If you are a creative just getting started, please keep in mind the rule of three.
Don’t stop until you have completed your first three projects.
You will no doubt be in love with your first project, but you will get better as you finish successive projects.
Often times, producers and funders want to see a body of work that demonstrates your talent and not just a one-off.
When Shirin felt called to write a novel, she finished it and found an agent to represent her. It was shopped around to more than 20 publishers. No one bit. Tory, a Jesus look-a-like, who helped us with the Damah Film Festival, told her she should not stop writing until she’d written her first three books. It completely changed her mind-set. In the end, her third and fourth books got published (Zondervan and Relevant), not the first two.
If you are pitching a script or manuscript, you want to have at least two others you could present to demonstrate the breadth of your work.
If you have at least two other completed works, you triple your chance of getting funded, published or distributed.
When I began to pursue foundation grant funding, I presented what I thought was a very compelling project to a foundation that expressed interest in our ministry. The foundation thought VSN had potential, but wasn’t crazy about the project I proposed. They asked if we had any other projects they could consider. When I showed them two other projects, they funded one of them and we had our first success in the grant and foundation world.
Don’t quit until you have three completed projects.
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