Everybody has an angle. The unique thing that they bring to the table. Some combination of who you are, the stories you tell, and how you tell them together make for a specific package. Once you have written some scripts you can begin to suss out the repetitions. The unique elements. And that’s what you’re selling.
Short of selling a spec, which is not the same market it once was, your scripts are calling cards. Demonstrations of what you bring to the table. So you should know what you’re selling. And why someone would want to buy it.
Your Signature
A lot of different elements can make up your signature. The way you approach dialogue. The structure of your scripts. A central question characters keep wrestling with. A background in mechanical engineering. Each of these let you stand out from other scripts.
To find your signature takes some introspection. As well as honest assessment of your strengths. What do readers frequently compliment you on in your scripts? What parts do you find the easiest to write? That you look forward to the most? These are good tells towards your signature.
You can also look for patterns in your work. What themes do you keep returning to? What part of your biography stands out as unique? What genres and subgenres do you focus on? The things that recur also form a part of your thumbprint.
And finally, you also have yourself. How does your biography set you apart? What makes you different from the thousands of other writers trying to break into this industry? It can be demographic, or background, or education – what will catch someone’s eye and influence your storytelling?
A Demonstration
Adaptations make for a great test case for signatures. The source material becomes a litmus test for the writer. The elements they bring to the work stand out in contrast with the original text. Every addition and subtraction points to the specific way a given writer prefers to tell a story.
A recent example: i’m thinking of ending things, Charlie Kaufman’s adaptation of Iain Reed’s novel. Reed’s novel functions as a psychological horror story as a woman travels to her boyfriend’s family home.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Odd events occur, unsettling and impossible. A few horror set-pieces kick in – one as our unnamed main character goes down into the basement and discovers a series of paintings suggesting a monster of some kind, lurking in the darkness. The other as she looks for her boyfriend in the school they’ve parked at and some creature stalks her through the halls. In the end, we discover that every character has been the figment of unseen janitor, thinking of ending his life. Playing out what could’ve been and hoped for.
But that’s the book. Kaufman, of course, makes his own way. He zeroes in on the final reveal – that everything makes manifest one man’s inner turmoil – and foregrounds that. Not surprising for the writer of Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Synecdoche, New York amongst others.
The move from the start signals this world isn’t real. It utilizes cuts and cinematic techniques and the shifting ages of the boyfriend’s parents to show us for the unsteady reality of daydreams. Kaufman does away with the moments of pure horror – the first replaced with explicit confirmation of the lack of reality, the other turned into a dance-based expression of this imaginary couple’s relationship.
And then the ending – an introduction of artifice and theater, song and speeches – has no basis in the book. Pure invention. Pure Kaufman.
These choices all make perfect sense as a part of Kaufman’s signature. A writer obsessed with internal anxieties of course zeroes in on that aspect of the book. Foregrounds it. Plays with it. He adds long discussions about the nature of art and memory. He skips the traditional horror elements.
In short, he makes it his own.
Applying to Your Own Work
Knowing your brand isn’t just a marketing gimmick. It’s a way to strategically think about what projects to write. What scripts best highlight your strengths. Sell your unique voice and talents.
By thinking this way, you can write stronger scripts and showcase yourself. So give it a little thought.