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January E-Track Meeting
Stephen Berger on PowerWriting
by J'Amy Pacheco
(January 2002) |
You've taken the classes and seminars, read the books and written the script. You think you should be ready, but something's not quite right. Is it the story? The marketplace? The writer?
A lack of readiness in any one of those areas could lead to a writer stumbling in Hollywood, Stephen Berger told members of the Scriptwriters Network at the Jan. 19 educational track meeting. Berger is the creator and presenter of PowerWriting - a groundbreaking motivational seminar that teaches writers how to motivate themselves not only to write, but to succeed in the business of writing.
"There is plenty of good stuff out there, focusing on a certain set of things a writer needs to do to succeed," Berger observed. "But most classes focus on the screenplay -- structure, character, cycles of action, genre. Those are all essential to know. They're necessary, but not sufficient for success."
Rather than covering the well-trod ground of nuts-and-bolts screenwriting instruction, Berger shows writers how to "program" themselves for writing success, from the time they sit down with the first blank page through…well, success.
As a first step, he recommended becoming a "doer" rather than a "done-to."
Done-tos, he explained, are those people to whom bad things always seem to happen. They constantly experience bad luck, and seem to have no control over the negative events in their lives. Doers, by contrast, "make things happen."
"We don't know if we're really in charge of our fate," Berger stated. "Doers are people who act as if they really are in charge; as if they really can make things happen. They act that way because they believe it."
"If you have a basic, core belief that you're not in control of your life and your career, you're not going to get anywhere," he added. "You have to be a doer. It's the only way to succeed."
In his two-hour presentation, Berger focused on the "ten mistakes writers always make -- even though they think they know better."
The first, he said, is going out with the script before it's ready. The script gets sent out, the writer receives the standard rejections, and comes to the conclusion that it's too tough out there. But maybe the problem is with the screenplay.
"Are you getting your script in shape, or slacking off?" he asked. Berger said he becomes frustrated with writers who ask him to read their scripts, receive "huge notes," and never bother fixing the identified problems.
Another mistake writers make, he said, is going out with the script before the writer is ready.
"You've done the work, and you've done it right," he explained. "The script is good. It's a great idea, well-written; you've got the right size brads, and you go out with it. You might not be ready."
Berger recalled a writing team that hit it big right away. One, he said, leveraged his success and became "huge." The other, he reflected, became an alcoholic, "spiraled," and used his money to "ruin his life."
"I'm not saying you shouldn't go out," Berger said. "You should go out and get exposed. Go out, but don't expect to hit the jackpot."
Berger advised beginning writers to avoid big agencies, where they are likely to be lost, or ignored. He recommended looking for a "mom-and-pop" agency where beginning writers are the "bread-and-butter."
Even if a writer and script are ready, the industry may not be, Berger cautioned.
"You've done the work, you know how, and you can do it over and over," he said. "But the industry isn't ready for you. Life ain't fair. There are no guarantees."
"The point is, you've got to stay in the game," he continued. "You can't give up."
Some writers give themselves a specific amount of time in which to succeed, or define a number of scripts after which they will give up.
"Say you do 10 scripts, and then give up," he said. "What if the eleventh script was the one? The only way you can fail is to quit. You have to say, 'I'm going to do it until I make it.'"
The fourth mistake, Berger said, is "taking the easy road." Some writers come close to having a "fantastic script," but never do that last little bit of work. Others may say they're going to experiment, or to "try" screenwriting, as a way of "scotchguarding themselves against failure." Berger described both as a "subtle strain of self-destruction."
"It's a rare thing to sell a script, to get a movie produced," he observed. "But you'd better believe it's going to go somewhere. If you don't, it's going to translate to every page of your screenplay."
Other writers make the mistake of "taking the hard road." Those writers write the same script over…and over…and over. Their intentions are "noble," Berger said, but the script never goes anywhere. It can't; it never goes out.
Not writing from the heart is the sixth mistake, Berger said. Writing from the heart, he explained, is not to be confused with writing small, intimate scripts; it simply means a writer must be excited about their story.
But not writing from the wallet can be equally destructive. A great story about which a writer feels strongly but which has absolutely no commercial value is destined to fail.
"It takes a lot of money, and a lot of work to make a movie," Berger explained. "You'd better be sure it's worth the investment. You can't write something that is meaningful only to you, and expect people to put money into it."
Writers also err in "not knowing the game," Berger said.
"You've got to read the trades, and know what's happening," he said. "You've got to know what's going on in the industry." People who succeed in their chosen profession, he elaborated, "live, eat, sleep, breathe and dream that thing."
"All of the time, I see people who want to be screenwriters, but they haven't seen any movies," he said. "It's like being a fisherman and being afraid of water. You've got to know what's out there." In development meetings, Berger said, titles of movies "fly around."
"The language of development is movies," he added. "If they're talking about a big, high-profile movie and you haven't seen it, they'll think you're an idiot."
Writers should also be sure to do their homework before sending a script out. Spelling and grammatical errors, or obviously poor research, will give the reader the immediate impression that the script is not worth reading.
Berger completed his list by urging writers to avoid "sanctifying your writing time."
Writers who block out a certain amount of time or require themselves to complete a certain number of pages every day and who make their writing time "so important that nothing else matters" are making a "big mistake," he said.
Instead, writers should write something every day - even if it's just a line of stage direction or a block of dialogue. The objective is to make writing a habit.
"Do you bathe every day?" he asked. "Brush your teeth? Do you have a sacred teeth-brushing time? No. It's a habit. Just something you do. Yet every day, it gets done. That's where you have to get with your writing."
"Let momentum work for you," he added. "You'll become able to write more every day and not think about it. Once you reach the level of two pages a day, you'll start having 20 page days - and you won't even think about it. The trick is to just write something every day."
Stephen Berger offers members of the Scriptwriters Network a $75 discount for his next PowerWriting seminar, scheduled for April 27-28 in Los Angeles. For further information, call (310) 967-1385.
J'Amy Pacheco is the editor of a law-oriented newspaper, and writes a weekly humor column.
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