I told someone “hope is polite delusion”. I was told it was a horrible thing to say. The point I was making (in a horrible and cynical way) is that hope removes all power. It places all your agency in the hands of the universe. That is fine when you have no impact on the outcome. I buy a ticket in a raffle and I hope to win.
But we have an impact on our outcomes. Let’s talk about selling a spec.
1) super small market. So we must understand it. We can improve our chances by research.
2) we need to target our selected market. We have to remove every obstacle between the buyer and a buying decision.
3) We have to present value. The work we give them must be worth more than the money they spend.
How we achieve these things is hard to explain and a missive topic, but they do not contain hope, just hard work.
The most important thing is to keep the power for your life (career, writing etc) in your hands and not sacrifice it to hope. I know this is a bleak post. But it isn’t really, it puts the power back in your hands. Unfortunately that comes with all the responsibility and effort.
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It’s not bleak at all… Success in any challenging endeavor is built on resilience. And resilience comes from having an objective and realistic understanding of the challenges and obstacles ahead of us, but being confident and eager to not only put our skills, knowledge, and experience to the test, but to improve on them every day… And then to adapt to new and evolving challenges as they come…
Hope can sometimes get us through those moments when all seems lost and all we can do is hold on as we slide down the side of the mountain. But it doesn’t get us back on our feet when the dust starts to settle and we need to take that first step back up that steep and treacherous slope… That’s all on us.
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It might be a good idea to embrace the bleakness. This will help to put things into perspective and get realistic about the reality that we are facing. It's not just a good idea that gets us over the top. Its also other things that are often, but not always, out of our control.
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Interesting bit of research for a script: Pandora was given a box by Zeus and told not to open it. She does, anyway, unleashing all the plagues and evil upon the earth. However, Hope remained in the box. So, Hope Remains.
Does this have anything to do with your comments, Craig? Perhaps not, but, to me without hope, what's the point? All the hours of research, writing and rewriting over and over again - the logline, the summary, the script and the pitch deck - I did my best - I think, and I sent it off. Will it be read? Will it be what that person is looking for? Those things are out of my control. I just HOPE they will happen. Hope Remains.
Meh, and Im super jaded.
Look if you dont do this for a living- write- have no peer-colleagues, no movies, tv shows or track record, why would anyone listen to your advice?
Dan you talk of credibility, people can google me. I use my real name and hide nothing. They can go to IMDB and see my credits. I look for Dan Max and don’t find a lot. Plenty of claims, but nothing of substance. I encourage people to do their research.
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M LaVoie I always fall back on “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”, timing as you put it. There are many stories of poor timing. STAR SHIP TROOPERS came out the day before TITANIC, poor timing. I was talking to a producer that asked “do you have a story with an environmental theme?”. I didn’t. She said “don’t write one specifically for me. the opportunity will pass before you finish”. I may still write one. I can see that market growing.
When I was a young man I dress up to go out. Why to maximise my chances of meeting someone. I had to present value as a person. I could have hoped I was the best choice in the room (very little chance of that), but the preparation I did removed hope and put it in my hands.
This is more of an observation and stomps on the “it all luck” concept you hear. I refer back to my previous definition of luck. Thanks for the comment.
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Thats okay Craig, my ppl know I worked in show bizness. In America. Hollywood-LA.
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As I said Dan, claims.
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I have always approached the industry as a math equation constantly thinking about how can you, in any given moment, increase the probability of a project moving forward or happening. I agree that's a key to success. But each project is also a creative dream that requires emotional investment, patience, nurturing. So hope is still a requirement for me on the things I put my time into - it has a seat at the table. That said, hard work and leveraging any and every resource and relationship into a higher probability of getting where we hope to go once the train leaves the station takes over. There is so much involved and it's all in the mix.
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Hi Sam and Dan G,
I guess “hope” was the wrong word. Because if we remove the concept of hope, we make something “hopeless” and it becomes an impossibility. So my word choice was poor. Both your comment focused light on this for me (as did other). I believe we should claw back as much control as we can, leave as little to chance as possible. Perhaps that was the target I missed. Hope (in the way I used it) can be a code for unrealistic belief and a lack of understanding or resistance to educate.
We are constrained by the limitation of our chosen languages.
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All I can say there are no professional spec sellers, there are only professional screenwriters. Anyone writing spec scripts is a hobbyist be it Eric Roth or Sorkin or me or you...and between real writing jobs (that's when someone hires you to work for money) that could be years apart, all we all have is hope...
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The creative arts are not a meritocracy, and the sooner that harsh reality is faced head on, as daunting as it is, the sooner you can find peace with it.
You can only ever meet the universe half way, and I deeply admire those who do everything to maximise the odds, but there's still every chance of using up every ounce of life energy you have on something that never works out because the timings are off.
The above is why the terms under which you are writing is critical to your fulfilment. Hoping that you will see a bidding war on your third spec script after winning a screenwriting competition and eventually receive an Oscar is very different to hoping you can gradually build a modest career that allows you to write whenever you want, and derive a lot of artistic fulfilment from that writing.
Toxic hope is certainly worth addressing, but what we need more is an appreciation for the 99% of the industry that doesn't get all the limelight. One of the biggest issues with this art form is that anything less than an acclaimed Hollywood theatrical release is kinda seen as failure by many.
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Spot on CJ Walley.