Spec Screenwriting is not Dead

Spec screenwriting is not only a lonely, solitary profession, but it is also incredibly frustrating – especially when you hear about certain trends and fads in film – you know, teen vampires, old people, superhero comic book characters. I just have to wonder how many spec screenwriters are going to do a 360 and start writing a superhero comic book or graphic novel just because they are ‘hot’ at the moment… or start a young adult teen angst story just because they are ‘hot’… or start a story about octogenarians because they are ‘hot’ etc etc etc. By the time all these ‘hot’ stories are finished, they won’t be ‘hot’ anymore. I wonder how many writers are feeling burned that suddenly decided to write about teen vampires because they were ‘hot’. As a spec screenwriter, you are already behind the eight ball and are now even further behind it because you have ‘wasted’ your time writing for a fad which has now burned itself out.

My initial goal when I started screenwriting was to build up a vast portfolio of screenplays across many genres. Through that time, I ignored all the trends, the hype, the fads and the ‘what’s hot now’. Just because teen vampires were hot didn’t mean that I was going to slip a teen vampire into my screenplay about assisted suicide. Just because twenty-something buddy comedies were hot at the time doesn’t mean that I was going to slip two of them into my sci-fi screenplay. I just concentrated on being a better screenwriter, finding what I was good at and rewriting rewriting and more rewriting. Now that I have that cross-genre portfolio built up, I feel enough confidence to enter into the next and most scary phase – marketing and selling them.

Spec screenwriting is a total crap shoot. Luck is what is going to be the determining factor. It’s going to be luck that knocks on your door, not because of the talent you have. Don’t get me wrong, you can have all the talent in the world, but if what you have written doesn’t fit with what people are looking for, it’s not going to happen. The genre or hyped hot genre at the time will be the 99% deciding factor, but also somebody taking a chance on you – luck. You have to believe that there is a home out there for something you have written. Trends or fads have a funny way of popping up out of the blue. Perhaps something in your portfolio will fit the bill. It’s a waiting game. I don’t think the spec screenwriting market is dead. I think it’s just dormant.

My advice to any spec screenwriter is to continue writing whatever you are writing. Explore all the options open to you as a writer – yes, comic books, yes YA novels, yes different genres. From all of these things, you’ll find what you’re best at and in the meantime, hone your craft and get better at it. But trying to chase the ‘what’s hot now’ carrot will drive you insane. The only people who should be chasing the ‘what’s hot now’ carrot are those writers who have been hired to write or rewrite a screenplay that has already been green lit or about to go into production. For spec screenwriters, doing this – changing your original stories to fit what’s currently hot, dropping your projects in favour of fads (that will eventually fade) – is a pretty stupid thing to do.