Screenwriting business process explained at Vancouver Film School

The Writers Guild of America West has launched a campaign suggesting to writers that they do not write for free. Aimed primarily at screenwriters, the campaign, which uses the hashtags #NoWritingLeftBehind and #NoFreeWork, focuses on so-called “pre-writing” such as film treatments and outlines that are requested by producers without any promise to the writer of being hired or paid. However, the suggestion is a good one for any writer who has gotten past the beginner stage of creating a set of clips. It’s important for writers to stand up for their rights and to advocate for the value they add. Plus, more income lets those writers hire great editors!

Photo by Vancouver Film School, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/2lXfug

Here’s an interesting TED talk from linguist John McWhorter, who maintains that texting, far from being the English language killer that some say, is really a second language. McWhorter says that texting is more like actual speech transcribed than some attempt to bastardize written English. According to McWhorter, young people benefit from texting because it makes them bilingual. This could be a key point to remember for marketers and others who constantly try to determine what that all-important youth demographic is thinking.

If you use Facebook and/or Twitter for business, the most annoying and unproductive thing you can do is to try to turn these social media into one-way advertising “broadcast” sites. It’s very tempting to get on there and say, “wow, I have a free channel of communication for my business! It’s like a giant direct mail list, so I’m just going to shout every great thing about my business a bunch of times every day!”

Bad idea. Social media users are already bombarded by advertising on television, radio, the Internet, roadside billboards, in magazines, etc. The last thing they want is to tune into your “all-infomercial channel” on Facebook or Twitter.

The whole point of social networking is that it’s supposed to be social, which requires conversation and two-way interaction. As new media marketer Jeff Korhan writes, even on a purely professional Facebook business page, “I make the effort to personalize that content – giving you a sense of who I am.”

Now, it’s understandable if you’re a bit shy about adding a personal touch to your social marketing for your business, or, more likely, you just don’t have time to engage in such conversations. If so, a writing professional who can pick up on your personality or your company’s tone, knows social media, and writes with style might be just the ticket for you.