Question: “How many scripts should you write before trying to sell something?”
An open forum question from James Hutchinson:
How many scripts should you have under your belt before going out with them? One? Three? Five completed?
And do you pitch one script at a time?
Well, if you want to get real depressed real fast…
There’s the old adage:
“You need to write a million words…
Before you can expect to be any good at writing.”
Check out some web posts about that…
Here, here, and here.
But even writing a millions words…
Doesn’t necessarily translate into insight and illumination.
Take this Hollywood tale:
“At times Irving Thalberg [first great Hollywood producer] seemed to hate his very dependence on writers and his frustration that he could not perform their functions. During one heated script session he said almost contemptuously, ‘What’s all this business about being a writer? It’s just putting one word after another.’ Lenore Coffee corrected him: ‘Pardon me, Mr. Thalberg; it’s putting one right word after another.’”
But how do you know when you’ve got it…
The ability to put one ‘right’ word after another?
Of course, that varies from person to person, yes?
Larry Kasdan wrote 10 scripts before he sold something.
Diablo Cody’s wrote and sold her first screenplay — Juno.
So a big part of the answer is an existential one:
Writer confronting writer…
Making a real and honest appraisal of your own body of work.
In order to have any chance of making a truly informed assessment…
You should have a strong intuitive understanding of what makes a screenplay work.
How to do that?
Read scripts.
Lots of them.
Hundreds and hundreds of them.
That way you get a Gestalt sense of how a good screenplay reads…
Feels…
Looks.
But even with a deep understanding of screenplays…
You may still be blind about your own work.
So give your script to someone else to read.
Not your significant other…
Not your friends…
Not your parents…
To another writer.
If you don’t know a writer…
There are script consulting services.
Julie Gray at The Rouge Wave…
Is connected with The Script Department.
Yes, you have to pay money to get your script covered.
But could be a wise investment, knowing you’re having it read by professionals.
The other consideration is…
What exactly do you mean by “going out with them [your scripts]”?
Reaching out to agencies and managers?
Producers?
Here’s where I think you have some leeway:
Unless your script is an absolute abomination…
And the Muses are shrieking your names…
For having wasted actual words in writing your so-called story…
Chances are you’re not going to burn any bridges.
You wrote a mediocre to decent script…
Not good enough to break in…
But not bad enough to brand you as…
The second coming of Edward George Bulwer-Lytton.
And here’s the deal:
There are a whole lot of people in Hwood…
Agents, managers, producers, studio execs…
Who don’t have a grasp on what constitutes a good story.
I’ve read scripts that sold for a half-million dollars…
That just aren’t that good.
Which is to say you may get lucky.
But even if you don’t…
You’re putting yourself out there…
Giving yourself a chance.
So first answer…
Make sure you’ve got a good script…
Then go for it.
Re how many scripts to have in reserve:
It’s a real good idea to have several scripts completed…
Why?
Because if you only have one completed screenplay…
And you somehow manage to take a bunch of meetings…
The first words out of their mouths is likely to be…
“What else have you got?”
Only one script…
That will be a very short meeting.
Re how many scripts to pitch:
Since people in Hwood all have the attention spans of gnats…
My advice is to lead with one script…
Your best script.
You can have a document with a list of all your scripts…
Including logline descriptions…
Seeing that you have a number of other scripts…
Especially if they have good story concepts…
Can make your first script look even more appealing to an agent or manager.
Why?
Because more scripts mean more chances to sell something.
There’s a writer I met through this blog…
Very talented…
I set him up with a manager…
The manager read one or two of this writer’s screenplays…
Then checked out the list of the writer’s other scripts.
That manager now reps that writer.
So it can happen.
To sum up:
* Make sure your script is good, even if you have to pay for professional coverage.
* It’s best to have several completed scripts in your arsenal.
* Go wide with your single best script.
FYI, K-9 was my 3rd script.
But I didn’t think I really began to understand what I was doing…
Until my 7th or 8th script.
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