"Breaking" Into Screenwriting

Sorry, but I have to do some thinking on the screen.

Why do screenwriters write alone like novelists?

It's insane! Anyone who knows the different writing media knows that novels are novels and screenplays are screenplays and plays are plays and comic books are comic books are... You get it already.

Plus, there are always, like, 2 or 5 screenwriters credited on most movies that come out anyway! As far as the filmgoing audience is concerned, screenplays are written by commity.

But the truth is that a guy or a writing team sit alone in their office and bang their heads against the keyboard until they have 110 pages. Then they rewrite, and then probably rewrite a couple more times.

Then, if they're REALLY lucky, a producer or production company buys their script, and then they rewrite it another 3 times. (I'm probably being optimistic here, unfortunately.)

THEN the producer/production company hires someone else to come in a rewrite the script another couple of times.

THEN the producer/production company hires a third (or fifth) writer to come in and polish the dialogue or punch up the action or comedy.

Then the Writers Guild steps in and decides who gets screenwriting credit. And there are usually at least 2 names on the credits when you see the movie.

Filmgoers think that the screenwriters are all partying together, drinking and laughing and somehow managing to get script pages written along the way. But the truth is that each writer/writing team is sitting all alone, wondering if it's too late to go to ITT Tech and get an engineering degree. Or maybe Starbucks is hiring.

But you know who IS writing by commity and having a decently good time in an atmosphere of commeradare while still producing scripts with surprising speed and prolificness?

TV staff writers.

They all break each of the season's episodes together, then divide up and write the actual pages alone. And they get SOLO credit for the pages they write!

Why aren't beginning screenwriters doing this?!!

Seriously, why doesn't a group of, like, 5 beginning screenwriters get together and help each other break each other's scripts, and then let each other go off and write their own screenplays?

I mean, the pros use each other as sounding boards for their projects. And they're not worried about taking the credit for someone else's project. They're just helping their buddies out.

But with beginning writers, usually if one guy gives his screenwriter friend a single idea he's all "I want co-writing credit and half whatever you sell the script for".

It's lame!

And instead you get a lot of wannabes who bang their heads against their keyboards and produce complete shite that they're too insecure to improve because they only want to hear about how great their work is, rather than hearing what can be made better.

But if beginners were less worried about ego and image and more concerned not only with making their scripts better but helping others in their own situation, maybe all concerned would have more success.

And how bad WOULD sharing credit be? Let's say you've got 3 writing partners and you all take equal credit and equal pay. Okay, so less money for you each. But the sad fact is that Hollywood's probably going to FORCE you to share credit anyway. You do not get to make that decision.

Writing alone or writing with a group, unless you're REALLY, REALLY good you're most likely going to have to share the credit whether you wrote over pizza and beer and laughs or wrote alone and miserable.

I know this sounds like a strange idea, but I grew up in a theatre troupe and found that work shared is a lot more fun than solo work.

PLUS... I HATE writing. And I love it. I mean, I love the craft, but I hate the brick walls.

And I'm not a freak here. Douglas Adams hated writing novels, but he had a great deal of fun writing sketches in college and writing the first couple of series HITCHHIKER'S series for radio because he had the producers and cast to bounce ideas off of.

Like TV staff writers.

I mean, let's say you DO manage to write a screenplay so well that you don't get rewritten by someone else (you do all 25 of the rewrites on this particualr screenplay all by your lonesome) and you DO get solo credit when the movie comes out and you ACTUALLY DO get paid every step of your contract, including the solo credit bonus...

If the movies any good, the director's gonna get all the credit anyway. Movie audiences don't realize how much screenwriters have to do with the story. Film critics don't seem to realize how much screenwriters have to do with the story. (Even Roger Ebert, who wrote and sold a screenplay back in the '60s!) NO ONE, execpt for screenwriters, understands how responsible screenwriters are for the story of a movie. (I kid you not! This summer no one talked about David Koepp's adaptation of WAR OF THE WORLDS, but a lot of people talked about Steven Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS. Including Kevin Smith, who is a writer himself!)

So okay, you're gonna do all this work and get shafted anyway, right? Why not share the load and have a good time while doing it?

Blah.

Just had to organize those thoughts and see them on the screen.