The Sweet Smell of (Very Little) Success

Got about halfway done on the first rewrite of my current script, The International Space Station. For me, this first rewrite consists of fairly simple tightening of dialogue and action lines. The hope is to cut out a lot of excess. Trim, trim, trim.

However, as I was working at his I realized how much less excess there is on this draft than at the same point on the first two scripts. Two more epiphanies followed. One, I was very lucky to gain a modicum of success (in the form of peer recognition) on my very first script. Second, I suck at screenwriting.

The two actually go hand in hand. I had enough affirmation that I know I'm not a total hack, but I am now realizing how lucky I was to get even that. Script by script I learn. As I wrote my first and second I felt I knew what I was doing. I was wrong, but I can now extrapolate how much better my ninth and tenth MIGHT be.

Now that insight led to the logical conclusion that I should take a break and procrastinate (an area I excel in already). While surfing, I downloaded a script that has just won Script of the Month honors on one of the peer sites. It was good! Really good in some areas. I spent an hour or so studying it. Then went and looked at the writers other submissions (12 of them).

My new goal. Beat that guy! I'll be that good in 8 scripts! (or maybe 9...)

Strike Out - Still in the Minor leagues

The Nicholls notifications came out today. The Nicholls screenwriting competition is a big deal for writers. Sponsored by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences it is the US Open of writers competitions. 6200 entries and just over 300 make the first cut. Just making the first cut assures most scripts of getting read by producers and agents.

I had sent an early draft of my first script in and gave myself an outside chance to make that first cut. No such luck. I kept up on a few screenwriting forums to see who did make it and was familiar with half a dozen of the scripts that made it through. One of them I really liked myself, but still feel it's not a marketable script. It is however a fine piece of writing. I also found out that scripts that made the top 10 or 15% were given that information even though they didn't advance. I didn't get one of those notes.

I thought about that. I thought about the success that script has already had and the positive reviews. I considered the fact that it was the first one I had ever written. Actually the first real piece of any kind I have written. Then I pulled the script out that I finished days ago. One I know is much better. One in which I utilize a multitude of things I've learned. One that is truly a high concept script and I started the second draft.

I didn't make the cut this year. That just means I have a lot to learn and it's time to get right back to work. The best motivation at this stage is rejection. I'm betting I'll get tons of motivation this year.

The Day After

I'm learning one thing is certain. That no matter the accomplishment, you have to write every day. No days off. It doesn't have to be a marathon session where you vomit out thirty pages. Perhaps it's just forty minutes of staring at the screen and correcting typos. Maybe an hour of research for a new idea, or a quick outline. Whatever it is, I must maintain the routine. Permission for a day off leads to another.

A day away from finishing my third screenplay, I am back to the second again. The third is relegated to a drawer for a week or so. Hopefully it's also somewhere back in the dim recesses of my subconscious getting better as well. Soon enough I'll return and start the real work on it. For now though I'm back to a final (I hope) polish on #2.

Genesis

Recent history: In January of 2009, with all the innocence of pure idiocy, I began writing my first feature length screenplay. In my case ignorance was the well from which sprang creativity. In other words, if I knew then what I've learned since, I never would have started. Perhaps all journeys of creativity start from naiveté. Now that I've started though, I plan on succeeding. Here then is that story, as it unfolds.

Mid-February 2009: I type fade out. Thus finishing my first screenplay - The Last Stand. An action/adventure set during the Republican period of the Roman Empire. Pure unadulterated entertainment. Indiana Jones meets Gladiator. I proudly upload the opus to a peer review site and get kicked in the nuts.

No one cared about the brilliant storytelling, the exotic locations or the wise-cracking heroes. All they cared about was the lack of structure, the errors in formatting and the poor execution of the fundamentals of screenwriting. So I bought a book. I rewrote. Seven times.

Then I received my first affirmation that I wasn't a total hack. Found a different peer review site and the script hit their top ten. Then it garnered a consider from a professional studio script reader. That must mean something, right?

Wrong. No one really cares if you have a well-written script. They MIGHT start caring when you have five or six of them. A few agents and managers look at the script. They don't care. Yet.

April: I finish my second script. The story of those who fought back in the Warsaw Ghetto. Well really it was the story of the present day grandson of one who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto. By the time the fifth rewrite was done the grandson was no more. Actually, sixty percent of the script was no more. I truly hope there is no writers hell where we are sent for all the killing and destruction of characters we do, even figuratively.

July: Just finished the first draft of my third! Woot! Months of rewrite hell to look forward too. Now though I have learned a few things.

I need a body of work. Writing is important, but at least as important is marketing - of the writer and of the material. A screenplay writer that fails to realize who he is writing for is doomed to fail. Writers spout off that they write because they must. They write for themselves. It is cathartic and a deep-seated need.

Problem is screenplays are written to reach an audience. I have learned that once the story is written, it is no longer mine. Subsequent drafts belong to the audience and I now work for them. What I found good and bold, is to them tired and uninteresting. Characters I love, they want to see perish. Endings I admire must be changed to fit the audiences needs. So be it.

So now I have a plan. I'll write. I'll polish. I'll change to fit my audience until I have a half dozen screenplays under my belt. I'll show versatility. I'll show that I can produce. All this by the end of the year. Then I'll market. Let's see how it goes...