It doesn’t matter how old or how young you are, what color skin you have, if you’re rich, poor, or somewhere in between. It doesn’t matter if you live in Los Angeles, New York, Wisconsin, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, or wherever. If you write beautifully, no one can take that away from you. And if you are creative and persistent, that work will be recognized.
This is coming from one of the greatest and most revered writers in history. Be humble.
This is why rejection hurts so bad. It’s not just the writing being rejected. It’s our souls, too, because that’s what screenwriters give—or should give—to each and every script. A piece of them.
Wise words when it comes to dialogue. Writers need to say those words, preferably in the manufactured mindsets of their characters. Either do it under your breath in the coffee shop or find an empty room and act it out. This process will not only change your dialogue for the better, it will change every aspect of your writing.
Set out to entertain yourself. You can’t possibly know how millions of other people are going to react—or even how a handful of Hollywood contacts reading your script will. But you can go in knowing that there are millions of people out there that like the movies you like.
Your first paycheck is magical. There’s no feeling like it.
It’s not just about the money.
Money can—and will—be spent. Credits lasts forever and mean the most to those holding the keys to the kingdom.
You will write some terrible scripts, make no mistake. It’s a guarantee. The real secret to success is learning to tell the difference between what is great and what is horrible, and everything in between.
Again… be humble.
No excuses.
A truth floating around in Hollywood today—the cream will rise. If you’ve honed your craft, if the concepts are original, if the delivery is solid, and if you have your own voice—the cream will rise.
Whether it’s good, bad, or somewhere in between—own your writing.
When you embark on that next screenplay, you are exploring The Twilight Zone. Most people don’t understand it. Most people don’t understand how, where, and why writers get their ideas. They don’t understand how they conjure those characters. This is where we go—The Twilight Zone. We create sounds, visuals, and we affect the mind of the audience and reader. We do so by sometimes taking them into the shadows to thrill or frighten. We accompany that by injecting substance, ideas, and notions.
We’ll see you in The Twilight Zone, Mr. Serling. MM
This post originally appeared on the blog ScreenCraft. ScreenCraft is dedicated to helping screenwriters and filmmakers succeed through educational events, screenwriting competitions and the annual ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship program, connecting screenwriters with agents, managers and Hollywood producers. Follow ScreenCraft on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
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