An interview with the screenwriter of A History of Violence about reading work by amateur writers. It concerns screenwriting but it could just as easily apply to comics scripts or any kind of creative writing:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/i_will_not_read.php?page=1
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Most pros I deal with are very helpful with their critiques and time...of course, I've usually giving them money for a commission.
I think this is a catch 22. For someone wanting professional criticism, this could be viewed as a "dick move". On the pros' side, this is usually a laborious process because they're giving their time and expertise into something that usually results with no reward: meaning the percentages are very high they get the American Idol type responses to said critiques. Dealing with percentages, I will usually decline such requests to review works because I feel that they only want to hear that they are awesome or they aren't. They don't want to hear how they can improve and the work involved that's usually the difference between looking out or looking in.
It is widely recognized that there are people that want to hear everything a pro has to say about their work and they can build on it, but those are far and in-between. Like I said, percentages are played and decisions are made thusly.
And WTF, MAR??!! You can't make a proper link with the tools given you for a post??? I had to actually select and drag that line of html into a new tab and wait for it to load? Talk about dick moves...that cost me like two seconds
Thanks
PS- I didn't read the article- haha
If I remember correctly, the whole problem has occurred in the past with some folks not giving the critique any weight once it doesn't agree with what they want to hear:
"Well you suck anyway, this is fucking genius and if you can't recognize it, you're a fucking prick. I hate all your movies, too."
I understand Olsen's pain, as any creative person should. I've asked some folks to read some proposals in the past, and it's a sticky situation. There are legal ramifications if someone you barely know decides that you've 'stolen' their idea. A friend told me he couldn't read more than the first sentence of one (now-ancient) comic book proposal because it was too close to something he already had in the pipeline.
You know what? That made me feel good. Knowing that I had hit on a good idea (though the series was never produced) made my day. I respected the pro, who is also a friend, for telling me that straight up.
However, not everyone is so sensitive to the issues for writers. How many stories have you seen/heard about 'he stole my idea!'? These usually come from a nobody who had one good idea, showed it somewhere and now thinks that the entire world is after him.
Self-important pricks need not apply to Olsen or any other pro and that's what I think this is all about. Self-important pricks need to understand that an idea is an idea and it's the execution of the idea that's the real story.
That's why slush piles are a thing of the past in comics. That and the fact that not one creative talent was discovered in any of said piles at any publisher.
The part that Olsen probably left out (or maybe it was in there, I don't remember) is that he's probably looked at stacks of other scripts from amateur writers over time and they were all horrible. Just finding a person who is ready to have their work sold or produced are few and far between. You can only read so much of that crap before you just don't want to look at it again. Or you get to the point where you just don't want to tell anyone that you're a writer because you don't want to have to read their crap. It takes a while to read something, even longer when you know you have to critique it. Where does that time come from? Usually from your work-time. Imagine your day-job is at McDonald's and a friend of a friend of a friend comes in and asks you if you can stay an hour late, just to make them a bunch of hamburgers. Well, it's a nice gesture but this is your life, man. Also consider that that friend of a friend of a friend will likely get done with the meal and turn their nose up and say, "Ug, it's still McDonald's." When writing is your vocation, it's not something you're doing casually, like the people who are trying to force scripts on you. (And again, this might even be different if those people were personal friends, not acquaintances of acquaintances. But still, critiquing takes a while and any that a person gets should be greatly appreciated.)
For comics, it's also A LOT easier to look at artwork and give critiques then to read something written. That's why editors won't bother with writers at conventions (as I've painfully learned over the years).
And I think that at least one person, somewhere, sometime, was discovered from a slush pile. Probably an artist.
Post a Comment