[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

The 3 Most Important Elements When Writing for Hire

By Jacob Krueger

[/spb_text_block] [divider type="standard" text="Go to top" full_width="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block title="3 Most Important Elements When Writing For Hire" pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

This week, we'll be taking a break from our regular programming to bring you an excerpt from one of Jacob Krueger's Master Classes.

Jake: You know, writing for assignment is very different than writing on a spec. The beautiful thing about writing on spec is we have all the time in the world to fully explore, to fully mess up, to go in the wrong direction, to explore what the limits of what the movie can be are, to play. And in an ideal world that's the way we want to write.

 

You know, most of the scripts that break writers into the industry were not written in a weekend. They were not written in a month. They were written over years and years and made to look easy.  

 

And it’s your next script- And, fortunately, when you allow yourself to explore that way, when you have the time to build that way, it also builds your skills. And it makes you much more likely to succeed when you’ve got to do these crazy 12 week turnarounds. The standard turnaround for a professional writer, whose only job is to write, is 12 weeks, and Marti is trying to do that with kids, a husband, a movie in pre-production and a commercial.

 

Marti: By August 30th, woo-hoo!

 

Jake: So this is a real challenge. It's exciting, and it’s a real challenge. So, what's the most important thing when you’re writing on assignment?

 

Page 1.

 

Page 1 determines what the reader is going to feel as they start reading your script. It's like the window through which they’re going to view everything else. So, imagine you’re going to a job interview. You can be totally brilliant, but if you didn’t take a shower and you look disheveled and you forgot to put your pants on, we all know what happens, right? So, the most important thing when you’re writing on assignment is Page 1. Remember, producers expect to have to give notes, and when there’s a 12-week turnaround, there’s no option that they’re not going to have to give notes. You’re not going to get a perfect script in 12 weeks. Period. Ever. It just never happens.

 

Even Matthew Shepard, for which we won a ton of awards, for which we had to turn in the first draft in four weeks (which was insane), even for that movie, we did a year of rewrites after that four weeks.

 

But the most important thing when you're writing for hire, and quite frankly if you’re working on a spec as well is Page 1. Because a producer is waiting…

 

Well actually, come to think of it, maybe the number one thing should be to turn it in on time! You are better to turn it in on time good, than late great. Because turning the script in late is like “icing” a producer: it screws a producer up.

 

Producers are incredibly dependent on deadlines. Oftentimes a producer has a star interested, for example, and that star has a window from this date to that date, and if they miss that window, that star’s gone and the movie’s gone. Or they have a director who’s available only during this time or they have a financial person who’s waiting for this script who they’ve made promises to…

 

So if you are late- late is always the worst. There is nothing worse that you can do than late.

 

A producer, is always really anxious before they get the script. I know when I was a producer I was always really anxious. First off you’re wondering, “Are they actually going to turn it in? Am I gonna have to call them? Am I gonna have to call their agent? Are they blocked? ‘Have they even written it?” So as a producer, you’re really freaked out. You’re like, “Oh my G-d!