I’m going to cover a few that I have seen, (or even experienced myself).

A Creative Career Is (Not) A Job

A creative career is like a job. You have got to go to work. You have to earn money. You will have to please the person who is willing to pay you that money.

A creative career is often also unlike any ‘normal’ job. In many cases you work from home. It seems you don’t have to go to work. This brings challenges to people who struggle with discipline and face procrastination at home.

Once you accept that this new creative career is in many ways very much like an ordinary job, it is time to understand exactly what type of business we are talking.

A Creative Career Is Not An NFP Business

Not everyone considers it normal that you get paid when you have fun doing what you do.

The reason? Before you choose to make your hobby your job, you have a not-for-profit relationship with it. You are absolutely fine with the fact that you don’t get paid. It may actually cost you money.

In order to be successful, this relationship must change, and this is easier said than done.

In fact, acquiring the right mindset may well be the hardest objective to achieve in your quest to establish a career that is both creatively and financially rewarding.

People who succeed, don’t see a problem in sending an invoice for their services. They also don’t see a problem with paying for services in the creative sector. Every successful writer I know, has at some stage paid for writing-related services. This can be writing classes, software packages, editing services etc.

You Have Been Misinformed

The stories you hear about the creative career you want, are filtered.

In the real world of ‘normal jobs’, you get accurate information. In our precious entertainment industry, you rarely do.

So many people aspire to become a pro screenwriter after hearing stories about 7-figure deals. What they don’t realise is that for each deal of this kind, there are a thousand that bring in peanuts – or that simply don’t happen at all.

When a screenwriter sells a script, you hear about it. When a pool company wins a new client, no-one cares (even though the pool money may be a lot more). This sort of misinformation leads to the expectation that you will start earning a lot more quickly than is realistic. This, in turn, will lead to frustration and the belief that you are failing.

You are not failing at all. You were just not realistic in your expectations.

You Focus Too Much On The Outcome

Many self-improvement programs teach you goal-setting. They encourage you to have clear goals with milestones. And work towards those, relentlessly. This is certainly a valid approach and many have made it work for themselves.

I have not.

In my own experience, this can cause more frustration than anything else.

Why?

Because in the context of our creative career, often we set the wrong goals. We aim to finish a script by Christmas. To win a contest and sell a script next year. We’ll be financially independent in two years’ time.

Out of those four goals, only one is realistic. Do you know which one?

It’s the one about finishing a script. Do you know why? Because the others are out of your hands.

No easier way to frustration than to set goals you need others to achieve them.

Instead, set your goal to write X number of pages per day. To email Y number of producers/agents every week. Now, you are accountable. And you can be proud to achieve those goals.

Once those achievable goals are set, do the work, and don’t fret about the results. In fact, I believe the more you focus on the outcome, the smaller the chance you will achieve it.

You need to focus on doing the work, on a daily basis. Continue with it.

End don’t beat yourself up over the lack of results.

They will come.

You Doubt Your Creative Talent

We are all born with a thousand times more creativity than we realise. Sadly, our modern upbringing efficiently erases this. We are told that we don’t need it. In our everyday life, all we need is a rational mind, right? (Wrong.)

As a result, most people simply forget about their immense power of creation and imagination.

So we need to reconnect with this. Without it, the only outcome can be derivative drab.

Get in touch with your creativity and imagination. Meanwhile, keep confident.

Above all: keep working.

(There are heaps of techniques to unlock your hidden creativity. I boost my energy, ideas and creativity by practising Vipassana Meditation.)

You’re In It Because You Love (Watching) Movies

We can all wax lyrical about our favourite movies, and how they inspired us to pursue a creative career.

Make no mistake; watching movies is not a job. Unless you want to be a movie critic. And they don’t get paid any longer, because just too many are willing to do this for free.

The more people aspire to a particular job, the harder it will get to make a living in it, and the lower the entry level payment. Just look at the exploitation of musicians these days.

In order to build a successful creative career, you need to shift your passion from the finished movies to the making of them.

Can you be just as passionate about writing, planning, producing, problem solving, people management, and all other aspects of a creative career in the movies?

You Don’t Get What The Job Is About

Writers rarely write what they want, once they get paid.

You are free to write and be creative on your own terms – as long as you’re doing it for free. The moment someone starts handing over money, you will write what THEY want, using the style THEY want to read.

This is the paradox of the Writer’s Dream: the moment you have achieved what you think you want, the dream is really over.

Not only will you have to write to a brief; you will also have to deliver to a deadline.

The stress you experienced while fretting over the state of your bank account, now suddenly doubles.

Perhaps there are other aspects of this creative career you’re chasing that you don’t know about.

You know what? It’s never too late to learn.

You Don’t Spend The Time To Learn

So many want to become directors, producers and screenwriters. But they don’t want to go through the long learning process it takes to achieve excellence. They find it tedious.

Or they tell themselves that it cannot be learned. “Either you have it, or you don’t”. Now there’s a really easy way to fail even before you have started.

Learning is critical, in whatever you do. Rest assured that while you’re reinventing the wheel, thousands are getting ahead of you by learning the essential skills.

Successful, happy writers find it exhilarating to explore how movies work, how stories are built.

If you don’t, perhaps this is not for you.

It’s never too late to quit.

Or …

You Quit Too Early

I once heard that it takes seven years to make any business profitable. You are a business, too.

When things are not as much fun as expected, people get out. The fighters sit it out.

A creative business is not necessarily more fun than any other, as you may find out…

If you are in it mainly for the results (a movie in the theaters, a house in the hills), it’s going to be a very long wait for your kinda fun.

So this is where we can tell apart the quitters and the fighters.

Read Seth Godin’s book ‘The Dip‘.

Ask yourself, are you a quitter … or a fighter?

-Karel Segers

P.S.: Failing is cool.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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Pain In The Arts

I am in a business group, who has a conference call every Thursday night. Out of the seven members, only 3 others showed up last week. And all three sounded mildly depressed, mostly because of lack of results.

I’m not that annoying superhuman who is never affected. There have been many weeks when the group had to pull me up, too.

But this time it was my turn to pump some positivity into the call. At the end, I think some of us felt a little better.

What did I say? I’ll tell you in a minute.

In business, you get off a little more easily. When you focus on processes, strategies and efficiency, things are not that personal after all.

In the creative arts, however – and in this context screenwriting is an art and not a business – everything is a lot more personal. Your stories are you. Your writing voice is yours. Praise feels great. Criticism cuts straight to your core.

This can be painful.

A continued lack of positive feedback may well lead to creative fatigue.

Creative Fatigue? Not About You.

I don’t think I need to give you the blurb on rejection. You’ve heard about it. You may have even experienced it. Repeatedly…

But how to deal with it?

I often show this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert to students, at the beginning of my courses. It’s a super inspiring talk. Writers don’t always immediately realise how important it is what Gilbert imparts in her talk. They do when things get rough.

Basically, what she says is: “Don’t take your creations personally.”

Easier said than done.

Gilbert explains how in ancient times, creatives didn’t take credit for their work. That honour befell The Creator (or the Muse, or whatever you call that being with higher creative power than yourself). And guess what, artists didn’t suffer creative fatigue all that much.

What she also says – i.e. the less poetic part of the talk – is that you need to apply bum to seat.

Put in the darn hard work.

Bum To Seat

So here is a motto I’ve cited recently:

Don’t beat yourself up over the lack of results.
Instead, beat yourself up for not doing the work.

There it is.

Just keep doing whatever you need to do. Every day, every week, every year. Results will follow. Of course there are going to be days when the results are not obvious. After all, outsiders can see your progress so much more easily. Don’t despair: it is there.

And if it all gets a little too much? Take it easy. But keep moving, at your own, steady pace.

But if you are not supposed be focused on results, then why continue at all? Wasn’t all this ultimately about creating financial freedom, and having a lifestyle where you can write without worrying about money??

No, it wasn’t.

And if you thought it was, you may need a reality check. (Possibly also a return to your day job.)

If you cannot find joy in the simple act of writing, and if you need the financial freedom as a necessary by-product, you may be on the wrong track, my friend.

In fact, you are creating your own creative fatigue.

Fire And Forget

Okay let’s climb back up the sunnier side of the mountain.

Say, writing does give you plenty of joy.

But you’re not seeing the results to pay the bills.

Congratulations, you are still part of an elite minority who actually has a chance of achieving a happy life. Possibly even of breaking into the industry.

The trick is now to focus on the writing, and forget about the results. Do everyday what you can do – and need to – in order to finish those scripts (and, yes, pay the bills)

Just write.

While you are writing, don’t for a moment fret about the outcome.

Fire and forget.

I know, it sounds so easy, while you are there in your pit, battling creative fatigue.

Know your own priorities in life. If you truly want to realise your creative potential, you will have to make tremendous sacrifices. Our modern society is not particularly supportive of those who care about the matters of mind and soul. That’s just a fact, and it won’t change anytime soon.

You need to decide whether you are willing to pay this price.

Your sacrifices will be financial, and they will be social. If they become physical, make you sick, or keep giving you creative fatigue… Perhaps you need to reconsider.

From time to time, you may want to pause and evaluate whether you are still experiencing that joy in what you are doing.

You may want to reflect on what writing really is about for you.

What Writing Really Is About

Being a screenwriter is not about cashing in movie dollars. Not about a villa in the Hollywood hills. It is not even about getting to see your finished film on the big screen(*). None of that.

It is about the daily drudgery of getting words (not images) on your computer screen – and loving it. Irrespective of what will happen with the outcome.

Writing is about peeling the layers of obfuscation from the visible world. It is about discovering what goes on underneath the perceptible reality. It is about achieving a deep understanding of characters, actions and emotions. Then turn it all into visible images again.

This process feels so exhilarating, that creative fatigue is highly unlikely.

This understanding is a gift, far richer than any pay you will ever receive.

Ask yourself this question: “Does the mere act of writing give me joy?”

If it does not, get out.

If it does?

Give your art.

Write on!

-Karel Segers

(*Did you know that the majority of paid screenwriters write scripts that never get made? They sell, yes. But that’s it. So, your sole satisfaction better not be in seeing your movie title above the box office.)

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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Everything Is A Remix illuminates how copying other people’s work is not the same as plagiarism, but rather a process of synthesizing ideas into new and interesting forms.

It may have happened to you – or not. Either way, whenever you prepare your pitch, you better prepare for this question. Or are you perhaps the kind that will work on the same project until it is perfect? If necessary… for years? Hmmm…

I’m afraid that’s not going to work.

Some decent brainstorming may save your ass.

Be A Pro Screenwriter

Professional writers, write. That’s what they do – all the time. So if you want to be perceived as a pro, you will need to (give the impression that you) have more than one project. To get hired, or even to sell a screenplay, better build a diverse portfolio of work, rather than tinker on that one life project.

So you need to start looking for new projects, and one way to do this is by frequent brainstorming.

better build a diverse portfolio of work,
rather than tinker on that one life project.

One of the rules of brainstorming is ‘Quantity over Quality’. This sounds counter-intuitive, but let’s look at all the benefits of this approach.

Are you still only working on one project?

Get brainstorming. Now.

More means more options to win

I often tell my screenwriting students how at the height of my previous career – as a radio producer – I worked with all the idols from my teenage years. I was the kid in the candystore. Then lightning struck. The management of the network decided to sweep the broadcast schedules clean, and everyone had to pitch for their jobs again. Some celebrities had been hosting the same show for 20 years, and now they ran the risk of losing everything.

People started brainstorming like crazy, developing brand new radio show concepts. So did I.

Then lightning struck.

I came up with something I really liked. In essence it was a talk radio show, using the (then) emerging technology of speech recognition and tele-voting. The concept shaped up and I was pretty happy with it.

Then, fear kicked in. “What if they don’t like it?”

So I started putting together a backup plan, a show with a very different angle, something more like the programs I had been running successfully up to that point.

Again, doubt crept in. “What if they don’t like this either…”

Fear Is Your Friend

I started work on a third, fourth idea… until I realised there would be value in having a whole portfolio to choose from. So I decided I wanted to present not one but TEN shows.

Given the tight deadline, this was not entirely realistic, yet within the few weeks we had available, I managed to develop seven new radio concepts.

Most other producers had only one. Others two, three at the max.

there would be value in having
a whole portfolio to choose from.

All staff were assembled in a gigantic meeting room, and rather than telling who could stay and who was fired, the new programming schedule was projected on a massive screen. My eyes flitted across the time table, and right on the first day of the week – Monday 8am – there was my #1 concept. I had made the schedule, better even: I was going in prime time!(*) The relief was so great, it took me a while to realise that this was not all. A colleague prodded me: “You’re gonna be busy. You scored THREE shows!” My excessive brainstorming had paid off.

While some true radio dinosaurs saw their careers come to an end because their new idea was not picked, mine was just about to take off. I was not only the youngest producer for national radio, I had just become one of the busiest.

Brainstorming Like A Pro. Go Deep.

Getting more ideas is one reason why you should brainstorm often.

Getting better ideas is another.

Perhaps you have found that the same bunch of ideas keeps springing to mind. It either means you haven’t gone deep enough, or – if they are truly original – perhaps there is something in there that you should develop. Unfortunately, those top-of-mind ideas are not always the gems that will sell.

Beginning storytellers often rehash stories they have heard elsewhere, or emulate styles they like. They simply express the ideas that live in their conscious mind, or just under the surface. Your brainstorming needs to go deeper.

Those top-of-mind ideas are
not always the gems that will sell.

Only once you have figured out a way to access the deep irrational pools of your unconscious, this really interesting, darkly original CharlieKauffman-type-of-material will emerge.  If you have ever kept a dream diary, you know what I mean.

This Is Not Writing. Don’t Try To Be Logical

On this level, you don’t try to be logical, or plausible, or sensible. What you do need, is emotion. The emotions can be anything: fear, pain, torture or fun. In the early stages, it may seem as if you are not making sense. And for the outsider, you may not. Fortunately, you’re alone here in your creative cocoon.

To get to this level, you may have to be brainstorming for a long time, or frequently, and give yourself the opportunity to figure out your own process. Do it daily. Find your way of slowing down your mind, and getting access to great ideas.

You may have to brainstorm
for a long time, or frequently.

In times when I meditate frequently (not often enough), it is quite extraordinary what happens to my imagination and creativity. Where I otherwise struggle to come up with metaphors, they will hit me hard and fast.

Figure out your way. You’ll see, the ideas that hit you first may be completely unusable, without structure or shape. But after a while, you will find relevance on a deep level, and during development you may discover what your unconscious mind is trying to tell you. Some brainstorming methods can also be used when you are confronting writer’s block...

Nurture That Portfolio Of Ideas

Soon you will have a list of projects you are dying to develop, and before you know you will be adding further notes to those.

And guess what, you don’t need to have written the full screenplay before you can start pitching a project. If you have a rough structure, and the confidence that one day this will be a story, you are ready to answer that question above with a resounding ‘Yes!’ Of course you’ve got other projects!

Because you’re a pro, remember.

So how do you create that zone where great ideas come to you?

– Karel Segers

(*): This show would run for no less than 17 years, and outlast my own radio career.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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by David Trottier

It sounded reasonable then, and maybe you agree with me now. After all, the “right brain”—the inner artist—operates at peak creativity when the “left brain”—the inner critic—is otherwise occupied or relaxed. Thus, it only stands to reason that we writers are most creative when no constraints or restrictions are placed on our writing. Right?

Well…not necessarily.

The great paradox is this: Constraints cultivate creativity. It’s true that your inner artist may grow frustrated by intrusions from your inner critic, but outside parameters are just the challenge your right brain relishes. Imposed parameters can be inspiring!

A Lesson from Hitchcock

Psycho is considered one of the greatest horror films of all time, and yet there are only two acts of violence in the entire movie. Alfred Hitchcock and screenwriter Joseph Stefano were not allowed to show nudity, nor could they show a knife actually penetrating a body. Gore was not allowed either.

In the now-famous shower scene, the nudity is implied, and the knife is juxtaposed to the body, but is never seen entering the body. The Hershey’s cocoa swirling down the drain terrified me as a child. In a word, Hitchcock & Stefano were forced to be creative in how they wrote and shot that scene. The constraints helped create a classic. Today, there are no or few restrictions to the horror genre of film, and what do we usually get? More and more blood and guts, with little creativity. The art has not advanced.

Certainly it is possible to be creative without restrictions. You’ve experienced that in your own writing. That sacred creative flow transports you to Writer’s Nirvana. But constraints can be helpful, too, and even fun. As I write, I am enjoying the challenge of whittling this article down to 800 words. In so doing, I find myself refining my little opus so that I better connect with you (I hope).

Constraints can be helpful, too, and even fun.

Blocks into Stepping Stones

Have you ever felt blocked at one time or another by the thought of editorial restrictions? Perhaps the constraints reminded you of an overly critical parent or a past nasty authority figure, but they can inspire you if you let go of your initial resistant reaction. With a little re-thinking, the block you feel becomes a veritable stepping stone to better writing.

Much of the great music of the past was commissioned; the composer didn’t initiate the project and was confined to the musical forms of the time. Even hip-hop and rap adhere to some form or format. Everything artistic has two components: form and content. The creativity comes in how you craft the content within the restrictions of that form. Yes, and sometimes the writer transcends that form. Dickens wrote The Christmas Carol as a newspaper serial that later became the classic book.

Perhaps, the most restrictive writing form is the sonnet. Yet, some of world’s most beautiful poetry comes in sonnet form. I remember the pain and joy of writing a poem in iambic pentameter. My college creative writing teacher assigned me to write something worthy of the great poet-writer William Wordsworth. It took me 14 hours to write 14 lines, but I’m a better writer for it. In addition, three magazines paid me to publish it. And even though it wasn’t worthy of Wordsworth, it was terrific for Trottier.

The block you feel becomes a veritable stepping stone to better writing.

Fun with a Strait Jacket

Years ago, an independent movie producer paid me a paltry sum to write a screenplay. She gave me a list of twelve parameters, including one car crash with two cars, one burn (that is, one character had to be set on fire), and the limitation of just one outdoor location. I felt so confined. It wasn’t until I slapped my face a few times and accepted her parameters that the writing process became both a challenge and a joy.

Michaelangelo saw himself as, first and foremost, a sculptor. When Pope Jilius II commissioned him to decorate the Sistine Chapel with frescoes, he was not initially interested or inspired. And yet, he changed his attitude and the result is considered one of the world’s great works of art.

Do you want to improve your creativity? Develop and encourage your inner artist and embrace constraints as you would a trusted friend. That fresh attitude may free you to be the best writer you can be.

-David Trottier

David Trottier has sold or optioned ten screenplays (three produced) and helped hundreds of writers break into the writing business.

He is an award-winning teacher and in-demand script consultant, author of The Screenwriter’s Bible, and friendly host of keepwriting.com.

Photo Credits: Stock XChng, David Trottier

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwSfawJHLq4&w=613&h=385]

If you liked this, check out more videos about screenwriting or filmmaking. And if you know of a great video on Screenwriting, let us know in the comments. Thanks!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VShmtsLhkQg&w=613&h=385]

If you liked this, check out more videos about screenwriting or filmmaking. And if you know of a great video on Screenwriting, let us know in the comments. Thanks!