Why everyone Thinks they can write
I just read an interview with Jurassic Park and Spider-Man writer David Koepp.
The interviewer asked why everyone thinks they are qualified to change screenwriting:
William Goldman said once that it’s because everybody knows the alphabet, so everybody thinks they can write. And, by extension, everybody thinks they can change a writer because, basically, anybody can write. And it’s the cheapest, easiest part of the production to change. You can even have more than one [writer] going at once, which isn’t the case with a DP or an actor or anybody else. The majority of the other jobs involve a tremendous amount of upheaval because the majority of the other jobs on a movie don’t start until production. But because the writer works in the netherworld of development, where time can expand infinitely, there is much less risk and turmoil in changing writers. And you can always go back to what you had. It’s the hell of too many choices.
Does any of that sound familiar from your own line of work?
UPDATE: here’s another excellent article on the subject (thanks, S).
Yep.
Yep
I think what’s happened in the 20ish years that I’ve been writing ads is that people’s confidence in their abilities has extended much further. It was absolutely the case that everyone believed they could write. Now, technology means everyone believes they can take great photographs, choose fonts, shoot and edit film, create soundtracks, etc, etc. These are now everyday things just as writing has always been.
Yep.
Yep squared
Yep but the root of the problem is ego. I think many excellent writers have really slipped after they tasted incredible success and I expect that has a lot to do with the fact that they are no longer advised properly.
Tarantino, The Wachowski Brothers, James Cameron… No one tells them what to do they? Who would dare?
Are you saying Tarantino has slipped? I watched Inglourious Basterds last night (again). Really top stuff. And if Cameron’s slipped I think all of Hollywood is praying he keeps slipping for the rest of his life.
Not everyone can write like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AeLuQQH1OHA
Nobby, that is pure eye cancer.
Can’t believe he’s been reduced to that.
I love Inglorious Basterds too. Just thinking his writing isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Also true of Django Unchained, his next one.
Point taken about Cameron but, again, his earlier films were much better written.
Did your editor improve Instinct?
Same way everyone thinks because they can take a picture with a point & shoot that they’re a photographer
@Damo @Ben Agreed, Inglorious Basterds is great. And James Cameron’s last two movies are the number 1 and number 2 most successful movies in the history of movies. Also, they weren’t part of a franchise so they made it on their own merits. Also, the Wachowski Brothers are more one-and-a-half-hit wonders than anything.
I think the best example of your theory is George Lucas. Those last 3 Star Wars were an embarrassment. So bad. And I bet the swinging on vines scene in the last Indiana Jones movie was his idea.
@ Damo, not really. They just told me to add 20,000 words and beef up the military spec. Nothing specific.
With Tarantino it’s pretty tricky: better writing than Pulp Fiction is a hell of an ask, and he did write a quite a lot of flab in his earlier days, including the comic book guff in Crimson Tide and some of the lesser parts of True Romance.
I think Cameron’s earlier films were ‘better’ written, but whatever he’s been doing over the last two scripts is something of a phenomenon.
@ Fraggle: I don’t know what the hell Lucas thinks he’s doing, but it sure does stink.
@nobby.
I had to watch that twice just to be sure it was Al.
I’ll never be able to watch Scarface again. And I blame you Nobby, Al can’t help himself, but you, you know better. Shame on you good sir, shame on you!
@nobby.
It’s from the Jack and Jill film. All is right in the world again.
i think the trick is to come up with ideas where everybody is afraid to interfere. they literally don’t know where to begin.
I’m a writer with a history of great success and loss. The past few years, I’ve struggled to make a comeback with my career after a devastating bout of depression. I emerged with a finished novel only to find myself in a different world where everyone thinks they can write. Because of this phenomenon and because people are self-publishing anything they can pound out, the competition has become fierce. And those with internet marketing skills are rising to the surface like pond scum.
I agree that technology has made it easier to create and publish any kind of art, including fiction, photography, graphics, etc. so art has become mundane to many. They forget that it takes true talent to create something of real value. It also seems that everyone thinks they’re a celebrity due to sites like Facebook. I agree with the poster who said that most have greatly exaggerated confidence in their abilities.