John ScalziandDavid Gerroldare two of science fiction ’s most prominent author . And it turn out they have one other thing in common too : They do n’t want to read your unproduced screenplay .
David Gerrold write a piece in the Village Voice , responding to Josh Olson ’s rant “ I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script . ”And Gerrold , who wrote classic Star Trek instalment including “ The Trouble With Tribbles , ” plus The Man Who close Himself , When Harlie Was One , and the Chtorr War series , explicate just how irritating it is when other writers endeavor to send him their unpublished textile for feedback , or so Gerrold can put across them along to the mightiness that be . Explains Gerrold :
Not too long ago , a writer of my conversance ( a individual of some celebrity in the industriousness ) was rent to work on a major franchise . After several month of development , the project was making real procession and looked good . Then one sidereal day , out of the blue , an amateur from West Elbow , Nevada , sends him an email containing her scheme for a spinoff of that franchise , asking him to avail her sell it because “ she has the story , but he has the access to the people who will produce it . ”
My friend backed away in repulsion , but the price was done …
He had receive this adult female ’s e-mail . Even the routine of telling her , “ No , I ca n’t help oneself you , ” was an acknowledgment of reception . Therefore she could raise that he ’d had memory access to her stuff — and it did n’t matter that he ’d already done six months on the project — her email had created a situation where she ( and an unscrupulous lawyer ) could claim that he had ripped off elements in her material .
The studio ’s attorney were not felicitous and my friend almost got booted off the projection , until he inform the amateur that he mean to sue her for compromise his ability to earn a life . She signed and notarise a waiver and he got to keep his job .
And John Scalzi ( coincidently , a author recently hired to work in a major franchise , Stargate Universe)chimes in on his own web log :
You jazz , right after I announce that I was lease as the Creative Consultant for Stargate : Universe , people I did n’t know came out of the woodwork asking me if I could sneak them up with gigs or charge along their scripts or if I give them the due east - chain armour of the manufacturer so they could talk to them about this bang-up idea they had . You know what would have happened if I had done any of that ? If you say “ oh , you ’d probably have gotten provoke , ” you ’d be utterly correct . It would have been frankly mad for me to peril my spear that way . I terminate up putting up a bank note telling mass to discontinue expect , but I still to this twenty-four hours get people who think that it ’s somehow logical to ask a complete stranger who knows nothing about them ( and who they recognize nothing about ) to carry water for them .
When you postulate a party favour of a author , you ’re demand her to take time from her own work and/or her own life . You are necessitate her to feign you ’re not half-baked or wo n’t bend vindictive or wild when she ca n’t give you 100 % of what you want . You are asking her to assume that 10 age from now you wo n’t sue her because something she ’s written is more or less tangentially related to something you asked her to read . You ’re ask her to assume that continually beleaguer her own striking on behalf of masses she does n’t know at all wo n’t jeopardise her own relationships with those contacts . And so on .
So there you go : Your unproduced screenplay may actually be the big thing since the invention of cameras . But hard - working , case - phobic writers still do n’t want to see it .
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