The Three P's
The difference between a writer who makes it in Hollywood and a writer who does not is that the one who made it never gave up.
Patience, perseverance, perspective...
I had lunch the other day with a well known and respected screenwriting teacher and author of a screenwriting how-to book and we compared notes about our own writing experiences - the close calls, the successes and the failures - and we shared a wry laugh about how much difference a few years make. When I started writing scripts 8 years ago, I was fueled by a conviction that my talent and my amazing script were going to earn me money and respect in only a matter of months. That didn't quite happen for either one of us.
Year after year has passed by, with many more scripts written, screenwriting classes taken, failures, small successes, teases and huge disappointments. But Rouge Wavers, as Elton John once said - I'm still standing. And from where I stand, I'm proud as I look at my achievements and the way I have used every experience to help me build knowledge, relationships, skills and perseverance.
As we enter competition season, many Rouge Wavers may have entered their scripts in one or more screenwriting contests. As we collectively hold our breath and await the results late this summer and into the early fall, I encourage writers to roll their shoulders, let that breath out and keep writing. Competitions come round every year. This isn't the last chance and it isn't the only way.
The best way to raise the odds of being published, optioned, repped or even sold is to be like a writing machine. Never stop writing and never stop believing that you can do it. Disabuse yourself of the quaint fairy tale that your script is more brilliant than any script ever written and that two scripts into the process, you will be an overnight rockstar.
Don't get me wrong - those who know me well know that I actually subscribe very much to visualizing exactly what you want in this life and holding that vision steadfastly until it manifests. But you can't sit in a park dreaming of your wonderful, successful writing career, and you can't weep into your beer after dozens of rejections sure that it is all doomed. This is a hard knock business. Get used to it. But never say die and never let it crush the joy out of the phenomenal gift you have been given: the desire and talent to create and express through the written word.
As my friend and I compared writing scars, horror stories and triumphs over lunch, it struck me that I wish I knew then what I know now. I wish I had put myself through less drama and depression about just where my writing career was going and when. I wish I had just known that this thing - this writing - is a gift unto itself. Take everything in stride; the validation, the rejection and the dull, grey days which make you wish ardently you'd just gotten a regular job like a regular person. Slow down, enjoy the process. Be present for it. Soak it up.
Nothing succeeds like determination. As Woody Allen said, 80% of success is showing up.
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5 comments:
Absolutely right on the money. When I started out as a novelist thirty years ago I assumed it worked like this: you wrote a book, sent it out, someone would take it and--voilà--your book's in the window of Doubleday or Brentano (both, it should be noted, now long-defunct NYC bookstores).
I was teaching English then, but every day I'd come home and write twenty-five pages before I sat down to correct papers and prepare for the next day's classes. When my first book was finished I sent it out, no one wanted it, and by then I was well into my next. When I'd completed four of them I left for England to try to start up my career.
Long story short, my thirteenth novel became my first published book. It took me twelve years and twelve books--and a whole new country--before I sat down and wrote that breakthrough work in a quick five weeks.
Those twelve years were my apprenticeship. But I never once gave up. The commitment was there (as it still is), the belief in myself as a writer was strong, and though, yes, I had my share of rejections, I also had my near-misses, my signings with agents, my firings of agents and signings with new ones, the bad reviews, the inept reviews, as well as the glowing ones.
Just remember never to fall in love with your work, because then you'll never be able to let it go. Finish it, polish it, send it out and fuggedaboutit. Because by then you're already flirting with that new script or book.
Winston Churchill said it best "Never, never, never, never give up." How many people have up after the second "never?"
Long time lurker, first time commenter.
Just wanted to say that I agree with you 100%. I am still very much a novice writer but I realized very early on that one of the hardest thing about being a writer is not giving up.
So glad you posted! Welcome to the rag and bone shop and make yourself a sidecar :)
You can never be reminded often enough - Never say die! Thanks!
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