Writing Scripts at the Professional Level is Hard, Really Hard

In case you didn’t know, there are hundreds of thousands of aspiring and veteran screenwriters around the world competing for precious few Hollywood opportunities. Invariably, the sales, options, writing assignments, and staffing positions go to the screenwriters who demonstrate a confident ability to execute professionally on the written page. How easy is that? It’s just about the hardest thing to do in the entertainment industry. I arrive at that conclusion after interviewing countless entertainment industry professionals, primarily at Sherwood Oaks Experimental College, The Scriptwriters Network and Screenwriting Expos.

For one particular Sherwood Oaks class, I interviewed Larry Kaplow, Executive Producer of HOUSE. I was curious how his expectations of the Writers Room differed from its reality. His answer was insightful. “Everything changed for me when I got in that room. From the outside, one can’t really understand. But when I was finally looking at a show from the inside, I realized that everything I previously thought about the Industry was different.” For example, Larry and his writing partner currently do their own medical research for HOUSE episodes. It is not uncommon for them to spend approximately one hundred hours on the research and writing of each 44-minute episode that airs (without commercials).

The Oscar-winning writer, Steve Zaillian, explained his writing process to me during an interview at the ArcLight Cinema for the “Story to Glory” film series. Since he mostly does adaptations, he usually researches his projects quite extensively. The research can take months. Although Zaillian only writes a couple of drafts, it generally takes Zaillian approximately 6 months to 18 months to complete the script before he turns in the work to producers, studios, or directors. All “A-List” Hollywood writers have their own writing process, but generally they work from extensive outlines, they usually know the script’s ending in advance, and they often do many, many drafts of the script before the final product is circulated. Zaillian, like so many other professional writers, works an eight hour day, five days per week. It is his job, and he is completely committed to it. Anyone wanting to work in the Industry needs to be equally committed in order to succeed.

At another ArcLight Cinema event, I asked veteran screenwriter Ronnie Shusett how many drafts he did for Director Paul Verhoven on “Total Recall.” Ronnie’s answer shocked a crowded audience of writers. “I did 32 rewrites, varying from complete drafts to polishes. I believe I was paid for 28 of them, but that is rare. Usually, I do many drafts for free during a project.” Ronnie’s answer didn’t surprise me. Bruce Joel Rubin mentioned that he did over 20 drafts of “Ghost” for director Jerry Zucker.

So, if you believe you have a wonderful screenplay draft that Hollywood can’t live without, you might be truly surprised just how hard it is to get anyone to take you seriously, especially without any previous credits, no reputation, and no one to vouch for your professionalism and ability. Fortunately, there are people in Hollywood who truly love writers and will provide genuine encouragement. The trick, of course, is finding them! Many helpful writer resources are located in the left hand column of this blog.