I'm a screenwriter. I've been one since 2009 when out of the blue, I upped and quit my job in the publishing firm where I had been working for the past 4 years and stepped out into the unknown.
Needless to say, my dad thought I had lost a few screws in my head and it didn't help that my resignation happened at a time when getting a job in Nigeria was synonymous with getting on 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire' and winning the jackpot without using a single life-line. Truth is, I wasn't looking for another job. I mean I tried at first but my patience wore thin after a few months and I gave up altogether.
Luckily for me, there was screenwriting and the film/television industry. I decided to use whatever God-given talent I had, to make a way for myself. At first it was hard! The writing jobs came in trickles and were so spaced out that I had to stretch whatever I got paid for a script till another screenwriting job came in.
Three years later, I've begun to sing a different tune. I get a new recommendation and a new screenwriting job almost every week. Quite frankly, I'm not complaining about it at least bills have to be paid na. The issue now is when some of my clients want a fantastic script and they want it ASAP. Some tell me they want the script in 2weeks and I've gotten deadlines as crazy as one week!
I'm like 'Who the hell will give you a well thought out and written screenplay in one week???' I sure as hell am not an 'Asaba Writer' (Those ones just put pen on paper, scribble some stories together and voila! they have a screenplay ready for shoot)
A good screenplay needs to be 1. Well thought out, 2. Well plotted, 3. The dialogue has to be on point, 4. The subject of the screenplay has to have been well researched! How on earth am I supposed to produce all this in a week???
But clients don't want to know. The minute their advance touches your hand, they're on your case like leeches; determined not to let you catch your breath until the final scene has been written. It's like trying to write with a gun to your head! As far as they're concerned, their money has touched your hand so you must deliver when they say you should.
Then there's the annoying class of clients who hurry you to get the job done and then when it's finished, they keep silent as regards paying you your money. I mean 'what the hell????' They expect me to beome 'Speedy Gonzales' when I'm handling their jobs and then when it's done, these guys become 'Slowpoke Rodriguez' when it comes to paying up!
So I'm sitting here with a bunch of screenplays to write, all with deadlines attached to them but then I sigh; A girl's gotta pay her bills.
