My pal Tom Galloway wrote in to take issue with something I said in this posting. I was writing about a job a writer might get while he was trying to break into writing for the screen…
Have to disagree with you when you wrote "Ideally, that might be in a related field — say, writing tech manuals while you wait to sell your screenplay."
Um, what I do is technical writing aka writing tech manuals. And the only relation that has to writing a screenplay is that it involves typing words (really, we try to avoid deliberately writing fiction : -)). Trust me, writing screenplays would not be an option for me if tech writing wasn't working; it's really two very different skill sets.
In particular, a significant reason I get the relative big bucks for tech writing is that I have a background as a software developer and knowledge about what I'm writing about. When I was at Google, it was a de facto requirement for tech writers that they have some development experience in addition to being good writers. At one point, early on, a power that be gave us the mandate to "hire a Stanford English major" to save on salary. We hired one, but were very careful to make sure there were alternate career paths available to them if, as we strongly suspected, it didn't work out.
They did a good job on what they did, but weren't able to write on any significantly technically complex topic. My evaluation was that to advance, they'd have to start taking programming courses. Instead, they moved into one of those alternate positions that they were much more suited for, and from what I could tell were very successful in it.
In general, I've found if a developer puts down tech writers, they've only worked with writers without development experience who didn't understand what they were writing about or required a lot of hand holding by the developer to get something out.
And note that I don't apply for jobs in, say, the biotech field, where I don't have the tech background for those manuals.
Now, consumer user manuals, that might be a reasonable alternative, assuming the writer can pick up the skills needed for that (how much detail is needed, can they write at an appropriate level for the product's general audience, can they write procedures that don't skip from A to D because the writer thinks B and C are obvious…but to many people they aren't, etc.). But if I was in a hiring role for a technical writer and someone's résumé came over with only screenplay experience and no tech background, they wouldn't make it past my first reading.
Well, I probably should have used a slightly different term than "tech manuals." What I was thinking of was a friend of mine who works for software companies. They have their technical experts write out info that needs to be conveyed to the consumers and my friend rewrites it, translating it into the kind of English a layperson can (hopefully) understand. I think I could do that…so I can imagine someone doing that for a time while they try to sell their novel or screenplay or other hunk of creative writing. (I could not in a million years do what you do, Tom.)
And I wasn't suggesting that writing tech manuals qualifies one to write screenplays — or vice-versa, though I'll bet there are folks out there who could do both well. Most people who can write decently can write more than one kind of thing decently and all writing does have certain overlapping skills. You need to develop a writer's work habits and the ability to meet deadlines and to self-edit and spell and punctuate and to write what you write with some clarity and purpose.
My main point was that if you want to break into the fields of writing or drawing or acting or any of the creative arts, don't put yourself in a position of monetary jeopardy. Get a real source of income until you have one from your chosen profession. And if possible, get one that has some relevance, however tenuous, to what you really want to do. A job with flexible hours is also helpful. And if you want to be a writer, any kind of writing work is preferable to a job that does not involve writing.
The very first time my then-partner Dennis and I went into the network to pitch an idea, the producer who took us in introduced us as writers who merely hadn't written television…yet. Dennis had considerable experience in advertising. I'd written loads and loads of comic books of famous characters. Now, that didn't make us qualified to write television but it got us a skootch closer than if Dennis had been driving trucks and I'd been fixing them.
We were, at least, professional writers. It has been my experience that most people are impressed if you can make a steady living writing anything…because so many people have not. And they do recognize that almost all writers start with some kind of writing other than the kind in which they hope to labor long and well.
I might as well mention three things about that first network meeting. One is that the folks in the room — this was at CBS — were very impressed with what we pitched that day. At least, they said they were. It was a little too much like another show they had in development so they passed…but they said (I'd like to think this was true) that if they hadn't bought that other pitch, they'd have bought ours. It was really a very good meeting if you overlook the fact that we didn't make the sale. They did recommend us for other things.
Secondly: The producer who took us in was a fine gent named Herb Solow, whose name a lot of folks will recall from the closing credits on the original Star Trek. Herb had run Paramount Studios and was now elsewhere, trying to sell shows. (Soon after, without our involvement, he sold The Man from Atlantis.) We developed some other things with him, none of which sold, but he was very supportive of our careers at a time when no one else was.
Lastly: I don't think I've told this story but when we went into CBS that day, we were all ushered into the office of one of the heavyweight vice-presidents there…and then there was a wait of a few minutes while they gathered up all the folks who were going to come in and listen to these two kids tell their idea for a great new sitcom. So there we were, waiting — and my eyes drifted to a TV which was on.
On the screen was Charo — you all remember Charo — and she was talking about something when suddenly, she started yelling something and out came this stream of obscenities, some of them in Spanish but a lot of them in English. This was the mid-seventies, way before cable, and I had never heard the "f" word used before on TV, especially daytime TV.
I looked around and none of the other folks in the room except maybe Dennis noticed or cared. Charo had just used every one of Mr. Carlin's seven dirty words about nine times apiece on CBS network television and no one was reacting or panicking or hollering to take her off the air or anything.
And then I figured it out. This wasn't live television we were watching. It was a monitor showing what was being rehearsed down in Studio 31 or 33 or 41 or one of those. I think it was where they were doing The Carol Burnett Show. I started laughing and I think one of the CBS execs in the room thought I was laughing at something he'd just said. Anyway, it got the meeting off to a good start. So maybe I owe a bit of my career since then to Charo and her filthy mouth.