Reader Question: When is it time give up on a lead?

Open forum question from Margaret:

I started a query process for one of my scripts a few months ago with a combination of both formal query letters and passing my script along to well connected friends and friends of friends who had expressed interest in it. I was looking for anything from an option or representation, to just some advice about where I should be sending this particular screenplay.

I’ve done everything I was supposed to do, kept a chart of all my communication, checked in with regular but not too frequent intervals, been polite and not harassing, but now all of my once hopeful responses have petered off into radio silence. I’ve allowed myself a few extra e-mails with the people I know personally, but even then I do not want to become the friend they are afraid will harass them at the next party.

So my question is, when is it time to give up on a lead? Supposedly many deals get made through our odd connections to people “in the industry” so should I be more aggressive and if I burn a bridge or two than so be it? Or should I pack up my sure to be commercially successful, star vehicle of a screenplay and take it on down the road to the next town?

First off, Margaret, take a nice, deep, cleansing breath. There’s a saying in Hollywood to describe the writer’s life: “Hurry up and wait.” The hurry up part is when everyone from rep to producer to studio exec is pushing you to finish a draft of the script you’re working on. The wait part is what happens after you turn in said draft. The irony is that after all the pressure to deliver your draft, you end up staring at your phone — which isn’t ringing — for days, even weeks. And the silence… is… painful… to… endure.

Now in all honesty, part of that waiting experience is driven by the fact that a writer invests time, creativity, and often heart and soul into writing a script. So naturally the writer has the script in mind. All. The. Time. And obviously the writer has a powerful desire to know what the response is to the script. A. Powerful. Desire.

Combine those dynamics and that is sure to impact a writer’s sense of time. As in, “Why won’t these bastards call?”

However the people on the other side of the equation — agents, producers, execs — have a different experience of time. As in they generally have little of it. And the writer’s precious script over which they have sweated blood is but one among many scripts waiting to be read. Many, many scripts.

And to slog their way through all those scripts takes time.

Hence the “hurry up and wait” conundrum.

If that’s the situation when it’s a professional screenwriter working on a studio assignment where everyone in the process is motivated to move the project along, then it’s worse when the writer is a non-pro seeking someone in the industry to read their material for advice.

An anecdote. I know someone who worked as an assistant to a high-level studio exec at Fox. One morning, the exec stormed out of their office swatting a script and yelling, “Why is this script on my desk? What is this script?” The assistant calmly responded, “That’s one of your projects.” The exec blinked. “It is?”

Setting aside the exec’s ability to multitask (or lack thereof), the fact is that people who work for studios (and agents and producers) have insane lives that start each day at 6AM and don’t stop until midnight. So is it really possible for a studio exec to not remember a project which they are overseeing? Yes. And if that’s possible, then where do you think discretionary reading, such as friends of friends’ scripts, rank on their To Do list?

Which is to suggest, Margaret, when you say you sent out your script a “few months ago,” it could just be that nobody has had the time to get to your script yet. 

My advice: Keep doing what you’re doing, following up with each person every 2–3 weeks or so, very politely inquiring if they’ve had a chance to read your script, letting them know you understand how busy they are, you really appreciate their time, etc.

One other point: You write “sure to be commercially successful, star vehicle of a screenplay.” Clearly you are confident about the quality and commercial viability of your script. But if I had to guess, I suspect that around 90% of the scripts I’ve read from aspiring screenwriters came with a similar description from the script’s writer. Only a few of those scripts actually lived up to the hype.

I don’t say this to denigrate your script — after all I haven’t read it so couldn’t possibly have an opinion about it one way or the other. Nor do I say it to sling a symbolic bucket of cold water on your creativity. Rather I say it to make this point:

Before you send out any script to anybody in the industry, make sure it really is a good script.

Of course, there is no equivalent of a “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” to attest to the quality of an original screenplay. However there are certain things a writer can do to get a more grounded sense of reality about how good (or not good) their script is. For example:

* Peer review: Join a site like The GITS Club where you can review other writer’s material and in turn receive feedback from other writers about your script.

* Take a screenwriting class: If you’re having difficulty getting someone in the industry to read your material, there are plenty of online and on-site screenwriting classes you can take that are run by professional screenwriters. That will not only get you direct feedback about your script, but could also lead to the instructor passing along your screenplay to an agent or manager, something I’ve done on occasion in the past.

Because if a script isn’t ready for someone in the industry to read, there are times when the only response a writer gets is silence — as in “not good enough to even get back in touch with.”

Finally while you’re going through the agonizing “hurry up and wait” process, I hope you’re working on another spec script. While writers can’t speed up time, there is one thing we do control: Our ability to write.

So don’t just wait. Write.

All other suggestions from GITS readers welcome.

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