By Richard Walter.
My sister is an actor. For decades she was best known for her femme fatal role in the first movie ever directed by Clint Eastwood: Play Misty for Me. That led to thirty years of bad girls: Women in Cages, Women in Chains, and u-name-it. In recent years however, thanks to her role as Lucille Bluth in the incomparably biting and hilarious Arrested Development, she has been able to show off what we in the family have already known she had: powerful comedy chops.
She got her start in a ‘60s CBS soap opera, Love of Life. She told me that during her two years on that show she must have poured ten thousand gallons of martinis, as lazy writers so frequently give actors fake action that is not action at all, such as mixing drinks, eating food, driving around in cars, chatting in offices. These are merely excuses for the actors not to act out the story but instead to narrate it via dialogue.
They’re not called talkers, they’re call actors. The word ‘drama’ comes from the ancient Greek word meaning ‘to do.’ When the director is ready to shoot she says “Lights, camera, talk?”
I don’t think so.
The last word is “Action!”
<div id="attachment_11364" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11364" class="size-full wp-image-11364" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/lucille-bluth-in-Arrested-Development.jpg" alt="Lucille Bluth as Jessica Walter in Arrested Development" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/lucille-bluth-in-Arrested-Development.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/lucille-bluth-in-Arrested-Development-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/lucille-bluth-in-Arrested-Development-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/lucille-bluth-in-Arrested-Development-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />Jessica Walter as Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development</div>
Several years ago I read the script for the George Clooney movie The American. Beyond the scattered smooching and shooting, it’s mainly actors sitting around in bars, restaurants, cafes, and driving around in cars, talking, talking, and talking.
Merely by avoiding lame, limp venues, writers can imbue their scenes with vitality and allure. If you have a scene set in a coffee shop or some similarly lackluster setting, contemplate simply changing the location. It may very well lead not merely to background that is more engaging but also to significant expansion of character.
<div id="attachment_9927" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9927" class="size-medium wp-image-9927" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-199x300.jpg" alt="The Essentials of Screenwriting, by Richard Walter" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-199x300.jpg 199w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-100x150.jpg 100w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-680x1024.jpg 680w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-116x175.jpg 116w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-387x583.jpg 387w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting.jpg 996w" sizes="(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />The Essentials of Screenwriting, by Richard Walter</div>
I collaborated on a police/action/melodrama/thriller years ago that dealt with a cop who happened to become also a best selling author. He is in conflict with his superior officer. As I explain in my book Essentials of Screenwriting, the script suffered from too, too many scenes in the latter’s office. There was too much time spent with two guys sitting on opposite sides of a desk arguing with each other.
My writing partner and I made up a list of alternative locations where one or another or several of the scenes could play out other than that office. One of these was a swimming pool. Is that genius out of Shakespeare? Of course not. All by itself it’s no big deal, but in a screenplay nothing is all by itself; everything is part of the whole picture.
The notion of a swimming pool suggested to us that the older officer was overweight and had a heart condition; he’d been ordered by his doctors to exercise. He had taken, therefore, to swimming daily, and it is at the pool that the cop/author catches up with him. It’s much more interesting for the two of them to be conversing as one of them swims and the other walks up and back alongside, shouting his end of the conversation. Additionally, due to his success as a writer, he’s wearing six hundred dollar Magli loafers, and is constantly drying them against the leg of his pants as he moves along, fearful that the splashing chlorinated pool water will spot the shoes.
Actors love having these kinds of physical quirks assigned to them.
The key issue between the men is that the superior officer is unhappy with his adversary’s newfound wealth and the independence it offers him. It’s hard to rein him in and keep him under control as a cop. He wants the writer to retire from the force. The writer, on the other hand, maintains that, despite his success as a writer, he is still just a regular cop, and he wants desperately to remain a cop, as that life offers, among other rewards, the source for his novels.
But what kind of ‘regular cop’ wears six hundred dollar shoes?
One can see that simply changing the setting led to substantial enhancement of tale and character issues.
A script written in a UCLA screenwriting class involved a couple who work in the same office. Over the course of the tale they meet, court, and marry.
It opened in the office at the water cooler. The couple meet, sip water, and schmooze. Is that exciting? Is it dramatic? Isn’t it two actors merely reciting dialogue?  Is this a radio show or a movie?
<div id="attachment_11363" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11363" class="size-full wp-image-11363" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-office-watercooler.jpg" alt="A water cooler moment from The Office" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-office-watercooler.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-office-watercooler-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-office-watercooler-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-office-watercooler-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />A water cooler moment from The Office</div>
I suggested the writer move the scene to another venue. She chose the underground parking garage. Is that astonishingly creative? Certainly not. But from this simple modification it led to a bounty of creativity.
The woman in the scene is dressed to the nines, elegantly coiffed, sporting a dazzling manicure. She approaches her car, as she’s about to drive off to represent the firm at an important meeting. She discovers there’s a flat tire. She hasn’t got time to wait for the Auto Club, and so she begins to change the tire herself.
At this point the male love interest happens along. He stops and offers to help.
“You don’t think a woman is capable of changing a tire?” she asks him.
“This is what the women’s movement has come to?” he responds. “You won’t let a man help you change a tire? You’re about to go off to represent our company at an important meeting. But in a moment your outfit’s going to be smudged and you’re going to break a nail or two.”
All the while this exchange takes place, they are wrestling together with the tire, struggling with the wrench and the lug nuts.
This is not exactly the auto chase in Bullet, but it is action. Isn’t it a superior way for the couple to meet and engage one another? Isn’t it a whole lot better than yakking around the water cooler?
I recommend, therefore, that writers train themselves to hear a little bell or buzzer sound in their head every time they think ‘coffee shop,’ ‘office,’ or ‘car.’ A simple change of venue can engender substantial improvement in a screenplay’s most fundamental aspects.
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<a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=richard+walter&amp;post_type=product"><img class="alignright wp-image-6473 size-thumbnail" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-129x150.jpg" alt="set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d" width="129" height="150" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-129x150.jpg 129w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-250x290.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-768x890.jpg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-883x1024.jpg 883w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-1024x1187.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-150x175.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-500x580.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 129px) 100vw, 129px" /></a>If you enjoyed this article, don&#8217;t forget to take a look at our range of <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=richard+walter&amp;post_type=product">DVD lectures by Richard Walte</a>r, available on this very website!
&nbsp;
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-Screenwriting-Business-Television-Writing/dp/0452296277/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8"><img class="alignright wp-image-9927 size-thumbnail" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-100x150.jpg" alt="The Essentials of Screenwriting, by Richard Walter" width="100" height="150" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-100x150.jpg 100w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-199x300.jpg 199w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-680x1024.jpg 680w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-116x175.jpg 116w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-387x583.jpg 387w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting.jpg 996w" sizes="(max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px" /></a>
Or take a look at his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-Screenwriting-Business-Television-Writing/dp/0452296277/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">The Essentials of Screenwriting</a>.
&nbsp;
 <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=%22richard+walter%22&amp;x=0&amp;y=0"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10944" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-150x94.jpg" alt="Richard Walter World featured" width="150" height="94" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-150x94.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-250x156.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-500x313.jpg 500w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>And before you go, why not check out our <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=%22richard+walter%22&amp;x=0&amp;y=0">other articles by and about Richard</a>?
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Richard Walter on Static Vs. Dynamic Scene Settings

By Richard Walter.
When I was invited to join the faculty of the UCLA film school it was technically the late &#8217;70s. Spiritually, however, it was still the &#8217;60s, with its hippie-dippy disregard for accomplishment and achievement.
The third worst act a writer could commit was to actually sell a screenplay. That was mere commerce, down-and-dirty profit-crazed capitalism. The second worst act was to have that script actually produced as a film. That constituted copping to the system, becoming a drone in the dreadful, oppressive &#8220;establishment.&#8221;
Worst of all, of course, was to sell a movie that was produced and then, heaven forbid, to have it become a huge hit. Audience are morons, many of my colleagues opined. The more popular a film, the less its value. Conversely, if a film was a rancid little tone poem with nifty, scratchy, shaky, chattering camera movements, that was true Art.
Francis Ford Coppola, a UCLA film student a few years ahead of my time in Westwood, was held in low regard for having released as his thesis film an actual feature-length movie (You&#8217;re a Big Boy Now), which was produced by a major Hollywood studio, distributed to theaters and screened for paying audiences.
<div id="attachment_11367" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11367" class="size-full wp-image-11367" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/youre-a-big-boy-now.jpg" alt="Elizabeth Hartman as Barbara Darling inYou're A Big Boy Now" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/youre-a-big-boy-now.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/youre-a-big-boy-now-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/youre-a-big-boy-now-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/youre-a-big-boy-now-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />Elizabeth Hartman as Barbara Darling in You&#8217;re A Big Boy Now</div>
At UCLA we long ago came to reject that notion. As I argue relentlessly in my lectures and seminars and workshops, not to mention (full disclosure: shameless self-promotion ahead) my book Essentials of Screenwriting, we hold that audiences are not stupid but smart. They have a way of finding the good stuff.
I&#8217;m not saying that any popular film is worthy and any unpopular film is not. The fact is, however, that since the inception of dramatic art, close to 3,000 years ago, the truly brilliant works, i.e., the classics, have been not only artistically lauded but also commercially successful during their authors&#8217; lifetimes.
People who know me even just a little quickly figure out that I come on like an over-ripened, over-mellowed, burnt-out, old retro hippie, when in fact I am to my core a desperately, wretchedly middle-class kid. I&#8217;m still married to the first woman I ever married (as of this writing 40+ years and counting &#8212; is that freaky or what?); we have 2.2 children, or whatever the national average happens to be. I love America and on national holidays fly the flag at our home. I believe in God. I believe that middle-class bourgeois values are, frankly, the hope of the world.
<div id="attachment_11368" style="width: 258px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11368" class="size-medium wp-image-11368" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/deepak-chopra-248x300.jpg" alt="Deepak Chopra" width="248" height="300" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/deepak-chopra-248x300.jpg 248w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/deepak-chopra-124x150.jpg 124w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/deepak-chopra-145x175.jpg 145w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/deepak-chopra-482x583.jpg 482w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/deepak-chopra.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px" />Deepak Chopra</div>
I tend to scorn self-help gurus, whom I listen to nonetheless, mainly to steal their material. Occasionally, however, there is timeless wisdom to be had even there. Something said by Deepak Chopra has always stayed with me. Chopra asserts that to attach to a particular action a particular expectation is a recipe for frustration and failure. The key to serenity and success, he avers, is to stay open to the surprises.
This applies directly to success and failure in screenwriting. To attach to the act of writing a screenplay the expectation that it will sell is a self-defeating prophecy. A particular screenplay&#8217;s failure to sell is not the end but only the beginning. A screenplay that doesn&#8217;t sell may nevertheless elicit a development deal. From my perch on campus I&#8217;ve seen this happen repeatedly. A script is submitted to a production company. They don&#8217;t want to produce the script, but they like the writing. They may ask the writer if she has other ideas that she wants to pitch, and they may hire her to develop one or another of those into a new script. That&#8217;s not very likely, but it&#8217;s a lot less likely than selling a script outright.
Less unlikely still is that the company may feel that you are the right person to develop an in-house notion that has been bouncing around at their production house.
Still less unlikely is a potential rewrite assignment. I recently wrote a column regarding an actual case in which a major studio, after rejecting a writer&#8217;s spec script, hired him to rewrite a script the studio had acquired but was not yet ready for production. They had not been able to find an A-list Hollywood writer who could handle it to their satisfaction, and they decided to give this guy a shot at it. They paid him a generous fee and, better still, the deal led to a slew of agents pleading with the writer to let them represent him. Neither his original script got made, nor the one he rewrote, but he ended up with a hefty fee, prestigious representation and a solid launch to what is now a career sustained over some decades.
Even shy of a rewrite assignment, a writer may end up with representation. That&#8217;s the way careers get launched that have longevity. I see writers sometimes burn brightly with an early script, and then burn out. Careers that last are often launched by a writer developing a relationship based on his writing with an individual who can develop relationships for him based upon his writing. Is that not the job description for an agent?
<div id="attachment_11366" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11366" class="size-full wp-image-11366" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/unforgiven.jpg" alt="Clint Eastwood as Bill Munny in Unforgiven, a script that took 20 years to be filmed" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/unforgiven.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/unforgiven-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/unforgiven-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/unforgiven-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />Clint Eastwood as Bill Munny in Unforgiven, a script that took 20 years to be filmed</div>
These various possibilities described above range from very unlikely to plain old unlikely.
There are, however, two outcomes that are guaranteed 100 percent. First comes the fact that for having written a new script, the writer becomes more experienced and therefore a better writer. It takes not one but several scripts for writers to find their voices. Every writer needs some scripts just to throw away.
Additionally, each script becomes part of a writer&#8217;s expanding inventory. Every writer, after all, is an entrepreneur, an independent businessman or businesswoman. And every business has a commodity known as inventory.
Rare indeed is the script that sells promptly upon being completed. Most movies playing in theaters bounced around from one studio to another, usually over a period of several years. The movie business is replete with examples of scripts that languished for many years, sometimes for decades, before finding production and vast success. David Webb Peoples&#8217; Oscar-winning screenplay (also best picture) Unforgiven waited 20 years before finally shooting.
The lesson both in screen and life narratives alike: Stay open to the surprises.
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<a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=richard+walter&amp;post_type=product"><img class="alignright wp-image-6473 size-thumbnail" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-129x150.jpg" alt="set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d" width="129" height="150" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-129x150.jpg 129w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-250x290.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-768x890.jpg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-883x1024.jpg 883w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-1024x1187.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-150x175.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-500x580.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 129px) 100vw, 129px" /></a>If you enjoyed this article, don&#8217;t forget to take a look at our range of <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=richard+walter&amp;post_type=product">DVD lectures by Richard Walte</a>r, available on this very website!
&nbsp;
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-Screenwriting-Business-Television-Writing/dp/0452296277/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8"><img class="alignright wp-image-9927 size-thumbnail" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-100x150.jpg" alt="The Essentials of Screenwriting, by Richard Walter" width="100" height="150" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-100x150.jpg 100w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-199x300.jpg 199w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-680x1024.jpg 680w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-116x175.jpg 116w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-387x583.jpg 387w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting.jpg 996w" sizes="(max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px" /></a>
Or take a look at his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-Screenwriting-Business-Television-Writing/dp/0452296277/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">The Essentials of Screenwriting</a>.
&nbsp;
 <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=%22richard+walter%22&amp;x=0&amp;y=0"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10944" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-150x94.jpg" alt="Richard Walter World featured" width="150" height="94" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-150x94.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-250x156.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-500x313.jpg 500w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>And before you go, why not check out our <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=%22richard+walter%22&amp;x=0&amp;y=0">other articles by and about Richard</a>?
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&nbsp;

Richard Walter on Why There’s No Success Like Failure

By Richard Walter.
What is the &#8216;trend&#8217; today in Hollywood?
I&#8217;m standing smack-dab in the middle of the town and haven&#8217;t a clue. As in algebra, however, let&#8217;s say that there is a trend and let&#8217;s call that trend &#8216;X&#8217;.
It&#8217;s too late to get in on that trend for the simple reason that it is the trend. If it is the trend today, it had to be in the pipes at least a year ago, and much more likely two or three or more years ago. To cash in on that trend by writing a script geared to it is to guarantee that by the time you go to market with the script it&#8217;s already old news, stale and pale and so last year.
During a strike years ago, since no one could market to the studios, a huge pile of spec scripts were written by writers, some of them very well established, with the idea of selling them after the strike. When the strike finally settled, there was a flood of cop-buddy police action melodramas, which happened to appear to be the &#8216;trend&#8217; at the time the strike started. Two writers well known to me and the community, however, a husband-wife writing team, wrote a spec script representing the kind of movie nobody was making at the time: a rich period piece, a historical costume drama. It stood out above the rash of police thrillers. It caught the imagination and attention of studios and producers largely because it was not merely another cop action melodrama. It promptly sold for a substantial price. In the meantime, dozens, indeed scores, perhaps hundreds of cop thrillers went into the shredder.
<div id="attachment_11371" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11371" class="size-full wp-image-11371" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/training-day.jpg" alt="Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt and Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris in Training Day" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/training-day.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/training-day-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/training-day-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/training-day-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt and Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris in Training Day</div>
Perhaps twenty years ago I advised my screenwriting seminar commandos at UCLA not to outsmart themselves by trying to figure out the latest trend. I suggested they write the dumbest script they could think of. At that time nobody was buying or making westerns, and so I advised them to write a western. When it was ready it would be the only such item and, therefore, attract attention.
One of the students took me up on this and wrote a hilarious comedy set in the American West after the Civil War. Not a gunslinger but a painter is making his way west, hauling a wagon of artist&#8217;s supplies: canvases, tubes of pigment, linseed oil and turpentine, brushes, a pallet and the like. Towns are springing up along the landscape and each town has a brand new saloon under construction, and every saloon needs a naked lady above the bar. Our protagonist arrives in town after town, paints a naked lady to be hung above the bar, and in exchange receives room and board from the owner, in addition to receiving provisions so that he can continue his journey west.
At one town the mayor is a Victorian-style prude, who doesn&#8217;t think there should be pictures of naked ladies in the saloon or anywhere else. He is particularly disturbed by the particular portrait of a naked lady above the bar, as she looks terribly similar to his own wife, right down to a wen or a wart in a particularly intimate place; one would have to know her very, very well indeed to know about that particular aspect of her body.
When the script was finished I referred it to a producer pal of mine who had made an iconic film reminiscent of this one. He immediately acquired the script, though it was merely a low ball option&#8211;very little money&#8211;and only for a month. Many writers don&#8217;t seem to understand that a short option is better than a long one. With a short option the writer gives away less. There&#8217;s more pressure on the producer to &#8212; what else? &#8212; produce.
I overheard two writers bragging to each other about options they had sold. One was for six months. The second guy boasted that his was better, it was for a year. Talk about being unclear on the subject! It&#8217;s like the old joke about Philadelphia. There&#8217;s a contest; first prize is a week in Philadelphia while second prize is two weeks in Philadelphia.
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11372" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/philadephia.jpg" alt="philadephia" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/philadephia.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/philadephia-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/philadephia-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/philadephia-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />The writer of the western was shown around under the best circumstances. He was not shown around by himself: they wouldn&#8217;t have read him. He was not shown around by his agent; he didn&#8217;t have an agent. But even if he had an agent it&#8217;s not as good as being shown around by a producer with a track record for making hit movies who wants to make your own movie. This writer, therefore, was not read by underlings but by the heads of the studios. There&#8217;s nothing wrong with being read by underlings, but there&#8217;s also nothing wrong with being read by the chiefs.
At the end of the short option period, nobody bought the script. The writer, however, had all the rights of the project revert to him, and he got to keep the option fee. What&#8217;s not to like about that? More to the point however, he had gone from being completely unknown to being very well known. At one studio, while they didn&#8217;t want to make his western, they loved his fresh, funny voice. They had an in-house script that they had not been able to get an A-list Hollywood writer to get a handle on, and so they decided to give him a shot at it. Since he was just rewriting somebody else&#8217;s script, and he&#8217;d never had any professional writing work, they only paid him ten thousand dollars. A week. With a six week guarantee. It actually took eight weeks, so he walked away with $80K, not the kind of fortune it once represented, but certainly sufficient funds to buy enough guacamole to carry him through Cinco de Mayo.
If that&#8217;s all that he got out of it, it&#8217;s not a bad deal; but it&#8217;s still not all that he got out of it. He also won representation. Imagine you&#8217;re an unrepresented writer with a major studio wanting to pay you $10K a week on a rewrite assignment. Agents and managers will line up at your door and you can pick and choose. He chose wisely and has a substantial and sustained career under way.
All of this success accrued from what? Not from homing in on the latest &#8216;trend&#8217; but by deliberately, purposefully bucking the trend, not by following the wise course but the dumb one.
From my perch in Westwood I cannot tell you how many times I see writers waste their talent and effort and energy by ignoring the story that&#8217;s in their heart, the story they want to tell, but instead telling the story they think some producer or studio will want them to tell.
It is a self-defeating prophesy from the get-go.
Writers! Stop working in your heads and work in your hearts, bellies, and groins. Screenwriting success is not about thinking but feeling. If the writer herself doesn&#8217;t truly care about what she is writing, why would any producer?
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<a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=richard+walter&amp;post_type=product"><img class="alignright wp-image-6473 size-thumbnail" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-129x150.jpg" alt="set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d" width="129" height="150" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-129x150.jpg 129w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-250x290.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-768x890.jpg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-883x1024.jpg 883w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-1024x1187.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-150x175.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/set_3_walter_dvd_cover_3d-500x580.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 129px) 100vw, 129px" /></a>If you enjoyed this article, don&#8217;t forget to take a look at our range of <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=richard+walter&amp;post_type=product">DVD lectures by Richard Walte</a>r, available on this very website!
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-Screenwriting-Business-Television-Writing/dp/0452296277/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8"><img class="alignright wp-image-9927 size-thumbnail" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-100x150.jpg" alt="The Essentials of Screenwriting, by Richard Walter" width="100" height="150" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-100x150.jpg 100w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-199x300.jpg 199w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-680x1024.jpg 680w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-116x175.jpg 116w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting-387x583.jpg 387w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/essentials-of-screenwriting.jpg 996w" sizes="(max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px" /></a>
Or take a look at his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-Screenwriting-Business-Television-Writing/dp/0452296277/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">The Essentials of Screenwriting</a>.
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 <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=%22richard+walter%22&amp;x=0&amp;y=0"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10944" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-150x94.jpg" alt="Richard Walter World featured" width="150" height="94" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-150x94.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-250x156.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured-500x313.jpg 500w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Richard-Walter-World-featured.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>And before you go, why not check out our <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/?s=%22richard+walter%22&amp;x=0&amp;y=0">other articles by and about Richard</a>?
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Richard Walter on Static Vs. Dynamic Scene Settings

Richard Walter on Why There’s No Success Like Failure

Richard Walter on Hollywood Trends

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