“You Have to Have a Slate”
I was doing a free rewrite on the lot at MGM when a producer friend spotted me on the bungalow’s porch and plopped down in the chair beside me. She asked me what I was working on beside this freebie.
I hesitated.
“That can’t happen,” she said at once.
“What do you mean?”
“You not being ready when someone asks that question. You have to have a slate.”
“A slate?”
“Look around,” she said, indicating the soundstages and production offices that stretched in every direction. “Every studio has a slate. Fox, Disney, Warners … they’ve all got a lineup of pictures they’re making and more in the pipeline. Every producer on this lot has a slate, and every producer and actor and director on every other lot has a slate. I have a slate. You have to have one too.”
My friend was a serious player. She had had hits at two different studios and was in production on another at a third.
“Think about who we’re competing against in this town, Steve. It’s not just other writers. We’re competing with studios. We have to have the same professional attitude that they have—about finances, about contingencies, about material.
You’re a writer. At all times you have to have at least three finished scripts and half a dozen in the works. In a meeting, when a producer says to you, ‘Steve, what else have you got?’, you have to be able to rattle off four, five, six projects—and be able to pitch ‘em all with full professionalism.”
My friend was late for a meeting; she had to hurry off. But it’s still burned into my brain, what she said as she left.
“Just because we’re ‘creative’ doesn’t mean we have permission to act like idiots. The reason writers are condescended to in this town and treated like children is because they act like children. Those days are over. We are entrepreneurs. We are in business. We’re competing against multi-billion-dollar enterprises and we have to be just as professional as they are.”
DO THE WORK
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
THE AUTHENTIC SWING
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
TURNING PRO
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
Thank you so much dear Steve.
To be a child is both exciting, extremely creative, and dangerous. Like it was back then, you know? I remember playing video-games (a kind of work, if you look at the symbols and not the market results of the player) or listening to music – especially some metal albums that struck my heart and covered it with liquid steel while listening, I remember Death Row album from Accept now -, no one could kick me out of *that* field. Strangely, I hated other such works, the ones the market seems to demand, like reading for school etc., the “real jobs” out there. But see this: they were both works, meaning I had to work hard on play too! And that is one of my unanswered questions until now: how can Resistance hit hard our best self to bring it down, while on the other hand Assistance forces us to go to the “must” situation, thus turning us away from our natural hyper-power to other more neutral ones? We must force our selves. We must also protect the child, give it all we ‘ve got, like we give unabashedly (those who can) to our children. My struggle is, how the child will discipline itself without forcing itself do it the way the market wants. Then it shall be powerful.
Coming back to the theme, I understand the absolute need to have many things working, not just one. To labor on that, we should continuously strive to develop all these things higher and wider. I would also argue that we must be laboring on other fields too, slates there, like how being better parents or how to protect our selves from disastreous generations or how to keep many balances. Wow, when the boss sees our slate then, they will be impressed. If not, they will be mistaken.
So, slates everywhere. So that no one will catches us sleeping or draining out. And when we sleep, by the way, we will have the gates closed and the lions with the fiery tongues outside protecting, traps on the inside.
Interesting idea — having a slate. Mine’s clean.
this was so gopd, loved the strory and loved the message even more
my morning spelling was poor., Please excuse my mistakes.
Can’t thank you enough for this! I’ve been a slacker about a project for a couple of decades and your message again brought that to mind. Time to get to work!!
This reminds me of the time I had a full read from an agent. She wasn’t interested in the mid-grade book I queried and asked what else I had. Other than short, adult humor pieces, that book was it.
No so now. I may have lost that chance at an agent, but I won’t do that again. I’ve learned so much since then. Thanks to the real world advice I’ve found here, I have multiple projects in the works at all times, including finished work. I appreciate you, Steve and the hard work it takes to push us to do our best as artists. Be true to your calling everyone and make it a great week.
Thank you for this – a necessary reminder!
Thanks, Steve..and all comments. I understand this from my Songwriting position, and I find I have somewhat of a slate in the songs I’ve performed at open mics and writer’s nights. 12 are on my door in file folders still being worked on, waiting to be recorded. During recording there are always changes made, to lyrics, melody or order of verses. Seeing my door as a “Slate” gives it a different status now. Thanks, all!
GREAT LESSON!!! Thanks Steve!
This is totally not in keeping with the theme of Steve’s post today… so you can call me “Non Sequitur Joe.” Or “Notorious NSJ.” Or “Duderino, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”
I was intrigued by the image, taking it to be stacks and stacks and stacks of manuscripts and screenplays and memoirs. On a whim, I dragged the picture into Gooble Image Search to see what more I could learn about it.
Interestingly, I find this image is also used on the web site of a criminal defense attorney’s office in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
So if your “Slate” includes money laundering, drug trafficking, embezzlement, or Medicare fraud — this guy is your huckleberry.
Wait… in review, I see I was able to work in a callback to “slate.” So maybe I’m not as off-theme as I thought I was.
Carry on, people.
Just Wow. That’s all.
Can this apply to religion? Did Jesus have stacks and stacks of material in his head like MGM?
Did Satan have stacks and stacks of material in his head like Warner Bros.?
I think this does apply or at least it was interesting to think about.
Shalom,
Bing W
This also keeps you from pinning too many hopes on any one project, the old “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” idea. That’s too much pressure on you, or the basket!
WowI needed this. I thought I was suffering from ADHD for i have more than 4 projects in my head … Now I feel I may be just fne… for now
I think we may have been separated at birth because I had the EXACT same reaction!
I’m always juggling several projects. mostly in my head. My slate file is brimming with ideas, outlines, half-written starts. It serves as a creative pool whenever I need to dip into it.
That doesn’t help when I only have 24 hours in which to write, edit, and then (ugh!) promote my work. And then there’s the yard to keep up, the clothes to wash, the sagging wall that needs rebuilding.
But I keep pushing against Resistance. Thanks for your unrelenting spirit, Steven.
An inspiration!
This is one I will keep and keep going back to. I do have a slate though I did not know it was called that or that it was called anything. Though I confess, I do not have a sales pitch for each. I’m going to have to work harder. I truly appreciate your hard work and love reading your blog.
Thanks so much for keeping the focus on whats important what truly matters is resonating.
I really appreciate this posting Steve!
Oh. Yeah. I forgot . Thanks!
Having so many responsibilities can get in the way of preparing the slate. Even if it’s just in a private notebook, keeping a slate going is a professional attitude. I do that already. So this clarifies what else I can do about building skills and also not being shy about what my vision is.
Once I went to an artist as a potential teacher and he asked me to see my work on a prepared website. I had nothing ready. End of discussion. Without exactly saying so… He was annoyed that I didn’t take myself seriously. So why waste his time? Again I got the message.
Life happens. I have no website yet. But this is so clarifying.
All hail the GOAT of The Punch In A Page Club.
Another GEM.