Write, write, write

You may be new to the business of screenwriting, you may have been in it for donkey's years. The "business" means collaboration - working with others, all in it to make the best possible film. Great collaborators give you the kind of feedback that empowers you on your crazy journey to the shooting script.

You'll go equally nuts with the wrong feedback from your collaborators.

Who are your collaborators? They're producers, managers, agents, directors, actors - their feedback comes in various forms and stages and is always useful (even crappy feedback will give you the opportunity to question your assumptions once more).

First draft: I hunker down. After setting the frames (expose, treatment) with the producers, I lock myself in the cave and write. After completing the first draft (which usually really is a second or third draft until I'm happy with it) it goes for feedback to my wife and to trusted friends (and that includes my agent).

The official collaboration of "the business" really only begins after this stage. Collaborating, getting that feedback of every kind, is often hard for writers. I've figured out an excellent way to handle it - more about that here: Want to keep your sanity? Separate!

Second draft: At the second draft stage, the great producers and directors will give you broad strokes and trust. They know that the second draft is early forming stages of what will eventually become a shooting script. Great collaborators will come back to you with things about major elements, structure and character arcs - they will not even think about giving you details like "On page 12 he should sneeze" and "Scene 132 - add "Honey", when she says 'I love you'. Pros know that at this stage a great many things will, without a shred of doubt, change. Delivering a long list with details is, in fact, a great way to set up everyone for major discontent. The writer will be locked in far too many constraints and, if he does what he should do and focus on getting the big picture right before zooming in on the detail, he's bound to disappoint the collaborators as all their long detailed feedback won't even remotely relate to the new draft anymore.

Third and later drafts: I've seen completed second drafts nailing structure and characters. It happens, not often, but it happens. If all the big stuff's solid, then by all means bring on the details (location changes, scene adjustments, dialogue, beats. But more often you need the third draft to get to the place where all are on the same page regarding structure and characters. Until you get there - keep that feedback broad-stroked.

Overall collaborators should remember to set the course to begin with and to steer the journey in the right direction - then trust the writer find that mysterious island called "brilliant friggin shooting script". Course corrections need to happen along the way but they should never be micromanaging ones until you're navigating the final pre-shoot reefs.

This is the story of Wilber Patorkin.

The differences between cinema and television used to be quite clear. But TV's come a long way and today the lines are completely blurred. Still, when you write your script, thinking about your medium remains as important as ever.

Pretty damn unique element, I'd say!

Thank God for HBO and Showtime, they've changed minds, attitudes - and dramatically so. Today Hollywood looks with envy to TV, to powerful serial storytelling, to brilliant, edgy one-off dramas. Used to be that cinema offered larger scale - today TV productions often match features in big scale ideas, visuals, emotions - even cost (action, FX, A-list actors, etc.). Used to be cinema often offered more complex storytelling - today? TV easily offers equal and greater riches with epic story and character arcs building through the seasons. Used to be that TV reached fewer people, likely to be contained in domestic markets. Today TV travels, reaches and soars - where feature film is a short twitch on a blockbuster weekend.

Yes, you can argue that features need a different sensibility - you write for a global audience - and you write for a shared audience experience. You're not writing for the guy who's home alone and leaves the story experience several times to grab a beer, take a leak, etc. Cinema, ideally, keeps you in your seat, period. If you take e.g. cop dramas - TV will still allow you to get away with a ton of procedural stuff - where as film has the character front and center.

I've read an interesting comment somewhere: "The biggest difference between movies and TV is that in movies the viewer wants the characters to change and in TV the viewer wants the characters to stay the same." It's an interesting thought, think about it. In film - we want the character arc, we need the character to learn something, to change, to reach a conclusion, a resolution. In TV we often want and need the character to stay the same, to keep struggling from episode to episode and season to season.

With so much between TV and cinema blurred - there remains, for me, one major element - one thing that gives a story the right, the honor, the privilege of the silver screen treatment - and that one thing is the unique element. The "unique element", what is it? When I think of a story, when I think about a character, when I watch a film - the thought invariably crosses my mind - where is the unique element? And, let's face it, more often than not we're disappointed by feature films because we're watching rehash central time and again.

What makes a film unique? What makes it "deserving"? It can be anything really. An entirely new world (e.g. Avatar), a freaky fresh way of storytelling (e.g. Memento), a truly special character (e.g. Pulp Fiction's Vinnie). The uniqueness can be something big, but it can also be something small - a different way of looking at the world or simply a fresh twist on an old tale.

When you watch it, you instantly know when you're in the presence of something special, something fresh, something unique. When you're writing, it should be just as obvious to you. If it isn't, think about it. If you still don't know, ask others. It'll help you direct your energies and focus on the right medium (and collaboration partners, of course).

Find that unique element and you'll be on a special track that just may get your script made.