If there is one thing I’ve learned over my many years working with screenwriters, it is this: When it comes to making or breaking your screenwriting career, your body of work can make all the difference. Before we go into the “why,” let’s address the “what”: What should a screenwriter’s… read more →
A writer calls me the other day: “So I wanted to get notes on my script. How much do you charge for that?” Me: “I’m a career consultant. I’m not a reader or – for that matter – a script consultant. Did you find me through my website?” Writer: “Ahhhh…… read more →
You often hear people say that the most important thing for a writer to do is put pen to paper. But just as important a directive is this: Put your passion on the page. Case and point: Years ago, one of my long-time clients embarking upon her next project approached… read more →
What are some things that screenwriters should never say about their screenwriting? Explore screenwriting best practices in my SAY WHAT? Blog posts.
Full confession: I am a sucker for information, autodidactic by nature, curious, and sometimes annoyingly so. You know that kid who never stops asking “But why? But why? But why?” Sometimes I imagine myself – in my worse days – to be just that kid. But – thank God –… read more →
I am a sucker for advice. Any advice. I collect it like kids used to collect stamps (or like today they collect Shopkins or Pokemon cards), catalogue it, organize it, put it away for safe keeping only to pull it out again at just the right time, should it ever… read more →
As I conducted interviews for my new book, BREAKING IN: TALES FROM THE SCREENWRITING TRENCHES, there was one mistake that agents, managers and executives kept reminding me that writers, and especially new writers, are continuously making: Getting their work out into the professional space, be it to a potential agent… read more →
Misconceptions about what it takes to become a working screenwriter, e.g. what is required in order to attract the right sort of industry attention, and where your time and resources are best spent, are everywhere. Is it all about the writing? Or all about relationships? Do you have to have… read more →
When I interviewed Jewerl Ross, renowned literary manager (who is these days celebrating the immense success of his longtime client, MOONLIGHT writer/director Barry Jenkins), for my upcoming book, BREAKING IN: TALES FROM THE SCREENWRITING TRENCHES, he told me of the screenplays he reads and the content he sees: “If it’s… read more →
Where in decades past hefty options were given to screenwriters whose screenplays producers had hoped would “get there,” today those same options and shopping agreements are not often granted before the producer or executive involved is convinced that they have a ready-for-market, winning screenplay on their hands.
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