Film Courage: Let’s say I finish my first draft…what am I doing?
Who am I showing it to?
What am I thinking?
Vicki Peterson, co-author: Well the very first thing you should do when you finish a first
draft is go out and celebrate, truly.
There are so many people who start a draft and never finish.
And by just finishing a draft you’ve probably put yourself in the top ten percent of all
screenwriters just by doing that one thing.
And seeing something to completion, seeing a first draft come to life that’s a really
huge accomplishment, especially for a first-time writer.
So we really encourage people to take note of that, to celebrate.
And then I would say after that take a little break from writing so that you can be fresh
so that you can come back to it with new eyes.
Now the first draft is just the very, very, very beginning of a very long journey towards
being produced or being a professional screenwriter.
And so after you’ve had a chance to take a break it’s really important to go back
to that draft and look at it through the eyes of an editor to really look at it objectively
so that you can rewrite it.
And in our book [Notes to Screenwriters: Advancing Your Story, Screenplay, and Career With Whatever
Hollywood Throws at You] we have a whole chapter on rewriting and things that you can do to
get your script ready.
When it’s ready to be seen by eyes other than your own we generally recommend that
this is where you would send it to your writer’s group, this is where you would get professional
feedback where you really need mentorship, where you really need somebody who can guide
you through the rewrite process.
And once that happens, once you have a working draft that you can send out, that’s when
you start contacting producers, that’s when you can start sending it out to festivals
and contests and things like that.
Generally speaking we find that people have more success working with producers (independent
producers) and teaming up with people in that way as opposed to trying to get an agent or
a manager right out of the gate.
It’s pretty rare that that scenario happens with a first-time writer.
So work with the connections that you have, make sure that you’re networking, make sure
that you’re sending it to people that you know.
And of it really is truly ready to send out to the world, you should be getting back some
pretty positive responses at that time.
Barbara Nicolosi, co-author: I would say also that the thing about a first project is you’re
not writing it to be made.
You’re writing it to be your calling card.
So every writer needs to have a couple of scripts that they can show as this is an example
of what I can do.
I know my craft, I know the business of this art form, I can martial people’s emotions,
I can take a character on a journey because nobody is going to buy your first script or
your first two scripts.
You’re looking to get work.
You’re looking for people to say “Wow.
You know what you’re doing.
I have this little project and we need a writer for it.”
So that’s why you don’t want your first project to be your kind of weird, highly-stylized
passion project because nobody wants to make that.
They’re looking to see can you do a good basic job at your craft.
We need a writer to deliver.
Vicki Peterson: That’s strong in tone and genre and can really deliver strong characters
and a plot that moves.
Barbara Nicolosi: So a lot people have the wrong sample script, they have the wrong idea
of it and then they are just constantly holding out hope that somebody is going to buy this
script and they miss the fact that no, that’s not what it’s for.
For somebody starting out, you’re trying to get work and you’re trying to show you
know your business, you know your field.
We stress that with writers all the time.
The truth is the first script probably nobody should ever see, your second script very rarely
should anybody see.
But okay now you’re in your third project, your fourth project and now you’re getting
stuff that should be seen.
But again, know what you’re doing with it.
This is a sample of your best work, it’s a sample of what you can do.
So again, two different projects, one is more your particular voice the other one really
shows us as Vicki says you understand genre, you understand the basic structure of storytelling
because that’s this mysterious thing to producers, directors and actors and they don’t
know where that comes from and they need writers who can do that.
And so you’ve got to be able to show I’m one of those people who can do that.
The main point of creating this is to be your sample.
Vicki Peterson: And what’s also extremely important is that this is your first script
and you’ve gotten it to a place where it is ready to show people.
Typically the best thing you can do at that point is to set it aside and write something
else.
And write your second script and get that to a place where you can show people because
then you have two things that you can show because this business is funny that way.
They see something that they like that is maybe not for them, they’re going to say
“Wow, I like this writer.
What else do they have?”
And if you don’t have anything else then that says that you’re not ready yet to be
a professional.
So you really need to have some things under your belt.
Barbara Nicolosi: And oh by the way your first project probably should be a feature.
Your first project should probably be a short film.
Or an Internet web series that are five 2-minute episodes.
Or something that kind of moves you into the feature realm.
The feature storytelling is the hardest kind of visual storytelling to do so why would
you start with that.
You know, you’ve got to walk before you can run.
But you’ll have more confidence as you have these little projects and then you work your
way up and say “Now I’m ready to write my feature.”
It’s amazing how many people start writing an epic scope…
Vicki Peterson: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA!
Barbara Nicolosi: A hundred million dollar big-budget thing and it’s their first project.
And it’s like you’re just not ready to do that.
Again, go back to the metaphor of the architect.
Don’t design a skyscraper as your first thing and your first project needs to be small
in scope so you can get better.