The Business of Screenwriting: 24/7/365

When you’re a writer, you’re basically never NOT working.

I can’t speak for most jobs nor for everyone, but I do know this: When I broke into the business as a screenwriter, it became an all consuming activity. For the better part of thirty years since I’ve been doing this, there is hardly any minute of any day where at least some part of who I am isn’t engaged in screenwriting.

Of course, there are the obvious times. Brainstorming, research, character development, plotting, and all the rest that comes with prepping a story. Writing the script, line by line, scene by scene, day after day. Rewriting the script — again — line by line, scene by scene, day after day.

That’s butt-on-chair, what we typically think of as ‘writing.’ But when you are a screenwriter, it’s much more than that.

When you go out to eat, any stray conversation of diners at a nearby table becomes an opportunity to snatch a potential line of dialogue.

When you stand at the end of the line in a grocery store, those ten minutes spent shuffling toward check-out allow you to glance at the tabloid headlines and see if there’s a story concept waiting to be found.

In fact any time you read a magazine, newspaper, website, book — anything! — part of your brain invariably thinks, “Is this a…