Hello fellow scribes – hope you all have been doing well and writing like crazy.
Down here in North Carolina we have survived yet another bad stretch of winter weather. Last week we had five inches of snow – ok, I can hear you northern types laughing, now stop it! – and it kept me from the coffee shop on both Saturday and Sunday. I now know how a junkie feels when he goes cold turkey. I do have an office at home, but, somehow, it just is not the same. But I digress.
I’m still sending out queries. Now that Sundance is over I have put my focus on production companies and will until, oh, say April. My scorecard for 2010 runs something like this:
Management firms: sent out sixty-eight (68) queries so far and have had three (3) bad email addresses; five (5) requests for scripts; three (3) rejects; two (2) still reading – or, maybe, it’s a NO and I will never hear from them (I will follow up in a week or two and just ask).
Production Companies: sent out twenty-nine (29) queries this week: four (4) bad email addresses; one (1) NO THANKS. Not done with these people just quite yet. Remember, I live by the Three Ps, my peeps: Perseverance. Perseverance. Perseverance.
Which brings me to what I call The Silly Season: screenwriting contests. Do you enter? Which ones? Have any of you had any success and if so, what did it get you? The reason I ask is this: every year I vow NOT to enter contests. I think – except for the Nicholl – they are a waste of time and a huge waste of money. Yet… Yet, I enter a few every year. I know. Practice what you preach, Scherer! 
But, like most un-produced scribes I am seeking validation.
Not only are we writers loners – writing is a lonely profession after all – we are needy people, too. We need/want validation. How else can we know how we stack up against the competition? How else can we know if we can write at all? Sure, Mom and Aunt Sally rave about our stories – they’re suppose to – it’s their job to encourage and nurture – but…. It’s not the same. So let me know if you intend to enter any contests this Silly Season and which ones. As for myself: The Nicholl; the PAGE International; AAA Screenplay; and Final Draft.
As for my writing? Well, I have put the Sci-Fi comedy tentatively titled Peter and Ba’al on the back burner for now. I intend to write the screenplay, but I don’t have the need to do it just yet. After a few weeks of character sketches, researching locations, etc. that burning need to write it hasn’t arrived. The story is already outlined, sort’a. I wrote this originally as a short story – so I know how it will flow and how it ends. I just don’t feel like writing it. I do, however, want to write a new script as yet untitled; a story based on the Prometheus Mythology. I’m excited about this baby and when I put this post to bed I will begin my research and collect copious notes and develop story ideas. More in the coming weeks.
Okay, my peeps, I guess that’s a wrap for this week. Stay warm. Be cool. And as always,
Keep Writing!
Hello, my Peeps – hope you all are doing well.
Not much writing accomplished this week – but I did do a rewrite of one of my older scripts. Much improved if I do say so myself. Now, I need to revisit the story line and ensure the story logic is correct, tighten up a few scenes, ratchet up the tension a bit. The script is called DELUDED and the logline runs something like this:
A jilted homicide detective falls for the sister of his high school sweetheart while struggling to solve a series of murders only to discover his new girlfriend’s affections have nothing to do with love.
Deluded is in the vein of Sea of Love meets Basic Instinct.
As for my attempts at landing representation? Sent out an additional thirty-seven queries – two were kicked back for invalid email addresses. I swear this is the most frustrating part of the query process – finding reliable/valid email addys. But, this is where the Three Ps come into play:
Persistence. Persistence. Persistence.
If an address doesn’t work for me – say, first-initial-last-name@yaddayadda.com – I will try: last-name, then first-name, then first and last initials, ad nausea. You get the idea. It takes time – but it mostly works.
Like to point you one or two faithful readers out there in CyberSpace to a new screenwriting message board: The GITS Club Message Board at http://www.gitsclub.proboards.com/ — swing on by and give it a test drive.
Well, that’s a wrap for this week.
Keep Writing
Greetings fellow scribes – hope you all are doing well and got some writing done this week.
If you read one of my recent posts – okay, the last post – you may recall I mentioned my quest for representation. Well, the quest has been in progress a week or two and the scorecard is somewhat encouraging. I have been concentrating on querying managers, waiting to approach production companies after Sundance. Here’s what has happened to date:
Sent out 36 queries. Had 3 emails bounce – invalid email addresses. Received 4 responses: 3 requests for scripts and 1 neutral pass – ‘…not taking on new clients at this time’. Needless to say I immediately sent scripts to those requesting managers. Of those three requests – one has already passed. But it was, in my mind, an encouraging pass. Here’s why:
This particular manager – well respected, and I think you would recognize the name – gave me the first real encouraging response I’ve yet to receive. Here is what this manager said about my screenplay, Cardinal Sin:
Had a chance to read CARDINAL SIN today and thought you did a great job. Really well-written. Though I really liked it, unfortunately it’s just not enough for me to champion. I really appreciate you sending this my way. Keep me in mind for any future projects.
Cool, huh?
I immediately replied asking the obvious question: What did you mean by ‘just not enough for me to champion’? I speculated in my email that the comment meant the story wasn’t BIG enough. The manager’s response: ‘I meant I just didn’t love it enough to champion.’
Okay, I can live with that. What I take away from this exchange is this: keep sending Cardinal Sin to managers and/or producers until I find that one person who does love it enough to champion.
Another takeaway from all this: the 3Ps will pay off. What are the 3Ps you might ask?
Perseverance. Perseverance. Perseverance.
You can also add to that,
Keep Writing!
Happy New Year, my Peeps. Hope you all entered 2010 safe and well and happy.
Just wanted to touch base with my one or two constituents out there in Cyber Space and let you in on what I’ve been up to.
Last week I finished a rough draft – actually closer to one-and-a-half drafts – of my latest script: No Road to Fortune. Here’s the logline: An ambulance-chasing lawyer lands a malpractice case worth millions only to learn he is up against the best lawyer in the state – his older brother.
I’ll let it to simmer on the back burner for a week or two while I develop a new screenplay tentatively titled: Peter and Ba’al. Here’s the logline for that: A down and out TV Evangelist is visited by an Alien who wants to meet Jesus.
Sort of a Sfi-FI comedy. I’ve never done a comedy before, so this is new territory for me.
I’ve also started to query management and production companies, begging them to read and/or buy my scripts We’ll see how that works out as one of my goals for 2010 is to, at the very least, option a screenplay. Fingers crossed.
How about you, my one or two faithful followers? What are you up to? I hope you’re writing – everyday. Are you going to send out queries? Let me know. The spec script season runs from February through April and then again from September through November. Remember, you will never sell a script if you don’t send out those queries and above all else you must
Keep Writing!
…this past Sunday. Didn’t want to write. Couldn’t write. Couldn’t concentrate.
I wanted to quit — for good!
And I hated that feeling. I’ve been working on a new script and no matter how I swizzle things, I can’t figure out the ending. Oh, I KNOW how it ends — I’m just not sure how to get there. I’ve never had this happen before. Always knew the ending of my previous scripts — knew how I was going to get there. All this is new territory for me.
And I hate it!
I have read about professional screenwriters having troubles: staring at the blank page; how difficult they found writing, and I always thought, hmmmm, I don’t have that problem. What’s so hard about writing? Now I am beginning to wonder if all those scripts I finished without ‘writer’s block’ or lack of an ending, or ’staring-at-the-blank-pageits’ is because those scripts weren’t any good in the first place. Maybe I’m having issues with this script because at long last I have a good story going on here.
Maybe not.
How do you, my faithful reader(s) — you are still out there, aren’t you? — how do you handle your uncertainty — self doubt? Do you chuck your script — start something new? Or, do you plug away in hopes the fog will lift and the end will make itself known? What I have learned from this ‘episode’ is this: I can not NOT write. Good. Bad. Indifferent. I will always,
Keep Writing!
Why? Because I ain’t all that PC. All my life it has been Merry Christmas, and Merry Christmas it will remain.
That said, I do understand some folks do not celebrate Christmas and for them I wish:
Happy Hanukkah!
Happy Kwanzaa!
And… no matter your religious affiliation, or lack there of — yeah, even you believers in crass consumerism,
I wish you all happiness, writing success, and a prosperous New Year.
Let’s hope some of us find a manager or agent in our stocking this year
But above all,
Keep Writing!
What is your New Year’s Resolution this coming year? Normally, mine is to NOT make any resolutions But not this year. No sir. No ma’am. I resolve to make a resolution!
I have spent the better part of 2009 completing a new screenplay – you can read Act I (more or less) on my script page above: Cardinal Sin — and rewriting, ad nauseam, several others – four to be exact. So, my New Year’s Resolution for 2010 is to complete two – count ‘em – two, new scripts – I have a spreadsheet stuffed with ideas — and to send out queries to production and management companies. This is the year folks!
At least, I hope it is
And even if it isn’t 
I will continue to write. Continue to query. Continue to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. I’m a firm believer in the 3Ps: Perseverance! Perseverance! Perseverance! So…..
What will be your resolution for next year, my two or three cyber friends? Leave a comment. Let me know and
Happy Holidays!
Keep Writing!
Watched TERMINATOR: SALVATION last week and gotta tell you I was very disappointed. Now don’t get me wrong… interesting story; loved the CGI… but the plot logic left much to be desired. Case in point:
The Resistance has learned that there is a hidden signal in the Machine’s carrier wave – a strategically important event for the plot. To determine if this information will allow the Resistance to shut down the machines on command, John Connor and associates go out into the desert and set off an explosion to draw in a Machine aircraft. Once in range, Connor activates the signal shutting down the aircraft. Woo Hoo!! The craft shuts down and crashes. Success! However……..
Later in the story, when the Marcus Wright character shows up at Resistance headquarters and it’s determined HE IS A MACHINE! Ouch! They stick him in prison for safe keeping. But – and here in lies the plot logic problem – he escapes and the obligatory SET PIECE takes place: a HUGE firefight. Gunfire. Explosions. All type and manner of racket going on, yet…
Yet, unlike earlier, out in the desert, no Machines show up to investigate what the hell is going on.
Why is THAT?
Took me out of my ’suspension of disbelief’ – big time. Which brings me to my question:
Do you care about plot logic when you watch a movie? It is a pet peeve of mine and what bothers me is this: the studio spent $200 million dollars to bring Salvation to the silver screen, why couldn’t they spend the time to fix such a blatant, glaring, hole in their story? For me this is sloppy film making and/or writing. I go over and over my scripts to INSURE my plot logic rings true. Shouldn’t professional – well paid – screenwriters be as responsible?
Thoughts?
Keep Writing!
Hello my Peeps–
–my two faithful readers out there in cyber space — I’m back — once again
Where have I been, you may ask? And you may.
Busy rewriting scripts. Six to be exact and some are posted on my SCRIPT page — see tab above.
With any luck I will be back again and again and again — I’m like the stink on a skunk: you’ll never be rid of me.
Keep Writing!
November 29th, 2009 in
screenwriting | tags:
rewriting |
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For those few faithful readers out there in cyber-space who use Final Draft to compose their great American screenplays I want to share with you a trick I learned all by my lonesome. I can claim this as my own because I have never, ever seen/heard/read anyone else describing this.
During rewrites I check and double check a whole host of items to insure my screenplay is crisp/clean/and free of misspellings. Final Draft is a great tool for writers, however, the spell checker really sucks! No offense to the good folks over at Final Draft, but it is a fact. Which brings me to a useful trick:
Save your screenplay in RTF – Rich Text Format – then open that RTF file using Microsoft Word side-by-side with your screenplay in Final Draft.
Voila!
You will find – at least this has been my experience because I am, in fact a terable speler – anywhere from eight (8) to twelve (12) misspelled words that Final Draft missed. As you uncover these words in Word, fix them in the Final Draft version.
Give it shot – what do you have to lose? And then let me know what you think and/or share some of your writing tips and tricks.
Keep Writing!
