Screenwriters' Survival Tips
From researching the London Screenwriters' Festival archives. I uncovered a document entitled, 60 Screenwriter Survival Tips, written by Screenwriters Danny Stack, Daniel Martin Eckhart, Mark Pallis, Richard Dinnick, Micho Rutare, and David Varela. What could be better than insider information to make it as a professional screenwriter!
Writer’s tips include how to find your genre, writing motives and ambitions, writing for oneself rather than for the media, rejection strategies, sharing enthusiasm, and helping others to help yourself. There were so many excellent ideas included in this jam packed document. Screenwriters Richard Dinnick and Daniel Martin gave the following advice:
“This is your life now. Know who the movers and shakers are. Find out which companies are the ones to follow. Read Broadcast and Variety. Get online! There’s a host of online blogs; there are loads of writers, producers, directors on twitter. There’s a lot of expertise out there for free these days, Use it!” Richard Dinnick
“There's never just the one, don't put all your hopes in one script. It ever so often happens that fresh talents write their first story and then fiddle around with it, shape it and reshapeit ‐ always hoping for this one script to become their big break. Well, 99.999 (keepcounting)% of the odds are against that ever happening. If you rely on the one, you're doomed. Write it, put it aside, write the next one - repeat.” Daniel Martin
"Rejection is the normal state of affairs," according to Screenwriter Richard Dimmick. "Right from the get go, you’re going to be rejected. No one owes you a living! If you can’t handle rejection, this may not be the job for you! I keep all my rejections letters in a folder. They’re a motivational tool–if only for revenge!” Richard Dinnick
Who would have thought of writing for revenge of rejection? Now there’s an interesting motivation.
The last but not least bit of advice is from Mark Pallis, who says, “Just do it.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The London Screenwriters’ festival is an annual three day event for screenwriters, filmmakers, producers, actors, and industry executives to build relationships, share ideas and express creativity, with over 1,000 attendees, 100 sessions, 150 industry expert speakers and the biggest names in film and TV from London Hollywood.
http://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com/assets/50-Screenwriter-Survival-Tips1.pdf
http://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com/
