Writing for the Market

This is a follow up to my post about succeeding as a screenwriter.  I used to believe that writing for the market was whorish.  And that if I attempted it,  the end product would be uninspired crap.  Then one day a producer told me she was looking for something for SyFy Channel.  I decided to write an old-fashioned monster movie -- basically the 10,000th remake of "The Thing From Another World."  The producer loved the finished script.  Rewrites ensued.  Somewhere during the process, I made a remark to the producer's partner (who was the development part of the team) about it not being a very respectable script or something like that.  He called me on this and said that my passion clearly came across on the page, and that it was obvious that some part of me enjoyed writing this monster movie.  And . . . he was right.  I loved "The Thing From Another World" as a kid.  I'm sure my script wasn't what anyone would call art, but it was good -- for a monster movie.  Which brings me to the late Elmore Leonard (pictured above).  He was predominantly known for his crime novels.  But before that, he wrote westerns. Why did he switch?  Because the market for westerns had died and he needed to make a living.  If you're good, you'll be good at whatever you do.

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