Still in the grind

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written anything.  Honestly, it’s hard to stay in the grind.  It means that despite everything going around you and whatever direction you may want to go, you have to fight teeth and nail to strive towards that goal.

For me, my eventual goal is to be a working writer who gets paid to write screenplays- preferably motion pictures.  A lofty goal, for sure, but I think it’s something that I can legitimately accomplish.  However, in order to get to that point, you have to “put in your dues.”  What does that mean for a writer?  Well, I’ve compiled somewhat of a list and here they are in no particular order (sort of).

1. You will not get paid for your work, at least in the beginning in order to get proper credit.

If you’re a good writer and people like your stuff.  They are more inclined to give you money then give you credit so that they can take it and claim it for something that they’ve done.  However, Hollywood is an industry in which your value is only based on what you’ve done before.  Classic example; look at Eddie Murphy.  He’s the BEST stand-up comic in the 80’s and he has a stream of hits such as 48hrs and Beverly Hills Cop.  He then makes The Adventures of Pluto Nash (the biggest flop according to Wikipedia) and he’s relegated to nothing until he lends his voice as the Donkey in the Shrek films.  Has he done anything live since then?  Not unless you count Norbit, which was also produced by Paramount.  Conclusion- you may not get paid, but you’ll get your name out.

2. You will write about something you don’t like.

Now thankfully, up to this point, I have not written anything I didn’t like.  However, the flip-side is that I haven’t gotten paid for something I’ve written…yet.  Unless you write something that your passionate about you and you produce it yourself and go viral on YouTube or have relative film festival success, as a writer, you’ll enter screenplay contests and your name will be on some lists of production companies and they’ll hire you to write for THEM.  Now, it’ll get your name out even more and you’ll eventually get enough freedom to write what you want.  Until then, you’re writing other people’s passion material.  You may want to write space comedies (Space Balls), but you may get stuck writing stoner comedies (Pineapple Express).  Now, that may not be a bad thing, but it’s something you don’t have any interest in…and that’s the best case scenario.  You might have to pay your dues by writing for Direct-to-DVD companies.

Now, those are the 2 biggest lessons I’ve learned in my relatively miniscule knowledge of Hollywood.  Once I get rid of the “aspiring” title and get to “working”, I’ll learn more knowledge until I eventually get to “seasoned” and hopefully “award-winning” (and I don’t mean the Razzies).