Screenwriting : Any other screenwriters on here going for it like your life dependant on so to speak? by Richard Heard

Go for it - break a leg!!!

Thanks man!

Personally, My life doesn’t depend on it. I’ve enjoyed writing 8 feature screenplays. I submit to national film festivals, and travel to them whenever a script is nominated. I’ve attended 4 in the last year and a half and currently have two Official Selection scripts chosen at this year’s Burbank International Film Festival, so I will be attending there as well this summer. Recognition for a job well done, seeing some quality films, meeting new faces, and discovering new places. THAT’S what brings me great satisfaction.

All the best

Thanks for sharing...

That's how I started, and it kinda ruined my life. I turned to screenwriting in a crisis and figured I could make something work.

A couple of years later, I was suicidally depressed, running out of money, and my marriage was in tatters.

I did get an assignment, and I did go to shoot a movie in Hollywood, but I came back to moving out, losing everything, and moving back in with my parents. There was a point I was looking at being homeless.

Five movies in, I've done okay, but it's still not reliable income, and some streaming successes haven't netted me the career moves you'd imagine. I do feel blessed though.

This is treated far too often as a get rich quick scheme, because technically, there's that chance that you sell a script for a fortune. I just don't think people are fully aware of how bad the odds actually are.

Building a career takes a scary amount of time. I'm fifteen years in. Like most of the arts, it's best treated as a hobby unless something unlikely happens.

I need to ask a question of the screenwriters and the producers. I have a book that has generated interest in producing into an 8 episode TV series. The production company wants to evaluate and make the final decision after I pay for the eight episodes. It is $36,000 for the episodes. I will not have a contract until after that and the company makes a final decision. I need to know if this is how it usually goes or is this some kind of fraud?

Sandra Waite That definitely looks like scam

@Sandra, money flows to you. Not away from you. Sounds like scammer work.

I'm a year and A half from collecting my pension with some nuggets of income but after 25 years of developing networking getting promises... now is my time on earth to really go for it. There's multiple projects in folks hands but I've learned to create my indie stuff to have income.

. I appreciate everybody who has responded.

And Richard, do not let yourself slip into debt ... go work part time or fulltime to ensure you have cash flow, the writing, email, and such can be done off hours!

Lindbergh Hollinsworth... thanks securing part-time now to keep something coming in

Bill Brock... Thanks for chiming in. I have been at this 25 years and had lots of promises over the years scripts requested...ghosted...changes of mind... and a few of my works now I see on TV... I had and stlll have a screenplay for television I developed 15 years ago about young dancers/mafia bad guy running business...in and around the 4 to 5 girls personal lives that I shopped everywhere. No one wanted it...now the same script or TV concept is a blockbuster on a major streaming platform (all I will put here is show starts with an E) I am aware of the spec sale almost nill these days. Many people sight the Coming to America legal battle years ago that stunted us unknown writers chances of selling spec. So I have produced indie docs and 1 horror I pick up a few pennies on Tubi TV with. So going for it still full steam but I do have backup plan which is age. My early pension is a year and a half away. So paying bills but still dreaming!