You are the driver

Stop handing over the wheel

I got on a long awaited notes call earlier this week for a feature screenplay I've been hired to write. It's taken a particularly long time to get the notes back because the studio has been in the process of bringing on a director. So after we sort of got through all our pleasantries and nice to see and meet yous the executives in charge of the project brought up the notes they’d sent me in advance of our meeting, and kicked it to the group “How should we tackle these?”

At first, I deferred to the group, “you steer.” But as we began talking, I realized what would be most helpful to me as the writer, and the person who needed to leave this meeting feeling like I knew where I was going, wasn’t to talk through everything in this document, it was to ask specific questions about the specific notes in the document that I found a) exciting and b) potentially challenging. So I quickly went from handing over the steering wheel, to realizing, “actually I’d really love to drive this thing.”

I think (at least for me) there’s a common expectation early on in our careers that everyone else knows more, that jobs are scarce, that we should simply consider ourselves lucky to be here, and that it is our job to just figure it all out on our own.

Whether this is a normal outlook or a product of my own neuroses, it’s definitely what I started out with. But the longer I’ve worked, the more I’ve come to understand that there is nobody else driving the car! At the end of the day… especially when you are working on an assignment, everyone’s hope (and expectation) is for you to have the clarity of vision to go ahead and craft a brilliant film. Yes, they’re hoping it fulfills their creative brief and studio mandates, but really they are hoping that once they have hired someone to write a movie, that the writer will take the wheel.

This is you, the screenwriter. You are calm, cool, collected, and have a sick scorpion jacket. You are Ryan Gosling in Drive. Nothing bad will ever happen to you (unlike Ryan Gosling in Drive).

I have gotten into so many creative conversations with producers and executives (and directors!) who don’t totally know what they’re looking for besides ”more conflict” or “more tension” or “more emotion” that I no longer sit down for notes and think “how am I going to do all of these things?” Instead I sit with notes and think… “How do I sort these?” Which of these are good, which of these are bad, which of these are neutral?

You don’t always have to take all of the notes, but you do always have to consider them all, and find the ones that really are exciting and let everyone else know why they’re exciting. Writing (for hire) is a client-facing business, you are there ultimately to service your clients — the studio. However crazy their ideas may be, it is your job to make enough of those crazy ideas work that they feel like you mostly did what they were asking. Breaking down the notes you receive into those three categories (Good, Bad, Neutral) is an extremely helpful way to begin to focus your energy on the stuff that will ultimately serve YOU.

Because you are the one doing the truly herculean task of taking a bunch of random ideas from a bunch of people and hopefully turning those into a coherent story. It’s a crazy job. And everyone knows it. And everyone (who is good and normal to work with) will want to empower you to do that to the best of your ability. Which means that once you’re hired, take control.

This is true outside of the creative as well. If you haven’t heard back from someone about something — check in. Give them an email or a call to say “Hey, what’s going on with that? What do you need from me to get it done?” Everyone is juggling a million different projects and clients and they are not purposefully dropping the ball on you (usually). But they are not driving. You are driving. This is your career and nobody else’s.

So remember… when you have that instinct to let someone else steer, pause, take a breath, and consider whether you actually have a better idea of where everyone needs to go. If you do, take over the wheel.