A guest post by Janet Lawler from The New York Screenwriting Life

Hi, I’m a New York screenwriter.  I’ve had two scripts optioned.  One is a cop thriller called “Brutal Pattern”.  Producer Mike Farrell and Marvin Minoff optioned it for Anne Heche a few years ago.  It was written up in Variety.  I spoke to Anne Heche on the phone about her starring role… and then the deal fell through (which I’m told is not uncommon).

I was crushed at the time, but hey, I made a couple of grand out of the option (producers paid more for options in those days than now) and had the most exciting few weeks as a screenwriter… but things don’t always turn out as you hope with writing and especially in Hollywood.

So, I’ve gone on and have written more scripts and had one animation script optioned WAR BIRDS, but that expired last year and it’s an uphill battle this screenwriting business.

This year I decided to stretch my writing muscles and wrote my first play called “NetFits” about a young couple who nearly gets divorced after they open a joint NetFlix account.  It’s a comedy.  The play got produced in New York and was presented on stage at the 15th Annual 15 Minute Play Festival on… drum roll please… my birthday!  How cool is that for a gift and a sign to keep hitting the keyboard.

Now I’m a professional playwright.  I received  a $25 royalty for that work.  (Ok, theatre does not pay Hollywood money).  I just wrote my second play and hope to submit it to festivals across the country.  Writing a play is fun and you can get instant results if it makes it to a reading or a festival.  It’s great to hear actors read your work aloud, especially in front of a live audience!

The past three months I’ve spent writing the first draft of my first novel called “From the Ground Up”.  I plan to send it out to agents in Oct.  It’s a new adventure — fiction writing & publishing.

So what I’m saying is if you hit a wall with your scripts, try another outlet for a while, maybe attempt writing in another format to get inspired or even produced.

Have you thought about writing an essay, or a novel, or a play or even sketches for YouTube?  I know it’s hard to break away from thinking of ourselves as strictly screenwriters, but taking a few weeks or months to write in another medium can spark creativity and connections.  Maybe write a scene, shoot it and upload it on the Internet.

Keep working on that screenplay of yours too, read books, take seminars and join writing groups — but I find the most important thing is to be writing.  Period.  When I wrote my play, it was a great exercise to write a three act structure in ten pages of story!  Short plays require that.  So the play got produced and taught me that if I can tell a complete story in 10 pages, why do I need 120 for my scripts?  Am I writing more than is needed?  That play process has helped me to write much leaner now.  I’m sure future script readers of my work will appreciate that lesson too.  Less is more, as they say.

Fellow writers, try every avenue you can to get produced or published or read — and remain creative and open to new opportunities. I love screenwriting and that’s my true passion, but I’ve had the time of my life writing a play and a novel.

Good luck and write on.

Janet Lawler is a native New York screenwriter. She’s written six screenplays, including two that were optioned, freelance comedy for Joan Rivers and Rodney Dangerfield, and Netfits, a produced play about a couple that almost gets divorced after creating a joint NetFlix account. She’s currently writing her first novel, ”From the Ground Up,” and enjoys blogging about the latest movies, people, news, and the general New York Screenwriting Life.