What Are You Bringing to the Market as a Screenwriter?
Forget about being plucked from obscurity because you have that "Dracula idea that's funny but also steamy and, like, real". Let's talk about what the market is buying, and what you need to bring.
Thanks to everyone who voted in the new course poll last week. TV Pitch Development edged out Feature Writing by a few votes, so I’m prepping that class now and I’ll give newsletter subscribers an early access discount, so keep an eye out for that in the next week or so.
Today I wanted to dive a little into something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and that’s how we fit into the marketplace as writers.
I read something a little while ago that resonated with me. It was from Ed Zwick’s book Hits, Flops, and other Illusions (which is a great read, by the way). He said you need to decide if you are in the service industry, or in the personal expression business.
I’d been thinking a lot about this, and the way he put it clarified so much for me. At this point in my career, I’ve been lucky enough to sell a few original projects (personal expression) and also work on more than a few projects based on IP (service industry). And although there’s always personal expression baked into whatever I work on, sometimes it can be a little tough to squeeze what you’d personally want to express between the cracks of studio and franchise mandates. But hey, that’s the deal. I continue to do both, and that’s been a great way to keep things balanced. That said, I think I had the wrong understanding of how I fit into the marketplace for the first few years I was breaking in, so I wanted to explore that a bit.
As writers we’re always freelancers, even when we’re employed for a long stretch on a series. Our value and ability to get the next job is all about what we bring to the market, not about what the market is looking for.
Studios and streamers always have mandates about what kind of shows and movies they are actively trying to make right now, and if you’ve been in this business for more than 6 months, you realize that these mandates change constantly and are almost always reactions to what just worked (but won’t work again) rather than what’s coming next. There’s a lot here we can’t control, so I won’t spend any time trying to. But the reality is that The Market only ever buys two things: the rights to make new exciting projects and the services to execute those new projects.
Now it’s really important understand something about the way the market works before we go any further. The Market - an ethereal collective consciousness floating somewhere over Century City where people decide there can be 81 shows about crime solving time travelers, but people couldn’t possibly have a second medical comedy after SCRUBS ended 14 years ago. To their credit, it’s really hard to top, I get it. But also, c’mon - Anyway, that Market where all the jobs and green lights are, it doesn’t come to you. There is no one trying to track down your number to get you to write the next big project until you’ve already become a known, trusted entity with a reputation within the Market to either deliver new exciting projects, or consistently execute on those new projects.
You are always going to the market, and you need to choose what you’re bringing in the hopes that someone is buying what you want to sell.
Are you selling your services as a tv writer looking to staff on someone else’s show? In that case, you need to bring the proof that you can execute a great script in the same tone and format as what the market is looking for.
Are you selling your services as a writer who can adapt a book or video game or comic or some other kind of IP? Then make sure you have proof that you can execute your take on the material, not just have a great idea.
The problem is that this side of the market is where most writers start because this is where most of the actual jobs are. One person sells an original show, but they need a staff of writers to execute it. 1 job vs. 10. Most people are terrified of original ideas and grip onto IP as risk mitigation, and that means most development jobs and OWAs are going to be based on IP right now. But it’s not easy to come to the market on your first visit, trying to sell your services when you don’t have a reputation and body of work. It takes time to build those, and it takes time to get the service industry jobs. These jobs can be great because you usually enter the project when the ball is already rolling, and it’s a lot easier to get a project made when you aren’t starting at a complete standstill on your own.
So what about the other side of the market? The New Exciting Idea (Personal Expression) booth. This is where you go with that new feature spec, the new pilot you’ve written, or the pitch you’ve developed. What a lot of people get wrong about this side of the market is also the most obvious: ideas aren’t enough. But for some reason we all still believe that this is the Hollywood from stories we’ve been told, where one great idea pitched in an elevator can get you plucked from obscurity and turned into… Mister Hollywood.
I have bad news. The studios are all owned by corporations that make more money selling ad space on free video games, the CEOs don’t watch movies, and Mister Hollywood doesn’t exist anymore (if he ever actually did. And if he did, you know we’d have to cancel him. That dude did some terrible shit.)
What I’m saying is that your great idea is… nice, but people don’t want to buy an idea alone. They need a great idea plus proof that you’re the person who can execute it, which means you also need to have a great pilot or feature spec and ideally some experience already working on the service side of the market.
What a conundrum. Neither side is easy to approach. But I’d say it’s better to start on the personal expression side. Write the thing you can’t stop telling people about. Write the thing no one will pay you to write because it’s risky. That’s the thing that will get you noticed. That’s the thing that may sell on the market if you do all the work up front, and if it doesn’t, take it over to the service side and show them what you can do for them.
The reality of this is that every “service” job comes with a whole lot of personal expression baked in, and that the personal expression jobs will not sustain unless they are also servicing some larger corporate strategy (which, to untangle the complicated web for you, just boils down to making money. My rate as a consultant will be 80k an hour). You will need to do both, whichever side of the market you go to. But understand that you need to be the one to go to the market. It doesn’t go the other way around, and that’s true whether you’re just getting started or an experienced veteran.
Every day I think about what I can bring to the market next. Sometimes it’s personal expression, which means I need to just write it on spec so I can have proof that it works on the page. Sometimes its service industry, and that means bringing as much proof that I can execute their plan better than anyone else. Or at the very least, much much cheaper.
So don’t sit by your phone waiting for that call. Build up your proof and go to market.
About Chris Amick
Chris is a screenwriter living in Los Angeles. He and his writing partner recently served as Head Writers and Co-Executive Producers on Kung Fu Panda: the Dragon Knight. Previous work includes Final Space, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Die Hart 2, Adult Swim specials, and a TBA action comedy feature for Universal.
Chris also teaches various screenwriting courses online, which you can check out here: