I got a totally unexpected email yesterday. The assistant of the agent I was really close to signing with sent a response to an email I sent at the beginning of the month.

It had been approximately a year since I last tried contacting her. She had vanished in the summer of 2008, when I was supposed to be working with her on fixing DREAMSHIP.

Weeks passed, which turned into months, which eventually became a year. Then two. During that time, I would drop the occasional email inquiring about her health and well-being. Responses were non-existent.

But lo and behold, an answer! Turns out she is currently out of the country and doing well. Interpret that how you will.

I made no mention of the industry, and hope that if/when she comes back, we can still work together. That would be nice.

Got an invite to a new writing group from my compatriot. They’re meeting later this week, and everybody is said to be experienced. Which is good. I wrote to the organizer and said it might be better for me to be an observer, rather than just jumping in, handing out my stuff and saying “What do you think?”

I also heard back from the fine folks at the Nicholl. They got approximately 6300 entries, and mine is 4967. While it would be nice to advance – scratch that. It would be great, even phenomenal to advance, but even if I don’t make it past this first round, I’m not going to be disheartened. I really like how the rewrite came together, and I can really focus on getting this dreaded outline done.

My compatriot had nice things to say about what I’ve got so far in the outline, which is always encouraging. As I said to her, if I can get past those scenes between the midpoint and Twist #2, then the rest shouldn’t be that hard. That’s 10-12 scenes, more or less. Right now, they’re seeming very formidable. But I’m sure I’ll get past them. Eventually.

I’ve also put it out of my mind about the logline-based contest, which is how the rewrite came to be in the first place. The deadline for another contest came and went this weekend. I thought about entering, but then I reminded myself – “You don’t have to enter ALL of them.” I guess I’d rather focus on the outline and getting this script in order before thinking about more contests.
But for now, I’ve got to get back in the habit of writing every day. Not doing so makes me feel like I’m missing out on getting closer to the goal of a finished script.

And a finished script is exactly what I want.

Unless you count ‘thinking about it’ as writing, then I have failed to accomplish the primary rule of writing:  I haven’t been able to write every day.

I like to think it’s not out of laziness; it’ s more of the opportunity to do so. There have been split shifts at work, sudden childcare issues, and so on.

It also doesn’t help that I’m working on that group of scenes between the midpoint and Twist #2.  Right now I have approximately 10 scenes in there,  but I really need at least 12.  I’m hoping to get some kind of feedback from the other member of my group, but that’s a wait-and-see kind of thing.

She also told me about a writing group that has actual writers in it! Or at least, people who have written scripts before.  We had to submit a short bio about ourselves; I guess in order for them to gauge how ‘serious’ our dedication to the craft is.  That will be interesting, to say the least.

Following my DREAMSHIP rewrite for the contest a few weeks ago, I decided I liked it enough to enter the Nicholl.  I sent it in with a few hours to spare.  I have no idea how I’ll do, but I’m trying hard to put it out of my mind and work on this damned outline.

I like the idea of entering other contests, but it adds up and sometimes the prizes leave a little to be desired.  I like the ones where you make connections within the industry.  But again, I’d rather be writing.

Yes, it’s been a few weeks, but I reached a milestone today.  After being stuck with the last few scenes before the midpoint, today I pushed myself to get through them. And did.  It feels great.

Of course, that still leaves the rest of Act Two and all of Act Three, but I don’t feel as concerned about those.  I’m sure there will be revision upon revision during the next few weeks, but it’s all part of the process.  And I enjoy that.

Regarding scripts that have already been written, I received a note from a management firm I sent a query letter on Dec 28th.  They were interested in the Chinese restaurant script.  Despite years-old comments about their reputation, I threw caution to the wind and sent it to them.  I’ll be amazed if anything happens with it.

Apparently I entered a free contest in late January or early February that called for the logline to your script.  I forgot about it within the next few days.  Then I got an email about two weeks ago saying I was 1 of 100 finalists, and now I had to send in the script.  I spent the next three days revising and rewriting it.  I am really proud of the end product.  As I told my eternally patient wife, I don’t care if I win, or place (although it would be nice); I’m just glad I underwent the process.  I really think it’s a stronger script now.

The deadline for this year’s Nicholl is midnight tomorrow.  I was thinking I might splurge and enter said revised script, but due to recent hard times of a financial nature, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

What I’m hoping is that over the next few weeks I’ll be able to make some good progress on the current outline.  I’m also hoping to keep revising to a mininum.  As with previous scripts, when I feel there’s nothing else I think I can improve, that’s when I’ll start on actual pages.

In terms of the writing group, it’s still just me and the other person. We’ve talked about how we can increase out numbers, but it looks like she may have found a group we could possibly join.  The funny part is we have to send in a paragraph describing ourselves.  While I can understand their criteria, it strikes me as a little odd.  But whatever works.

I really will try to keep this thing update on a more regular basis.  We’ll see how that works out.

I got an email from a contest I sort of remember entering sometime earlier this year. Apparently my logline got me past the first round, so now I have to send in the actual script.

While I am naturally quite thrilled about this, I read through the script to see if there were any changes that needed to be made. There were a few, but I couldn’t help but think the whole thing could use a good overhaul.

Not to say I don’t like it, but it felt as if it needed a little more oomph.

At least I have a few days to find and install said oomph.

Then it’s back to work on the comedy.