Do people really see screenwriting as a quasi lottery ticket?

R

RockmanX3

Well-known member
From what I've been reading from various books and websites, it seems that alot of people are getting into screenwriting because it seems like an easy way to make money. They probably think "OMG the WGA makes studios pay THAT much for writing?!" and also think "I just gotta write a GOOD script and the bucks will be rolling!".

I'm not gonna lie and say I didn't think this way at a time. While my eventual goal is to write/direct/edit my own films, I was always thinking I could write some high concept stuff I can't shoot on my own and if I'm lucky to sell to a big studio, I'd use that money to fund my low budget films. My mom has friends in the industry who are willing to help me out, but after one of my close friends laid the gauntlet on my first script (as quoted in my sig), I still have a long way to go. The last thing I would want to do is use my mom's connections and totally humiliate myself in front of a studio head.

But do alot people really think this way? That writing 90-120 pages of characters doing stuff is an easy lottery ticket?
 
yes. people think that.

the same people also think that wrestling in their backyard means they can compete in the MMA
 
I think those are just lines used to sell books and seminars. I'm sure there are people that think this, but they'll very quickly discover how hard writing is and either go on to some of the quick-get-rich scheme, or change their expectations.
 
It's not just scripts - people think that about any form of writing. "I'll write a children's book, that will be easy" - hah! Only slowly does it sink in that a finished script/manuscript merely means they've joined a million other wannabes at the bottom of the slush pile.

Of course there is a slight lottery aspect to it - it can be nothing more than dumb luck that a script meets the perfect matching agent/studio/publisher, and that can be incredibly frustarting when you actually have a great script - but you still gotta have that great script in the first place.
 
Yea plenty of people believe that, most give up right after about 20 pages. Some just keep going, and Clang nailed it. There totally is a lottery aspect to it. Bad movies get made everyday, and those bad movies started as bad scripts. Don't believe me watch Sci Fye channel for a few hours. Get this, a friend of mine is a well versed screen writer, somone is paying him good money right now, to write a Zombie Surfer movie...and a movie about a Killer Hippo...People pay good money for bad movies, and those bad movies come from bad scripts written by lucky people.
 
Yeah, the problem definitely is people think it's easy to be a screenwriter, fall in love with the dream of lots of money and a hollywood career, but then spend all their time on forums, reading syd field, and forgetting that the most important thing is to write. The real writers knock out script after script, perfecting their craft, they live to write. I think it's easy to get caught up in all these seminars and things that make screenwriting "fun", but I think what seperates the winners from the rest is the people who make it just do it. The rest talk about doing it. And listen to advice from people who failed as screenwriters. (Not that the advice is bad, the books are great -- but it's easy to get trapped in the system)

Very few aspiring screenwriters, it seems know what makes a movie good. Sure, a lot of them know structure, they know what Syd Field or Robert Mckee told them, but they don't think about why people go to see a movie. People don't go to a movie to see 3 acts. If you want to sell a script I think you should play by the rules, as much as you can, but you should make it transparent. Throw in some castable characters that are actually interesting, a good plot, scenes that are fun, dialogue that is great, all the elements -- and then you might just have a good script. A good script is so damn rare that if you can write one, you will hopefully succeed. Everyone else is just waves on the beach as Tarrantino put it.
 
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ChrisHurn said:
Yeah, the problem definitely is people think it's easy to be a screenwriter, fall in love with the dream of lots of money and a hollywood career, but then spend all their time on forums, reading syd field, and forgetting that the most important thing is to write. The real writers knock out script after script, perfecting their craft, they live to write. I think it's easy to get caught up in all these seminars and things that make screenwriting "fun", but I think what seperates the winners from the rest is the people who make it just do it. The rest talk about doing it. And listen to advice from people who failed as screenwriters. (Not that the advice is bad, the books are great -- but it's easy to get trapped in the system)
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Well put dude. I've recently realized that I've sort of gotten trapped in this system. You read too many screenwriting books and start to doubt yourself because one guru has a certain way of doing things that clashes with another guru's ways. Another danger is you can start to believe the lie that someone has a specific answer to writing, and if you don't have that forbidden knowledge, you begin to feel like you will never make it.

There is some saying about writing, I can't remember exactly, but it is basically an answer to the question: how do I become a good writer? The answer: ass in chair in front of writing device (notebook, typewriter, computer).

GrahamRobbins said:
Get this, a friend of mine is a well versed screen writer, somone is paying him good money right now, to write a Zombie Surfer movie...and a movie about a Killer Hippo...People pay good money for bad movies, and those bad movies come from bad scripts written by lucky people.
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It would be even more marketable if these two producers meet up and agreed to combine the Zombie Surfers with Killer Hippos in a single movie.
 
ChrisHurn said:
Yeah, the problem definitely is people think it's easy to be a screenwriter, fall in love with the dream of lots of money and a hollywood career, but then spend all their time on forums, reading syd field, and forgetting that the most important thing is to write.
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Well, despite my time here in the forum :)...I agree with this completely.

I was asked to speak to Emory students recently at a writers career event to represent Screenwriting as a profession (there were NY Times reporter, technical writers, authors, etc.) and the main thing I told those interested was to WRITE.

I was swamped with questions and requests for advice on how to break in, etc. and I told them all to slow down. Learn to write a script, first. Then see about the rest. The truth is, most of them had not studied the form or ever written page 1 for the screen (and many will never do it) but they were ready to get an agent and wanted to know how to get their scripts to producers :)

I think some got my point but it just underscores the original post, I do think some people think it's easy and success will catapult them into the lifestyles of the rich and semi-famous.

I've had success and I'm neither I told them. I joke that I like to scare off as many as I can at events like these when I'm the "so-called" authority but it's true in the sense that I don't want them to waste time under the delusion that it is easy.

So hopefully I did my job in that sense.

-M
 
Screenplay as lottery ticket is an apt analogy. Your odds of making money from a script are comparable to your odds of winning the Nigerian Super Lotto.
 
Somebody once said that you can't make a living in Hollywood, only a killing. You're either making millions of dollars or just scraping by from job to job.
 
You can make a very comfortable living in the various production trades and professions. But it's probably true that the disciplines wherein you hear about people making millions are the same ones where a much larger proportion of the competitors are just scraping by.
 
RockmanX3 said:
But do alot people really think this way? That writing 90-120 pages of characters doing stuff is an easy lottery ticket?
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The opening title card in my film WE, THE SCREENWRITER reads, "More millionaires have been made by winning the California lottery than by writing screenplays." This is a fact that the WGA informed me of when we made the movie.

As a longtime professional screenwriter of movies and TV, periodic educator and frequent speaker, I can tell you that one of the central gripes I tend to espouse endlessly about is the the "lotto ticket" mentality that has become so common with new and emerging screenwriters, and that has undermined so much potential in them.

In my experience, particularly as a producer, too much material comes across my desk that simply has nothing relevant to say. Even when written well, the stories often tend to be about nothing memorable, offer no particular insight into the human condition, etc. -- they just come across as another aspiring screenwriter's attempt to chase a deal based only on the false belief that the most current popular trend will deliver pay dirt.

We discuss this a length in WTS because it's a mistake that too many make when starting out, even common among those quite accomplished. With the exception of a few specific genres, the moment a writer rolls the dice and starts chasing the latest trend on spec, chances are it's already too late profit big time from it.

One additional anecdote: There's something like 12-13,000 of us in the WGA. Roughly 4,000 or so earn more than $7,000 a year from writing screenplays. And it's been that way for a very long time. Thing is everybody's fighting to be in that 4000 group each and every year.

--msg
 
Let's be real, if you took away the copious amounts of (potential but unrealistic) monies and fame a person can achieve in the arts, you'd find yourself with nothing left but actual artists.

I always give mention to Shakspearean times when there were certainly actors, writers, directors, musicians, artists, etc. Even if you allowed for the metrics of population increase, I'd still be willing to wager that the number of folks in the arts now compared to then has increased by something like 17,000 percent.

I wouldn't say "some people think..." I would say MOST people who get into acting, writing, directing, bands -- any of it; I think more often than not it's for the money, lifestyle, fame, or some combination thereof.

It's gross and horrible because these people don't do anything to lead and inform us the way artsists are meant to, but such is the slow decline of our species, right?

Still, I think if someone is meant to write, perform, what-have-you, and they are willing to accept that their life will most likely be served to that purpose, in social misery and in potential poverty (like any self-respecting artist would live), with enough tenacity, a person eventually will reach the audience they're meant to.

IMO :)
 
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