Screenwriting : Embracing the Journey: Turning Writers Into Entrepreneurs by Maurice Vaughan

Great article!

The majors commission what they want, and they don't commission from unknowns. There are some indie producers who occasionally buy scripts they've seen in contests and lookbooks and sometimes from cold pitches on sites like S32. But this isn't a regular predictable thing. It's timing and luck and serendipity.

For an amateur, especially if you're young (younger than me!) you can see everything you're doing now as a calling card to get staffed on someone else's gig, and then over the course of your career you can carve out a reputation, until eventually you can get your own ideas made.

But if you're really trying to get your own material made now, the best way to proceed is to see yourself as your own producer. As you build a marketable property with pitch decks and other materials you'll undoubtedly go back and improve your script too. Which puts you in a better position if serenity happens (you make your own luck).

So that's what I'm doing. It's working so far.

Glad to hear it's working for you, John Carter! Congratulations! I wouldn't say it has anything to do with luck though. It's hard work, determination, skill, and timing. Luck undermines what creatives do.

"As you build a marketable property with pitch decks and other materials you'll undoubtedly go back and improve your script too." Definitely. I've also used pitch decks to outline scripts instead of doing what I usually do (outline in Microsoft Word). When I outline with a pitch deck, I basically already have the pitch deck ready for when it's time to pitch. I like outlining in Microsoft Word mostly though, because it's easier to navigate the outline that way, and I can turn the outline into a treatment after I finish the script.

Knowing how the economics work and combining that with what you want to say as an artist changes the game completely.

I wrote something similar a few years back. Scripts, Cheeseburgers, and Why Every Screenplay Submission Is a Business Proposition

Terrific blog and metaphor, CJ Walley! As I read the metaphor, I kept thinking “this person (writer) is pitching to the wrong restaurant owner (producer).” I used to be that way, until I started researching who I was gonna pitch to. I make a section in my outline titled “Producers, Directors, Production Companies, Streamers, Etc. to Pitch to” when I start outlining a script.

Writers should check out your blog and ask themselves the questions in it. I haven’t thought about the question “Does this script contain content that kills off valuable regions in terms of potential sales?” I will now. Thanks. And thanks for sharing the blog.

Thank you Maurice Vaughan for sharing my blog and the good words about it! You are a brand yourself and I love that on you :))

Thank you CJ Walley for sharing your link, I love the title :)) Go to read! I love to read when you write! And, at the end, everything it’s a business:))

I agree with you John Carter and thanks for sharing your thoughts:))

You're welcome, Sandra Isabel Correia.

long time Maurice, I'm back

hope all is well

This is sooo Spot-on!!

Thank you Mark Films :))

Welcome back, Jon Seidman. Things are great. How are you doing?