Screenwriting – My Experiences of Development Hell

If you’re new to screenwriting, developing your screenplay can turn into a confusing, bewildering nightmare. Often, with input from writing manuals and producers and analysts, a project can get stuck at the script stage. This has become known as “development hell”.

This is what happened to me with my first few screenplays that were picked up by production companies…

My first steps as a screenwriter

I’d always wanted to be a film director, but I didn’t have the confidence. I had (and still have) a social phobia. I was terrified in many social situations, so how on earth could I direct a film?

So, that’s one reason I turned to screenwriting. I could do something connected to film, and being a writer and a recluse were mutually beneficial.

At the time, Anglia TV (UK) were running a scheme called First Take, for first time filmmakers. I had family in the region (Norfolk), so I figured this could be a good opportunity as there were likely to be less new screenwriters in Norfolk than in London. Less competition = good.

I had no idea how to write a screenplay, nor did I read any “how to” books. I just booted up Word and started typing. My formatting was… unconventional.

Anyway, I wrote this screenplay called Mortal Child. It was semi-autobiographical, about a child with asthma whose dad does not believe in “western medicine”. And they accepted it onto the course – my first screenplay.

A hole in one… almost

The problem was, they then wanted us, the selected writers, to develop the screenplays with them. That’s where it all fell apart for me. I’d written my story instinctively, and I just wasn’t able to make the changes they wanted.

You see, if you write 100% instinctively, applying theory just forces your wild animal into a cage. Or so I felt at the time. The characters were just doing what felt right to me, as I was writing it. To have a producer say, “We need the family to have a discussion about the issue at the end” confused me – “eh, what? You just want to me manufacture some kind of expositional conflict at the climax?”

It felt unnatural, so the screenplay didn’t change much aside from some minor tinkering.

Still, I kept making it through each round as they whittled us down from 12 writers to 8. Only 6 would go through. Finally, the letter arrived to announce those 6… and I wasn’t one of them. Booo.

But I thought, “Well, I can do this. So I guess it’s worth keeping going.”

Screenplay development nightmares

Some years of writing later, I had acquired all the things a new screenwriter needed: formatting software (a now discontinued free program called Sophocles) and a shelf containing screenwriting theory books. At the time, a screenwriting guru called Syd Field was popular. So I bought one of his books and tried to apply the theory.

The problem was, I found this very frustrating. Forcing my stories into acts, character arcs and turning points felt artificial. I found these books were ruining my writing and taking away the instinctive fluidity.

In hindsight, it was mostly a lack of experience on my part. But also, a tendency of these books to dumb down the writing process whilst at the same time inventing a bunch of unnecessary jargon and rules.

The purpose of these books is really just to sell books to new writers who feel lost and need direction.

My first feature deal

It’s kinda quaint to think back now, but in the early days of the internet I had listed myself on a website for “European screenwriters”. At the peak of that website, there were about 20 of us on it. One day, I got an email through the site from a guy called Jonathan Wolfman, asking if I had any feature scripts.

“Why yes I do.” I replied and sent him the first draft of a screenplay I had written called Not This Day. I had watched a film called The Daytrippers – a low budget, quirky comedy hit – and decided to try to write something in that vein. IE: something low budget set in one day containing a family crisis.

My story was about 2 young guys working in advertising, who had become more interested in partying than meeting deadlines. One morning, the dad of one of them shows up, drunk. But he’s an alcoholic and the son hates him, so they spend the rest of the day trying to offload the unwanted man on other members of the family.

Two years development later…

So Jonathan loved the idea and some of the writing. He optioned the script for the company he was working for – Talent TV. I received £1000 and off we went, trying to turn this messy screenplay I’d written into something solid and powerful.

We spent a year sending hundreds of emails back and forth between us, discussing every character and plot point in detail. In a year, I wrote like 5 or 6 drafts. But each one just went sideways rather than forwards. What I mean is – the story just changed, without improving.

Because when your mind is tired, new ideas seem appealing. So I would add this new angle, thinking “This is it! A breakthrough!” Only to find, after I had come back down to Earth, the script had not improved – it had simply moved from what I originally imagined.

After 1 year, they felt I’d made enough progress and renewed the option. Another £1000 and off we went again… for another year. And another few drafts… Until I had written 9 drafts. And each draft was a metamorphosis to a new creature, but not a better one.

At that point, they dropped the project.

Development Hell II – this time it’s formulaic

At least my next experience of the road to nowhere only lasted 1 year. This time it was a screenplay with the slightly cheesy title, Elixir of Love. The name was changed a few times, as well as the script. Eventually, the agent settled on What You Wish For, which I thought was terrible (my preference was for A Novel Romance).

Anyway, this was a rom-com fantasy and it was my hoped for ticket to Hollywood. The story was about a woman who was obsessed with cheap romantic novels, while her boyfriend was a beer-drinking, pizza-eating, football-watching lout. So she buys an elixir to make her boyfriend more romantic, only to find the hunky hero from the book switching places with him.

But the development experience was very different. This agent was very direct and forced me to simplify, simplify, simplify. Gone were the endless detailed emails. Instead, he took me back to the beginning and said, “Okay, write a logline – the story encapsulated in 2 sentences.”

So for a few days we emailed back and forth and he forced me to get the basic storyline clear in my head first. His short questions would reveal deep flaws in my thinking – just from my logline attempts.

Once we were both satisfied, we moved on to writing a paragraph. After a few emails, we moved on to a 1 page synopsis. And so on, expanding the story each time, only once the stage we were at was clear and solid.

The Hero’s Journey

I was told I had to read Christopher Vogler’s Hero’s Journey and that these rules would be used in the writing of this screenplay. Because all of Hollywood observed these rules now, and we weren’t about to start swimming against the tide.

The rules were observed so keenly, one day I got an email saying the 2 lovers in our story had to kiss for the first time on page 54. This had been calculated by the agent using the formula.

You see, the motivation behind using the Hero’s Journey structure is it’s in tune with the global human consciousnesses. And that’s what makes stories written in this way appealing to the masses. After George Lucas introduced this structure to blockbuster writing for Star Wars, the resulting worldwide success gradually turned the studios into Hero’s Journey machines.

The philosophy being – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

But this formulaic storytelling path was not for me. Although I learned a great deal from this year of development – like, how to make sure your story is solid before you start writing – I also decided my ideas were too “out there”. I realised I wouldn’t feel fulfilled as a Hollywood writer.

Since then, I’ve been working on ideas in a way which suits me. But is informed by years of practice.

So I hope my experiences provide some insight into the creative process and, if you’re looking for guidance to help find the correct path – well, there isn’t one.

You’ll just have to try different things and see what fits. I don’t know… use the Force. Or something.



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