No matter how much I polished a script, somebody's gonna ask me to rewrite it.  That's just the nature of screenwriting: an optioned script will go through a dozen drafts before it's sold, and once it's sold a script will go through two dozen more before it even sees the light of pre-production.  My conclusion: in the screenplay market writing is useless, rewriting is vital.

Every agent, producer or director who'd open my script, before even reading a word, would seek instinctively for my name on the cover page and impulsively think: "Who the heck is this guy?  Does he even know what he's doing?  What if he's a complete amateur?  I can't waste my time with amateurish scripts!  I don't have time for this!"  and, without even reading a word, would throw my manuscript into the "Read Later" pile where it would gather dust for a thousand years.  The Catch-22 here: a screenwriter has to show deep knowledge and craft expertise just to earn the honor of being read.

The few times I'd get past the reading stage and get a meeting with an agent/producer/director, I'd find out they didn't have much interest in discussing my story, but plenty in discussing the potential stories I could write for them: "Can you write something more of a light, romantic comedy...?" or "We're looking for a vehicle for this young actor, can you do it...?"  I'd find time and again that, yes, there is a "Screenwriters A-list" and yes, it's made entirely of writers who can tackle any idea, who can handle and deliver all the potential projects.  So the moral of the story is:  in this overflowing, swarming market of scripts, screenplays have become cheap, while screenwriters—good ones, who know what they're doing—have become prized items.

(CONTINUED)