Trenor Rapkins's Lounge Discussions

Write what you love and have a ton a patience. It's going to be a marathon.

A lot of great comments here. My first thought which has been echoed here is to read as many scripts as you can. Read good scripts - contest-winning entries, produced screenplays, etc, but also read some ones that aren't as good or at least haven't yet been recognized. Try to discern what things are separating the good ones. My other thought is if you have an opportunity to do coverage - as an intern, assistant or even on your own - do it. When you have to deconstruct a script and its elements, it forces you to think about it differently, and if you do it enough, you can start to apply this analysis to an extent to your own writing endeavors.

I'd say "Keep writing no matter how many no's you get. If you're meant to be a writer, you'll get a yes one day. It will also take a lot of drafts to get there. You will end up having to rewrite/cut out a lot of your script but it will help you realize the heart of your story. Also, be patient. This industry is a lot of "Hurry up and then wait."

Nick Phillips Thanks Nick! Yeah, my girl, Molly, has been the answer to my screenwriting sanity. : )

Great advice, Bill Brock. We rescued our puppy this past fall and he's made a huge impact on my mental health. Whenever I feel myself getting frustrated, anxious, or stuck, he gives me the space to take a break, get air, play, or have some much-needed cuddles. It really does help!

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.

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.

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...

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.

Spot on CJ Walley.

How about this Zorrawa Jefferson

In a story where a compassionate young student courageously stands up to defend a new classmate who is deaf from the relentless bullying of a group of unruly peers, risking social backlash in the process.

Zorrawa Jefferson You have the inciting incident, the protagonist with a key adjective, the goal, the antagonists, and the stakes. You could add the obstacles and go into more detail about the social consequences.

Maurice Vaughan I would normally agree about adding consequences, but we understand the microcosm of high school. We all know what is coming, hell.

You've got a point, @Craig D Griffiths.

Spice it up...don't be afraid. World is mega-crazy ATM, you might wanna take advantage of it...