Genre's crippling paradox

[reddery]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

People's impression of your work will never be what you want.

[rant ommited...] ...and I really wonder , are you asking how to sell a screenplay; or, how to write a great screenplay?(might be the foley in your career choice)

[Joaneasley]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

Writing with the marketplace in mind doesn't mean you have no passion for what you write. Most of us love more than one type of movie. There's no reason we have to write the least marketable type of movie we like.

Out of all the kinds of movies you love, which ones are popular genres where newcomers can break in if they have a great concept, executed well?

Out of the popular genres you love, which one do you have the most ability to write? Are you better at scaring, thrilling, or making people laugh out loud? Find a great concept in the genre you think you think you're best suited to write.

If you're not sure yet which your best at, what's the best concept you can come up with in any of the commercial genres you love? Put your passion into that script and see what happens.

[THEUGLYDUCKLING]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

what was i talking about?

[Kevan]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

Some great posts in this thread...

Good stuff...

[DavidK]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

Looks like I'm in a tiny minority here but I think advising any aspiring writer to try to specialize in a genre is real bad advice and is more likely to close doors than open them.

Write the sort of movie you'd want to see, write what you enjoy writing, write the stories that get your mojo working, but set out to specialize in a genre at your peril.

If, after getting to the stage where you sell your work, it works out that you want to specialize in a genre and can succeed at that, do so, but it's a mistake to set out with that as a goal.

You want to get a reputation for being a good writer, a reliable writer, and inventive writer, but you don't want a reputation for being the writer they can't offer an assignment to because you only do horror, or whatever.

[ShaneBlackFan]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

John August said that his career suffered when he started out -- he's not doing too bad now --because he didn't specialize in a genre. It pays to be the master rather than Jack when you're green -- your agent will love you and can promote you for assignments, that's if you want to write Hollywood pictures. Once you are established, then you show that you can write in other genres.

Ultmately, write whatever you want, there's no secret yellow brick road to a successful writing career.

[ScriptShadow]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

You have to move between genres to stay sane. Clearly though, if you sell something and all your other scripts are in the same genre, you can make a hell of a lot of money. Please see: "How Kevin Williamson became rich." If you sell a horror script and tell your agent, "I just wrote this really great love story," you're going to get one hell of a funny look.

[DavidK]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

If you sell a horror script and tell your agent, "I just wrote this really great love story," you're going to get one hell of a funny look.

No, you're not. Your agent is going to say fantastic, let's see it.

[The Road Warrior]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

Resurrecting an older thread I missed ...

All stories have elements which are common to them, and genre is the filter through which we see them imo.

If you limit yourself to any one genre I see four problems with that immediately ...

1. How do you know that that's the best genre to express yourself
within, you may like thrillers, but they may not draw out your best
writing.

2. The skills you develop in other genre's can be carried across into
your current project.

3. You give yourself maximum creative range, by not limiting yourself this
has to be beneficial and contribute to craft.

4. It helps to avoid becoming stale and dry, rooted into one genre,
denies that juice, freedom to consider any idea, creative
freedom ... and is anyone a specialist in a genre, unless you are a
Raymond Chandler, but that thinking seems somehow more appropriate to the writing of novels.

[NikeeGoddess]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

we know a lot of producers and directors, musicians, actors, doctor, teachers, etc... limit themselves to one genre or specialty. do what you know and do what you know best, hitchcock.

but in the beginning if you don't know what that special genre is then go ahead and putz around. some people know what it is but they're not successful at it so they switch to something they think will more marketable but really it's probably that they write crap. but you never know so keep trying.

[Logliner]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

I say, let the story dictate whether you should write it or not.
If an idea for a story comes to you and you feel compelled to
write it, then go for it.

[The Road Warrior]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

we know a lot of producers and directors, musicians, actors, doctor, teachers, etc... limit themselves to one genre or specialty. do what you know and do what you know best, hitchcock.


but in the beginning if you don't know what that special genre is then go ahead and putz around. some people know what it is but they're not successful at it so they switch to something they think will more marketable but really it's probably that they write crap. but you never know so keep trying.

I will Mrs Hitchcock.


second para, what really, do they ...

[cupertinoCA]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

i've always written horror/thriller. however, last year, i decided to shift into comedy. i've found some success in that genre. for whatever reason, it came so easily and i was able to write a few scripts...

i'm cautiously optimistic about the scripts. however, at the same time, im scared to death that i'll be labelled as a comedy writer because, well, i have no idea where those comedic moments came from. i'm afraid that i won't be able to produce a funny script when asked to do so

[catcon]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

Yes, as was stated earlier, another great thread!

SoCalScribe (become a specialist), Martell (do what you enjoy) are both particularly well suited for HWood because of the "assignment approach" to doing business. Eventually, you'll also become really good (and respected) at that genre.

But there'll always be room for the alternative such as described by hscope (bouncing around to different genres).

That's my approach though my scripts possess a few commonalities such as underlying themes of optimism (so perhaps that's my "genre"). I believe anyone could tell all my stories were written by moi.

Anyway, I'm also in agreement with DavidK (that it's bad advice that aspiring writers should specialize right out-of-the-gate).

Then NikeeGoddess brought up a good point, where it's the studios, agents, producers, etc. who often specialize, for business reasons. That makes sense, too.

But here we're talking about us, the artist/creator from which everything (except most assignments) originates and flows.

Personal experience: As a newbie I felt eager to attack every genre. My last effort was going to be, frankly, my "zombie pic". However, half way through I couldn't get my heart around it so I dropped the camp and changed it to something far, far darker. I also discovered that most wonderful free domain source of material: The Bible. Actually, Abrahamic verse so I could jump to commonalities from Christian to Jewish to Moslem. Then, at about the same time, to perk things up, I changed the villain from a male to female. Definitely unusual given the genre.

Suddenly, I tore through the outlining process that I was in at that time, and the script-writing was a breeze.

In the end, we shouldn't apply templates that limit our creativity. The ones who "pay the bucks" will be doing that soon enough.

So to each their own. Sometimes one needs that structure provided by familiarity, or one just loves what he or she is doing.

[Biohazard]

Re: Genre's crippling paradox

Just write the type of stories that you enjoy watching - but write them well.