You love to write. You live to write! That’s a great start because if you are jumping into the screenwriting business, the sheer joy of writing should be your first, last and most essential prerequisite. I learned this lesson, definitively, years ago while briefly pursuing a different career entirely.
Not long after graduating from college, I and my best friend dove headlong into grad school in hopes of becoming high school teachers. My friend was genuinely hoping to change the world for the better, one classroom at a time, and his decision to become an educator was noble in every possible respect. I, however, had decided to become a teacher for the most important of all reasons: I would be done every day at three o’clock and would have summers off. Think of all the writing I would get done!
I can hear the veteran teachers out there howling with hilarity at this juncture. Done at 3 pm? Summers off? Yeah, right. Only if you don’t count all of the hours spent correcting homework, tests and papers, attending parent teacher meetings and crafting the lesson plans you’ll spend the summer prepping for next year. On top of that, I’m actually pretty shy, so teaching wasn’t exactly a perfect fit for someone who would rather not be Master of Ceremonies every day. But it was a means to an end! Teaching would let me do what I really loved to do, which was write. Right?
Wrong. As it turns out, teaching was not, in fact, a cunningly conceived short cut to becoming a writer. It was not an “easy job” that would let you pick up an easy paycheck whilst you penned the great American novel (or screenplay) in your allegedly endless free time. Teaching was a slog that offered long hours for relatively little pay and required an incredibly focused, lifelong commitment to do it right. In fact, I quickly realized that becoming a teacher offered only one true benefit. It let you teach. If your dream was to be a writer, then becoming a teacher was the lonnng way around. But if your dream was to become a teacher, then the day you finally stood before a classroom of young people and taught them something… that day you started living your dream.
So what was the key lesson I took from my brief and ill conceived foray into teaching? To wit, work is work and there are no short cuts… but if you are doing what you love, then the reward is the act itself. Teaching is its own reward and those who love it know this. But how does this bit of wisdom apply to writing, particularly screenplays? Well, ask yourself this: Why are you writing and who are you writing for?
I can tell you why many people write screenplays. To get rich! Just pick up “Save The Cat!” or “How to Write a Movie in 21 Days” and after a few weekends on your laptop at the coffee shop you can crank this baby out. After all, everyone can write, right? But first, you need to figure out who you are writing this opus for. Who is your audience? Who else! The four quadrants! Old people, young people, guys and gals. Cover your bases and you can’t go wrong; gosh, this is easy.
Lastly, as an afterthought, what should you write about? Well, years ago a film executive I knew in Hollywood wrote a book where he recommended the most obvious answer to this perfunctory question. What is currently popular? What movie just did boffo biz at the box office? Write more of the same! Back then, Titanic was a titanic hit, so he advised catching lightning in a bottle by whipping up a screenplay about a ship (or icebergs, I forget.) The key was to write the script fast enough to catch the wave – of ocean liner disaster movies – before this new cinematic genre petered out forever. Otherwise, you’re left waiting for the next big movie to hit before chasing that ambulance (er, trend) for fresh inspiration. Sounds to me like a formula for success.
Unfortunately, while writing is easy, good writing is hard work and requires enough creativity and passion to fill an ocean liner. All of the strategies, steps and quadrants won’t transform a formula into a script worth reading or a movie worth watching. If you become a teacher to be able to write, you’ll fail at both vocations. If you write screenplays primarily in hopes of getting rich and shameless, you’ll be broke but at least your trite, formulaic scripts will keep you warm; they make great kindling.
Full circle. Why should you write and who should you write for? Write because you love to write. If you are a writer, you already know this truth: Writing is your reward, the only one that counts. The sheer joy of writing will breath life and passion into what you write and that light will shine from your work. And who should you write for? The only audience that counts. Yourself. If you write for others you’ll be guessing what “they” want and you’ll wrap yourself in formulas and cliches to hedge your bets. The resulting algorithm of a script will check the boxes but will be little more than a bodysnatcher; something calculated and soulless that fails to pass for genuinely alive. Write the movie you want to see on screen and chances are that others will want to see it too. If you happen to get rich and shameless along the way, that is a very sweet fringe benefit, but you’ve already had your true reward. You wrote a screenplay that you love.
