Film Courage: How does the writer know what they are good at? Writer/Instructor and Script Consultant Shannan E. Johnson (The Professional Pen): Good question.
I think a lot of that is going to come from your own confidence. A lot of that is
going to come from within, just knowing like this
is a natural skill for me, this is a natural area for me. But I do think it
takes some time to get there which is why when writers work with me I will
ask those kinds of questions. Like are you writing what you'd like to write?
Or are you writing what you like to watch? Are you writing characters that
you know very well? Or are you writing characters that you observe? Which is
fine but make sure that if there are people that you just observe that you
then try to get in there so you really know why they do the things that they do
you know and I think a lot of the times we write what we think is on trend we
write what we think people are going to buy and by doing that you're not
necessarily finding your niche though you might be finding I don't like this
but the question is are you then gonna be honest with yourself and say I don't
like writing this so then you're stop writing that and start writing what you
do like so I think it takes some work but I also think it just takes some
honesty like within like just just like it would for anyone who's working any
job there are people who are on their job right now and they know I don't like
this or they know I have a different skillset and I do like my job and I had
this skill set they can give me this promotion but nobody else can see it
like people you know just kind of know just like we said about that athlete
thing just kind of know that it's gonna be football or basketball or golf or
whatever even though when you're a young kid your parents might you know put you
in all five of them and eventually you just narrow it down and say well this is
the one I like so the same thing is true for writers I mean I think you have to
go with your first good write because most people start writing because they
had an idea they usually aren't people who just start writing because they're
in a writing class most people are I have this idea so they start writing so
great write it get it out see if your next ideas in that same wheelhouse and
then what about your next one and if they're all kind of in that same place
then you start to realize either this is what I like or this is what I'm good at
but we also know just as again as people a lot of us do a lot of us are great at
things that we don't like to do you know you hear people say all the time like
this is what I'm great at but I want to do that
like for example I'm a great teacher I do not want to be a teacher
so the kind of teaching that I do is by teaching adults in online screenwriting
courses or doing workshops so I'm still a teacher as a script consultant I am a
teacher but I am NOT the what what people consider a teacher I don't get up
every morning and have to be in a classroom full of little people all day
I don't want to do it I've been fighting it my whole life just the other day my
mother said to me well you know since you work from home you should probably
go ahead and get your teaching certification I don't want to be a
teacher you know but it's just a natural you know a natural skill that I have to
be a teacher so the same thing is true for a writer you just have to be honest
with yourself about this is my skill set but is this what I like doing and figure
out if you can find like what that middle ground is something that you're
skilled at and you actually like and some people are group people and others
are excellent one-on-one I think yes and that's gonna matter because if you're
not a group person then you don't want to write TV and so I have people say all
the time like I wouldn't be a TV writer and it's like but you don't take good
notes you don't like to be around people okay you know and you think that this
process is all about you you can't possibly want to write TV TV most TV
shows it's changed a little bit because now we have streamers now we have blah
blah blah so things happen all kinds of different ways but most TV shows have a
writers room that you're gonna be stuck in for weeks for you know 10 12 hours a
day sometimes with you and then discussing discussing discussing
discussing you don't want to be around people you might not want to write TV
the same is true for if you don't want to move to Los Angeles you probably
don't want to write TV right because most TV writers rooms are in Los Angeles
sure there are a couple literally a couple in Atlanta maybe a couple in New
York but 90 something percent of the writers rooms are here in Los Angeles
you don't have to live in office Angeles to be a feature writer it's probably
best that you do at least at the beginning of your career so you can meet
the people you need to meet because here in LA in LA because film is the industry
you might run into someone you know I mean like these people are
everywhere and if you're gonna have a meeting they're gonna call you in a lot
of times they're not gonna do their first type meetings over the phone it's
just not gonna happen that way then once you come in they want to see you and
depending upon what you do for a living you can't afford to fly and get a hotel
every single time you take a meeting right so still being in LA it's probably
a good thing to do if you're a writer because you want to be able to just be
in the mix meet the people get to know the people and be able to see them face
to face but other than that after you've established yourself as a feature writer
you can live wherever you want because you can submit via email you know what I
mean you don't have to be here but for TV writers most of the rooms are here so
that's something that people should take into consideration when they're deciding
they want to be a writer you got to ask yourself those questions too am i a team
player or do I want to do this thing solo
do I want to live in Los Angeles or do I want to live in Connecticut like where
do you want to be how many screenwriters have you come across who only have one
screenplay completed most of them I would say the majority of them only have
one screenplay completed and that's okay especially if they're in the beginning
then they're still trying to figure out what it is they want to do or if this is
really what they want to do or if again I just have an idea and I want to get my
baby made then I'd only expect them to have more screenplays because it's not
about them becoming professional writers it's about them getting their baby made
for those who I know wants to be professional writers then we start to
have those conversations about okay when it's time for you to meet an agent or a
manager or whoever whomever they're gonna say what else do you have so you
got to have something else and again thinking about branding yourself you
want to have something else within your voice see we get it a little bit twisted
because we start to think well I want to show them how diverse I am right so I'm
gonna have one of these and one of these and one of these in one of these it
actually does the opposite for writers if they don't already know you if you're
brand new it that's the opposite they want to be able to read three of your
scripts and understand you're a voice they want to be able to read three of
your scripts and understand these are the characters you write well this is
the world you know well right so if you write big-city things then what's in
your writing sample should be big city things if you write small town things
then all of your writing samples should be small town things
and it doesn't mean that you can't write big-city things but you're just again
trying to say but this is my voice this is what I write understand my brand so
it's not a negative thing if you only have one screenplays just the question
is what do you want to do if you want to be a professional writer then you got to
go write more because writers have to write and if the people that you work
with as a script consultant or even just email you to test the waters how many of
them have never let anyone else see that one screenplay hmm I would say I think
it's a little hard now that it's we're it's 2019 and there are like script
coverage services all over the internet so I don't meet very many people who
haven't let somebody else read it even if they're not even if they aren't
professionals but I think I'm usually the first like professional person that
they've had Rita you know maybe mom read it or sister read it or cousin already
you know but I think I'm usually like one of the one of the first professional
people and I think that's also because even though all of those resources are
out there a lot of people never utilize the resources like they haven't really
googled people don't even know and I'm not saying that they should but they
don't even know that a script consultant exists so they're not thinking let me go
google script consultant you know some of them are thinking the only way I'm
gonna learn how to write a screenplay if I go to film school they're not thinking
there are online classes there are one-day workshops there are three day
workshops people aren't really thinking that so they're not even looking forward
you know they may the most they may do is like go google some books and go to
the library and get the books or go buy the books or amazon the books or
whatever but for the most part by the time they get to me I'm like the first
professional opinion they're getting and they usually have found me on social
media by accident I'm not even looking for me you know I think that's how I
found you ya know that's the great thing about you
know 2020 is that people can just randomly find you so I think they're
usually like oh my god you're the you're what I've been needing this whole time I
just didn't know that you existed you know and that's the hard part about
being an entrepreneur is figuring out you know how you're gonna market
yourself so people know that you exist because it's like once people know me
they're like I need you and they usually you usually utilize me and almost all of
them come back like all of my my I usually return clients and that's if
they're writing quickly enough because as we know somebody may write something
this year and they might not write another thing for you know two more
years that happens with some people but for those of those of my clients who are
actually trying to become professional writers and they're writing off and they
always come back with whatever their next project is and it becomes like a
team effort you know like like I'm a part of the team if I'm gonna write
something Shannon's gonna read it she's gonna give me some notes and she's gonna
be real with me always tell people if you don't want you know my honest
opinion again not my subjective opinion cuz that's not what it's about this is
not about me saying this is good or bad but if you don't want me to let you know
that some of the choices you're making aren't being executed the way that you
think they're being executed then I'm not the person for you you know but if
you want me to just give it to you straight I'll give it to you straight
and at the end of the day you can always not listen that's the best part about it
you don't have to take the note because it's your work and you can decide to do
with it what you please do you think most people are fine with that in terms
of they actually want you yeah to give me I think I've only had I've had maybe
two or three people give push back and I'm all wait I'm fine with it
because I'm not here to prove to you that my feedback is correct this is
still art you can decide to do whatever you know and so a lot of my feedback is
usually in questions because I don't want to tell you what to think I want to
tell you what I think you're saying and see if we're on the same page so I will
usually ask a whole lot of questions I then sometimes get people who respond
back answering the questions it's like that's not what I need you to do I'm
asking them because it's not clear on your page so you need to go put that on
the page just like you can't stand outside all of the theatres and answer
everybody's questions I'm not asking you to answer my questions here I'm saying
if I'm asking that means it's not there if I'm asking whatever it is you're
trying to make happening isn't happening sometimes that's okay sometimes that's
what you're doing on purpose fine I don't need the answer you don't have to
prove anything to me I then will have other people push back simply because
they got a different set of feedback from somebody else and that's fine I'll
always say to them great if you get another set of feedback and that person
says what I said or that person said with the
other set the other person said then now you know which direction are going to
because if you hear it more than once then it's probably a problem right so
yeah I've had a couple of people push back simply because they said well the
problem that you see is not a problem and I say you know that's fine
my only feedback to that is if it wasn't a problem we wouldn't be having this
conversation right like you sent it to me because it's not working for you I've
given you the reasons why it's not working and you say well that's not why
it's not working well that's fine you don't have to take the notes I wish you
best you know with your with your project and hopefully it'll work out for
you I don't ever want someone's project to not work just because I gave the note
and they didn't want to take it you know what I mean like that's again what makes
it art so you don't have to take the note but I think again going back to
well this is my baby where it's personal I've been writing like I had one woman
respond I've been writing for this many years and I've baba blah blah blah
that's great these are the problems that I see
hopefully it works out for you there's not very much you know much else I can I
can say to it but it's not it doesn't become like a a war between whose
feedback is correct or isn't it like I'm not gonna take it personally if you
don't take one note you know I'm going to do my job to the best of my ability
as professional as I can professionally as I can and you can take it or you can
leave it and that's okay
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