The end of the year is one of the most valuable creative windows for screenwriters. You find yourself caught somewhere between reflection and anticipation, looking back at what you wrote, how that turned out, and what you may have pushed aside because of the natural circumstances of life.
It’s a strange limbo, but the perfect time to assess your triumphs, struggles, failures, momentum, and lessons learned.
It’s a valuable and creative time for screenwriters because you’re given the chance to take inventory of all you have done in your screenwriting throughout the past year, and use it to learn, grow, and evolve as a screenwriter. You can also gauge what hit, what didn’t, and then look to the year ahead and prepare yourself for another year of developing, writing, and marketing your cinematic stories.
A year-end script inventory isn’t just about housekeeping. It’s strategy. It’s clarity. It’s self-reflection. It’s about giving you a chance to let go of what hasn’t been working, and finding new focus on what has, what could, and what will help you to make that next leap in your screenwriting.
With that in mind, here’s a guide to help you organize your year-end script inventory. It will also help you to look ahead to the coming year with some renewed excitement and anticipation.
STEP 1: Review Everything You’ve Written
Having some separation between you and projects can be very helpful in your self-assessment. When you haven’t read a script of yours from cover to cover for awhile, it offers you the disconnect you may need to look at your own work with more objective eyes.
Think about it. When you finish a script, you’re excited. Screenwriters are often blinded by that excitement.
You overlook lags in the story. You scan through your pages during polish rewrites because you just want to be done with it. It’s natural. This never changes. Even well-established pro screenwriters go through that honeymoon phase of finishing a script.
But when you come back to scripts of yours you haven’t read in months, the negatives and positives stand out so much more. You’re unblinded by the excitement. If you do an honest cover-to-cover read and experience the story like a reader or audience member, your objectivity will be that much more real.
So, read everything you’ve written that year. You can even read what’s been written in previous years. If you have development materials for unwritten scripts (loglines, synopses, outlines, unfinished drafts, etc.) go through those as well. Even false starts, dead ends, and drafts you abandon can contribute to your evolution and help you grow and learn even more for the year to come.
This process will help you move onto the next step.
STEP 2: Identity Scripts and Concepts That Stand Out
Not every script you’ve written should be rewritten. Not every concept deserves another draft. Some concepts you’ve conjured can show more potential with the current movie market. Others may be revealed as nothing more than gimmicks with no narrative weight.
Some pieces of your screenwriting inventory may feel more alive than others. You may have overlooked or forgotten how special some scripts are. You may have forgotten about that logline you wrote for a concept you were trying to develop but never got past the development phase.
You may rediscover ones that always tug at you when you think about them. Certain characters may still whisper to you. You may find yourself wondering what would happen if you gave them another shot this upcoming year.
- Maybe you finally break story on a concept you couldn’t crack.
- Maybe you have a revelation for how to make a script draft more exciting, more scary, more action-packed, more thrilling, more hilarious, etc.
- Maybe you conjure a way to turn a script on its head with a structure change or protagonist switch.
This can and will be one of the most revealing steps you take at the end of the year.
These are the scripts and concepts that stay. These are the ones that move forward into active development and rewriting for the year to come. If you feel any voices whispering to you when you think about them, that’s a clear sign that there’s something within you telling you to give them another go.
STEP 3: Determine What Kind of Rewrites are Needed
Once you identify your keepers, it’s time to get honest about the work required. Those new objective eyes will help you with that. Not all rewrites are equal. Some scripts may need more work than others.
- Dialogue-only retouches
- Restructuring of the story
- Trimming off 10-20 pages
- Expanding a script that maybe needs a little more
- Making sure the tone is more consistent
- Creating more plants and payoffs
- Peppering the script with more foreshadowing, twists, and turns
Each rewrite for each script may call for something completely different.
The key in this stage is acknowledging what level of rewrite is necessary. Trying to quickly “polish” a script that needs major work will only lead to frustration. On the flip side, overthinking a script that only needs sleight tweaks can be a waste of time and creative energy.
Be honest with yourself and ask what each script truly needs - not what feels easier, not what feels less intimidating to tackle. Be as objective as possible and determine what is necessary to make those scripts the best they can possibly be.
It’s important to be honest with yourself and the work because this is what will guide next year’s workflow.
STEP 4: Learn When to Walk Away from Something
This is the most difficult part of the year-end script inventory - choosing the projects that you need to leave behind. Shelving a script can feel like failure, but know that it’s usually a sign of growth.
Every screenwriter has projects that no longer match their voice, skill level, or creative interests. Or maybe you have scripts that are revealed to be no longer conducive to the current script market.
Every screenwriter has experienced that heart-wrenching moment when a script or concept they’ve been developing shows up on the big screen, written by someone else. Whether you were chasing a trend or working on an idea inspired by real world events, sometimes others beat you to it.
Other times, it’s scripts or concepts that worked more as stepping stones - crucial in your development at the time, but not something worth carrying into the next year. Or maybe the stories really don’t speak to you anymore. They could have been fun experiments that just didn’t pan out.
Shelving these scripts and concepts is freeing.
Doing so will free your attention, your energy, your creative bandwidth, and your ability to focus on something new and exciting.
But, remember, this step isn’t about burying a script or burning it ceremoniously. It’s about storing things away.
Perhaps to live another day? Perhaps to be blended with another story, another setting, another genre, or another character later on?
Anything shelved can be revisited later on. But at least they won’t be weighing you down this next year. If they are meant to be, in any way, shape, or form, you can always come back to them.
STEP 5: Choose Three Scripts to Focus on Next Year
Don’t try to rewrite everything at once. The most productive screenwriters learn how to choose projects with the highest potential and commit to those. Choosing three scripts gives you direction, focus, and structure for the year ahead. Think of them as a triage of sorts:
- Project 1: This is the one spec script you want to lead with next year. It’s the strongest one of the bunch.
- Project 2: Your “next up” script. This is another strong script that can be there as your followup. The most common question screenwriters are asked after a read is, “What else do you have?” Your “next up” script can showcase that you mean business - and that you’re worthy of a contract.
- Project 3: Your Wild Card script - also known as your Risk It Script. This is the one that you take chances on. The one where you take risks and go against the grain to possibly give Hollywood what they didn’t know they needed.
Choosing these scripts is all about gearing up for the next year. If you’ve managed to find three scripts from your past that you think the industry may be looking for, it’s nice to go into the new year locked and loaded with scripts to market.
Since January and early February is usually a slow build-up time for Hollywood to start looking at new prospects, you can take those months to ready your arsenal.
And, hey, if you don’t have three scripts yet, no problem. Maybe this ends up being about choosing three concepts you can start to develop for the year ahead.
STEP 6: Choose New Concepts to Write
A new year means it’s time to keep writing and moving forward with new prospects as well. You may have identified past works that you can tweak and continue to push. However, you always need to be writing new scripts in conjunction with your marketing push.
The year-end inventory isn’t just about focusing on what you’ve already written. It’s also about identifying what you’re going to be writing next.
Take all that you’ve learned through your inventory and apply that knowledge and wisdom to the approach of the next year.
- Choose some previous concepts that you’ve conjured but haven’t tackled yet.
- Take some time to conjure new concept loglines and see what excites you.
Your marketing always goes hand in hand with writing. You can even go back and forth between the two to take a break from each one.
- Take a day off from writing and send out some cold query emails for scripts you’re marketing.
- Take a day off from marketing and focus on the writing.
The key thing is to make a focused effort to choose your next projects for the upcoming year - and choose them wisely. Lastly, remember, you want to find that hybrid of what you want to write, and what the industry is more willing to look at and consider. When you find that even ground between the two, that is when you’ll conjure a worthy script in your eyes and Hollywood’s.
STEP 7: Create Screenwriting Goals Under Industry-Level Deadlines
A year can go by quickly. And in Hollywood, they love to move fast.
Screenwriters need to learn how to develop, write, and rewrite under industry-level deadlines and expectations. If you can master that, you’ll find yourself becoming a more desirable screenwriter to hire.
- Be able to conjure concepts in a day.
- Be able to do a rewrite in two weeks (the average Hollywood contract deadline for rewrites)
- Be able to write a new script in 1-3 months (the average Hollywood contract deadline for assignments)
Gone need to be the days of taking six months to a year (or more) to write a screenplay. If you want to be a pro screenwriter, you need to learn how to write fast, and write well.
- You need to find the time to write.
- You need to learn how to rewrite as you go.
- You need to reject the notion of “writer’s block” and learn how to prevent it.
This all may seem daunting, but once you get into the swing of things, you’ll see how easy it is to develop, write, and rewrite under industry deadlines. Not only will you be training yourself for the pro screenwriting life, you’ll also be creating a highly productive schedule for the year to come. You’ll have more to market. You’ll have more in your back pocket to showcase when Hollywood considers you. And, yes, you’ll have more inventory to manage for next year’s year-end script inventory!