Stop Waiting for Permission
The Future Belongs to Creators Who Stop Asking
Every few weeks, someone in the entertainment trenches asks the question that refuses to die: “How do we, the creators, fix this?”
This time it came from a screenwriter friend, who posted a quote from a Bulwark article lamenting that no one wants to watch, write about, or even casually acknowledge adult dramas anymore. According to the piece, audiences don’t care about the psychological character study set in Macau or the restored French classic in immaculate black-and-white. They want Predator: Badlands. Not because it is a masterpiece, but because it is familiar and feels safe.
My friend then asked the question that haunts all of us in the business at some point: “So how do we, the creators, change this?”
My immediate response was simple and sincere: we cannot fix a system that is already broken. We can, however, walk away from it, keep creating, and build something new.
That is where the optimism begins.
The Industry Isn’t Sick. It’s Terminal.
Audiences did not suddenly lose interest in thoughtful, human stories overnight. They were slowly conditioned into numbness over decades. They were served endless variations of the same stories because the people steering the ship believed audiences only wanted more of the same and their box office returns seemed to support that. The result was the audience became the frog in the frying pan while the studios congratulated themselves for making more pans.
Meanwhile, the corporations running Hollywood convinced themselves that creators were optional. With the rise of artificial intelligence, they now whisper to each other that they may not need us at all. If a machine can generate something that vaguely resembles a story, why bother dealing with writers, directors, actors, or anyone who has an inconvenient need for things like food, rest, or professional respect?
This is where the irony becomes delicious. The very technology the studios believe will terrify us into submission is actually our greatest weapon for independence. They think AI will replace us. In reality, it will liberate us.
Permission Culture Has Become the Real Enemy
For decades, creators have been trained to submit. Submit the script. Submit the pitch. Submit the proposal. Submit to notes from the studio. Submit to notes from the studio head’s kid. Submit yourself to a system that treats your dreams as optional and your ideas as liabilities.
And we did it. We still do it.
We keep asking for permission and then feel crushed when the people who claim they need us and our innovative, creative ideas and energy turn around and act like they barely tolerate us the moment we’re out of the room. We wait months for the slightest acknowledgement. We sit through endless “maybe later” responses that drain years from our lives. We internalize their indifference as proof that we are not worthy.
The truth is simpler and far less personal. The system no longer has the ability to care. The ship is sinking. The executives (high, middle, and low level) are all clinging to spreadsheets because spreadsheets cannot yell at them. No creator is going to fix that.
Which leads to the only real path forward.
The Future Will Be Built Outside the System
Creators no longer need to wait for someone in a glass office to validate them. We can reach audiences directly. We can fund our own work. We can build our own ecosystems. We can use the exact technology studios think will replace us and turn it into an accelerant for our independence.
AI cannot replace a great storyteller, but it can absolutely make a great storyteller faster, more prolific, and less dependent on external gatekeepers. The creators who refuse to touch these tools because they are afraid of “collaborating with the enemy” are missing the point. The enemy is not AI. The enemy is the belief that you cannot act without permission.
Independent films, audio dramas, comics, podcasts, animated shorts, serialized fiction, online communities, and crowdfunded universes are proving every day that creators can reach a global audience without a studio’s blessing. Audiences are hungry for originality. They are simply not getting it.
This is where we step in.
The Leap Is Scary. That’s Why It Matters.
It is easier for a struggling creator to walk away from the system than it is for a successful one to do so. If you’ve enjoyed the comfort of regular paychecks, studio deals, or steady work above the line, the idea of leaving is terrifying. But staying inside a collapsing structure will not save you, either. The cliff you are afraid to step off is eroding under your feet anyway so you might as well do it.
The next wave of creators who break through will not be the ones fighting to repair (or simply whining about) a model that no longer works. They will be the ones who build something completely outside it. They will be the ones who stop asking for permission and start asking a better question:
What can I build today that connects directly to the audience I want tomorrow?
If the system refuses to listen, that’s fine. You should be used to that by now. We will, however, let our audiences speak for us.
And they will.
They always do.
Mark Haynes lives and works at the intersection of entertainment, communications, and technology. He’s developed stories for audiences and solutions for companies for over a quarter century and he’ll do it again, too — complete with em dashes because they’re a legit part of the language. You should hire him so he can feed his cat and pay his rent. Find out more at markhaynesproductions.com, markhaynescommunications.com, or LinkedIn.