Is it a "hack" for writers, or a trauma response?
Diversify diversify diversify!
A little bit about what I’ve been up to lately. I have been slowly taking out a pitch for a project. I have also been working on revising a treatment for a feature. I have also been waiting to talk with my team about a new spec feature I sent them recently. I have also been producing a documentary. I have also been working on casting what would hopefully be my directorial debut. I have also been working on casting another, different hopefully directorial debut.
I have a big spreadsheet of all the projects I’m working on and I check in on it at least once a week because sometimes I forget who has what, or what I’m waiting to hear back about, or who’s waiting to hear back from me.
This is because I have what is either:
A very healthy ability to acknowledge that the effort I put in does not necessarily correlate to outcome — ie, working hard to make something good does not guarantee success.
OR
Some kind of sick, learned trauma response that means I fundamentally cannot believe any one thing I accomplish will ever really matter, and so I must constantly accomplish new things, in a Sisyphean effort to someday finally “prove” my worth
Let’s say it’s the first one. Yeah. It’s the first one. Definitely.
Whether it’s a deep subconscious need or a zen worldview… the ability to constantly diversify has proven to be extremely useful in a career that is extremely fickle. And I would recommend that artists everywhere remember that always having something new is just about the most powerful way to live, thrive, frankly just survive the Hollyweird ecosystem.
Diversify, diversify, diversify!
It’s just about the only way to survive an uncertain business environment!
What exactly are you recommending here, Colby? That I find for myself an almost pathological lack of fulfillment?
Okay, sick burn, dear reader. I was going to say… a commitment to process over product? Let’s say that’s what I’m recommending!
A “career” in the arts is at best a gamble. Anyone who’s claiming that they made it in this business due to their talent is ignoring a very very very critical component to making it in Hollywood, and that is… sheer dumb luck.
You need to be very good and also very lucky to be one of 2149 WGA screenwriters and 1664 TV writers earning a paycheck (for the period of 2023-2024).
Exclusively having the strategy of… “I will simply be very good” isn’t going to cut it. You must also “take a lot of chances.” The more opportunities for success that you can create, the better your odds. I took AP Statistics. I did poorly in AP Statistics, but I did take it.
The likelihood that anything works out the way you want in Hollywood is… low. That is simply true. What you do with that information is up to you. What you definitely shouldn’t be doing is putting all of your eggs in one basket. Have many, many baskets. And put at most a couple of eggs in each. Considering the price of eggs, maybe just one egg, honestly. If you are a writer, the best way to find yourself more baskets is… you guessed it writing. 🚨🚨Over-extended metaphor alert! 🚨🚨 But you get the idea. Sometimes more is more. Especially when it comes to having more chances for success.
I recognize that I lured you in with “one simple trick grindset mindset” bullshit. And yes, there is some “get grinding” nonsense inherent in what I am saying when I say that you need to “make more things” in order to “maximize opportunities.”
But! What I am really trying to get us to is something much more profound (hopefully) than that:
Do not get hung up on success as an artist. Do not get hung up on getting something made and that validating your success as an artist. Do not get hung up on being paid and that validating your success as an artist.
If you are creating something, you are an artist. Full stop.
If you are a writer, or a director, or an actor, or a producer, or just one of my relatives who is kind enough to read this every week despite not really being any of those things… if you are making something, you are doing it. Even if you aren’t currently making something, but instead are working on trying to get someone to give you permission to make the thing… you are an artist.
This is it. Right now.
I work on a lot of different things because I love making things. It’s that simple. I get paid to do it now (sometimes), but I used to do it for free. I wrote plays to be performed in basements by my friends. I made videos on the VHS camera I borrowed (ok stole) from my dad’s work. I made a lot of things. And I still make a lot of things. And not all of them hit. Many of them don’t hit. Most of them don’t hit. So I diversify. And yes, that is partly strategic, it increases my chances of making something really great, but also… I just like to do it.
So if there’s only one neat trick I’m allowed to give screenwriters, I guess it’s this.
Enjoy doing it.
Just a few links
I’ve really been enjoying
’s newsletter , and particularly think his recent issue about “How To Think Like a Development Executive” dovetails nicely with this week’s Hollyweird!If you’re looking to get a next thing written and get it written fast, might I recommend
’s “20 Weeks to a Final Draft” challenge? Starting June 13, so there’s just enough time to think up what you want to do.Looking for radical ideas to save the theatrical experience?
has a few ideas (hint: diversifying is a big one!).
It's definitely a balance to understand that you have to be everywhere you can at once without sounding like the hustle-bros were right. I think you got that balance right here.
AI has added a whole new challenge as you not only have to be everywhere, but it has to be better than what AI can do.
Ugh I love how you can be both a realist about the industry AND super encouraging - loved this, Colby ❤️