Q: “How do you know when to move on?”

From the Open Forum, these questions from Frank Buckley:

Okay, here’s a sort of far-reaching question. How do you know when to move on? What I mean is this: not everybody has the talent to be a working writer, be it screen, novel or journalist. What is a fail-safe point.

I realize that it is the popular view that practice and determination win out, but as we all know that isn’t exactly true. You can practice shooting hoops for 20 hours a day, but if you’re 5'1, wall-eyed and wheelchair bound chances are you’re not making it to the pros.

Also, related only tangentially, how does one judge talent? I know the rule: disregard family and ask an unbiased opinion. I mean an internal check, a compass that might point you to the truth of your abilities.

These are sort of nebulous questions but, outside of your wife pulling a gun and threatening to eat a lead breakfast after she reads your stuff, many of us lack a concrete guide in establishing whether or not a writer’s life is feasible. Thanks.

Finally, an easy question! And tomorrow, I’ll follow up with my answer to the Israeli-Palestinian hostilities!

Seriously, Frank raises an important concern. Actually two of them that end up being interrelated:

* How do I know if I have writing talent?
* How do I know if/when it’s time to move on?

In my view, if you do have writing talent, then the answer to the last question is this: You never move on. With talent, it’s just a matter of persistence, longevity, great story ideas, and luck before somebody somewhere who has the clout to do something with you takes note of you.

[Now I could muck up my line of reasoning here by admitting the possibility that you could have a world of talent and somehow not be discovered. But if the discussion is limited to screenwriting and Hollywood, I won’t admit that. Hollywood is too small of a community with too much crappy material flowing through it. If a writer has talent and can harness that talent into a great script, it will get noticed and it will find its way to a buyer.]

So really, the issue boils down to the question, “How do I know if I have the talent to be a [screen]writer?”

[Silence]

Okay, let me confess. I had every intention of trying to answer this question, but it’s now several days after I posed it, and everything I attempt to put into writing sounds like utter tripe!

So I’d like to hear what you have to say on the subject: How do you know if you have the talent to be a screenwriter?

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