In my upcoming book, “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story!”, I have a chapter in which I outline something I refer to as ‘the tough writer’s business plan.’ One of the main themes there is “diversify.” As I write in the book:
“When I first moved to Los Angeles in the mid-eighties, if you wanted to be a writer you had to choose: TV or features. That was the advice I was given. Of course, everyone wanted to write features, so that’s what I focused on. Writing for television was what you did if you couldn’t make a go at screenplays.
“Now, it’s a free-for-all. The smart writers are doing everything. Write spec screenplays, write animation, write sitcoms. It’s nothing personal; it’s just business. There is very little I don’t have as a writing sample. Preschool, family comedy, earnest dramedy, animated features, live-action/animation hybrids, big budget action, western, comedies, sports movies, even content for tablet computers; I’m a chameleon. Whatever a producer needs me to be, I am.”
In the spirit of practicing what I preach, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new company: PadWorx Digital Media Inc. I can’t tell you how excited I am about PadWorx and our slate of projects. On Wednesday we’re going to announce our first title, with a few more announcements in the coming weeks. You can check out the corporate announcement HERE.
As writers, we need to keep our minds open and explore all possibilities to ply our craft, especially when there are so many new media outlets and technologies. Don’t let anyone tell you differently…these are exciting times to be a writer.
Interestingly, the evolution of PadWorx can be traced right to this website, starting with my post about Alice for the iPad and then my interview with Chris Stevens, one of the founders over at Atomic Antelope. PadWorx is the result of my being inspired by the possibilities in digital entertainment that Chris and Ben so quickly showed the world now exist.
Now, none of this means that I’m walking away from screenwriting by any means (I’m desperately trying to finish a rewrite on a hockey movie; yes, I live in Canada) but in today’s world and today’s entertainment market, if you want to have an ongoing career as a writer you need to do one thing, and one thing only.
Diversify!
–Jeffrey Alan Schechter
