  |
|
|
|
(Continued from Part I of A New Perspective)
Remember my friend in LA who said that, “…everyone living in Los Angeles is a screenwriter?” It’s been well over a year now since he told me those discouraging words, and it’s stuck with me ever since. It has eaten away at me, honestly. How could that be true? Why even bother? His words still rang loudly in my ears especially in moments when I’d hit the wall. When I couldn’t get over, under, around, or through a certain point in my script. I’d let the discouragement take over me. I’d go running. I’d go anywhere to get a way from my computer. It’d drive me crazy thinking about the millions of people living in Los Angeles hacking away at their keyboards with sweat running down their brows, never reaching the wall. But it just occurred to me not too long ago, while staring mindlessly at my computer screen, that his statement isn’t true. Not everyone’s a screenwriter. A more accurate statement would be everyone living in Los Angeles wishes they were a screenwriter. But this doesn’t just exist in LA. I meet people all the time who tell me they’re “working on a screenplay.” So let me be so bold as to say 99% of these “screenplay workers,” these so-called “writers”, will never finish their screenplay. In the big picture of movies and screenplays, there are only a small percentage of people who can actually call themselves screenwriters. I’m a screenwriter, though I’ve never sold one of my screenplays. “How so?” you ask. Because I’ve actually written a screenplay from start to finish. I’ve put myself out there, and continue to put myself out there, allowing my “baby” to be brutally critiqued by friends, family members, producers, agents, etc. For every one good thing I’ve had said about my work, I’ve had twenty negative remarks. Does this bother me? No. I could care less what half of them think anyway. I let people read it mostly to show them that I actually wrote an entire screenplay. Writing is difficult. If it were easy, more people would be doing it, and we’d be a world of book readers and not one of couch potatoes. The problem is that right there – distractions. We’re a world of many distractions, from our television sets, to our Pioneer stereo systems, to our DVD players, to our restaurants, and jobs, and bills, and children, and billboards, and everything. I’m not preaching here because I love my television. I love watching football on Saturdays and Sundays. I love “The Simpsons” and “Friends” re-runs. I’m just illustrating the fact that it takes a unique soul to give it all up in the pursuit of writing something good and original. Writing something good is difficult. Writing something original is mind-boggling when one considers the vast amount of information that’s thrown at us daily. Is this discouraging? No, it’s a fact. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Beginning Screenwriting: A New Perspective - Part II in Screenwriting 101 is owned by . Permission to republish Beginning Screenwriting: A New Perspective - Part II in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
