The Three Stages of Development

“Development” is a creative process and a business process, and is the royal road to Purgatory, Heaven, and Hell.

“Development” is a term every screenwriter comes to know at some point in their writing career. For new screenwriters, they learn about the term from being exposed to screenwriting books, writing workshops, celebrity screenwriter blogs, or through second-hand and third-hand horror stories of other screenwriters who have been through “development hell.” More experienced screenwriters have the advantage of experiencing firsthand the process of development, working directly with the various movers and shakers at agencies, studios, networks, production companies, and story departments who shepherd scripts from concept to green light to screen.

The development process can take years or even decades, and there are no guarantees that a script will ever make it to that final green light or thumbs-up from the powers-that-be, assuring at least a first day of principal photography and the commencement of physical production. Most often scripts languish in a kind of literary limbo, but occasionally the “buzz” on the tracking boards (the private bulletin boards where industry insiders troll for “hot properties” and get the latest status on who’s hot and who’s not) sets creative executive hearts a-fluttering, word spreads, requests for script copies increase, and that one-off spec sale happens—only to end up getting sidelined because the creative executive who made the sale gets fired and their replacement decides a new draft is required, which alienates attached talent, who drop off the project, forcing packaging agencies to find new attachments. And as new revisions by up-and-coming scribes (because the original writer won’t get to write any of the revisions) generate lackluster coverage from readers and story analysts, the project goes into turnaround (the rights of your script get sold off over and over to new buyers until someone finally gives a green light), where it can languish for years, trapped in the dreaded “development hell.”

This is the development process familiar to most screenwriters, and the development experience every writer and producer loathes beyond words. It is unpredictable, chaotic, at times psychotic, and in its way acts like an uncontrollable force of nature that can just as easily smother your screenwriting dreams in quicksand as lift them into the bliss of being a working, professional, produced screenwriter. This is one side of development, the side known well by the consensus; the random generator of screenwriter horror stories or wildest-dreams-come-true.

But, development is not so simplistic as just described. It is not a monolithic process with many moving parts; it is at least three separate processes, each of which constitutes a distinct, functional course of action along a script’s development path.

It should be noted that while I am treating all these development stages separately, producers and executives will be less likely to do so. In the take-no-prisoners world of the entertainment business, time is of the essence, and sales, marketing departments, and business affairs wait for no man, or woman, or screenwriter. The business and script development stages can often bleed together because of the demands of schedules, financing, and other factors. Indeed, business processes can even begin at the story development stage. But, it helps to see these stages of development as siloed functions from a screenwriting perspective, especially the story development stage. Until a screenwriter can approach scripts story-first, rather than writing-first, or business-development first, real story development will be elusive and the script development process will likely be fraught with false starts, missteps, and frustrating excursions into the writing wilderness. Executing proper story development before you engage script development is an essential first step to producing a screenplay that will survive the rigors of the overall development process. And successful development begins with the screenwriter knowing why the job of storytelling is not the same as the job of writing.

The three stages of development include the following:

• Business development stage
• Script development stage
• Story development stage

Business Development Stage

The process of business development refers to the people, entities, and business processes needed to take a script and turn it into a saleable product on an international scale. (Even if the script is an independent production, and not a big studio tent pole, international sales are essential for achieving financial success and product longevity.) This is the stage of development where the Hollywood business machine does what it does better than anyone in the world. Once a script enters into this process, it is further honed, enhanced, and reformed to be market friendly, and generally manipulated in a myriad of ways to make the product launch (i.e., the movie or TV show) a market success. The list of players in this stage is long and formidable: talent agents/packagers, talent, studio creative executives, talent managers, literary agents, lawyers of various disciplines, marketers, producers, executive producers, investors/financial entities, story editors, story analysts/readers, domestic/foreign sales agents, distribution companies, and even screenwriters. The final objective of this stage of development is the coveted green light, the go-ahead signal that this is a project a studio or distributor will put its considerable resources behind, in order to turn a profit.

• Key Function: Navigating all the business-related tasks associated with packaging, selling, and the green-lighting of a literary property.
• Key Players: Talent agents/packagers, talent, studio creative executives, talent managers, literary agents, lawyers of various disciplines, marketers, producers, executive producers, investors/financial entities, story, story analysts/readers, sales agents, distribution companies, screenwriters.
• Key Objective: Get a script into production.

Script Development Stage

This is the stage of development that makes all of the business development stage possible. The script development stage is focused on the creative and technical process of completing a physical script that can then move through the refinements and script-by-committee mentality that produces the final literary property. “Script-by-committee” refers to the industry-wide practice of passing a screenplay draft between multiple business and creative project stakeholders (distributors, talent, creative executives, etc.) and incorporating their script notes into script revisions. After all, without a literary property to package and sell, there is not much point in all the chaos and mayhem that is sure to follow during subsequent development activities.

The primary player in this stage is the screenwriter or screenwriters. Depending on how the project comes into existence, various other players will have their fingers in the process as well: producers, executive producers, and maybe a production company story editor (if the script is being produced in-house). But, basically the screenwriter is the central player, and the one most accountable for successful execution.

The final objective of this stage of development is a solid script that will pass the scrutiny of all the gatekeepers coming down the line in the green-light process. Script development is usually where most people think the development process really begins. But this is not the case. There is another stage before this one: the story development stage.

• Key Function: Physically write all the various drafts required to have a producible and saleable property.
• Key Players: Screenwriters, but often executive producers, producers, and other production company staffers related to story department.
• Key Objective: A final draft ready for green light (not a shooting script).

Story Development Stage

The previous two stages of development are pretty much out of your hands as a writer. You have little or no control over what happens to your story once it passes into the meat grinder of active script and business development. Even in the script development stage (the actual writing phase) you will get input, notes, and suggestions from other players with agendas already in motion (marketing, packaging, sales, etc.). The story development stage is the only stage of development where the screenwriter holds the full reins in his or her hands; where the writer can run the show. This is critical to understand, because if you get this stage “right,” then it will influence all the other stages down the line, so your authority as the storyteller can shape your story’s ultimate fate—because it will be your story, not a story by committee. The director Alfred Hitchcock was notorious for shooting his movies and editing them in the camera during filming, consequently if a studio executive wanted to make cuts to the final film it would be impossible because of how tightly Hitchcock shot his scenes—further cutting would simply ruin the story. Nor did Hitchcock leave much “extra” footage (called coverage), so a studio would have almost nothing available to add into the final cut, if they wanted to muck around with Hitchcock’s edit. This is what the story development stage affords you as the writer. It is a way for you to limit the changes that can be made down the development line, by assuring your story is as tight and integrated structurally as possible—before it goes into the meat grinder. Changes will be made, they always are, but if you do your job right, as the architect of the story, at this stage of development, then changes will be mitigated by your story skills. With that said, nothing can stop the business stakeholders from completely rewriting everything and essentially writing you out of your own work. This can happen, regardless of how tightly you write your draft. When this does happen, forces are at work that have little or nothing to do with your writing. Fight for what you can save, let go of what you can’t, move on. “Hey, it ain’t personal,” as the mafia likes to say, “it’s just business.”

The story stage of development is not generally recognized as a part of the overall development process. Most in the development universe lump story development into the script development stage, just as most screenwriters lump the functions of writing and storytelling together as one task in their own writing processes. In reality, story development is a separate function that needs to occur before any of the other stages. In fact, in a fundamental and essential way the story development stage is the most important phase of development, because it is here where the foundation of the final product is built. If this foundation is weak, then the entire structure upon which the bigger development effort rests will be weak or compromised, and the results will not be optimal, i.e., the producers will not be happy.

The story development stage has primarily one key player: the screenwriter. One or more producers may be involved, but this is normally the central task for the writer of the story. The final goal is not a script. The objective is to find the story, establish the structure, and validate that the story will have legs to stand on. Without a story there will be no script, and without a workable script there will be no business process to package, produce, and sell the final product. It is worth repeating: if you master this stage of development (which this book helps you to do), then you can reduce the risks associated with the story-by-committee gauntlet sure to come.

Knowing where the storytelling function lies within the overall story development universe is a valuable gem of knowledge, because most screenwriters do not see the power this little gem gives them in the bigger picture of making their vision successful. We all go into the development process knowing the script-by-committee meat grinder will spit out a script much changed from our original intent. Even screenwriters working on independent productions will not escape this experience. At some point they will find themselves sitting around a table “taking notes” from various stakeholders who are clueless about how stories work, or how a screenplay needs to be written. In some ways it’s even worse for independent creative producers and writers, because they have to deal with stakeholders who are often completely inexperienced in the entertainment industry. At least at the studio or network level you will be dealing with experienced people accustomed to working with writers, and who have a somewhat clear agenda creatively—even if their story suggestions make you cringe.

As a screenwriter, if you are fortunate enough to make a sale—and your lottery ticket gets hit by lightning on your birthday in a leap year—and you find yourself actually writing your own movie or TV show, you will find yourself staring into the black maw of the meat grinder. But if you have done your work; if you have honed your premise line; and if you have found the right, true, and natural structure of your Invisible Structure, then you will be in a much stronger position to enter the story development stage knowing that what comes out of that stage will be closer to your story’s truth than not.