Read 'Finding an idea for a script' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

If you’re like me you’ve got dozens of seemingly “great” screenplay ideas floating around in your head.  But how do you narrow your ideas down and figure out which ones are worth investing the time and energy to turn into a complete screenplay?

My writing partner, Nathan Ives, and I are close to finishing a screenplay so we’re starting to kick around some ideas for another spec.  Here are some of the considerations that we’ve been talking about when one of us has an idea for a script.

Keep in mind a lot of my considerations have to do with our own writing process.  This blog post is more about me trying to crystallize our process of choosing an idea to write than it is about trying to tell anyone else how they should do it.  Use your own instincts and come up with your own list of considerations.  I’d be curious to hear how other writers narrow down their ideas.

The character driven story

Nathan and I seem to do our best work when we have a strong interesting character driving the story forward.  If you’re good at coming up with interesting stories I don’t think this needs to be a major focus for you at this stage.  Most Hollywood films are story driven not character driven so while this is probably the main focus for us at this point, it definitely does not have to be for others.  But for us to be at our best the story must revolve around a strong willed, often eccentric character (and an equally strong antagonist).  It seems like we usually come up with a loose idea for a story and then figure out our main character and then start to build our story around our main character.  The scripts that have turned out the best are the ones where we we’re able to create a really strong main character (or antagonist) who drives the story forward with a single minded focus.  While the scripts that we’ve written that have felt flat usually rely more heavily on story.

A strong ending

While this may seem obvious, I can’t tell you the number of “great” ideas I’ve had over the years that simply didn’t lead to a highly compelling dramatic ending.  Without a rush at the end your movie will be forgotten and unremarkable.  I recently saw Hamlet 2.  Overall I didn’t think the movie was very good.  Neither the story nor the characters were novel or interesting.  We’ve seen the good hearted teacher teaching kids who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks before and it was pretty obvious where this movie was going to end up.  Much of the comedy felt forced and stilted.  However, the ending was great.  It was funny.  It paid everything off and it made the predictable ending worth watching.  The ending wasn’t surprising but it was very entertaining.  After the movie was done I felt like I enjoyed it because the ending was so strong.  I’m not saying you can save 80 minutes of drek if the last 20 minutes are fantastic but a strong ending can save an otherwise average movie.  And more importantly a really strong ending can make a good movie great.

Don’t start writing your script until you’ve got a great ending worked out.  If the story idea doesn’t naturally end in a big dramatic climactic moment the idea may not be worth pursuing.

A marketing plan

Unless someone is paying you to write a script you should seriously consider taking a step back from your idea and think a little bit about the marketing of your script/film.  The more scripts I’ve written the more I’ve realized how important this step is – because I’ve overlooked it myself on so many projects.

There is really two parts to this when you’re in the early stages of developing a story idea.  First, figuring out how you’re going to pitch your script.  Second, coming up with an actionable list of ways you’re going to get your script made.

Your logline and pitch are what’s going to get this script read.  If people won’t read your script it doesn’t matter how good it is.  I highly recommend that you write your logline before you start writing your script.  If you can’t come up with a great logline it might mean that your story idea isn’t worth pursuing.  Don’t overlook this step and think “once the script is written I’ll be able to come up with a great logline.”  If you can’t do it now you probably won’t be able to do it when the script is finished either.

I highly encourage you to read and follow the advice that I give in my How to Sell Your Screenplay (in a nutshell) post.  While this is certainly an actionable marketing plan it shouldn’t be your only marketing plan.  In fact, sending out cold query letters to production companies, while it can work, should probably be a last resort.  If you’re new to screenwriting it might be your only option but as you develop as a screenwriter I highly encourage you to try and find other avenues for your material.

As an example, the script that Nathan and I are about to finish will go through three marketing phases.

First, our manager will send it to contacts that he personally has and Nathan and I will send it to contacts that we personally have.  A personal contact is a much stronger submission because they’re already at least some-what familiar with your work and are much more likely to give it a real read.

Second, if we don’t get any traction from any of our (or our manger’s) contacts Nathan and I will do a little bit of producing and see if we can raise some (or all) of the money to shoot the movie ourselves.  While this isn’t an easy proposition it’s a great way to learn more about the business side of writing.

Finally, depending on how much of the money we raise (if any) we will then consider sending out cold query letters as I describe in my How to Sell Your Screenplay (in a nutshell) post.  If we’ve raised a significant portion of the money our cold query letters will probably get a much better response rate.  What can you do to increase the response rate you get from cold query letters?

While this may not be a brilliant marketing plan it does give us at least a few clear actionable items to work on.  Of course while we’re pursuing these options we’ll also be starting on our next screenplay.

In the comments section feel free to offer up your own advice for how you narrow down your story ideas and find one to turn into a full screenplay.

Read 'Script Consultants' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

Should you pay a script consultant to read and review your screenplay?

Up until a couple of weeks ago I had never used any paid script consultant services.  If you read my blog you’ll know I’m a big proponent of moving to Los Angeles if you’re serious about screenwriting.  One of the reasons to live in L.A. is that you’ll run into people everywhere you go who are either in the industry or trying to get into the industry and you’ll become friends with many of them.  These friends become a great resource and might be able to evaluate your screenplays for you.

Since moving to Los Angeles I’ve meet many actors, writers, directors and producers.  I now have several good friends who I send my scripts to and can get competent notes from them.  I will often give them my opinion on their projects as well so the relationship is reciprocal.  I trust their opinions and they know me well enough to know that I want the truth.  In addition, I currently have a manager who I gives me notes, and in fact usually helps me develop an outline for the script, too, so he is involved in my script writing from the very beginning stages.  If you don’t live in L.A. these sorts of connections are much more difficult to find.

So if you know people in the industry that’s my first recommendation: get notes on your script from them before going out and spending money on script consultants.

However, if you don’t have friends in the industry your mom, brother, wife, and friends will NOT suffice in getting reliable script notes and you should seriously consider paying a trained professional to give you feedback on your screenplay.

If you read my blog you may have noticed comments by Script Doctor Eric.  He offered to read one of my scripts and give me his “full service” script consultation.  My writing partner and I recently finished a first draft of The Un-Natural, a baseball comedy about the most uncoordinated kid in the world who works harder than anyone to make his dream of becoming a professional baseball player a reality.  Since we were really looking for notes on this script I figured this would be a good chance to put Eric’s service to use.

Overall he had a lot of great comments and if you’re looking for a good professional script consultant I highly recommend him.  He had a nice mixture of comments and suggestions.  A lot of people offer tons of criticism but offer very few actual suggestions.  I really like suggestions, even bad ones, as it helps me to understand where the person was coming from with the criticism.

As I mentioned I have never used any service like this before but it’s hard for me to imagine that you’ll find a better value with any other script consultant.  He doesn’t charge a lot of money for the service so if you’re looking for a script consultant, check out his website: http://www.scriptdoctoreric.com/. Script Doctor Eric did not pay for this promotion. He simply offered to review one of my scripts for free and I liked his notes so I’m recommending him. I’m not making any money from Eric by recommending him to my readers.

I’m very leery to recommend a specific price that I think is fair for script consultant services.  When purchasing something like this it’s all about value.  I did a quick Google search for “screenplay consultants” and clicked through to a few of them and found several that were charging nearly $1,000 for their “deluxe” service.  While this may seem like a lot of money – and it is – it’s hard to say if it’s worth it.  If it helps you get your script to where it needs to be and you end up selling it, it might be a good value.

When looking for a script consultant try and get some references from them and make an effort to call or email those references.  Ask the references about the value they think they got for the price.  Keep in mind that these references will be supplied by the consultant so they may not be too reliable.  In this day and age it’s hard for someone to make a living offering a horrible service thanks to Google.  So Google the script consultant’s name or website and see what comes up.  You might find someone who’s used their services and is willing to tell you the truth about them.

Another suggestion I would have is if you find a consultant that you like you might try the cheapest service that they offer to start and see what sort of value you get for the money.  If you don’t get a lot of value from their cheaper service than you probably won’t get a lot of value on the higher end either.

Read 'Getting through the dip and getting your screenplay written' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

Nathan Ives and I are working on a new script. I’ll spare you the boring details about the plot, structure, and character – yeah, we got all those things. Right now we’re almost done a very rough draft. And I mean really rough draft. We’ve been working on it for several months. In its current state it’s terrible. It’s so in-coherent in places that it wouldn’t even be possible to make a movie out of it. It just makes no sense. It feels like it’s never going to be any good.

I read a book recently called The Dip. It’s written by Seth Godin, a marketing guru and author. It’s a great book and you should read it.

Just about everything in life has a “dip.” When you start a new project there’s that initial burst of energy and enthusiasm that carries the project along for a little while. But then the initial burst starts to fade and you go in to what’s called “the dip” – that long hard journey to the finish line. I’m sure everyone has experienced this at one time or another.

Nathan and I are so far in the dip on this screenplay it’s hard to imagine that there is a finish line. We both have lost interest in the script and want to abandon it. But we’re going to finish it no matter how much we hate it and want to be done with it. We’re going to keep slogging away on it even though we feel like it’ll never be any good. Luckily I’ve written enough scripts to realize that eventually we will be done and it will probably be a pretty decent script. It just doesn’t feel like that now.

Several years ago I went to a screenwriting seminar. The teacher asked the people in the audience why they were there. There were about 20 people in the room and 18 of them all gave essentially the same answer, which was something like this: “I have all these great ideas but I can’t seem to get them into a compete screenplay.” They were all experiencing the dip. They had an idea for a script that excited them but then the dip set in and they just petered out.

The great thing about the dip is that once you’re through it, it works to your advantage because most people won’t make it across. So instead of hating the dip look at it as your friend. Lean into it and realize that you’ll eventually be through it. With each script you write you’ll acquire more and more skill and be in increasingly rarer company. Everyone has a great idea for a script but most people never bother turning it into a completed screenplay. A lot of people have written one script but a lot less people have written two. A few people have written two scripts but there’s not too many who have written ten.

Writing a script isn’t easy and selling it is even harder. I believe that if you keep writing and keep improving and keep sending your material out you will eventually have a career.
If you find yourself in the dip, keep writing. Finish your script. You’ll be glad you did and you’ll be one step closer to being a screenwriter. The worst script ever written is a whole lot better than the greatest script never written.

I highly recommend you read The Dip. It’s very short and easy to read. I think it will help you in just about any project you decide to work on.

Have you experienced The Dip?