So what is holding many of us back from the success we want?
While our writing HAS to be world class, it’s likely to be quite low down our list of challenges we all face as screenwriters carving out a career and earning a living.
Some of the challenges we can face head on – better craft, tighter structure, juicier log lines, deeper understanding of the business, more connections and relationships, crackling dialogue, tight re-edits…
And we address all of these things at the London Screenwriters’ Festival in the most direct and inspiring of ways. Check out the sessions HEREand the speakers HERE.
Note: The festivals kicks on on Sept 2nd, that’s in 17 days…!
Then there’s the stuff that’s harder to learn and even pinpoint. And this is the stuff that most of us fail to fully get to grips with. It’s the stuff that trips us up when success seems closer than ever. It’s the stuff just out of our vision, in black spots.
It usually manifests itself as simply ‘fear of failure’.
Often triggered by a nasty script reader’s comment, one of our relatives continually lacking faith in our dreams, a social media troll, yet another rejection from an agent, never hearing anything back from that spec script you send in…
Even the day to day kicks in the teeth that many of us experience in life erodes at our passion for our dreams and ambitions. And it has a stacking effect too. The more we get unwanted news, the more it can start to weigh us down.
Then we get tempted to abandon or give up.
For me, this is why LondonSWF is so vital for us all.
It refills the soul.
It gives us all a shot in the arm.
It refocuses us on our deepest ambitions.
This happens because of total immersion for three days with an extraordinary new peer group. For three days WE get to run the game. And we can accomplish a whole LOT in three days.
Away from our usual lives, something triggers and awakens, something extraordinary. Something deliciously exciting. Something…. well, YOU. It’s just YOU rebooted, unleashed, rejuvenated… Choose your own verb.
And here’s the crazy thing. The other people at the festival around you see this and that triggers them to reawaken the most powerful, creative and fully self-expressed parts of themselves too.
We aren’t just a festival or a conference. We are a movement. And you are part of it too.
Spending three days with 1,000 people just like you, all on very different rungs of the ladder for sure, but all on THE SAME LADDER nonetheless, does result in a massive and tangible shift in ALL of us.
So come for all the amazing speakers and sessions (and they are amazing), even come so you can pitch your project to execs and producers at the PitchFest. You might get a bite.
But know this. What will impact you greatest is what you will leave with in your heart and soul.
Passion and courage to continue on your personal journey. Just with new people in your party now.
Come. It’s your career. It’s your script. But most of all it’s your passion and we are your tribe. You owe it to yourself.
Get your pass HERE.
See the sessions HERE.
See the speakers HERE.
Read feedback from last year HERE.
Take action!
Filmmaker, Author and Festival founder. Currently directing splinter unit on Mission: Impossible 8 and Exec Producing Apple Original show title TBC.
