Help Yourself and Others by Writing the Best Screenplay Ever

The following Village Voice article by Josh Olson (screenwriter of Academy Award nominee A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) has been making the rounds among Hollywood.

If you haven’t read it, click on the link and read it before you go on reading my blog post:
http://tinyurl.com/m8a5u

And while the article is pretty harsh I do understand his point. EVERYONE in the world wants to be a screenwriter. No really. I have traveled all over the world and no matter where I am or who I am talking with — people all have a great story that they swear would be an amazing movie.

True story: My business partner and I were staying at a friend’s apartment in New York.  And after a week we were on a friendly nod basis with the night doorman. Somehow he found out that we repped writers, and lo and behold he sent us his script — something about an Estonian kidnapping (or some other Slavic country).

This brings me to my point: As managers our time is our most valuable resource.  There are only so many hours in the day, and with 25 clients …. there is very little free time.

Or think about it this way: I have to read all the scripts my clients send me, plus the scripts that are sent to them for their writing and directing consideration, plus scripts from all my friends who have possible clients for me.

If you saw the stacks and stacks of scripts next to my bed you would understand why it’s very hard to read scripts from people I don’t know.  However, sometimes I will agree to read a script from someone who I have just met.

But do yourself a favor — MAKE IT THE BEST SCRIPT EVER.  Take the time to really give yourself the best shot. Have your friends read it and give you notes. And when they are satisfied with it, take it to a professional reader to get it an unbiased opinion.

Your script can always improve, and if you are going to give it to someone who works in the industry, first make sure it is up to professional standards.

Because not only are you hurting yourself, but you are hurting the next person.  I promise you, if the treatment Josh Olson read was AMAZING, he would be more inclined to read the next person’s treatment. Instead, he is now not going to read anyone’s.

Which is exactly why we have a strict submission policy that scripts have to get covered first by the coverage service we know and trust.  And if a script gets a recommend, the coverage services will pass it on to me. But if the script doesn’t get a recommend, I have saved myself valuable time by not reading a bad script.

If you want to be a working writer in Hollywood and are going to ask someone to read your script, it is your job to make it the best possible script in the world.