Every agent is waiting for you to bring them the next big saleable screenplay that will knock the business off its axis. They want you to show them that piece that will have producers and studios panting at their doors with huge offers of money and multiple deals of future movies. Agents want the best for you, because it means the best for them. I happen to believe that this relationship is a great one. It is an honest quid pro quo - if you are successful…I am successful. How bad is that?

New writers and often experienced writers,  have an unrealistic view of what their agent should be for them, and what they can and will do for them.  In the movie, Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise was always there for the Cuba Gooding, Jr. character.  Cruise had dinner with Gooding’s family, he want to his games, he was constantly on the phone with him and he carried his bag.  NOT!!

Writers write for all sorts of reasons.  Some of these reasons are perfectly right and reasonable but many are heartbreaking mistakes. 

There are people who go to movies and say to their friends and families: “I could have written a better movie than that!”  Come on, admit it, you’ve all said it a few times.  But if that is your only real motivation, it is pure ego and narcissism.  Writing well is tough, grueling work.  It takes years to become a really good writer, to be recognized in the film community and to make a living doing it. 

 
Getting a screenplay down on paper is difficult, there’s no doubt about that. Yes, you search endlessly for that “different”story, for that unusual and fantastic arena that you are sure no one else has done or will do.

Writers often try to find and create unique situations that are so far out that they bear little or no resemblance to real life or real people. Trying to be unusual can be a trap for new writers as well as established pros.

Writers vary in terms of how many ideas are floating around in their heads at any one time.  Pen Densham, (ROBIN HOOD:PRINCE OF THIEVES) told me he has hundreds of ideas all the time. Lawrence Kasdan (BIG CHILL, GRAND CANYON, etc.) told me he usually only has one or two. Obviously there is no right number of story ideas that determines whether you’re a great writer, or not.

Since the early 1980’s in the U.S. and the late 1980’s and early 1990’s in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, there have been numerous seminars on Script Development. Why is it important? Who does it? How do they do it?