For screenwriters, breaking into Hollywood has traditionally meant writing a great screenplay, finding representation, and hoping that script eventually lands in the hands of someone who can actually do something with it. But in this challenging industry, manager and producer Peter Katz, CEO of Story Driven, thinks writers should consider another strategy: stop focusing exclusively on getting into someone else’s space, and start creating a space of your own.
What exactly does that mean? It could mean writing a short story, creating a podcast, making a web series, publishing a comic, or even experimenting with narrative videos on YouTube or TikTok. “I think it’s about being the one that controls the space versus trying to get into the space,” says Katz. “When you build things out, you get to decide who comes to your party.”
For screenwriters frustrated by gatekeepers, that’s a significant shift in perspective. Katz, who has sold IP to buyers including Netflix, 20th Century and Lionsgate, sees intellectual property, or IP, as much more than something Hollywood can adapt. For a writer, it can be a way to showcase a voice, build an audience, attract collaborators and create momentum around an idea.
“I think IP is a catalyst for these projects sometimes, because you’re bringing people together out of passion and vision,” Katz says.
A Screenplay Has a Very Small Audience
One of the inherent problems with a screenplay is that relatively few people will ever read it.
Even a good script might circulate among assistants, executives, producers, agents and managers, but it largely remains inside the entertainment industry. Put a story online, however, and suddenly the potential audience changes.
“With a short story on Reddit, you could reach people around the world,” Katz says. “You could reach all sorts of audiences and get fans.” Even if only 100 people become passionate about the material, he says, that’s an audience the writer might never have reached with a screenplay alone. Those 100 people can matter.
“If you could get 100 people, maybe down the line you get 1,000. If you get 1,000, maybe you get 100,000 or a million,” he says. “You’re de-risking your project, because people are seeing that, even if it’s a smaller audience, you’re building a group of passionate people.”
For a producer or financier, an existing audience can provide evidence that an idea connects with people. For the writer, it also provides something arguably more valuable: direct access to those people.
IP Can Be a Proof of Concept
Not every piece of IP needs to become a bestseller or go viral. A short story, for example, can function much like a short film does for a filmmaker and be a proof of concept. Instead of asking someone to read a 110-page screenplay, a writer can offer a piece of material that quickly communicates the characters, world, and tone. Katz compares this idea to the tech industry’s “minimum viable product,” or MVP: What is the smallest version of an idea that allows someone to understand what you’re trying to create?
A short story, podcast episode, or video can become “a bridge between collaborators,” he says, allowing a producer, director, or potential partner to quickly understand the writer’s vision. That lower time commitment can also help an idea travel. “Sometimes a smaller investment has less friction to move along the space,” Katz says. “I think those are advantages, the speed of how an idea travels.”
And unlike a screenplay sitting on your laptop, publicly available IP keeps working after you stop actively pitching it. A podcast, short story, or video can continue getting discovered by people while its creator is doing something else. You may not know who is listening, reading, or watching, and one of those people could turn out to be exactly the collaborator you need.
Create for Your People First
Perhaps the most liberating part of Katz’s approach is that writers don’t necessarily need to begin by asking what Hollywood wants. Instead, ask: Who would love this?
“If you’re using it to connect with people that are like yourself first,” Katz says, “the process becomes very different from trying to impress some unknown gatekeeper.”
His example is wonderfully specific: Suppose you love cats and murder mysteries. Create a podcast for people who love cats and murder mysteries. “If that’s your audience, you don’t need to appeal to anybody else.” That niche audience can eventually create its own gravity. Instead of trying to convince the industry that something is valuable, the writer has already established value within a community. That’s particularly meaningful because Hollywood tends to measure screenplays according to a narrow set of benchmarks: Did it make the Black List? Did it get optioned? Is a major agency involved? IP can operate under a different metric.
“Do you speak to this audience? Do they love it?” Katz asks. By defining your own culture and community, “a creator can potentially gain leverage instead of trying to twist into a pretzel to make these random people happy.”
Find Your Voice Without Waiting for Permission
The industry is constantly searching for what’s next, which can leave writers chasing trends and second-guessing the ideas that excited them in the first place.
“If you’re putting your work online, it does allow you to kind of do it on your terms,” Katz says. “You’re keeping it pure.”
He sees that freedom as one reason creators who developed their voices on platforms such as YouTube have successfully transitioned into directing and filmmaking. They had space to experiment.
And creating IP doesn’t mean abandoning screenwriting. “If you have a great script, write it,” Katz says. “I don’t think it’s one or the other.”
A finished screenplay has obvious advantages: It’s a blueprint for the movie itself. IP simply offers another route to generate excitement and find support for the project.
More Paths for Stories
Creating IP also doesn’t guarantee Hollywood will come calling. But for writers who feel stuck waiting for representation, staffing, an option, or the elusive yes from a producer, experimenting with another medium may open possibilities they hadn’t considered.
A web series could become a writing sample that leads to staffing. A short story could attract a producer. A podcast might catch a manager’s attention. A strange video could develop a passionate following and eventually become the seed for something much larger.
Katz is also realistic about the current marketplace. Creating IP isn’t a miracle drug, but a method he has successfully used as a manager and producer and has seen other writers, producers and managers use as well.
It’s another way storytellers can connect with an audience without just waiting on gatekeepers.
