Reader Question: What if I’m not sure I want a career in Hollywood?
A third and final question from Gregaria:
If the script sells, what would I and my partner have to do? Move to the shooting site for three or four months, re-write the script, set up a contract, sell our souls to Hollywood? (Okay, kidding about the last part. :) ) I mean, what if its great and everyone loves it and they want to hire me as a writer on other projects? I’m not sure I want a career writing in Hollywood. (I know I’m probably unusual on this front.) But, would it be detrimental to future projects if I didn’t accept any job offers after selling the first script? I kind of want to write on my own time, schedule and terms, from the comfort of my own home, but a part of me senses that this might be asking too much, especially as a new writer and if I want to sell more than one script.
Gregaria, I think you may be the first GITS reader to express the sentiment that they’re “not sure” if they want a career writing in Hollywood. For that I’ll give you props for your honesty and self-awareness. One advantage of that attitude, I suppose, is the overwhelming weight of expectations that most aspiring screenwriters have should be absent from your writing experience. On a practical level, that would likely translate into you being able to write in a much more carefree manner as opposed to worrying that your potential success in Hollywood is dependent upon every word you write.
More to the point of your question, of course no one can force you to become a Hollywood writer. If you sell a script, you could choose to continue your life pretty much the way you live it now. Maybe you have no interest in open writing assignments. Perhaps the extent of your interaction with Hollywood is that you write a spec script every year or two.
However I think you’d need to wrangle a most unique relationship with an agent and/or manager. They make a living taking a percentage of what their clients earn as writers. And if you’re not writing projects for Hollywood studios, your reps will be making 10–15% of zero dollars, which in the parlance of the business translates into bupkis.
So in answer to your question, if you sell a script, yes, you can choose not to become a Hollywood writer. However finding someone who would be willing to rep you on those terms would be, I suspect, difficult. And even if they said they could live with your choice, my guess is they would call you every few weeks with this possible writing assignment or that possible writing assignment, essentially tempting you to come to your ‘senses.’
If you really want your independence, you could just write and produce small indie movies. Of course, there’s the not insignificant issues of financing and distribution you’d have to deal with on each project. But that’s one way of steering pretty much clear of Hollywood.
Is there anyone else who has a similar attitude as Gregaria? Perhaps others whose goal is not to become a full-time Hollywood writer, but carve out some other approach to their writing.