A Screenwriter's Promise

I, struggling author, do declare,
To abide by these rules with due care:
Always remember that I must show and not tell,
Use the senses: sight, sound, taste, touch and smell,
Make every single word count,
Don't let the weasel words mount,
Bring characters alive with dialogue that is fresh,
But remember that too much dialect makes a mess,
Avoid using clichés like the plague,
Make my nouns concrete and not too vague,
For authentic writing, write what I know,
Be it car parks, hands or even white snow,
Write daily, with or without the muse,
Listen to other authors' writing clues,
Be patient and never throw work away,
Save it to improve on a rainy day.
If I follow all this good advice,
And treat my writing as a vice,
Then one day my dream will come true,
I'll have a sold screenplay, or two.


(c) Andrew Thompson www.keysina.com

My first two scripts are definitely practice, but I'll never scrap the ideas, they are just on "backburner status" with dreams/delusions of them becoming gems.

But I've always had issues with the 10,000 hours theory by Gladwell. I say that hours are necessary, but also that overall Practice loses out to Perfect Practice. But that being said the main issue with my writing habits is putting in the time for practice "period".

“Practice is the best of all instructors”

I moved to LA in August 06' to become a screenwriter. Since that time I got a job working as a reader at a talent management company -- I'm still there.
I started writing my first script with a partner, a co-worker. When he realized that we were at different places, he left the project...I stayed on and grew up a lot during the process.

Because I have some access to powerful people, I got my script sent to a bunch of agents and friends...My friends and the managers who were helping me out, told me how great it was, and hilarious. The agents all said they liked it, but it was not for them, and a few producers just flat out said they thought it was awful.

Looking back, it was such a demoralizing process: I was wet-behind-the-ears, and when I heard my friends and co-workers laud me, I thought I was going to make a million dollars.

I'm still trying to "break-through," but the awful first script is a necessary step. I feel badly for the guys who like Gewirtz and Adam Leff. It's never the supernovae who last in this town, it's the guys like Rosenberg or Larry Kasdan who write 10 to 12 scripts before breaking through.

Flash
Of brilliance
My first script
Half-life of ten days
Less than a month

Cloudy days
Offer the promise of
Sunny days

And my first script
Illuminating the world
Rapidly fades
To a moon lit
Path

I must follow

.

I LOVE ALL my scripts, even the first ones. I poured my heart out into each and every script I write.

Hopefully the quality of writing has improved for the better over the years. But I can honestly say that EVERYONE of my scripts SHOULD be made into a movie. Even my worst stuff is better than most of the movies being offered to the public today. Some of E.C.'s "early" scripts:

1) "Give It Up for Chimpy": screwball comedy.

2) My re-imaging of "Planet of the Apes": sci-fi. Can't show this to anyone pending Fox's release. (I got a cease and desist letter from one of their V.P.'s)

3) "Revenge of the Fat Chicks": teen comedy.

4) "Love, Music and Monkeys: Give It Up for Chimpy II": screwball comedy. My sequel to the original.

5) "The Judas Project": urban drama.

My plan is to keep writing, keep marketing myself. Realizing that when I land that first sale people will look at all these scripts with diffent lenses. The key is to get that first sale.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

I'm kinda of split because I was quickly admitted into the school of CONCEPT IS KING. The result was I could come up with a killer high-concept logline but the resulting script was utterly trash.

If I knew then what I knew now, I'd write 3-4 scripts of whatever and saved the very good commercial ideas until I had the craft down.

Now I have about 3 pretty good ideas poorly executed and I'm not too fond of trying to rewrite them because I've grown tired of them. It's taken me to my sixth script that I have started to feel more and more comfortable with my writing.

Of course the paradox is maybe I wouldn't be as good as exploiting my concepts now had I not had practice with the first three.

The thing I love about the 10,000 hour rule and Gladwell gives this example (using musicians) in OUTLIERS is that there was no instances of people putting in the 10000 hours of practice and NOT making it and there was no instances of people putting in less than 10000 hours and making it to the level of professional musician.

IMO, the take home message is HARD WORK trumps TALENT.

There is a small caveat as there needs to be a "base" of talent to build the hard work upon.

My first script... autumn, 1990. Just out of high school. Aimless. "Screenplay" by Syd Field, top shelf of the B. Dalton at the shitty run down mall. 72 hours later, 30 notecards spread out on the floor. I handwrite on looseleaf paper "THE VALLEY OF TEARS by Jeff Messerman," title page. 172 handwritten pages later, my first script is born.

The next obvious steps, of course, sell it, the studios make it, I collect a check, then write the next one.

The only thing that happened in the above next steps?

I wrote the next one.

Tear ducts a little damp right now with liquid nostalgia.

Carry on.

Sometimes it's frustrating working on my first screenplay (I have completed TV scripts) and knowing it will very likely suck, but I put the thought aside and keep working.

the more words i write (good or bad), the more i understand what i'm trying to say and how i need to say it in order to be understood.
i think those 10,000 and those first scripts are not about "learning to write", i think they're about learning to re-write: to cut out the things you love sometimes and to admit to yourself that no one is getting it because you didn't write it well enough, not because they "don't understand".
in my first scripts (and my other writing), i wanted to keep everything just as it was, I was so attached to every word and scene and character. but i think with a good re-write, any script can be brought to life. i think most of us just abandon our first scripts after we learn from them. but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't have potential.

personally, i subscribe to Anne Lamott's idea of shitty first drafts. a lot of people can start writing a novel, they can start writing a screenplay. but not many can finish it, and even fewer can re-write it. so I think the 10,000 hours is just about learning to respect your art as work and a craft, and it's about whether you have the dedication to stick around even after you see how much it hurts to write and throw it away.

It's disingenuous when applied to screenwriting as you spend 90% of your time thinking and not writing. If you count the thinking, mental story solving,and daydreaming, I'm *way* past 10,000 hours.

But yeah, practice makes perfect. Kind of an obvious statement, really.

I now realize my first script was a puzzle, an obscure journey through my subconscious.

It was amazing and still it is to me.

I can see myself in a mirror, but how on earth was I going to let someone read it?

It's so personal, so dripping with primeval fluids even I cannot afford to read it again.

Screenwriting and a search for storytelling came two years later.

I apologize to the one people who read it at the Nicholl.

M.

I'm in a weird position on this one, because even my first script was good.

Good. Not great. Somewhat derivative, unstructured, and with its fair share of cliches... but nonetheless lauded by a fellow writer (who went on to turn pro with a six-fig sale before he died... RIP Bruce) as the best first screenplay he'd ever read.

My mom's a journalist (freelance, used to be staff for like 20 years) and my talent has never been in question. Her philosophy is "kill your quota" -- get the garbage out of your system to get to the good stuff buried deep. In a way, it's almost worse to know your potential and be frustrated at how slow it takes to realize it than it is to not have any inherent ability.

My first few scripts (before I took a five-year sabbatical from screenwriting) weren't great. But they were valuable in helping me learn process and what doesn't work. Time well-spent.

I actually gave one of my first scripts as a reading sample to a producer once, with the qualification: It's one of my first scripts, not very good.

Hm... didn't ever do that again.

My first scripts? Simply proof for myself that I sat down and learned the craft. You finish a script, you know what it takes. You get feedback on the script, you know how much further you've got to go.

I don't much like the metaphor of the graves, but that's just me. I prefer to think of my writing in the same way I would think about learning to paint or play a musical instrument. I look back on my first efforts with affection and amusement. What else can you expect from someone just starting out?

After that, it's perseverance that counts. Getting to that 10,000 hour mark (or whatever it takes...).

By the way, Malcolm Gladwell is fond of relating how he gave up competitive running as a young man. He was actually a very good athlete and could have made a career out of it, were it not for the fact that at some point he realized: I want to do other things with my life. That's when he realized he didn't have what it takes to be a top-notch professional athlete. Not because he didn't have the physique, but because he wasn't single-minded enough about it.

My two cents...

Dave

My first scripts got me consider the writer but didn't win any contests.
I'll take the prodco reads.

I find when I read scripts that most have no IMAGES; no scene transitions; no character parallels; you know the things that make the MOVIE.

The thing I did was to not write one Act without the equivalent of a few semesters in Tisch. I studied mainly Film History and philosophy rather than screenwriting books.