Screenwriting : Emotional Stress After Handing Over Your "Baby" For Production. by Paul Norman Rich

Hi Paul Norman Rich - I'm not a screenwriter but my brother and wife both are and they talk about this dynamic often. Directors like to make a film "theirs" once they come on board. Many actors do, as well. It's part of the process, to varying degrees, espcailly when you work in the studio system. Just to share, my brother once told me that this dynamic used to drive him crazy because he was always hired to write the first several drafts of a film (or he'd write a spec that got into play) and when these changes happened it was emotional. But at a certain point, he realized that his prodiction bonuses and residuals only materialzed when a film got made and distributed. At that point, he said his POV changed to where getting fired off a film he wrote was his happiest day because it meant the director was taking over and it was moving toward production and reality. While I'm sure he had a hint of irony in his voice, its an anecdote worth sharing.

Thank you, Sam. As a writer, you know a spec script is rewritten and edited countless times by the writer often from feedback by readers, script doctors etc. So it must be painful not to even have a story meeting as to why a certain scene, certain characters, certain locations, certain dialogue is there. Not be given the chance to make your case so to speak because your 'baby' has been a 'labor' of love often for up to two years or more. When you are writing, you are essentially all the actors in the script, the location scout, the director and you imagine the produced film in your head. Excruciating it must be to have what you believe is the most emotional impactful scene/dialogue erased on a mere whim with no chance to defend why you believe it the essential core of the story. I'm not naive enough to think the script won't go through a blender. One can only hope the director is also a writer, understands story and what to leave alone. I know how studios think as I was in marketing at Disney and MGM. And as Elsa sang in Frozen ... "Let it go". As much as it hurts.

I'll admit, I'm still a ways away from anything of mine going into production but it's still a nerve-wracking thought lol

I've accepted that films/TV shows are group projects and therefore several people make their mark on it--what I do is basically provide the earth and plant the seeds. I got a taste of this with my two table reads as well as one of my plays being acted out in college; the characters of course look and act one way in my head but that's just it; it's in MY head. Someone else can have a totally different take. It's both fun and scary lol especially since I'm used to being my own audience.

But yeah lol sometimes I wonder if I should get into directing but I wanna believe I'm not THAT much of a helicopter parent ;p I've been pleasantly surprised with elements someone other than me brings in so that's always a good time, especially if it's something that makes me wish I came up with it.

I've only experienced half of it, the writing, adjusting, rewriting, deleting, adding, changing that "coma"... But I still haven't sold any. And yes, as another member mentioned, I'm all the characters, director, location-scout etc... As a matter of fact I even used Google Earth... My trilogy took me some three years and I hate to admit, I'm still adding that "coma"...

There are definitely inherent differences between the written word and the visual form. That's not something you should ever worry about. The process of making a film is about translating written words into tangible, visual images and it will usually come with some things being revised in translation. The only thing you can do as a writer is to write visually and give directors stuff they can easily translate. No director really wants to have to come up with a ton of new solutions for every scene. They want it to be very easy to visualize off the page. Like others have mentioned, the script is just a template. Things get changed and working with others in my experience only makes projects better. That's the beauty of collaboration and should cause you zero stress. You should crave getting to the point where you're collaborating with producers and directors. Because that's when stories actually get elevated most of the time. The majority of producers and directors aren't idiots. They're some of the sharpest and smartest creative people out there. Movies also rarely get butchered after the fact these days. For every Dying of the Light, there's like 100 other movies that barely get touched once the script is locked.