Screenwriters & The Industry: New Realities of Breaking In
Recently, a manager friend said to me: These days it takes twice as long as it did five years ago to break a writer or make a sale. And while this can have different implications, for the most part, it means this: Gone are the days of the one-and-done spec sales, when writers would emerge from nowhere with a killer spec that makes a lot of noise and collects up to seven figures, only to disappear into the void and never be heard from again. For good or bad, today’s market rarely works this way. Nowadays, writers are tasked with a lot more than writing one good script; they are tasked with building an actual, long term screenwriting career.
While the road may be rougher and the work required tougher, this does bode well for writers eager to see themselves not just selling a single script (which, lets face it, will probably not allow them to retire right there and then), but developing and writing for years to come within the industry. Another manager at coffee just last week told me: The script has to be strong. But because I know this is a relationship that’s gonna last years, I have to LOVE the personality. The reason is simple: Managers are in it for the long hall with their writers. They know that these days hardly anyone emerges from obscurity and becomes a sensation over night, only to fizzle and descend; instead, they are here to invest in the talent they believe it, in the hopes that their efforts, connections and input translate to a lot more than a single script sale. They are here to help you build a career.
This new reality is not without burden. Because representation, development and production executives are eager to get involved with scribes who are in it “for real,” hoops have been put in place specifically so that you can prove that you are here to stay, and have more than one script. You won or placed as finalist in a high profile contest? Great. But just as important as your win is a strong answer to the all important question: What else do you have? Many reps will look at a first script, even take a meeting, but may not seriously consider bringing you into their fold until they see you performing again and again, script after script. To put it simply, they want to know that your talent and ambitions can translate to real accomplishments. That you are the writer on whose shoulders a career can be built.
Just as there is good news, there is bad news here. And it is this: Your chances go down exponentially if you only have one script. If you are not looking to develop new material, new content, and are instead peddling a single, potentially dated script, it will be that much more challenging for you to build a career, which is, ultimately, what most industry folks now want to see. If you do have that one script, that single story you are doggedly pursuing, consider the self-financing or funding route, or direct channels to production companies whose slate may just jive well with your project. This is where your best chances for success may be.
But if it is a screenwriting career that you want? Keep writing, converting promising ideas to fantastic scripts and exciting new content. Enter contests. Attend events where you may encounter both other writers and industry executives. Network in person or through email. Continuously find new ways to build bridges and inroads. It will serve to prove to the ones who are watching (and if you’ve gotten any traction on any one script in recent years, believe me, they are watching) that you are not a fly-by-night, a writer sporting big talk paired only with a single script, but instead one who is very much capable of delivering great work for years to come. A writer on whose shoulders a screenwriting career could be built.
