You write screenplays because: 1) You enjoy being creative? 2) You want to do good work and get paid for it? 3) You want be rich and famous? 4) You think you're better than other 200,000 schmoes out there writing scripts? For me, I sort of feel like this old cigarette ad. It may not be the best use of my time but I take pleasure in it. Why do you do it?
Screenwriting : Why do you write screenplays? by Phillip E. Hardy, Prolifique
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Why does Jill Masterson hang out with Auric Goldfinger?
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William: Is that a rhetorical question? Are you saying you write strictly for money? Perfectly legit if you do.
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These stories in my head want to come out.
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I write ebcause the voices in my head each need their own outlet to express themselves.
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It beats drinking all day...
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Bill: Hard to argue. For someone like Bukowski, he wrote and drank all day while doing it. For him, a perfect combo.
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Why? I should slap you in the face for asking such silly .....naw....too French. The naked essences of humanity, exposing the solemn raw truths....naw....too psuedo-intellectual. Because it fills the lulls between my procrastinations and.....naw...too real. Because my agent said the bidding war on my next script will start at.....naw....too wishful. Baby's cry. The moon shines. Soldiers fight. Writers write.....naw....too Hemingway-ish. Barkeep! A round of plot points for everyone! To all my friends!....naw....too Bukowski-ish... Because "show, don't tell" beats the heck out of "Freeze! don't move"....ah....simpatico....
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Remember, I'm like the Turk. I smoke for pleasure and F#%k lung cancer! Phewy! I spit in it's face! Oh no, I'm hijacking my own thread. Screw the thread! I spit in it's face too!
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@Fiona If you come to Austin to visit, I'll stand ya a pint!
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Trying to get my wife on board with Austin Film Festival this year. Have a lot of promised drinks to buy!
Egads....Forest Girl meets Cowboy Man. They don't even have trees in Texas. This one's gonna end up lover-ly.
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@FFR: Be lovely to have you come visit Austin, which is an amazing city with great hotels, restaurants, music and bohemian chic vibes (This was a paid endorsement for the City of Austin). My wife and I met up with another S32 denizen from Boston, while she was attending the Austin Film Festival. It was great and S32 throws a great rooftop bash during the festival. @David: I've been an AFF second round finalist three years in a row and looking to advance to the next round in 2016. You ought to come during AFF week. Great time of year to be here and lots of things to do (This endorsement was not paid by AFF and don't think that it was). Love to have you come visit young sir! @Bill: I'm a cowboy by way of Manhasset New York and LA my friend. And oh contraire! Central Texas is infested with oak and ceder trees growing wild all over. That's why we have an incredible cedar pollen sitch (This was a paid announcement from the Central Texas Bureau of Allergy Control, "Fighting allergies and mucus and flem since 1965").
Yes, Fiona, by all means....go visit Phillip, like the 17 other writers who have visited him and who we haven't from since. You must have another empty seat in your Slave Writer's Garage, eh, Phillip? You gotta feed them more than once a week, you know.
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Bill: Feed them more than once a week! What do you think I am, a humanitarian? Beth: Help me! I'm hijacking my own thread.
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lol! said "denizen" was me! had a blast hanging out with Phillip and his wife, and loved the AFF. hoping to return next year. but i digress. i write cause i quickly figured out that, no matter how futile it all may be, the days i wrote i felt like i'd had a good day. the days i didn't, i didn't.
Phillip - after seeing you put down not one, but TWO, of the Quadruple Bypass Burgers at the Heart Attack Grill here in lovely Las Vegas, AND smoke a whole pack of Lucky's between bites....ah, what the heck....I was gonna call you "hypocritical" for not feeding your slave writers more than once a week....but, dang. two Quadruples! You da man! Beth - Please don't save him. He's beyond salvation. Shari - so YOU'RE the empty seat in Phillip's Slave Writers Garage. We should talk!
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Bill...what can i say? the whip's part of my process...
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I would choose number 2. I want to do good work and get paid for it.
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Dan: Good answer.
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I think it's rather like being in love; you don't know exactly why you feel the way that you do, you just do. So, I guess, I don't know why I write screenplays.
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Phillip, my dear, it's your thread. You got this. ;)
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Phillip, that's you in the ad, right? Same mustache? Lol!
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BFH: me & Turk r 1 & the same.
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It's my job - same as when I was a forklift driver. Now, I could have remained working in a warehouse and made a good living, but I've been telling stories since I was a child (which usually got my mouth washed out with soap back then) and it's something I enjoy doing. But if I were not paid to write screenplays, I'd be writing novels and short stories.
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WM: Sounds familiar. I was also a warehouse fork lift driver for a while. I was alone in a big building in Torrance listening to KLOS and crashing into shelves and pallets. A cool job when I was 23. Glad you're having success staying out of the warehouse.
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Because I was born a writer. It's part of who I am.
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It has been said that writers are writers because we are fundamentally unemployable.
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A few of my favorite quotes on why some writers write (Writers on Writing, Jon Winokur) You don't write because you want to say something: you write because you've got something to say. F. Scott Fitzgerald Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves. Aldous Huxley I love to tell stories. Irving Wallace A writer is someone who writes, that's all. You can't stop it; you can't make yourself do anything else but that. Gore Vidal What I am trying to achieve is a voice sitting by the fireplace telling you a story on a winter's evening. Truman Capote What I want to do is make people laugh so they'll see things seriously. William Zinsser I want to be the Minnesota Fata of science fiction. Frank Herbert I want to entertain people by the millions. Mickey Spillane
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I write because it's the best way I'll get to direct the stuff I want to direct.
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Because I have too! I'm a selfish individual when it comes to story telling... I feel that if people could hear/see what is going on in my head, they wouldn't have an excuse like, "I'm bored" anymore.
Well said, Damien.
You hit it on the head, Phillip. It's addictive. If I could stop, why not? But more importantly, why stop? Like thousands of schmoes out there, I haven't sold one - yet. Yes, it's therapeutic. and fun.
Addictions. We're addicted to the shadows on the wall. Funny, but I want my shadows to motivate the viewer to climb out of the cave and run around above ground in the real trees, under the real sun. Of all your quotes, Bill, this one rang most true for me: "Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves." Aldous Huxley and, you know, a little bit of #3 would be nice.
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And congrats to Phillip on his latest option with a well-known producer for his script Loved into Excellence. I think Phillip is going to have more options, sales and writing assignments in 2016 than there are months in the year. Way to go, buddy - I mean, Mr. Hardy!