See that tiny sliver of overlap in the graphic above?

It’s not meant to depress you.

But it does represent a reality of the film/TV industry: the fact that only a tiny percentage of creative work ever leads to business – to money being made, to sales, to production, to consumers consuming it, to revenue for anyone.

It’s probably a tinier percentage than most writers realize when they’re starting out. And that may be a good thing, in the sense that if they did realize it, they might never write anything.

And thus they would lose the experience of being creative, of exploring, developing and learning a craft, of “playing” in it, perfecting work, sharing it with others in some way.

There is value in that.

But for us screenwriters, it can be limited value. Because what we create isn’t meant to be directly consumed. And no one wants to consume it! We create blueprints for something else. A show or movie. Which costs a LOT of money to make.

And unless we can self-fund our efforts into production somehow, our creative work tends to be incomplete because of that. Which can be dissatisfying. If we let it be.

But some creativity does lead to “business.” The rest of this post — and pretty much my entire blog and work with writers — is devoted to helping writers move in that direction.

Without losing the good things about creating that have nothing to do with that.

Hanging onto those good things is not just for the writer’s happiness. It’s important because even when your focus is on “what will sell” or “what they’ll pay you for,” if you can’t find a way to put yourself and your passionate creative process into it, and care about it strongly, it usually won’t be good. So it probably won’t succeed either. I have definitely learned this in my career.

So a writer must retain some element of stubborn creative individuality and trusting their own taste, following their own passions, and writing what they would want to see, first – forgetting others’ opinions for a large part of the creative process.

AND YET…

There’s a place for thinking about “the business.” And most writers don’t do it enough. Assuming that they would like to at least have a shot at their work being produced. And most do, however low the odds are.

I don’t meet a lot of writers the opposite of this, who are only about the business and not about creativity. Most are 99% about creativity – meaning taking what they find interesting and what’s in their head and getting it on the page, not because it might sell, and not because it could entertain millions of willing consumers (they often don’t even consider that), but because they like it.

As I said, there is a place for that. It is part of the process. And one does have to use some of that kind of mindset to create something good.

But that’s not enough on its own. Not for “business” to possibly ensue.

To take on more of a “business” mindset means to think like a small business creator. Imagine your project as a start-up looking for venture capital. Imagine you’re on Shark Tank. That means you’re creating something that is designed to make strangers’ lives better. Something they will pay for, in large numbers, and eagerly consume. Something they will become super fans of and tell their friends that they have to check it out and buy it too.

It’s like a gift to them, where you put their needs and desires first, to some extent. You’re prioritizing delivering on what they come to your type of story for, as much as possible. 

That means you’re looking to entertain them. Because that’s what most of us are looking for in film and TV. It’s what we value. We’re looking to escape our lives into something a writer (and others) created for us, to help us do that.

“Entertaining” is the “E” in the “PROBLEM” acronym my book The Idea (and its online course/community) is based on. One of the seven elements of a viable story, in my view.

Writers often don’t prioritize being entertaining. They often write in the straight “drama” genre which is the hardest to make entertaining. (Although it can be done.) And they often don’t pay attention to the genres in Save the Cat which I’m a big fan of, partly for this reason.

Basically you’re trying to appeal to the emotions of millions of people. To get them invested in a main character and their big life problem/goal. (Or more than one.) So they root for them, even become them. And to also make it a fun emotional ride as the story plays out.

That usually only happens when the main character is very active in pursuing a difficult-to-reach intention from scene to scene, in a process that’s inherently enjoyable to watch. (In other words, it’s scary, it’s funny, it’s high-spectacle, it’s romantic, etc.)

It’s not easy to find a premise for a story or series that will do this, and still be believable and original in some way. That’s why I focus so much on the first part of the process — choosing and developing the core concept before devoting months or years to writing and rewriting it.

Writers usually don’t get feedback early on so they don’t realize the ways in which their concept or approach to it is going to have issues trying to achieve all of this.

But it’s not ONLY about the initial concept, structure and genre elements. It’s also about the words on the page, in the final script. Ideally readers also enjoy the process of being led through those pages — because it’s written in such a way as to draw them in and hold them, to paint the pictures and engage them in the emotion really clearly. So they get it and care about what’s going on and want to keep reading. In how it’s delivered, they’re thought of, and put first.

If you’re a writer who is paying attention to those things and prioritizing them, while staying true to the “creative” reasons for doing what you do — and also focused on learning, growth and evolution over time, with many different projects — I would say you’re on the right track, to have your work be more and more well-received.