Screenwriting : Screenwriting, Networking, Learning by Josiah Bhola Hillaire

There are about 1/2 million scripts floating around Hollywood and more every day.

It's a mindset thing...I've set myself to have short produced, happened in 2015, I've set myself to have a feature produced, did it on hire this year, into preparations...I've set myself to sell a spec...producer's reading it upon his request as I write this...

Simple, Josiah Bhola Hillaire, it's not easy.

There's no formula to "make it", whether it be in Hollywood or elsewhere in life. It's all about perspective, my friend.

A screenwriter should master the craft, build up a portfolio of great scripts, build relationships/network, learn the business side of the industry, pitch constantly, and be determined if they want to make it, Josiah Bhola Hillaire, but "make it" means different things to different writers. "Make it" could mean selling a script, having a steady career, etc.

TREMENDOUSLY slim odds of ever "making it." There are countless factors involved. If just starting out, test the waters by entering A LOT of festivals and competitions. If you earn some recognition for your writing skills, build upon it. Just be aware of the law of averages-- There will be TONS of "non-wins" combating your legit "wins." Luck, timing, academics, strong networking abilities also play major roles. Even though I didn't win the screenplay competition at last week's festival, a popular indy actress / senior judge gave me the "inside scoop" on how she was pushing for my script to win against the other judges. We spoke about it at the party following the awards presentation. She actually cited specific scenes in the script and loved the character, Julie Adamson, an Oscar winner who battles a series of physical, mental, and financial setbacks. I informed her that the creative model for the character was Julia Roberts, and that I could see Julianne Moore in the role. Then "dummy me" woke up, pointed to the actress and shouted-- "Or YOU!!!!" I gave her my card and plan on texting her this afternoon.

Josiah Bhola Hillaire I think you'll get a lot of the same answers given when this same question was last posted and a change of mindset was encouraged. "Making it" is enjoying the journey and learning all you can along the way and simply writing the story.

Find joy in family, friends and relationship. That's where the joy is.

You will not have more value when you "make it" than you already have today.

It’s all about time, to review the story, the stories, the characters actions and motivations, and connection to other characters, and the continuity. In one word, it’s all about mature.

It take a long time to "make it" because the checks are always in the mail :)

Seriously, you need to define for yourself what "making it" means.

One of my college mentors won an Oscar for screenwriting and he spent more Time & energy talking about the dream project he could never get produced :(

There is so much noise in this end of town, it takes time to build a reputation that stands out above that noise.

It takes years to develop the mastery of the craft, there is no shortcuts.

There is no real demand for new writers (not a popular statement). Why get new writers when there are pantheon of greats available.

There are a lot of talented people, with excellent stories to tell that are being discarded, big studios are producing remakes, Marvel for example, TV series have gained even more relevance because of this. Even with huge profits, I say approaching the American market, it is still a closed market, everyone knows each other, who has worked at Disney, ABC, CBS and etc and etc. placing a beginner is risky, although this is not 100% the rule. On the other hand, there are many other projects to read. There are a lot of people who join because they are friends with someone, often they don't even have talent, this is a bad networking, I think. But I believe it's not impossible to get in, today we have other script professionals, for example, doing workshops, even online script rooms. If you believe in your talent go deep, study, read and watch everything TV, Cinema, Streaming watch everything the world produces, don't be limited to what the United States produces.

The screenwriter who's made it is the screenwriter who derives fulfilment from their work, which is a combination of creative expression, satisfying compensation, and reaching an audience.

There are many very happy screenwriters out there we've never heard of, who've made projects we've never heard of, and probably will never hear about.

One of the most enlightening things and creative can do is read "Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction" as it demonstrates how much fame and fortune is down to luck. It puts to bed all this Disney nonsense that success is a factor of hard work, patience, and determination. There are screenwriters who have walked into dream careers and seen those careers skyrocket because they were simply in the right place at the right time. Read the biographies. You'll see it over and over. That's life. It's isn't fair. There isn't a formula. You have to find peace with that and derive satisfaction from the things that are available to you right now.

It's really easy to focus on the tiny percentile of outliers and sit around waiting for it to happen to you, believing that writing x number of scripts, or entering that next competition is going to be the magic bullet that turns your life around, and it's easy to sit around fantasising about that for decades. It's far harder to look at how most screenwriters actually survive trying to build a career (if they ever build one at all) and the day to day obstacles they face.

It's easy to listen to those outliers too, who'll tell you it's all going to come together like it did for them because they're unwittingly suffering from survivorship bias.

Last year, a film I wrote and co-produced became one of the most watched low-budget films on Amazon Prime US. Nobody cared. Three months later, I was drinking myself to sleep because my next release was suffering a bot attack on IMDb. It's absolutely brutal out there, and people spend far too much time preparing themselves what colour Porsche they'll order next year than the reality of working in film.

Find your happy place now and carry that forward with you.

Thank you all

@CJ Walley - Today I learned there are IMDb bot attacks. I'm so sorry that happened. Makes me wonder where those originate from.

When there is such great work out there right? All i can say is keep pushing .

You're welcome, Josiah.

To answer your question most never do. Only about 1 in 4,000 screenwriters will ever make any money writing screenplays. So unless you are writing for the love of it you are doing it for the wrong reason. However here is a reason why it takes so long. There are probably at least 150,000 unsold spec screenplays floating around Hollywood on any given day. Out of those maybe 100 or 200 will sell in a good year. Most people in business know that finding a first screenplay that is worthy of production would be like finding a needle in a haystack. When someone has five or six screenplays under their belt they have a slim chance of making it because more people are willing to read their screenplays. By the time a screenwriter has eight or nine screenplays under their belt, they probably made a few legitimate contacts in the business, and contacts are everything in this “it’s a who you know” business. Those are the reasons I call this a tournament kind of career.

@Leonardo Ramirez - Didn't suffer it until my third release. Just watched the IMDb rating get spammed with one-star reviews relentlessly for days. Happened just after we broke into the top twenty on iTunes.

Apparently, it's very common, and there's really nothing IMDb seemed prepared to do about it. Hard to say where it comes from too, as it could just be one disgruntled individual who has an axe to grind and pays for it to be done.

I wrote a blog about going through it all which you can read here.

@CJ Walley - That was a gut-wrenching read. I went through a smaller version of that with my books. It was nowhere to that large a scale but it was clearly a targeted attack since the person reviewing had no reviews elsewhere. I remember a time where if someone didn't like a movie or show, they simply didn't watch it. Today, folks make it their life mantra to destroy someone.

This is a great line and something we should remember: "online haters are an inevitable side-effect of success and a marker point that you’re having an impact."

Thanks so much for being real, CJ.