If you told me 6 months ago that I'd be finishing a screenplay in 6 months...well, we all know where this is going.
Never have I ever written anything for Hollywood. I've never even thought about it. But my husband had hired someone 10 years ago to write a script for this unique idea he had, and then it sat on the shelf.
Four months ago, we talked about that script. We pulled it out. We read it. It was decent but outdated and needed to be rewritten entirely. It needed to be a different story but the same concept. I love the challenge of learning something new, so I got to it, and now we have a finished script in the hands of a few important people.
People have told us we are lucky. They must think these things just come upon us. But they don't. It takes a lot of persistence and belief in yourself to make things happen.
I knew nothing, nothing, about how to write a screenplay. I had to start from the bottom. From (you guessed it) nothing.
YouTube was my best friend initially. Within that first hour of searching, I could define the various pieces of a screenplay.
Easy enough!
Then I read books on it. I read books on writing for our genre: horror. I read actual scripts themselves.
I read books waiting for an optometrist appointment while waiting for my son's tennis lesson to finish, and while cooking (thank you, Audible). I sucked up as much as I could about screenplays.
As a homeschooling mother, I love to create curriculum for my boys. When they're interested in something, I'll find the books, articles, websites, etc., for them to explore until they've absorbed everything they want to know.
I decided to do the same for myself.
I created a Google doc starting with Week One and listed all the things I wanted to read (books and articles, with links), the webinars and movies I wanted to watch, and the writing activities I wanted to do. I called it "DIY Screenwriting Degree."
I didn't have time to apply and go to college for two years. I wanted to know everything now.
Here's where persistence comes into play. It's easy for me to make a list of things to read, watch, and do. It's quite another to actually get the things done. I don't have a professor over my shoulder. I don't have grades that will determine the next level of my career. I had to be accountable to myself and my dream to be a professional writer.
It took just under four months from when I started a completely new script (based on the original idea) to when I finished the 5th draft and handed it to our first executive for feedback.
Four months.
Four months to learn how to outline a script for a feature film, how to create the characters in such a way that they are represented well on screen (because, unlike writing a novel, I can't share their emotions), and how to keep descriptions short and to the point.
It can be done.
Without a degree.
Whatever you feel drawn to do - whether it's writing or how to be the best darn dog treat maker that ever there was - get yourself set up with the resources you need and just get to it! And let me know how far you get in 4 months.
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