Mind Your Business. Michele Wallerstein

is an obnoxious murderer. By the end of the movie, the audience understands him and has some sympathy for the child he once was and the unhappy adult he became. Of course our real sympathy goes out to Sister Prejean, played by the great Susan Sarandon. There must be someone to root for in a film — a character whom the audience sides with, and in whose future the audience invests. This character need not be the lead. It may be a juicy character role — the protagonist's parent or even grandparent, for example. Anyone in the screenplay will do, as long as we care about someone.

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      Certainly there are more facets to a good screenplay than those I've just introduced, and those you will learn in film schools and books. The professional-looking format and the short exposition matter quite a bit. However, if you want to raise the standard of excellence in your writing, I suggest you concentrate heavily on seeing if the five points above are well covered in your next project. Go the extra mile. These five points will separate you from the crowd, and will turn a comedy, thriller, drama, family film, or love story into a great screenplay.

      

EXERCISES

      1. Write a history of each main character in your story or screenplay

      2. Write a description of the psychological makeup for each of these characters.

      3. Review your story to see what you really want to tell the world.

      4. Write what it is that your main character needs to overcome and how you will resolve his or her dilemma.

NO ONE TO BLAME BUT YOURSELF 4

      To have a successful career, a writer must make many decisions that have nothing to do with the act of setting down words on paper. These decisions have harmed and even destroyed the careers of some of the most accomplished talents. The potential problems may arise without your seeing them as problems at all, but if you make the wrong choice it may be catastrophic. I will try to help you avoid some of the major issues that you will face.

      Writers are terribly insecure when they put that first toe in the water. They often feel that it might be easier if they had a partner. You may think that by having a partner you will avoid dry spells, because when you are out of ideas, your partner will come up with some. You may hate the idea of sitting all alone every day and starring at that blank computer screen. Of course we have all heard the old adage that “two heads are better than one.” Well, think again.

      As an agent I always preferred writers who work solo. Early on in my career I learned that partnerships inevitably break up and it was usually impossible to get an assignment for one-half of a team, whether they were well-known or not.

      If you decide you really must work in a partnership, the best situation would be finding someone with similar likes and dislikes — someone with whom you can spend many, many hours within a closed room. It would also be better if you both smoked or hated smoking, if you both liked working all night or were both morning people. It would be great if at least one of you could make great coffee or repair a computer. Many things one needs from a partner seem inconsequential at first, but may become enormous issues after a few months. Sounds like a marriage, and in many ways it is.

      You also need someone with at least a modicum of discipline and who is in it with you for the long haul. This last point is crucial. During my agency tenure I represented a fairly successful comedy writing team of two middle-aged women. They were smart, funny, and actively involved in their sitcom-writing career. They were both married. One writer had been a comic actress and was married to a comedian. One was a little ditzy, the other was more grounded. They balanced each other quite well. I'll call them Mitzi and Fritzi. I loved them and was thrilled to be their agent. They had been together for a while but eventually things began to break down between them. Just when I thought we were about to break through and get them a staff job for a sitcom, they broke up their partnership. It destroyed both of their writing careers. No one, not even I, could tell whether it was Mitzi or Fritzi who had more of the writing chops. Neither of them would write spec scripts. They felt it was beneath them and that their “credits” were enough. Once a team is established, they are not trusted by anyone to write separately. I was so sorry to see them go as clients. They never worked much as writers again.

      The breakup of writing partnerships happens more often than not. It is, without a doubt, devastating to the careers of both writers. Let me reiterate that if you can write alone, please do so.

      At some point during your pursuit of a career, another writer may ask you to partner up on a project. The final product will never be a good writing sample for you because no one will know which one of you did most of the creative work. Writing samples are paramount to your writing career. You need as many of them as possible, and all of them should be original scripts that have been written by you alone.

      Recently I was a guest speaker at a writers’ conference and had a private consultation with an interesting woman. Here was her conundrum: She was just starting a screenwriting career and felt that since she was middle-aged and female that it would be impossible for her to be accepted into the male and obsessively youth-oriented “biz.” She had decided to put her adult son's name on her screenplays as either the writer or perhaps her co-writer. She suggested that if her scripts garnered any interest and generated any meetings, he would go to them alone. She asked my advice about this situation. I was appalled.

      My chief horror was that it was a lie. Lying in any business or in any facet of one's life is always a poor choice. This terrible subterfuge cannot continue in a writer's career. Suppose she was to have a meeting. How would her son be able to talk intelligently about the project, or pitch her other ideas, or come up with ways of making the script better? How would he be able to answer on-the-spot questions about the characters of “his” writing process? All in all, it just wouldn't work. I explained to her that when it comes to original screenplays, no one cares how old you are or which sex you are or if you are a green elf. It is all about the script itself. If it is great it will sell. You will probably be re-written no matter who you are. Be proud of having done a great job. Be proud of who you are. Writing samples are usually sent out prior to a meeting so the reader doesn't know anything about the writer personally. The written word speaks for itself. If you have the talent, people will want you and your work. I've found that your attitude is more important than your age or sex. If you are older than everyone else in the meeting and you have a condescending or patronizing attitude toward these younger people, you will not be welcomed back. I know it's difficult to listen to advice from people younger than you are, but that's the name of the game.

      If you have a good sense of humor and a positive attitude you will be accepted. It's up to you.

      Here is another issue that I've known to be a hard choice for writers. Currently, novel agents and novel publishers want books that can be sold later as motion pictures. It is a very high priority in this field. Opting for whichever medium suits you and your story idea is completely your choice. This is a question of following your heart or perhaps following the momentary fad of the business. If you write purely for a sale, and out of panic, there will be a hole in the work that the reader can detect either consciously or unconsciously, and your reputation will be hurt. You simply cannot please everyone. Writing is difficult at best, but when it is forced into a genre that you don't love, your writing will suffer. When writing from your heart you may not sell the work but you will have a wonderful writing sample. This will eventually do more good for you than you can imagine.

      The harsh rules of business have intruded irrevocably on your esthetic world. Not only must books be movies, but movie producers and studios want to sell their soundtracks and turn their movies into video games, DVD sales, board games, and toys because the “backend” monies can be huge to a studio. Motion picture financiers want big movies based on comic books, so people are trying to get comic books published before they think they can sell their scripts.

      No matter what changes occur in our business, the same rule will always apply to writers working on spec screenplays: