Screenwriting New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on by Eric

I asked a few Twitter followers and Facebook Friends to post their screenwriting resolutions for 2011.

While I liked the responses, most could be summed up two ways:

1. Sell my screenplay

2. Get my screenplay made – or make it myself.

While these are excellent resolutions, they are also a bit broad.  Perhaps the question itself was broad, or maybe people just didn’t want to bore their Twitter followers with specifics.  🙂

And yet, if you have NEVER had actors perform your work or seen it on screen, 2011 would be a great year to write something small and shoot it yourself.  Maybe you’ll make something great?  At the very least, you’ll have fun and learn how what you write on the page translates to the screen.

My favorite New Year’s resolutions came from Eric S. and Sandra B. in comments on my Facebook page.

Eric S: “to write a lot more better, good, and awesomer”

Sandra B: “To keep improving my craft, which also includes investing the money for script analysis.”

While retaining that goal of selling your screenplay and/or getting it made, as screenwriters we should also be constantly trying to improve our craft.

Because it’s a darn difficult craft.  At least, to get it right.

While it’s nice for Sandra to say, I don’t think you MUST have your screenplay read by a script consultant to make it good.

But it could help.

At the very least, have a critical friend who is experienced in reading screenplays give you notes BEFORE sending your scripts to agents, managers, or producers.

Maybe that can be a resolution?  Let’s see…

And so, the best general screenwriting resolutions for 2011 are…

5. Write a screenplay.  Or three.

4. Sell a screenplay.

3. Write a short.  Make it yourself.

2. Improve your writing: Join a writer’s group, have friends read over your work, do table reads, use a script consultant, read screenwriting blogs…

And above all…

1. WRITE.  Every day.  No excuses.

And remember to have fun!  It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

I know, I know, that’s a cliché.  Follow it, don’t use as dialog in your script.  🙂

Happy New Year!

And…

Onward!

-Eric

Agree?  Disagree?  Something to add?  Drop a comment or shoot me an email – [email protected]

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2 Responses to Screenwriting New Year’s Resolutions

  1. Elizabeth Ditty says:
    December 29, 2010 at 5:40 pm

    Writing something short and simple for the sole purpose of filming it myself was one of the best things I did in 2010. It was incredibly valuable for me as a writer to see the amount of work it took to actually bring my words to life, despite the simplicity of what I’d written. I can’t recommend that resolution highly enough for other writers out there, whether they wish to make the transition to directing or not.