Pete’s not wrong. As someone who benefited from queries and from the Nicholl, I wouldn't go so far as to say that you're wasting your time. 1/ #ScreenwritingTwitter
https://twitter.com/boldtitlepete/status/1628053626362163204
Disclaimer 1: Times have changed since I was entering contests and sending cold queries. Yada yada yada. But they haven't changed. Not really. Hollywood needs product and writers. 2/
Disclaimer 2: Nepo babies, cronyism, systemic -isms. Yada yada yada. It's difficult for an outsider to break in but not impossible. Not really. Hollywood needs product and writers. 3/
Contests and queries are opportunities. What you do with that opportunity is entirely on you. The right contest or the right query can cut through the noise and get someone’s attention where they will take precious limited time away from existing projects and clients for you. 4/
That's what happened multiple times to me. My overnight success was actually years in the making with incremental opportunities leading to new ones. 5/
I've also watched talented writers win contests and query reps with professionally written scripts that have a very limited amount of space in the market. 6/
As an established professional writer with high-calibre reps, I know from first-hand experience how difficult it is to put together and sell a project that occupies a niche space in the market. 7/
It is exponentially harder for an unproven writer to package and sell a niche project, which translates into a rep or producer investing a lot of time and effort taken away from existing more viable projects so they can champion a project that is unlikely to sell. 8/
It's not impossible to succeed with a niche project, just freaking hard. As you can imagine, it's difficult to find someone who believes in your niche script, and you, so much that they are going to hold your hand and drive off a cliff with you. 9/
In my case, I entered contests and sent queries for market-friendly projects. When opportunities arose, I was able to make the most of them with something reps and producers felt had a place in the market so they were willing to hold my hand and drive off a cliff with me. 10/
No matter what you write, success ultimately comes down to having the right script in the right hands at the right time. With a niche script, the number of hands is significantly fewer and the time is more infrequent than it is for market-friendly scripts. 11/
Almost every day a new writer is signed as a new client, or selling a script, or being hired. The true source of their success is that they not only created opportunities but they were ready to take advantage of them by having the right script at the right time. 12/
So I wouldn't say entering contests or querying reps is a waste of time. When you do these things you are trying to create opportunities and those opportunities can be created. 13/
The only waste of your time is not understanding your project's place in the market and by extension the most effective way for you to take advantage of your opportunities. 14/
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
