Writers, do you want to produce your own work? Producers — would you write your own script?
In an era where multi-hyphenates are everywhere, true writer/producers remain surprisingly rare — even in TV, where the showrunner model exists, writers and non-writing producers still largely operate in separate lanes.
The case for combining both: nobody is more invested in a project than the person who wrote it. A writer who can also greenlight, budget, and navigate the market is nearly unstoppable. Control over your material, your vision, your career.
The case against: objectivity. The hardest thing for any writer to do is look at their own work the way the market does — cold, commercial, unsentimental. Great producers kill their darlings without grief. Most writers can't. That emotional investment that makes the writing great is the same thing that clouds the producing judgment.
My take: every writer needs to think like a producer — understanding the market, knowing what's sellable, building relationships on both sides of the table. But thinking like one and actually being one are two very different skills.
What do you think? Can the same person truly excel at both — or does one always suffer?
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Geoffroy Faugerolas In my opinion, I believe an artist can excel at both if the artist has other collaborators to offer a check and balance.
Case in point: Christopher Nolan. I recall him being a writer and a producer for a few of his movies, though there are other producers and executive producers on the project with him. I believe there may be other writers that receive credits with him on these projects as well.
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Correct! But Nolan is first and foremost a director :) He writes to direct. It's rare to find a writer/producer who then hands off the script to a director.
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Geoffroy Faugerolas I see what you're saying now.....maybe Adam Sandler?
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Dear Geoffroy hi , This is a great breakdown — especially the point about objectivity. That tension between emotional attachment and market awareness is very real.
I tend to think the distinction isn’t just about roles, but about modes of thinking. Writing asks for openness, intuition, and a certain emotional vulnerability, while producing demands distance, decision-making, and often a willingness to be ruthless.
In that sense, maybe the challenge isn’t whether one person can do both — but whether they can switch between those modes at the right time.
I’ve seen projects benefit a lot when the writer develops a producer’s awareness early on — not to limit creativity, but to shape it with intention. At the same time, having an external producing voice can be invaluable precisely because it brings that objectivity the writer can’t fully access alone.
So perhaps the strongest position is not choosing one over the other, but building enough fluency in both to collaborate more effectively — whether with others or with different sides of yourself.
Curious how you’ve seen this play out in practice — have you worked with writer/producers who managed to balance both successfully?
Best,
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This is absolutely great advice.
I think even when we cannot invest a huge amount of money in our work, learning to think like a producer can still enhance the writing journey.
Actually, I have come across one of the most important questions around my whole work, and I think I am starting to understand the difference between how I see my script and how professionals may want to see it.
I love going deeper into the scientific and philosophical dimensions of my worlds, but I understand now that it is not only about how intelligent the idea is.
It is also about how emotional it is, and how easily it can be understood by anyone. A good idea should not feel like a university lecture.
Worldbuilding can show the story from different perspectives, but not every element should have the same weight. Everything has to serve one central emotional idea.
I think I have reached the most surgical lesson in my creative journey: learning how to control my big ideas and turn them into clearer, stronger, more marketable scripts.
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Geoffroy Faugerolas, speaking as a writer‑director, I feel that tension all the time. I’m deeply connected to the material, but I also have to step back and look at it through the lens of what’s actually possible to make. Some days those two perspectives align beautifully, and other days they pull in opposite directions.
For me, the key has been learning when to protect the emotional truth of the script and when to switch into the practical mindset. They can coexist, but it takes intention. And sometimes the real skill is knowing which voice to listen to in each moment.
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Yes, but I don't want to. I mean I'm already the writer and director too. So being a producer at the same time gets to be a little too much. I'd much rather partner with a producer who's also invested in the project.
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Meriem Bouziani Absolutely. The emotional journey is everything. You're on the right path. Big worlds can definitely start with smaller-scale storylines. GoT starts with the family. Star Wars starts with a family. Avatar starts with a tribe...
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Yes, absolutely. Thank you very much for your encouragement Geoffroy Faugerolas
I am still learning how to develop that side of my first script, and also the ones to come.
Definitely Geoffroy Faugerolas— that’s the fun part for me! Knowing both sides boosts your ability in ways you don’t expect. Producing music taught me how to think in angles, pacing, and rhythm; editing videos sharpened my eye for what serves the story; and performing —and coordinating in music videos — gave me a real respect for production long before I ever started writing. All of it feeds the work.
Geoffroy Faugerolas The Independent Produces Guild focuses on actual independent producers, who historically have very often written their own scripts or commissioned specific works based on what they want to produce. Truthfully, whatever the pros and cons are, the age writer-hwo-sells-to-a-producer or to a studio is fast moving into the past. A new cadre of creators have already beyond this ossified, traditional approach and become their own studios and even juggernauts. For example, people who consider Mr. Beast as an "influencer" but don't know he's well past a billion dollar entertainment phenomenon don't recognize the template that he and others have created, which is being replicated by creators across the world.
Shadow Dragu-Mihai That's right. Lines are being blurred really quickly.
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This hits close to home right now. I am a cinematographer who has written numerous shorts and is now making the jump to features, and the producing question is one I have been sitting with.
My honest answer is that I do not know if I want to produce it -- I know I want to shoot it. But I also know that in independent film, waiting for someone else to care as much about your project as you do is not a strategy. So I find myself learning the producing side out of necessity more than desire.
The objectivity point in the original post is the one that gives me pause. As the writer, I am probably the worst possible judge of what needs to go. But I also think that is what collaborators are for. A producer who can be cold about the material while the writer stays invested in it might actually be the ideal pairing -- which is an argument for finding the right partner rather than trying to be both things yourself.
What I keep coming back to is that understanding how the producing side thinks makes me a better writer. Even if I never greenlight anything myself, knowing what makes a project producible shapes the decisions I make on the page.