Is Your Script Undeniable?
The key to writing a great script: work harder than everyone else
Today’s edition of Sticky Notes focuses on something that could probably wait till the very end of the writing process. But this newsletter isn’t a book. It’s not a workshop. It’s one working writer’s insights into improving your writing and knowing what to do with your script once it’s finished. So with that in mind, today I want to focus on what it takes to get your stuff read.
I feel like this is part of the process that screenwriting teachers and authors too often ignore. They’re great at offering tips on how to write a screenplay, but they fail to guide you on what to do once your script is actually done. Part of the reason for this is that many of these teachers don’t know the answer. Another is that getting your stuff read in a meaningful way is really fucking difficult.
Getting someone who “matters” to read your screenplay is almost as hard as writing the script itself. In some ways, it may be harder. Perhaps this is why screenwriting book authors don’t tell you how to get your stuff read; you might discover how difficult it really is and never bother with their books in the first place.
Before I offer the various paths to getting your stuff read, let me be the first to dissuade you from giving up before you begin. I say this because one quality trumps all: No matter what the obstacles, talent will overcome.
There are just so many bad screenplays, by both amateurs and professionals alike, that quality screenplays are few and far between. Development executives are trained to say ‘no’ more than ‘yes’, but an undeniable script is an undeniable script. Producers will want it.
Which brings me to the first route to getting your material read by people who can actually buy it:
Just because the words are corny doesn’t make them less true. You can’t approach this like everybody else and ignore the truth of what it’s going to take to elevate your writing beyond a hobbyist. You have no choice but to write an undeniable screenplay.
When I say undeniable, I mean undeniable. I mean that your script is so damn good that it doesn’t matter how it enters the mix, how low its first reader lies on the totem pole. It will work its way forward, step by step, peon by peon, because each reader will know that if they don’t say ‘yes’ to this material, someone else will and their career may be over.
Of all the scripts aspiring writers have asked me to read over the years, exactly zero have been undeniable. The vast majority have been complete crap. A few have been worth rewriting. Zero have been undeniable. I say this not to discourage you, but quite the opposite - most people simply don’t put in the work it takes to make their scripts undeniable. It’s not a matter of talent (I am a firm believer that everyone has talent), but effort, and most are not willing to make the effort. Perhaps you are different.
It’s a shame so few people make the effort because I know many producers who are desperate for undeniable voices. It’s not even about finding a million-dollar script; it’s about discovering a million-dollar writer. When I wrote the script that would basically introduce me to the town and determine whether I was going to have a career or not - I wrote eleven drafts before we thought it was close to undeniable. That’s after many drafts of outlines and innumerable polishes. It was painstaking and detailed and exhausting. And it was putting a lot of eggs in one basket.
It’s worth noting that while my fate as a writer was tied directly to how that script was received, our focus was less on whether the script would sell and more on establishing myself as a legitimate writer. The writing had to be so good that it didn’t matter if the script ever sold.
I can’t emphasize this point enough - at this stage in your career, your goal is less about writing something that sells and more about proving you have the chops to become someone producers will have confidence hiring to write projects for which they need professional writers. You are establishing yourself as a craftsperson, as a professional, which is much more important over the long term than offering a cool or inventive idea.
It’s easy for me to insist that you write an undeniable script, but how do you know when your script is undeniable? I’m not going to lie, this is the million-dollar question, especially if you don’t have an agent or manager or someone steeped in reading scripts for a living to help you along. To make matters even harder, most people who work in the business will read at most two drafts of your script before they move on. More than likely, you will only get one read, especially if your script isn’t dripping with potential. I was only able to get help with eleven drafts because I had a manager. He had a financial incentive to help. I was at a huge advantage.
So how can you get your undeniable script read by the kinds of people you need to read to it? I’ll tell you in the next newsletter.