The Brutal Ten Percent

I’m only a fifth of the way into my quota, and already I’m struggling. I’m holding off on my judgment of some scripts. I’m delaying my decision. I want to wait. Most of the time people hold off on a good thing because they fear they may miss something better. I’m doing quite the opposite: I’m looking for something worse.

The world is a cruel, cruel, place. A screenplay competition is no exception.

We were instructed rather casually at the beginning of the contest that our goal was to advance only the top 10% of all the screenplays we read. I winced. This is what got me in trouble last year. The bossman thought I was being too lenient, too forgiving of the scripts that I picked up and passing too many to the next round. Only the best of the best, not just potential, wThis year, the quota was larger but the ratio was to remain the same.

I have to read at least 110 full feature screenplays. I am to advance 10%, or a total of 11 scripts.

I’ve already been very impressed by seven. That means that I should only advance four more. I’ve read 20. Only three of the next 80.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I hoped that hesitating would solve the problem. The first batch of scripts was by people who’d been working on these for some time. If I waited till later, I’d be picking up script that hadn’t been started until they’d received the competition flyer. They would be so unpolished that I’d have no qualms about putting them in my “NO” pile. If I can only pull the wheat from the chaff, then why not wait until there’s more chaff to sift out?

By some twist of fate, I was not so lucky. The competition is even tougher than last year. I seem to have grabbed scripts by only talented writers. I can see so much potential in these stories, so much skill on the part of the writer, so much that could be refined to storytelling perfection.

But that’s not what wins a competition. You’ve got to blow my mind.

I guess I’ve spent too long in open communities and groups that seek to foster growing talent rather than reward achievement. I’m not used to such cold calculation, looking for technicalities to disqualify a competitor. Shouldn’t someone so close to perfection be commended rather than punished?

Nope. That’s not the way the world works. That’s not the way the industry works, and I know it. I know it quite well.

The best thing I can call it is the “Little League Paradox.” A little league coach wants to foster their talent and encourage them, but at the same time he needs to teach them to win. You don’t win by trying, you win by doing better than the other team. You win by defeating your competition. And the referee must always favor the victor.