And here's your solution...
Don't finish the book, script, or amazing idea, just write a treatment of each and whore that around to publishers/studios.
If they're interested, they'll option the idea and then you get a fat cheque, the ultimate incentive to finish.
True stories from people I know very well (admittedly I'm a journo so I know a lot of people who write for a living, but still...)
One woman sold a treatment of a TV series idea (two a4 pages of story outline and ideas) to a network for $50,000 aus.
Another had a treatment (four a4 pages) optioned for a movie for $US175,000. The studio eventually passed on the idea, but she kept the money (the option is just so you cant sell it elsewhere while they decide) and eventually sold the concept as a book and wrote it for a lot more (absolutely no idea how much, but she bought an apartment in Manhattan with the proceeds).
If there's one thing in short supply in the entertainment world, it's ideas, so don't give up on yours, but at the same time don't waste time writing a whole bloody novel or script when you simply don't have to.
Get the concept down, get it notarised (so nobody can steal your idea) and dated and get an agent to get it working for you.
Yes, an agent will take a percentage, possibly up to 15 per cent, but what's 75 per cent of the money your ideas have raked in so far?
DO IT! The next time I sit through a shit film or book I'm writing to you to complain. Yours might just have been the one that I laughed at/cried over/was moved by instead.
( difficultchild, Sun 6 Dec 2009, 23:39, Reply)