So you have decided you want to produce something. Great. You are half way down the road to a sustainable stream of income. And then the question arises: what do I produce?
You are going to hate the answer.
Pick something.
Anything. Doesn't matter what.
Produce it.
Production done? Good. Now publish it.
Where? It doesn't matter. Put it out somewhere for someone else to see. Produce and publish. That is your cycle for the rest of your life. If you do not produce, you will not get paid. If you do not publish, then you will not get paid. Random great screen writer is not going to magically show up at your door and ask you about your next whatsit. They just aren't.
And if you run into one of them out and about on their daily lives, they really don't want to hear about it. You are probably the fourth person that has come to show them the best script they've ever seen. So what then?
There are methods to get this type of thing accomplished. But do you want to do it on the first thing you created? Are you ready for that kind of criticism? Or do you need some sort of small win that says "I can publish this". I'd go for the second, so you can polish your chops.
Remember: there are multiple types of people in the world. There's everyone else, and there is Ferris Bueller. Bueller, though fake, is the archetype of person that lives by an entirely different set of rules. Whereas his friends follow the basic rules the rest of the known world follows, Bueller follows a collection of rules that aren't as easily knowable, and are rarely taught.
If I knew those rules, I'd be writing about that. Instead, I'm writing about producing something and throwing it to the wolves.
And in general, do you know what is going to happen? Nothing. You will publish, it will be ignored, and life will go on. But at least you published. Because although in general nothing will happen, that isn't always the case. If you can catch that kind of buzz with a few friends that think what you are doing is quality work, then they might pass it off of their friends, and their friends' friends. It could be epic.
But it will never happen unless you publish. That brilliant knowledge in your head won't ever come to life if you don't ever write anything. The head is a terrible place for knowledge. Get it out and get it on paper. Get it to the place where people can examine and criticize. You might not get a single sale or review. No one might read it. But at least you published, and that's more than the rest of the world can say.
Don't be Al Bundy. Don't live in the limelight of the idea of the person you were twenty years ago. Go out and create something new. Use what your limelight twenty years ago taught you. Did it teach you hard work? Discipline? Dealing with popularity? Dealing with being hated? Take that. Tear it apart. Write about it. Because there are others who have experienced the same thing as you. And they want to hear from their kind. Believe me. We do.
I read Echo In Ramadi by Scott A Huesing because I thought I might be in it. I wasn't. Some of the locations I remember were. But people pick up things that speak to them. That they think might interest them. Maybe it makes them feel like a part of a tribe. Maybe what you are writing appeals to that tribe. You don't need a lot of people to read your stuff, you just need some people to read your stuff.
They may hate it. They may like it. They may never finish it. That all might happen.
And it could make you the next J. K. Rowling. But you'll never know unless you publish.
