[…] Of course, we can’t know the answer. Indeed we can’t even assume we’ll make any money in the creative arts. As I wrote in this TBOS column is: “Movies don’t owe anybody a living.” Swap out any …read more […]

Okay, nice easy answer for this one: I like TV and movies, I want to write both, but where I want to go next is Hollywood movies - smart blockbusters, popular but original and exciting...

not as easy for me as it was for you, Debbie:) but here goes - I LOVE features, and would love to write family fare or fantasy-drama or book adaptations since I am a voracious reader. In an ideal world, even an animated film or two. I also have this deep ache to direct the features I write someday - though that ache is not as big as just getting my scripts written and made into films. I like the idea of commercially-driven stuff but those that go further and infuse great characters and story - on the other hand, maybe character-driven pieces too, I don't really know. Bottom line: writing wise, I just want to have adventures and be a part of something great and bigger than me. I am writing things that I am really passionate about - but being less experienced in the rest of the process, don't know where I fit in best, forgive my ramble.

Five, ten years down the road.... Will be supporting myself and my hubby via my writing. Movies, yes. Commercial, yes. Various sized budgets, yes. No one genre, but I'll spin many a tale about underdogs, misfits and laggards who finally get their adventure on. I will have been on many a movie set and "on location" several times over. Despite coming to the game a bit later in life than most, my reps will adore me for my youthful passion and my ability to keep bringing them scripts they're excited to take to the market. Not sure where I'll be living. I don't see myself in TV, nor in the typical series "writers' room". Nor do I harbor any desire to direct. My one ginormous "fantasy", though, is to one day be courted by Pixar to collaborate on writing a tale. Guess then I'll be living in the bay area! I hope by this point I will have run the gamut as far as original specs, assigned projects, adaptations, rewrites/polishes. I'll be in a position to be able to attend some big film festivals here and there, but jury's still out as to whether or not any of my scripts will be considered as "indies". I have no Big Dreams about Big Houses or Fancy Cars or Flashy Statues on a mantle! "Making It" in the film industry means something else to me -- it means that ability to tell stories that get onto screens and, for a few hours at a time, allow people to lose themselves in characters they wanna root for, to laugh, to cry, to be inspired, to be moved emotionally. Making it means doing this not once, but over and over and over again. If I'm fortunate enough to amass a body of work allowing me to do THAT over the next 5-10 years, I'll be beyond overjoyed....

In five years, I will have two feature films produced and be well into my third. I will have one novel published and be working on my second. In ten years, I will be producing and writing full time.

In 5 years, I want to be a better writer than I am today. In 10 years, a better writer than I am in 5. That's it. That's all I can personally control.

I'd like to both write and produce so I can #BeTheChange. I'd like to make movies featuring more women and people of color, both as a writer and a producer. I don't mind if those movies are indie or blockbusters. I'd also like to try my hand at writing for TV, but not sure if I'd like to be a staff writer with a young family since I've heard the hours can be long. If someone would buy a pilot I pitch and I can be an Exec. Producer and write the season finales each year, I wouldn't complain at all.

Besides Spielberg calling me to salvage his script ... I hope that in 10 years my mind continues to wander, because it is in the subconscious that our creativity dwells. To help that, I make impressionist and black and white abstract paintings. From Dungeons and Dragons to my crime drama today, I will write. I am writing professionally now, not getting paid yet, but following my scheduled 15 hours a week. That will continue for at least nine more years. I am one year into a ten year plan. I ten years I plan on having one film made on the Indy circuit and one made in the studio system. Last month I made my first short (written, directed, produced, carried the camera, et. al.), so that is one bench mark made. I also plan on finishing the rewrite on my sci-fi novel, and getting it published. Let me say thanks, Scott, for this blog. I have used it to add to my "writing skills" document, which I use to help with brainstorming, fleshing out the concept, themes, characterization, etc. Finally let me say thanks for the mini-contests, like the Black list logline we just did. These are little ways to push us into uncharted territory. May the id be with you!

1. What happened to the actor writer? I see myself producing, acting and writing everything under the damn sun that I can get my hands on or create. 2. That real shit that matters today. Politically driven memoir about an Indian call center employee who goes on to run the biggest multinational the world has ever seen. Your welcome for the story idea. Pay me when it goes in theaters.

Hi I am a newbie who introduced myself in part 2. Right now, I see myself as a writer who focuses on character driven short films. That's really my interest at the moment. Perhaps that will change as I master the basics, but those are the stories I feel most drawn to.

I want to write screenplays and novels. I would be happy doing TV work on a regular basis, but it is not something I see happening (though I do have a pitch for HBO - doesn't everyone?). I would like to do multiple genres of work. I would prefer writing smaller movies, not the big summer tentpoles. I would like to look back on five or six movies from my screenplays, one or two being rather close to what I've written.