipline when it comes to writing. I am plagued with the mindset where I get a great idea, and least I think it is, and then it just kind of fizzles into oblivion. I'm also afraid of failure which doesn't help. Just lately I have been watching films, a few that stick out are Good Will Hunting and the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, those are two films that I would kill to be able to say "I wrote that". I'm sorry for ranting on and on but I figured that this screenwriting forum was the one place I could go to talk about an issue related to screenwriting. Is this dream I have realistic? Can I actually make a living writing screenplays? I guess I am searching for some type of motivation. Anyway, thanks for listening, semper fi.

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Yeah, you sound like just about every other screenwriter I know. Including me.

You've hit a bump in the road? Guess what - that's going to happen again. And again. And over and over and over as long as you stay on the road. The good news is, if you find a way to keep cruising over those bumps and you do manage to stay on the road, the road will, eventually, lead to success.

Regarding your decision about whether or not to do that... well, if you decide that screenwriting is for you, you must resign yourself to the near-certain knowledge that nothing significant is going to happen for a rather extended period of time. Probably several years but, in all likelihood, many more.

You're new to the game without a completed script. You're gonna have to read a lot and write even more. You'll have to work an endless string of crappy day jobs and night shifts to pay the bills while you write. You'll have to swallow the omnipresent fear and self-doubt that comes with the territory.

And, perhaps worst of all, you'll have to endure the eye rolls, disdain and complete incomprehension of your family, friends, colleagues and yeah, even people on the bus who clearly know better, when you tell them what it is you're trying to do.

I was lucky. I knew I wanted to be a screenwriter before I was old enough to fully weigh the practicalities of pursuing it. It's inconceivable to me that I won't be a working screenwriter and that certainly helps to keep me on the road. But you're going to have to think about this carefully and make a Serious Decision.

All I can really tell you for sure is that if you don't have a passion for it, if it's not something you find yourself thinking about when you day-dream or when you go to bed - if it doesn't consume you - then don't do it. Because at this point, nothing less than a truly heroic devotion is going to see you through.

I believe it's worth it. You'll have to decide for yourself.


ETA - was writing this as you posted above.

I'd say no. The purpose of registering your work is to protect yourself against intellectual theft. Unless you're planning on sending it to agents and production companies or having it widely read within a writers' group or something, then there's just not much point and you'll be out twenty bucks for a script that (no offence) will probably not be up to standard - based on your lack of writing experience and completed work so far.

But there's nothing to stop you doing that if you want to. If it helps you out, if it makes you feel like a real writer and inspires you to get cracking on the next one, then go for it. I'm just not sure there's much practical reason at this point.

RylenolFlu said:

Thanks for the response. Would it be wise for me to register the 80 pages of my script as the bulk of it is complete?

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Why would you register a partial script?

Registering a screenplay...

Only register a script that you're sending to agents, managers, producers, consultants, etc. Otherwise, there's no point.

So the endings are what scare you. Usually I have the endings before I have anything else, but occassionally I won't have it. I try to make some character goals. Have an idea how I want it resolved, and anything can and does change. I let the story run it's coarse and before I know it I'm on the last twenty page stretch scribbling down the final moments.

If you get stuck try switching to paper. Try going for a walk with a notepad and pen. Try thinking in a bath. No interruptions, minimal noise, nothing distracting in a bath...well I hope.

Anyway, just try to jostle up your routine whenever you get stuck, it works for me.