Whoa—ooo think I’ll write a screenplay… whoaaa-ooo Think I’ll take it to L.A…Whoa-ooo think I’ll get it done yesterday…
-Ben Folds
So you have that ‘really great screenplay idea’ that you know you know could be a smash hit if you could just get it in front of the right producer? Well, as a writer who quit his day job over a year ago with the main goal of completing a screenplay-which is just now finally under production-here are a few ways you can increase your odds of creating a successful work:
1)Read Screenplays
How many people have said ‘I have a great idea for a screenplay’ while never having actually read a script? Yea, I know you’ve watched a lot of TV…but that doesn’t mean you know how to structure a script. I recommend reading both good and bad screenplays to see the contrast. Take advantage of the fact that many scripts are readily available online for you to read with a simple google search for ‘new girl pilot script.
2) Take an Improv Class
A great way to learn about the construction of scenes is to actually be in them yourself! If you are a serious writer, you should definitely be taking an improv class. Your knowledge of improv will make your scenes more realistic. In addition to being just plain fun, improv classes are great places to meet and network with actors and other writers. Second City and Improv Olympic are great places to start.
3) Buy Final Draft
I spent literally an entire year telling myself, “Mick, you don’t need to buy Final Draft, it’s a waste of money. You’ll be just fine pressing tab here, using a space there, and formatting it yourself blah blah blah it’s expensive let’s spend that money on beers” meanwhile I wasted probably a couple of hours every week just formatting stuff for class. And even then it looked kind of ‘off.’ Not to mention, my preoccupation with the non-creative details was ruining the flow of my writing.
I kept up this way until I had a game-changing conversation with a man who had actually written professionally in L.A. Michael McCarthy. Michael simply said, “If you want to be a professional writer you need to use the tools of the professional writer sooner or later.”
If you are just starting out that’s fine, but if you have any inclination of getting your words in front of people that matter, you need to have it formatted correctly. Final Draft takes away all the stress of formatting and lets you as a writer focus in on the creative process.
4) Read Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
Save the Cat is THE #1 manual for how to write structured Hollywood Writing. But be warned: after you read Save the Cat, 95% of movies you watch will be ruined for you. Snyder deconstructs the structure of the Hollywood movie to the exact page number. Save the Cat is a book that every single professional screenwriter has read it at some point in their career. I don’t buy the hard copy of many books, but STC is definitely one of them.
5) Watch Pilots
If you are writing a TV show, you need to watch the first episode in a series–the pilot. In the pilot, all of the main characters must be explained in a way that is consistent with the future narrative of the show. In addition, the episode itself must be incredibly entertaining without seeming like all it is doing is explaining the premise of the show. The pilot episode is therefore the hardest episode to write and the easiest to screw up. Watch good pilots and watch bad pilots so you can know the difference.
6) Take a Writing Class
This is down near the bottom of the list for a reason. If you want to get the most out of your writing class, which you are paying for out of pocket, you should already be reading scripts and writing daily to flesh out your ideas. But at some point you do need to get some pro guidance.
In my experience taking a variety of classes, this is what I have learned: the teacher is more important then the school. Thoroughly research the background of the teacher who you are thinking about taking a class with to see if it is up to your standards. And once you are in class, don’t be shy about getting the attention you need. I highly recommend taking Writing for TV with Michael McCarthy at Improv Olympic in Chicago.
7) Fucking Do it
As Earnest Hemingway said, “Writing is the art of putting pen to paper.” Shut up about how great your idea is and write it down. Workshop it, rewrite it, and write it some more. Talk about it with a few people who matter and other fellow writers. For myself, it was over a year and three writing classes from when I brainstormed the original log line to when I finally got it in front of people this past November. Could this process have went a whole lot faster? Yea, sure. I wouldn’t even call what I had writers block; I had plenty of ideas.
Mostly though, what stopped me from writing full tilt was that I had this nebulous fear of what would happen if and when I finished; it would suck, people would think I’m a joke, etc. If you can’t fight through that, well, you better just cash in the chips and get that sales job at CDW or whatever.;)
8) Get Your Screenplay in Front of People and See How They React
To know if you really do have a decent piece of work, you have to let people look at it. This definitely requires a degree of vulnerability. But if you are going into the business of writing, you had better get used to being vulnerable.
You can do this by organizing a staged reading, which is not as involved as it sounds. If you live in the Chicago area, take Pilot Writing at Improv Olympic and you’ll be able to have access to the Chris Farley Cabaret to perform it. Do it with a friend, make it fun. And in front of a ‘critical mass.’ Meaning, enough people so that everyone individually feels comfortable laughing at your jokes. Without this, you have no idea which jokes are funny or if your story is entertaining at all!
And then, after you have finished all of these, you can, you know, “Take it to L.A.” and sell it for millions.
Or, fuck it–just join the army.
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