The Screenwriting Wilderness

(Wild, 2014)

So you’re one of the lucky ones. You’ve sold a script or generated considerable interest for your writing through chance, happenstance, or placing in a ‘prestigious’ competition. Agents and managers are contacting YOU to talk about your projects. You’re taking general meetings and shaking hands and kissing babies. You’ve been announced and introduced to the business. You breathe a SIGH of relief, but then you blink and realize it’s been six months. Where are you? This place doesn’t look familiar. You’re in the Screenwriting Wilderness — the period after you’ve broken in and made your big splash. But a splash doesn’t — and can’t — last forever.

Based on outward appearances, you’re dead and forgotten. Promising smoke signals are gone with the wind. Your big spec sales are in development hell. You’re not making the Black List every year. You’re probably not winning a competition twice either. Inside the walls, you may actually be doing quite well. Or not.

Many screenwriters die in the Screenwriting Wilderness. They just weren’t prepared for the sudden rush, followed by the quick descent back to Earth.

Some writers only have one or two good scripts in them. Or they had a great one that took them a year or two to write, and now they can’t replicate that quality on demand in 12 weeks. Or they just can’t fight against the brutal reality that not many…