Believe it or not, there was a period when our industry functioned better. It was a time, long since forgotten, when writers and executives trusted one another (or, at the very least, far more than they do now). If you were a writer and were lucky enough to make a studio or network your home for a number of years, you would find yourself working with the same executives. You could develop a shorthand. You enjoyed a bond of mutual trust. The writer would trust that the executive’s notes were coming from an honest, sincere place and the executive would trust the writer would hear them with an open mind and use their notes to make the film or show better. And isn’t that the purpose of the notes process?
In case there is anyone who read the above and didn't believe that world really existed "back in the day" let me testify that I WAS THERE - THAT WAS THE WAY IT WORKED.
And the fact that is not the way it works, the fact that I cannot make a living in Hollywood writing movies on spec that I would personally want to go see, and sell them, is why I no longer write in Hollywood. It's why I write books - books about things I WANT to write about, THE WAY I WANT TO WRITE THEM, working with people who see their job as getting what I wanted to write about the way I wanted to write into the hands of my readers. And they sell well enough that - until this strike - I would have said "give a nice living, not a Hollywood living, but a nice living." It turns out I was wrong. I went over to one of the picket sites and I talked to some of my younger brothers and sisters, and I found out that I now make better money than the average Hollywood writer.
And that is why, no matter that I have it in my will that if my nephew tries to sell my books to Hollywood he will lose the copyrights, I support you all. It was never supposed to be this way. Believe me, doing that job - even when I was dealing with illiterate fuckwits like Jon Peters (who really was really illiterate) - used to be fun.
What I question today is why are they here on substack? I thought we had escaped the « business ». Naively I thought Substack would be about the writing. The art. Must politics and business profit from every thing. Everywhere.
Believe it or not, there was a period when our industry functioned better. It was a time, long since forgotten, when writers and executives trusted one another (or, at the very least, far more than they do now). If you were a writer and were lucky enough to make a studio or network your home for a number of years, you would find yourself working with the same executives. You could develop a shorthand. You enjoyed a bond of mutual trust. The writer would trust that the executive’s notes were coming from an honest, sincere place and the executive would trust the writer would hear them with an open mind and use their notes to make the film or show better. And isn’t that the purpose of the notes process?
In case there is anyone who read the above and didn't believe that world really existed "back in the day" let me testify that I WAS THERE - THAT WAS THE WAY IT WORKED.
And the fact that is not the way it works, the fact that I cannot make a living in Hollywood writing movies on spec that I would personally want to go see, and sell them, is why I no longer write in Hollywood. It's why I write books - books about things I WANT to write about, THE WAY I WANT TO WRITE THEM, working with people who see their job as getting what I wanted to write about the way I wanted to write into the hands of my readers. And they sell well enough that - until this strike - I would have said "give a nice living, not a Hollywood living, but a nice living." It turns out I was wrong. I went over to one of the picket sites and I talked to some of my younger brothers and sisters, and I found out that I now make better money than the average Hollywood writer.
And that is why, no matter that I have it in my will that if my nephew tries to sell my books to Hollywood he will lose the copyrights, I support you all. It was never supposed to be this way. Believe me, doing that job - even when I was dealing with illiterate fuckwits like Jon Peters (who really was really illiterate) - used to be fun.
I was there too.
What I question today is why are they here on substack? I thought we had escaped the « business ». Naively I thought Substack would be about the writing. The art. Must politics and business profit from every thing. Everywhere.
Mine's about writing, art, politics, my books, and whatever strikes my fancy that day.
“good art is good for business” -- spot-on column