Carson Reeves of Scriptshadow has written a fantastic article about the five screenwriter stages — not the stages of writing a script, but the stages that the writer him or herself goes through as they develop their skills and begin a career in film. These stages ring incredibly true for me, and I’m guessing more than a few of you will be able to identify yourself on the spectrum. According to Carson, the stages are the Arrogance Stage, the Fog-of-War Stage, the Stage of Death, the Tiny Star Stage, and the Supernova Stage. Read on for advice about how to move from whatever stage you’re in to the next:
I read so many screenplays and most of the time after I finish, I think, “If this writer doesn’t change, they’re going to be stuck in this stage for the rest of their lives.” Part of being a good writer is recognizing where you’re at and working to fix your weaknesses. If you’re not willing to do this, stop writing now. You need to be a student of this craft, as well as your involvement in it, if you want to succeed.
STAGE 1 – THE ARROGANCE STAGE
WRITER NICKNAME – “THE CONTEST SUPPORTER”The Arrogance Stage represents one of the most common misconceptions about screenwriting – that it’s easy. People see movies like “Need for Speed” and know, for a fact, that they can write something better. So they write a script, maybe two, and start hawking them around town, waiting for everyone to hail them as industry saviors. These scripts are the worst scripts I read, by far, as there’s a lethal combination of suckitude going on. One, the writer is using the industry’s worst movies as their bar. Therefore, everything is written to be only slightly better than that terrible movie they saw. The irony is that even though these writers THINK they’re better than the writers who wrote Need for Speed, they’re actually a lot worse. So they’re giving us an even suckier version of an already sucky movie.
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