Maggie
Tell me about the development of Screenwriter. How did the book come about?

Lenore
A journalist pal I'd worked with on a true story for television alerted me that Intellectua.com was looking for a screenwriter who was willing to write a book like this about their experiences writing and selling stories to the movies. I've wanted to get into electronic books--especially non-fiction--so I contacted them. And so it went. It's been a great experience to look back on fifteen or twenty years of working experiences and try to distill it down for someone who is considering a script writing career.

The Web currently offers so many opportunities for marketing original material. This new dimension of marketing fascinates me--there are thousands of helpful sites for writers of all genres on the Net. Not just marketing sites either: writing craft sites, support groups, international forums for writers, political support, advocacy, just about everything. Every day I discover new sites, great ones.

My book is part of an e-book series titled Dream Jobs To Go published by Intellectua.com. The books feature professionals who have established careers doing interesting jobs like screenplay writing, television producing, photo journalism, private detective, humor columnist, etc. They're aimed at young people aspiring to do these jobs or older people who are trying to make a career change. We hope our 'been there and done it' attitude proves helpful.

Maggie
You mentioned that you have quite a number of novelists and short story writers asking you about how to turn their work into scripts. Is this a good way of approaching a script?

Lenore
This is a sensibility question. Some stories should be novels, some should be short pieces, some stories make great movies, and some stories can be adapted to work well in more than one format. If you consider the selling aspect--and you must consider it--getting something published is a professional endorsement which tells everyone: "This is worthy of being published." This is a good thing.

To sell a project to the movies, you need all the professional endorsements and personal referrals that you can muster together. Having a story published as a short story or as a book definitely will get an unproduced screenwriter more attention than a spec screenplay, because someone (a publishing professional) has already endorsed the story by publishing it.

Some writers I know have self-published books and then tried to sell them to the movies. One or two of them have had movie company options on these books. I am not endorsing this route, but I wouldn't tell you not to do it either. I think it's worth considering.

Establishing a screenwriting career takes heroic effort, as does establishing a career as a novelist; so believe me, I am not suggesting either task is the 'easy way to go.'

Maggie
What are some of the key differences and pitfalls for experienced fiction writers in turning their fiction into scripts.

Lenore
Movies must be told visually. I am not just talking about action scenes and provocative scenery. The gestures of the characters, the props they use, the way they express themselves must be described in a way that we want to see it played out at the same time we feel our way through the story. The story must unfold visually, the emotions conveyed visually, the danger represented visually.

Your script must attract a star, a director and a producer with financial backing in order for it to be transformed into a movie. What attracts a star? A well-drawn character who takes action to resolve the story's central conflict. What attracts a director? A story that demands to be told visually, where the conflicts resolve through action--not merely thinking or feeling. What attracts an experienced producer and his film studio backers? A movie they can promote. A unique visual signature that audiences will look forward to seeing and will go back to see again.

Think of the trailers for some of your favorite movies: How about the Titanic trailer? Or do you remember the E.T. trailer? You just knew those movies were going to be hits by the trailer. They indicated an involving story with interesting characters and conflicts that looked like it would play out in an exciting way--visually. Take E.T.: A visual opening – we enter the world of the film. We see E.T. (an alien child) left behind on earth by mistake. A visual climax--the characters take action – remember E.T. and the boys on their bicycles flying across the sky. Now that's a movie. Of course it's so easy to do this in retrospect, it's infinitely harder to find the movie within your novel.

If a novelist asked me for advice about adapting. I would suggest that they look at their novel and imagine what kind of movie trailer would be made out of it. That little exercise might put them in somewhat the frame of mind necessary. Ask yourself repeatedly, "What's my movie about?" Keep asking this question and refining your answer until you have a movie. The answer will not be the same as the answer to this question, "What's my novel about?"

Maggie
You have some interesting interviews with established screenwriters. Tell me about your own career. How did you get into screenwriting?

Lenore
My background was in dramatic literature and theatre. But my first job was writing script synopses for a literary agent in Los Angeles. This opportunity exposed me to script writing. I had a few other jobs as I wrote my spec scripts. I worked at CBS-TV in the children's programming department. They bought the Tarzan book series and adapted it as an animation show. I believe I might be the only living person who's read all 26 of those books--except perhaps Burroughs' wife. That was a lesson in story telling--they were like westerns with good guys and bad guys and an almost religious theme of the sanctity of nature.

Once I had a great spec script--after several tries of course--I went back to that literary agent with it and he helped me set up pitch meetings with independent producers. Eventually, I sold my pitches, joined the Guild and keep plugging along.

I took acting classes along the way--it was easy to find them in LA. This is a great experience for a writer--it helps with pitching stories and deepens your sensibility toward character and gesture. Sometimes you can get actors in your class to read your scenes or scripts aloud – that's also beneficial on several levels.

Maggie
Dave Trottier mentions in one of his tips that you need three elements to sell a script: the star, the director, and financing. How does an aspiring screenwriter attract a star, a director, and financing? Are the odds simply too high for the average writer?

Lenore
Actually it was Terry Rossio who mentions the elements. By the way, Terry and his partner (Ted Elliot) wrote Shrek, the biggest hit of the Summer 2001 so far. He's a master storyteller.

About the odds--you have to forget about that. I know it's not easy, but you do. You have to concentrate on the work full force, and then concentrate on the marketing full force. Remember that it is your script which will attract these elements, not you yourself. You script needs memorable well-drawn characters, a story that plays out visually and a 'hook' of some kind that will make it promotable, to attract these important elements. If it does not have these three qualities, then you do not have a movie no matter how well you write or who you know.

About the 'hook.' Some people get hung up on this. Sorry about that pun, but they do. The hook of a movie does not have to be outrageously original: 'a three-legged cross-dresser tries to infiltrate the Rockettes to perpetrate corporate espionage.' A hook simply means something that will peak the interest of the audience. Take E.T.--it's a simple (though pretty original) hook – an alien child is left behind on earth, he's befriended by an earthling boy and together they figure out a way to get the alien kid back home.

If the 'average writer' has a great story to tell for the movies, they should write it for the movies. Not all scripts that sell are brilliantly written; many aren't. Spec scripts are usually bought because of the story, not the writing style. However, the writers who are hired to rewrite these spec scripts are chosen because of their experience, winning writing style and their professional confidence. And those writers are rewarded Big Time.

Maggie
You've been working as a screenwriter for over 15 years now. How has the industry changed? Have technological demands on film-makers increased? Does the movie going public expect extraordinary effects? How does this affect screenwriters?

Lenore
The huge multi-media conglomerates which have formed around the old style movie studios have changed the way movies are financed and marketed. Tie-ins like movie lunchboxes, placing commercial products in movies, dolls based on characters, and even novelizations of screenplays were new or non-existent when I started out. Now the 'synergy' of commercialization has a huge influence on what movies are made. Some movies appear to be designed around the lunchbox instead of the other way around. Don't let it get you down. Write your movie, the best you know how.

The tech bar has been raised pretty high, but somehow Blair Witch Project found a loophole. That movie was made for $35,000. That doesn't count the eventual advertising budget which the studio pitched in once it took off. But it was a hit before the studio got behind it. Some European films still find a worldwide audience and they have very limited budgets generally. Major Hollywood studio budget average at $80 million. I've heard that $200 million is not uncommon. That puts pressure on the studios to hire those few A-list writers they know will deliver. So unproduced and unsold writers must work harder to prove themselves.

Maggie
Your book is very much geared towards the US market. I realize that the most lucrative film market is Hollywood-based, but what about screenwriters in other parts of the world, the UK and Australia for example. Are the rules for breaking into those film industries the same?

Lenore
I wanted to do a more global version, but the book series limited the word count. However, I'm working on an addendum for a UK/AUS version of links and resources. There are some great groups for writers to get involved with in the UK like www.shootingpeople.org, www.author.co.uk, and www.euroscreenwriters.com.

Maggie
What is the most critical piece of advice you can provide to aspiring filmmakers?

Lenore
Get your work on film--somehow. Writing scripts or directing movies are jobs that you really only learn by actually doing it. The Web has so many resources that can help you get your script or scenes produced. Independent filmmaker sites abound. Some writers I've interviewed have had success writing a film short (ten minutes) and getting it made. This is a great entrée into the business. It doesn't have to feature special effects or a star, but it must be a well told little story. The industry pros you need to help you package your script are sometimes willing to look at a few minutes of film even though they claim they are too 'busy' to read a script.

Writing a scene or script and seeing how it is transformed into film is an invaluable experience; but even getting your script read by professional actors can help most writers prepare their script for the marketplace. It's not that difficult to arrange a reading of your script no matter where you live. Find a community theatre group or a college acting class and offer to bring in scenes or arrange a script reading for an invited audience. You will learn so much about your story, about how your dialogue works (or doesn't) and about the three-dimensional aspects of screenwriting.

Maggie
Are there some specific visual tricks that a screenwriter should know? Things which do and don't work in a script? Common mistakes, etc?

Lenore

Some writers download shooting drafts of movie scripts that have been made that are filled with production elements like scene numbers and camera angles. You don't want those elements in a script you are marketing; they are an unnecessary distraction. Use INT/EXT of course to orient the story telling, but leave out the camera angles and scene numbers. Many professional screenwriters don't even use CUT TO's anymore on their reading drafts.

Just because the studios make $200 million movies, don't take that to mean that you have to write a movie that reads like it's going to cost $200 million. Tell a simple story well. Just like some novelists start by writing short stories, some filmmakers start by making film shorts.

One thing I emphasize in my book is that writers who aspire to sell screenplays must take steps to be aware of the film market. They need to know what films have been made, what films are waiting to be released, what films are shooting, what scripts have been bought, which stars, directors, and producers have studio deals. With the Web, every writer, no matter where they live, can discover this information – for free. I offer dozens of great insider resources in my book to lead you to this important information.

Maggie
Are you working on a specific project now you can tell us about?

Lenore
I've just secured the rights to a true story for a cable movie. It's time sensitive, so I'm not able to talk about that. I'm working on a book about adapting true stories for movies and television, as so many writers contact me about this aspect of script writing. Controlling the rights to an interesting, filmable true story is one way for unproduced writers to get hired to write a screenplay. If the producer or film studio want the rights to the story, the unsold writer can sometimes make them take a package deal which allows them to write the first draft screenplay. Of course, you'll need a great spec sample script to show them that you can deliver a terrific screenplay, but it happens.

It's been great talking with you, Maggie. If your writers have individual questions for me they can email: screenwriter@breakingin.net or check out the detailed info on my website: http:///www.breakingin.net.