Learn the Craft. Do the Work.

A conversation about a recent post zeroes in on a writing truth.

I posted this yesterday:

…at the front end of your career, you want to do everything you can to give you the best chance at succeeding as a professional screenwriter. And a certain amount of that can only come by knocking out scripts.

So you’ve finished one script. Great. Congratulations. Go write another one.

You finish a second script. Excellent. Congrats, again. Go write another one.

After you do that three times, maybe… just maybe you’ll be ready for Hollywood.

Tom Turner, author of “Sign of the Sandman,” responded with these observations:

Love your point about five scripts… then ten scripts! It never fails to amaze me when I look back at an old script a year (or more) later — a script I was sure (at the time) was the best it could be — that I can always find ways to improve it, ways that weren’t apparent to me at the time. As you said, we’re always learning, always getting better. That only comes by doing the work. Thanks, Scott. Love the site. Happy Holidays!

My response:

Tom, every writer is different. That’s why when reading this post, three scripts… good rule of thumb. But some writers, given their creative backgrounds and life experience, may only need 1 script to break into the business. Diablo Cody and Jon Spaihts come to mind. However in the many interviews I’ve conducts, and read, seen, and heard, it’s much more likely a writer has the proverbial ‘box full of unseen scripts’ lying around which they needed to write in order to get to a place of professional proficiency. It just varies from writer to writer.

The not so subtle subtext of my post is it’s not just about the scripts. It’s about the CRAFT. Learning enough about HOW to write and about YOURSELF as a writer — your own approach to breaking, writing, and rewriting a script — so you feel a sense of confidence that when you land a writing assignment, you can deliver the goods.

A screenwriter I know who has worked on a number of high profile projects in Hollywood tweeted something the other day which speaks to this:

Yes, there’s talent and voice and style and inspiration and all the rest, but for a professional screenwriter, there is this fundamental reality: Land a gig. Have a deadline. Meet the deadline.

That’s doing The Work. And whoever we are, wherever we are in our respective creative journeys, we need to learn enough about the craft — however many scripts it takes for us to write to get there — so when we sign on the dotted line and see that due date, we have full faith we can meet it.

Screenwriter Craig Mazin said this when I interviewed him a few years back:

The one thing about me that’s been consistent in the 17 years I’ve been doing this is in eight weeks I’ll have a screenplay. I’m very good that way.

We want to get to THAT place, have THAT confidence.

A New Year’s wish: Here’s to each one of us deepening our knowledge about the craft by doing the work, so we can do The Work.

Onward!

UPDATE: As far as specifics related to learning the craft, check out this post. Some things we can all work on.