“If you write it, we’ll find you.”

That’s a direct quote from Dan Halsted, my first agent (back in the days of Bauer Benedek) who has gone on to great success in a lengthy Hollywood career. On the first day of this current LA trip, I had coffee with Dan yesterday. Dan told me whenever he’s a guest speaker in a class for college or graduate students, the first thing they invariably ask him is, “How do I get an agent.” And this is Dan’s stock response: “If you write it, we’ll find you.”

By “it,” of course, Dan means a great script. And Dan is absolutely right. Everyone associated with the movie industry is constantly searching for great scripts. 

But what constitutes a “great script?” As a reference point, here is how professional script reader and story analyst D.C. Mar finished this sentence: “A great script is…”

…built on a fresh concept that is fully realized by richly drawn characters who are constantly challenged and tested by arduous physical, moral, psychological and emotional impediments. A great script is a cinematic roller coaster ride that I can see and feel as I eagerly and quickly flip the pages in anticipation of what tenuous choices the characters will make next to solve problems I can relate to or am titillated or confounded by. A great script defies my expectations at every turn and leaves me in the end affected, satisfied and yet wanting more (like seeing it spring to life on the big screen).

That’s a helpful answer for writers, giving us some areas to target. But I suspect if I asked Dan to define a “great script,” he just wouldn’t answer. There are so many intangibles. I’ll bet he’d say, “I know a great script when I read it.” 

And so screenwriters face this dichotomy: On the one hand, the formula for success is extremely simple — “Write a great script and Hollywood will find you”; on the other hand, there’s no definable path to writing a great script.

My advice on how to write a great script? First, find a fantastic story concept. Then follow my son Luke’s advice: “Go into the story… and find the animals.”

Comment Archive