Here’s a tip that will save you from riding the show biz emotional roller-coaster: Be sure to keep that day job! One of the deadliest traps a writer or any artist can fall into is hoping that their art will feed them. It’s extremely hard to keep focused on writing when you’re worrying about bills. The best way to buy quality creative time is to have a job that keeps you secure. A few hours at the computer in the evening will be much more rewarding than a full day of desperate writing. It’s also a fact that show biz is one of the most competitive businesses in the world. There simply isn’t room for everyone to succeed. Don’t give up, just keep that day job.
Over the years, many people have expressed their concern about having their ideas stolen and have asked me what they can do to protect them. They register their scripts with the Writers Guild, copyright them, ask people to sign non-disclosure letters, etc. All of these are valid ways to protect copyrighted material. Do them if it makes you feel better. Personally, I don’t worry about this. I just pitch my ideas freely, and no one has ever stolen one yet. Rather than worry about my ideas being ripped off, I just create so many ideas that I can afford to lose one or two. I have so many ideas in my idea file that I constantly see them coming out in the movies or on TV. No one’s stealing them. It’s the nature of the business. People are constantly coming up with contemporary, clever ideas. When you create one, it’s possible someone else will also have thought of it. Don’t worry if you lose one. Just create three more!
We’ve all heard stories about that person who wrote their first script and sold it for umpteen zillion dollars. Though new writers sometimes succeed in writing a great script, it’s quite rare. It can also be a terrible self-inflicted barrier to strive to do so. The fact is, it takes a lot of practice to do anything well, especially writing. My first script was pretty ordinary, but I kept writing and they got better. Skills are improved through practice. As a new writer, you set yourself up for a huge loss if you’re just trying to sell the next Toy Story or the next South Park. Be willing to start out small. Do it one step at a time and get each step down pat before taking the next. It’s a slower but much surer ladder to success.
Don’t spend too much time rewriting your material over and over. Personally, I learn a lot more by writing many scripts rather than trying to rewrite each one to perfection. It really comes down to arithmetic. If you write four scripts in a year, rather than spending four years on one script, in the same period of time you will have had the experience of writing sixteen scripts instead of one. I assure you that you’ll be a much better writer with sixteen scripts under your belt.
Here’s a short one: Better to be too short and leave the reader wanting more, than too long and leave the reader snoring. And on that note…
©Jeffrey Scott, All Rights Reserved
(Jeffrey Scott has written over 700 animated and live-action TV and film scripts for Sony, Warner Bros., Disney, Marvel, Universal, Paramount, Columbia, Big Animation, Hanna-Barbera and others. His writing has been honored with three Emmys and the Humanitas Prize. He is author of the acclaimed book, How to Write for Animation. To work with Jeffrey visit his website at www.JeffreyScott.tv.)
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