A widely discussed industry essay argues the moment favors big, pitchable premises over quieter films

An Uncomfortable Piece Of Advice Landing With Working Writers

An essay from Black List founder Franklin Leonard, widely discussed and debated across screenwriting circles this year, argues that current industry conditions, the state of the broader film and television business, the precarious economics of theatrical distribution, genuinely favor aspiring screenwriters who set aside ambitions of writing smaller, more contemplative films in favor of big, commercially pitchable feature specs, the exact category of material currently driving the market’s recovery.

The essay’s core recommendation centers on a specific kind of script: one with a clear, single-sentence premise, something genuinely big and difficult to put down, rather than the more subtle, character-driven material that many serious screenwriters are naturally drawn to develop. This advice has generated genuine, occasionally uncomfortable debate among writers who entered the profession specifically to make the kind of smaller, thoughtful films the essay suggests are currently the harder sell.

A Debate That Predates This Particular Essay

One veteran screenwriter, responding publicly to the essay after a decade largely spent away from Hollywood, described finding himself reconsidering his own earlier decision to step back from commercial writing, acknowledging the argument’s practical force even while wrestling openly with what embracing it might mean for the kind of stories he actually wants to tell.

Continuing Coverage

The full essay and continuing discussion are available at Cole Haddon’s screenwriting newsletter, with additional industry context from Script Magazine and The London Prat.

Not Every Working Writer Agrees With The Framing

Critics of this advice argue it risks flattening the industry’s already-narrow appetite for genuinely original, less commercially obvious storytelling even further, potentially pushing an entire generation of writers toward chasing the same narrow category of big, pitchable premise rather than developing the individual voices that, historically, have also produced some of the industry’s most enduring and influential work.

A Tension Every Working Writer Has To Resolve Individually

Whatever position a given writer takes in this ongoing debate, the underlying tension it captures, between chasing current market conditions and pursuing a more personal creative vision, is not new to this particular moment, but the current spec market recovery has given it renewed, genuinely practical urgency for writers deciding what to spend the next year of their creative life actually writing.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/