Think Like an Editor

I got my start writing for pay many years ago by writing first person essays for small publications. First person essays are not an easy route to go. The pay isn't that great – it ranges from free copies of the magazine to a few hundred dollars. And unless you're published in a pretty big, 4-color national periodical, don't expect much in the way of fame or fanfare. You'd be surprised what prestige means in magazines. It's not all Vanity Fair and The Nation and The New Yorker, my friends. The bread and butter periodicals are ones like Good Housekeeping, Reader's Digest, Ladies Home Journal, Parenting…the list is long. Competition is intense, articles have to be very topical and it takes a lot of elbow grease to continually be writing and submitting work.

What I learned from the time I spent writing for periodicals is that editors read submissions constantly and because of that, do not get excited about great writing – rather they get excited about novelty. In other words, if you write an essay about say, how hard divorce is, or the cost of living in Southern California and how you think about moving to Nebraska or how after you had your first child you lost your sense of self – those types of essays go into the "bad egg" file. You know, the circular. The trash. The "unforunately this submission is not for us at this time" letter.

An article about how painful divorce is written by a Badger catch-and-release Game Warden - that would be snapped up immediately. Why? Because that article has an angle. A "hook", as they say in the movie business. Right? Aren't you curious about Wolverine catch-and-release programs? Who does that??

I read an article in the New Yorker last week about mushroom pickers in the Cascade Mountains. Who does that?? It caught my eye because it's so far out of my realm that it interested me. My time is at a premium. And I read a lot. So I want to read something new and different. Something that will enrich and interest me.

Thinking like an editor is something that you do every day. Because your time is at a premium. And you consume a lot of media in one form or another. So you want to read something new and different. And you make choices constantly: Which TV show to watch. Which junk mail to glance over and which to toss immediately. Which newspaper article to read. Which billboard to notice. Which magazine article to read. Each day we choose what we consume based on the novelty and uniqueness of the choice.

So what's the screenwriting tie-in?

Keep your friends close but your enemies closer. Learn to think like an editor – or a movie exec. Their time is at a premium. And they read a lot. New and different is the order of the day.

Screenwriters can be a isolated at their desks with one script for months at a time. But executives have scripts all over their desks every day. And more arrive every day. Dozens and dozens of scripts. More than you can imagine. So you need to stand out from those stacks. It might initially be the title of your script that is eye-catching and attention-getting. After that, it better be a unique premise, well executed. Learn to think the way executives or editors do. Writers need every advantage we can get. So think like an editor.

Copyright (c) 2007 Julie Gray

Article Source: http://www.myaddirectory.com

Julie Gray is a screenwriter and story analyst living in Los Angeles. www.thescriptwhisperer.com

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