This is a simple one pulpsters. So simple that it escapes everyone's notice:
If you want to be a better writer, then be a better reader.
This is your homework assignment for the rest of the year. Read one screenplay every two weeks. That's seven screenplays. They can be anything you want, but they have to have been produced.
But Bill, I don't have the time to read a screenplay!
Gee, then I guess a development executive doesn't either...
Screenwriting is one of those jobs where you always have homework. Always. It means reading and watching and absorbing, all on top of the writing you're already doing.
But I'm stuck here in the middle of (insert name of bumfuck town here). I can't get hold of scripts to read.
I guess you don't want to make a living writing screenplays. I was "stuck" in the small town of Aiken, SC (and this was before the age of the internet) and I managed to do it. You've got all sorts of resources on the web to download and read scripts. Take advantage of it. If you don't, the other guy will. (That would be the guy who's going to sell that script and/or make that film)
Think of all this as career development, the stuff you would be doing anyway if you worked on the line at the local plant. It's required for you to progress to the next pay grade in your job.
Now get back to work.
1 comment:
Amen, Bill! I don't understand why anyone who wanted to be at the top of their creative game wouldn't constantly be educating themselves, in whatever most relevant form that would take.
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