Is there a Hollywood conspiracy against new writers? An organized effort to thwart new writers from breaking in? Is it a closed industry dedicated to keeping new writers out? I know this is a question every writer has asked themselves. Well, every writer except me and a few thousand other relatively sane writers who have a reasonable grasp on reality.
Let’s get this out of the way right now. There is no conspiracy. NO cabal of producers who sit and twirl their mustaches and plot to keep spec scripts from being read or optioned. People who want to keep the industry closed to new ideas or new writers. Yes, the industry is hard to break into. But any big industry is hard to break into. It takes work and perseverance. Patience and more hard work. Talent and even more hard work.
You mean I have to pay my dues? I don’t get what I want because I want it? Now? Then there must be a conspiracy.
At a writers board I lurk on sometimes to see what people are asking and thinking (and to get Blog topics on occasion), I was not surprised to see the often asked question, “Why won’t Hollywood just open its doors for new writers?” “Why do they keep going back to the same things all the time?” “Why don’t they buy spec scripts?” or... “Why don’t they buy MY spec script?”
I’ll tell you why they don’t buy your spec. It probably sucks. You probably queried it or networked to get it read before it was ready to be seen or you wrote it about a subject matter no one wants to buy. Tough words, but the main reasons why spec scripts don’t get optioned or sell.
There are so many things to consider as a screenwriter before you ever write the first word of a script anyway. And you have to be honest about it. Is this idea viable? Is it something people would pay to see? Do I know enough about this subject to write intelligently about it? What kind of research do I need to do? What new things can I bring to this idea that will make it stand out? Who is the audience I’m writing for? These are real questions to ask yourself when thinking about the film you want to write. I can’t tell you how many scripts I’ve read that were written without the author thinking about these things that, out of the gate, killed their script.
I’ve read police procedural scripts that have been done a thousand times before. Films about hobbies or about car repair or painting murals or the world of flower arranging. (really) Fast and Furious copies. Tarantino copies. Raunchy comedy copies that brought zero new ideas or concepts. Zombie films with nothing new. The list goes on.
If you write about hospitals, find out how they work for God’s sake and don’t make it up. If you set your script in a real place or real occupation (that’s interesting) find out how it works. I half read a script about scrapbooking and finally couldn’t read any more because it was too painful.
I’ve read scripts about people’s personal fetishes (get help, some of you). NONE of them put any thought into the fact that people have to read these and decide to INVEST MONEY in them. And I’ve been taken aback by the profound anger of these same writers when I’ve dared asked them who they thought would want to see something or invest in something like they wrote, not even taking into account the quality.
This is the hard work and honest thought needed before you write that most people don’t think about or want to do because it doesn’t lend itself to the instant gratification they’re looking for.
Again, I have seen real anger from people who can’t believe their script (usually their first script) isn’t the toast of Hollywood immediately upon its completion. I mean, sometimes it’s pure rage. I often see posts from writers who say, “Hollywood needs to be changed. I say we writers band together and change it.” and I ask them, “How would you change it?” They say 100% of the time, “Open it up to everybody. Have the studios stop making remakes and sequels and superhero movies and start buying specs again and make original films.”
I point out that the studios make these kinds of films because they’re profitable, there’s a demand and an audience for them, they’re safe investments for their investors, and... they’re private corporations who get to make what they want no matter how many writers “band together”.
More honesty. Producers LOVE new writers. They really do. But... it’s new writers who are great. And being great isn’t easy and it isn’t something that happens overnight. Sure, there might be some element of luck involved, but you still have to deliver to cash in on that luck.
I have a friend who’s a reader for a BIG production house. BIG. She says in the last three months she’s recommended ONE script and read well over a hundred. And she’s a good reader. In the past year I’ve read three scripts I thought were great, out of the close to a hundred I’ve read. And two of them were from previously optioned writers. It’s NOT easy.
And the angry writers say to this... “Then why is there so much CRAP made?” Well, first of all, crap is in the eye of the beholder. Lots of what you may think of as crap has an audience and makes money and that’s the whole idea of the film BUSINESS. The rest of it? I’ve seen great scripts turned into not great films over and over again. But they were great scripts to begin with.
It’s easy for me to say... just write a great script. It’s much much harder to do. Those great scripts you’ve read? They didn’t just appear. The hours and days and months and years of damn hard work to get there aren’t charted on the cover page, but you can see it in the content.
No one is trying to keep you from succeeding. And the competition is ferocious for sure. But great scripts with great ideas do rise to the top. They don’t always get made, but they do rise and get noticed. And those writers who can consistently deliver on the promise of that great script do get to make a living writing for films and TV.
But there’s no conspiracy and it’s never ever easy.
Barbara
I would think Hollywood would have to welcome new writers, because the old writers are (eventually) going to die. Or at least become too feeble to tap at their keyboards.
The first incarnation of Amazon Studios opened its doors to new writers and discovered that not a lot of material was very good. The Black List site opens it doors to new writers and if you look at the median scores, a lot of material submitted there is not particularly good. The Nicholl is so open to new writers that people actually making money as writers aren’t allowed to enter, and – wait for it – most of the scripts submitted are not very good. This could, of course, be a coincidence.
Dick Laurent
There’s another commonality between these angry writers – the inability to excise their ego from the critical process. They haven’t stopped for a moment to consider that their script just might not be any good; Occam’s Razor. I know, because I was there myself and of course it’s a shock to start with.
And so a ‘them and us’ conspiracy theory is constructed to protect the very thing they don’t realise they have to let go of to develop – their ego. Which is the more likely, guys? A complex cabal designed to piss you off or that maybe you got a few years more development to go? I never believed this myself, but came across many that did.
Aspiring writers in this group never see their work as an incremental step; an improvement on last time as they learn and internalise concepts, learning what it takes – they tend to think (as you said Bob) that wam-bam, first script outta the gate is going to change everything (and the inevitable two sequels they already wrote because of course, that’s a sign of quality and just how the industry works).
Even if by some utterly unlikely miracle that that script was made, they are not ready for the development process – not ready to take the knocks and rewrites and then, ultimately, the decision that this might not be be the one but hey, I learnt from it.
The trouble is, I’ve tried to communicate this before and been lambasted for it – so you are a braver man than me to paddle in these waters, Bob.
@ Barbara – very true indeed re: material. It’s things like this that sometimes make me think that irrespective of access programs, sometimes stuff is just poor or facsimiles of existing stuff (notwithstanding equality in that area but that’s a whole different thing)
Murjani
This is so awesome! Funny I came across this, as I was going to write something similar about new fiction writers and publishing.