How do I protect my idea?

Everyone always wants to know how to keep their original concepts from getting stolen.  Well, I got news for you.  It’s not that easy for someone to just run off and write a great movie even if they did take your idea.  It’s certainly not easy to sell it.  Let alone get it made.  Just ask anyone who’s been trying for a year.  Or seven.  Or more.  And it’s easier to fit a small rhinoceros into a toaster than to sell just a concept on its own.  You know how many spec screenplays are registered with the WGA each year?  Around 50,000.  You know how many scripts are bought each year?  Around 50.  You do the math.  This is to say nothing of the fact that there are really only seven plots anyway.  Chances are your idea has been done.  Somewhere.  Somehow.  Someway.  It’s all about what you do with it.  How you make it your own. So do that.  As best as you can.  Then throw caution to the wind.  Get it out there to anyone and everyone who will read it.  Enter it in festivals.  Contests.  Poetry slams.  Get it to anyone in the business who can get you in the door.  Don’t insist on NDA’s.  Remember, producers and agents and executives all have mountains of scripts piled all over their desks and couches and air conditioning units and are looking for any reason not to read them.  So don’t put up any roadblocks.  If you’re going to insist on anything, insist on buying them lunch, or chocolate, or a new refrigerator if they read your work.  If, however, you do want to sleep soundly at night knowing your work is indeed protected, all you have to do is this…

Register it with the writers guild here:
http://www.wgawregistry.org/webrss
 

Trust me, trust them.  They’ve been protecting ideas just like yours since 1927.  It takes 3 minutes.  Costs $20 bucks.  And anyone can do it.  Should you copyright it, patent it, mail a certified copy to yourself?  No need.  Once you register it with the guild, it’s stored for five years.  If after five years you haven’t been able to do anything with the idea and you’re still afraid of it getting stolen, check yourself into a facility.  Or re-register it again.  Then at least you'll know it's safe and sound for another five years.  Sleep well.

To Partner or Not to Partner

That is the question… posed by many a writer since the dawn of time.  Sure, there are perks of having a collaborator to confide in, collaborate with, to count on.  But what if they don’t like you ending sentences with prepositions?  What if they don’t like asking rhetorical questions?  Where are you then?  You’re mired in conflict is where.  And that’s got its slings and arrows too:  a) mental health  b) physical health  c) emotional health  d) all of the above.  After all, it’s not easy to sleep at night when you’re at odds over characters and commas.  Especially if there’s money on the line.  

Say you sell your screenplay for $100,000.  Not a bad day at the office, right?  But once your agent, lawyer, union, taxman and partner take their cut, you’re at $25k.  If the endeavor took you 12 weeks working 8 hours a day, you’re making $50 an hour. Sure you wanna share?  Well, if it’s going to get you where you want faster, funner, better than flying solo, then hell yeah, why not?  It all really comes down to you.  It’s not for everyone.  But then again, neither is Chunky Monkey.  Ask yourself… am I invigorated by the process of working with someone else?  Inspired to do my best?  Able to check my ego at the door?  Only you can answer these questions.  If you decide to go down the partnership path, here are a few suggestions… 

Find someone compatible in style, so it won’t seem like your writing is modern and theirs medieval.  But look for a different skillset.  If you’re a story pro, but need perspective on character growth, find someone who’s a champ at that.  Select  someone who shares the same work ethic, will be candid but tactful in communication and fills in the blanks when you’re staring at the page.  Are they willing to go the distance, not only with the writing, but with the selling?  Like a marriage, it’s not going to be hunky dory all the time.  But in a good partnership the good times will far outweigh the bad ones.  And in the end, you will have a created a kick ass piece of writing that can win over the blackest of hearts… together.  

Is it done yet?

When are you finished writing your screenplay?  This is one of the most common quandaries for all writers, which often has them pacing circles around the kitchen in the wee hours of the night.  The pros usually write and rewrite and revise up until, well, the last possible second before it’s contractually due.  Often times, they scribble itsy bitsy revisions well past the deadline, much to the chagrin of the exec in charge.   Note:  Best not to give the guy paying you agita with a late draft.  It’s a bit more nebulous for the aspiring writer.  Sure, you can set yourself goals, but at the end of the day, it’s pie in the sky, right?  I’ve seen many a wannabe scribe take six weeks, six months or even six years to complete a script.  (Yes, six years.  Don’t laugh.  It could happen to you.)  And like Ford Pintos, many scripts are just abandoned.  Once you’re swirling around the dark bowels of the second act trying to figure out just how to get a stripper with a heart of gold plausibly through Yale law, you might get stuck, lost, and realize it’d be easier for you to go to law school than finish your script.  I think the best rule of thumb for knowing when you’re done is when you start rewriting what you already rewrote and then change it back to what you originally had written.   You get there, put the pen down and step away from the pad.  After all, writing is subjective.   There is no correct answer.  No X = 3.14.  Just make the script the best it can be today.  Then send it out.  And start another one. 

Writer's Block - Be Gone

Ah, ye olde writer’s block.  The oft regaled mental condition that has caused many a writer to drink, caffeinate, dust, vacuum, cut off various body parts and say sayonara to the world.  If Pfizer could come up with a pill for it, I’m sure they would.  But they haven’t.  Lest we are left to contend with this bitch on our own.  Where does it come from? How do we make it go away?  Well, ever stop to think that the drinking and caffeinating and Zolofting we do to contend with the issue might be part of the problem?  Not to mention the sugar and Splenda and dairy et al with which we self-doctor our concoctions.  First things first, clear the mind.  Eat a vegetable.  Do a cleanse.  Put down the Diet Coke.  Go for a run.  Close Facebook.  Meditate.  Next, put your ass in the chair.   Silly as it may seem, if you don’t make time for writing, it ain’t going to happen.  I don’t care how many times you circle your kitchen contemplating an inciting incident.  Sit down and face the blank page.  Third, make sure you know where you’re going.  If you don’t know what your hero wants, you’ll get lost in the middle. If you don’t know what he needs, you’ll get lost everywhere.  Get clear on the answers to those two questions and you’ll have a fair compass to guide you through most storms.  And lastly, know that not everything is within your control.  Eek!  A difficult pill to swallow, pardon the expression, for we writers who think everything we type is.  After all, it’s just us, a screen and a keypad.  Or is it?  If creativity is the spawn of God, Source, Universe, The Big Kahuna, then perhaps there’s a force greater than us wielding the pen.  And it may have its own way of doing things.  So don’t force it.  Instead, listen.  The words will come, especially if you’re not high on Chai.  

How do I get an agent?

This is probably the most commonly asked question by aspiring screenwriters.  After all, you can’t get work as a screenwriter without an agent, but no agent wants to represent you unless you have work. So how do you do it?  The first thing is to write a great script!  No easy task, mind you.  But know that great scripts do stand out.  To agents, producers, directors, actors, studio execs.  Hell, to every busboy in the greater Los Angeles area.  And word travels fast.  So learn the craft, write a great story, rewrite it till your blue in the face, then send it out.  To who?  Anyone you know who has a connection to agents in Hollywood.  It could be your Aunt Martha’s dentist in Poughkeepsie who has a son-in-law who is sleeping with a girl whose roommate is an assistant to Tori Spelling.  Remember people aren’t always crazy about being asked to help, but often take a fancy to being asked for advice.  So ever so politely inquire if they have the bandwith to tell you what they think of your script.  If they think it’s good, then ask if there’s someone they know at an agency that might like to read it.  More often than not they do.  In the perfect world, they’ll want to play some part in the project as well.  Thank them profusely for sending it over and go with God. That’s it?  That’s it.  Sure, you can do the requisite follow-up with the agents, but don’t hock ‘em.  They have 80 other scripts on their desk to read, and chances are the folks who sent those probably know someone who slept with someone too.