Every Screenwriter Should Know Their Genre by Justin Trevor Winters Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

from your time and innovative what were
some of the things that you learned
about marketing your story what was hot
what was not what type of you know
coming-of-age drama sounded great but
just wouldn't work in terms of videos
well you know every agent has a roster
of clients that they represent so for
writers you'll have your horror writer
you'll have your sci-fi writer you'll
have your dark comedy or drama all the
genres are usually fulfilled in a roster
and if you have one you probably have
two you probably have three you know
different writers or directors that you
can go to so you know I think that what
I learned there is more about you can't
necessarily be the jack-of-all-trades
you kind of have to find a niche and be
the master of one so you know unless
you're the Coen Brothers or something
it's very difficult to be expansive as a
writer and to touch on every single
genre and to work in every single genre
so you know a prime example from
innovative is so Nancy my garage
represented a writer named Stuart
Beattie he's an incredible soul I like
him so much very dear dear friend of
mine he wrote collateral and derailed
and he actually wrote one of the first
drafts of Pirates of the Caribbean
so having written on that Nancy used to
shop him as the pirate guy she would
literally go into a room and say you
guys looking for a pirate script I got
the pirate guy I got the guy who writes
pirate scripts and you know eventually
that film was made you know he created
the caption deck Captain Jack Sparrow
character he created that's that
storyline and it took him a few years to
get a credit for it because a lot of
writers wrote on that project but he was
able to carve out quite a lucrative
career having started as the pirate guy
so I think that you learn that you have
to find out what your specialty is where
your strengths lie so for me personally
I know that I can write drama and dark
comedies so that's where I stick for the
most part I'm not against writing
science fiction but I just am NOT
well-versed in it I'd have to research a
lot of it you know I'm not against
writing psychological thrillers or or
other you know genres but I think once
you know what you're potentially good at
that's a very good tool to hang on to so
in terms of what sells and what doesn't
sell and marketability I don't think
there's an answer for it really you know
I think we're constantly guessing and
trying to figure out what sells you know
that's what agents are doing that's what
producers are doing that's what studio
heads are doing trying to find a way to
make money it's a business at the end of
the day so in terms of what's marketable
I still think at the end of the day is
if you're a good storyteller and you can
tell a great story that's going to be
compelling and someone reads it from
start to finish and it changes them in
some way
you'll probably get that film made
you