How to be a screenwriter

Exactly eight days ago, on America’s Independence Day, 4th of July, I received this e-mail from an unknown someone:

Hi Joanne,

Very sorry to bother you, as you’re probably very busy.

I have a friend who is very, very passionate about become a screenwriter for tv and films too. However, she is feeling very lost at the moment, and finding it very difficult to find out how to get her foot into the industry’s writing scene. I was wondering if you might have any advice for her? How can she move towards her dream of becoming a screenwriter?

Thank you very much and all the best! : )

Sincerely,
D-

I have yet to reply to the email although my immediate response would have been this:

Hi D-,

If your friend who is “very, very passionate” is feeling discouraged after taking a few baby steps, then I suggest she doesn’t pursue this career path.

Indeed, she should not pursue any career path at all.

Life is a struggle.

If it is easy, then you’ve chosen the path of least resistance. Many people do take such paths and are perfectly happy.

Take this path and you will not face any disappointment.

Thank you very much and all the best! 🙂

Sincerely,
Joanne

But I didn’t reply. Why should I waste time on such people? I have better things to waste time on. Like taking countless photos and writing on this inconsequential blog.

But it’s hard. Hard to reply to such a query.

On the one hand, you don’t want to tell the truth and be discouraging.

On the other hand, you don’t want to lie and make people hope for nothing.

But really, how passionate can you be if you

1. give up so easily?
2. get your friends to write e-mails for you?
3. feel discouraged so easily?

Come on! I haven’t even been to Hollywood and I know that just about every waitress or waiter in LA is an actress or actor running between bussing tables and auditioning. Sometimes all they get is jobs as extras and they still try and try and try.

So actors audition till they get a role.

Painters use up loads of paper and canvas till they have a masterpiece.

Scientists experiment till they have found the cure.

Writers write until they have something good.

The woman in the third world country carrying a huge pot of water on her head didn’t do so magically overnight. She started from young, spilling half the water she started out with as she walked for miles and miles to bring drinking water home.

The struggling writer in every movie rips out paper from his typewriter, crushes it and puts in a blank page to start over again and again. Technology has made it easier on the environment. It’s called Control-N (Command-N on the mac). It starts a New Blank Document.

We are already a damn lucky lot. So what are you whining on about?

The education system here is to spoon feed answers to our students. This is because every principal wants a certain percentage of A’s and number of passes and every year should be an improvement of the previous year. You can’t blame them when the markers for improvement are results oriented.

This is what happens. You spoon feed your students so much until you have to spoon feed them life lessons.

And this is what we get. A whole generation who are like race horses with blinders on.

They see the end. They see the prize. The glory.

And they’re galloping away to the end, but the end seems to pull away from them. The fact is, they haven’t even left the gates. Their heart breaks. They get sad and mopey.

If only they looked down. They’d find their puny legs which they didn’t bother to work out and exercise.

On Youtube, there’s an excerpt of an interview with Gordon Ramsey. On it, he’s asked what’s the best advice he can give to aspiring chefs.

Gordon Ramsey says that these chefs should go somewhere away from where they’re used to. Go to a place where they don’t know anything, the language, the culture and work hard. That’s how to build character and find out about yourself.

He’s talking about legs.

(And by the way, if I don’t know you, don’t write an e-mail to me like you’re a long lost friend.)