SCREENWRITING - Great Scripts Get Made

A lot of screenwriters moan about how hard it is to get discovered as screenwriters. Most of these ignore the main reason they have been failing: they've yet to write a screenplay.

So the first thing you need to do is write the screenplay. Good screenplays get read and great screenplays get sold and get made. Not many people are sitting on unnoticed genius screenplays. A great script is a great script from page one.

Producers aren't out there trying to keep you at bay. They're desperate for your material, but only if it's incredible. Even those money grabbing producers who don't care about art---- they want something well written and concise.

Why Hollywood keeps making crap we can explore in another article. But here we need to focus on the fact that people want and need great writing and we don't have enough of it. Your first screenplay could be a high concept idea or a little character piece which is exactly what an upcoming indie director is after. If your work is amazing, your project will have legs.

Don't copy anything else and don't worry that your writing is different. Diablo Cody was successful because she was Diablo Cody. You don't get successful by writing Kevin Smith style screenplays unless your name is Kevin Smith. You do it by doing it your way.

There are thousands of people making short films and viral videos and they need your talent, it's a great way to learn. Write for these people. I've found heaps of ways to put my short form writing to use. It's great practice, and those little projects help when you know your feature idea is going to take three years.

Write what you love. What excites you? What movies keep you up past bedtime? What actors do you love? Write with these things in mind. Write your passion. It doesn't mean to regurgitate 'Casablanca', it means regurgitate that feeling 'Casablanca' gave you. That's how you see, hear and feel the world -- through that feeling. It's unique to all of us. We all have a fingerprint we can leave on the film world-- we just have to turn up and do it.

Writing a feature film is hard work. You can't do it in a day and you're gonna burn out after 34 pages. But it's the same for everyone else. You have to show up for the second day and you have to get through page 35 as quick as you can.

We're gonna write screenplays that inspire people, that console people, that mean something to people. But we can only write them if we write them and they can only make them if we write them. So, write them. Write the damn scripts. If your screenplay is truly something special, it'll find a life, somehow.

Let's write.