I'm no longer writing Screenplays

Some background on me. I've been writing for decades, since about the mid '70's. I did a few stories back then, and soon transitioned over to writing screenplays. I would write screenplays almost exclusively for the next forty years. Big reveal, I never did get any traction in the movie industry. Despite living vicariously, reading magazines about other people making movies, studying motion picture production techniques, cinematography, miniatures and special effects, I never once was able to break into the movie industry.

Nothing came of these efforts. Well, nothing that would advance me into film production. I got better and better at writing, and trust me, my early writing efforts were terrible. Over time they became less terrible, then some what decent, and eventually, they became good. Or at least I thought that my writing was good, since without any kind of feedback it was almost impossible to tell. Just my own feelings about how the work was flowing, the occasional clever sentence, and my greatly improved dialog.

But despite decades of effort, I never was able to break into the film industry, not as a writer, and not at any kind of production job. I did work on some amateur productions with friends, basic garage and backyard movie making, but nothing professionally. I went to Los Angeles once, stayed with relatives for a week, and drove around knocking on doors. Nothing happened. One production company did agree to read my screenplay, after I had signed a release, but they eventually decided not to move forward with the project. I did attempt to get a manager once, but that failed miserably. That was the closest I ever came.

You have to remember, this was before the rapid explosion of the internet and social media. There weren't any screenplay contests, no chance to follow film professionals and possibly get tips on where to submit work. There were no 'Pitch Fests', nothing. I had no idea how to break in and apparently, neither did anybody else.

Then came the Writer's Guild strike of 2023. Streaming services had become major players in the entertainment industry, and members of the Writer's Guild wanted to make sure these new platforms would fairly compensate their members. I was on 'Twitter' back then, and I followed so many writers, people with decades of experience and solid credits to their names. They were struggling, and Producers didn't help. One leaked source said they wanted writers to 'go bankrupt' and 'loose their homes.' Not the nicest thing a prospective screen writer wants to hear.

The strike eventually was settled, but by then I had decided on the inevitable. I would no longer write screen plays. So in the fall of 2024 I dug out some of my older short stories, and began writing new ones. In 2025 I made my first sale. My story 'To The Sea, Return' was selected for publication by Adventures Bookzine / Offbeat Publishing to be printed in their November 2026 issue. Later my piece 'Make Believe' was sold to Breaking Into the Craft .com.

I am continuing to write new works, and have been submitting continuously. Here's the trick with writing stories, novellas, and novels; you can submit your work to editors at Magazine and Book Publishers. They are actively looking for new writers, new voices. Contrast that with the situation at studios and production companies. They will not touch any unsolicited manuscript. They just won't. Now not all book publishers or magazines will read your work, some of the bigger ones require you submit through an agent. But there are plenty of other places to submit your writing.

So that's it. Despite wasting decades of my life, I will no longer write any screenplay. Never again. I'm finding that creating stories and novellas is much more satisfying.