The Numbers

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There is a post I used to share on Twitter once a year or so. Then I left that hell-site and now the post is pinned on my bluesky page. It reads:

My screenwriting career by the numbers:

I've written 38 feature scripts

Made money on 10

4 were assignments

2 were optioned but never sold

1 was sold but never made

3 were sold and made

2 out to financiers with attachments

New script out to producers

Currently writing #39

There are no shortcuts!

I write a lot of things. Feature screenplays, TV pilots, audio dramas, plays, and more recently fiction. But feature scripts have always been the cornerstone of my career. Here are some definitions for the non-screenwriters out there:

Assignments (AKA Open Writing Assignments or OWA’s) are when someone (usually a studio) is looking to hire a writer. It can be to adapt a piece of IP (intellectual property) such as a book or a video game. It can also be to rewrite an existing script. Before I moved to LA (and I wasn’t in the Writers Guild), an indie producer hired me to write a script for her. All the rest of my OWA’s have been for studios.

Options are when a production company or studio pays a small fee to give them exclusive rights (for a set period of time, usually a year) to market my script, in the hope they can attach a director and actors (AKA attachments) and find financing. If they can put those elements together (also known as “packaging”), then they can purchase the script and make the movie. This is how all three of my produced movies came together.

I co-wrote script #38 with my often partner-in-crime Ben Rock. I’ve co-written a total of 9 feature scripts, but this is the first one I’ve written with Ben. We also co-wrote two audio dramas and co-created the horror/comedy web-series 20 Seconds to Live. We’re currently in negotiations to co-write a new audio drama.

Since this initial post, I finished a first draft of script #39. It took me a while to crack this particular story and I’m still not sure I have. But at least I have something with a beginning, middle, and end. I’m currently working on a second draft.

Which brings me back to the final line of my post:

There are no shortcuts.

Occasionally someone will reach out to me on social media with some version of, “I just wrote my first script, how do I sell it?” And my answer is usually write five more scripts.

We love the idea of shortcuts. We love stories of how someone wrote their first script and sold it for a million bucks. Or how someone’s first script won them an Oscar. Everyone wants to win the lottery. But almost no one ever does.

What happens, usually, is people work hard for a long time and when luck and perseverance meet, then sometimes good things happen.

I’ve written 39 scripts, made money on 10. That means there are 29 scripts that haven’t sold. Some of them may sell someday. If I’m lucky, maybe a couple will get made. But I can’t count on that. At the very least, I know those 29 unsold scripts taught me something. About the craft. Or about myself. They certainly reinforced that there are no shortcuts in this business.

I never want to discourage anyone from trying to tackle a creative endeavor. If you want to try screenwriting, get in there. You can go to film school, but you don’t have to. There are plenty of free or accessible resources to learn the craft. The business is a mess, but hopefully movies and TV will survive and thrive.

But if you’re doing it to get rich or famous, then please do something else. It takes a lot of time. A lot of drafts. A lot of falling down and learning to get back up. There are no shortcuts. But there is a way through, if you’re willing to do the work.

The numbers don’t lie.

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My favorite new podcast is Past Due with Ana Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle. They talk frankly with their guests about how hard it is to make a living while working as a creative. I posted how much I liked the show on Bluesky, they saw my “by the numbers” post, and invited me to be on the show to talk about it.

This is one of my favorite podcast interviews ever. I talk about the ups and downs of my 20-year-plus screenwriting career, how I wrote my way out of a six-year slump, and the (ongoing) struggle to reignite my career when others might have packed it in. Really proud to be a part of this conversation.

So if you enjoy what I write here on my Substack and want to hear me talk more about it with two amazing hosts, give it a listen.

And thank you for the encouraging messages I get here from time to time. It means the world getting to share with all of you.