Learning the Craft
What is the craft? It’s not just writing a screenplay.
What is the craft? It’s not just writing a screenplay.
What is the craft?
It’s not just writing a screenplay. Obviously, that is central, but there is so much more.
It’s knowing how to develop, plot, write and rewrite a script with the pressure of a due date.
It’s knowing how to stack projects.
It’s knowing how to research stories in an efficient manner.
It’s knowing how to manage your time.
It’s knowing how to survive successes… and failures.
It’s knowing how to relate to Hollywood types whose life experience may be far different than yours.
It’s knowing that you should always be nice to assistants.
It’s knowing the basics of a deal.
It’s knowing at least some of the basics of movie production.
It’s knowing about writing credits.
It’s knowing to get a damn good lawyer.
And much more.
Some screenwriters may carve out a life whereby they insulate themselves from much of this stuff, indeed, that is the only way they can maintain a home life and protect their creativity.
If you can pull that off, great.
But in my estimation, most screenwriters need to learn many, if not most of the above aspects of the craft.
You can read about it which should be helpful, but much of it you can only learn by trial and error once you’ve broken into the business.
Just be sure to bring the understanding that you need to know a lot more than how to write a script to sustain a career as a writer in Hollywood. You need to know the business of screenwriting, too.