Read this rant from Leigh Whannell, Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious, on only wanting to write spec: http://thewordinthestone.com/#%21111

Thanks Scott! Great answer. I thought managers might shy away from writers focused on specs since they might be getting less frequent revenue (unless you're F. Scott Frazier or John Swetnam ;-) ). But, I guess at the same time they're not having to hunt down work for you.

Excuse me? William Goldman has written 16 fiction novels and 7 non-fiction/memoir books. Anyone who doesn't consider him a novelist isn't familiar with his immense body of work.

I consider him a novelist-screenwriter. Including his script doctor work in Hollywood, I'm guessing he's worked on 40-50 film projects. But it doesn't matter what I call him. The point I was making was about what HE calls himself. And that's an interesting insight given how influential he has been in the movie industry for the last 5 decades.

your "personality & Talent level" determines if assignment work is right for you. Example: if you were Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Brine and Page (Google) but as writers, you'd forgo all assignment work and "slave" on your baby with all the marbles in the basket. Those cutting edge names listed above would not lend themselves to work for others; as they're visionaries who are driven with their own success and drive.

I remember listening to an interview with Zach Helm [Stranger than Fiction, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium] several years back. After a few difficult assignments, he decided to create a personal 'manifesto.' In it he very clearly laid out what sort of project he was going to work on. I think it was solely spec scripts, but he might have had some OWA guidelines. But, if you look at his IMBD page, it's not very full http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1590998/ Having worked for other people and their ideas before, I can see the appeal of only spec-ing. But there might be a price you pay for sticking to your own work.

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