fakers and phonies

One of the things that really angers me about the screenwriting world is the number of people who pretend to be somebody. I come across them nearly everyday, people who present themselves as an expert, people who will tell you what you need to do with your script, people who will argue that they are right and you are wrong even though they don't really know. Most importantly the people I'm talking about are con artists who disgust me to my core.

Now, I'm all for someone making a quick buck, go ahead and resell someone elses book on how to win at gambling or something but don't present yourself as an expert in a field that you know relatively nothing about. The problem as I see it comes from people dreaming about THE RICHES you get when you become a screenwriter but they don't want to work as hard as they need to so they give up and throw out useless advice instead.

I've seen people who give out the kind of advice that any decent writer would laugh at try to sell a "training program" for screenwriting for upwards of $50. What makes me angry is that they sell a few copies. I've seen people pose as someone connected to various actors and or directors and sell "web classes" or "video tutorials" that simply make no sense and make thousands of Dollars doing so.

Don't get me wrong there are plenty of reputable people selling classes and programs and those people are worth investing your money with, but do some research first, make sure that they have a good background in what they are trying to teach. There's no point in buying a book about selling your script to a major studio from a guy who never finished writing his own script.

The sad truth is that 90% of screenwriters are only in it for the money (or what they think the money is!), of the 10% left about half of those couldn't tell a good story if they were in one and the top 5% have to struggle to be seen for all the shit clogging the way.

To round out this post I want to say that some classes I've taken have truly changed my screenwriting career and I've attended seminars that have made me a better filmmaker. I'm not against classes or seminars or webinars or in being an entrepreneur, what I am against is scammers stealing money from hard working writers who deserve better than that.

My book and online video course on how to build your own rocketship and fly to the moon is available now priced just $3.5 Million, get it now!

Write On!

Dave The Screenwriter