Black List

An extraordinarily jam-packed couple of days

Maximum Z Black List, confidence, Dreamship, half-marathons, Nicholl Fellowship, rewrite, running, screenwriting, script, SF Giants, Spider-Man, Stan Lee, writing
The mind reels at what could possibly happen next
Who knows what could possibly happen next? (but it’s fun to guess)

It’s been quite an exciting time ’round these parts, my friends.

-Wednesday. As has been previously chronicled, my script was in the top 15 percent for the Nicholl. Not enough to be a quarterfinalist, but that’s okay. There are so many other avenues to explore, and I’m already mentally rewriting the script I’d enter next year.

-Friday. I won a pair of tickets to a Giants game, which includes a pre-game VIP party where Stan Lee will be in attendance. With any luck, I’ll be able to get my ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN VOL 1 signed, and maybe a picture with him.

-Sunday. Ran the Giant Race half-marathon. Perfect conditions – cold, foggy, windy and a mostly flat course. Steady pace, positive attitude. Finally achieved the until-now impossible and broke the 1:55 barrier – 1:53:07 (a pace of 8:38, which I’ve never done before either). Next race is another half-marathon in October. Highly doubtful I can duplicate this kind of time, but still looking forward to it.

-Sunday, part 2. While I was recovering from the race, DREAMSHIP got its second Black List review. 8/10 overall (yay!), including 9/10 for character and setting (double yay!). That was enough to place the script on some of the top lists, including uploaded for action/adventure, family and sci-fi/fantasy.

-Monday. Because of my scores on the Black List, DREAMSHIP will be included in this week’s ‘industry member highlight email,’ which goes out on Friday to around 1900 industry pros.

You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face if you tried.

It’s probably safe to say there may not be a week like this ever again, so I’m definitely enjoying the positive vibes while I can.

One good turn

Maximum Z Black List, generosity, screenwriting, script, Tracking Board, writing ,
No problem. I'm happy to help.
No problem. I’m happy to help.

An incredibly amazing thing happened to me in a remarkably short timeframe.

My script DREAMSHIP is on the Black List’s public site. You have to pay every month to keep it on there, and if you want a professional reader to review it, you have to pay for that too.

My family’s currently involved in the ongoing economic recovery, so we have to be careful about where we spend money.

I was content paying the monthly fee, but reluctant to spring for a review or two.

Then came the results of the Tracking Board Launchpad contest. The whole manager thing. I liked how everything was developing.

I wanted to know more about some of the other scripts in the contest, so I checked out loglines and the pitch for each (“X meets Y”, which will probably be the subject of a post next week). Some of them sounded very intriguing, so I wrote to the writers asking to read their scripts.

One declined, wanting to wait until they signed. No problem.

Another was flattered, sent it, and asked to read mine. Again, no problem.

But this writer also noticed my script was on the Black List with an 8/10 score from one rating. Why didn’t I get a second review, which would make it more visible and raise its profile?

Two reasons: I was reluctant to spend the money, and even though I did well in a high-profile contest, I was still nervous about getting a bad review. The fear of rejection never goes away.

But I said I’d probably eventually bite the bullet and do it. Maybe the overtime from working July 4th & 5th would help.

So while I was working on the 4th, I got a very interesting email from someone at the Black List (who apparently was also working on the 4th).

Apparently this writer who had encouraged me to spring for a second review took matters into their own hands and offered to pay for my second review.

Gasp.

And the Black List folks thought this was so nice, they decided to give me the second review for free.

Double gasp.

Somebody I only know through a handful of emails did something extremely nice and generous that has the potential to make a significant positive impact on my career.

What can you possibly say to this? I was sincerely and honestly touched by such an act of generosity, and sent my thanks to both.

Hopefully someday I can return the favor to this writer in one way or another, and if things work out, try to help out others in a similar fashion.

Despite what you may think, not every writer is out to steal your ideas, or play dirty and step all over you just to advance their own agenda.

There are still nice people willing to help you out, sometimes when you’re not even expecting it. I’m all about helping others when I can, and an act like this just makes me want to do it more.

I did it (part 1)

Maximum Z Black List, manager, pie, representation, rewrite, screenwriting, writing
Pretty self-explanatory, I hope
Pretty self-explanatory, I hope

You can no longer consider me a screenwriter without representation.

I signed with a manager this week: Sean Butler of The Mikael Group.

He found DREAMSHIP on The Black List and liked it enough to want to work with me on it.  The enthusiastic comments from his coverage person were also a nice little ego boost.

(Fortunately, his suggestions about changes to the script all are pretty minor and shouldn’t make a rewrite too difficult.  We’ll be discussing those next week.)

Simply put, it feels really good to have all that hard work finally pay off.

But this is a short-term celebration.  I’ve overcome the first hurdle of getting a career going (hence the “(part 1)”), and there’s still a lot more to go.

Next up – getting an agent.

I’d also like to offer an extremely hearty thanks to all of you who’ve been so generous with your time and feedback on this script. I really could not have gotten here without you, so enjoy a piece of pie of the flavor of your choice with my compliments.

Yet another go-round on this neverending rollercoaster

Maximum Z Black List, manager, query letter, screenwriting, script, self-confidence, westerns, writing , ,
Ups, downs, twists and turns. It's all part of the process...
Ups, downs, twists and turns. It’s all part of the process…

Yesterday was…eventful. Almost like condensing my establishing a career in screenwriting into a single day.

Good: somebody actually downloaded DREAMSHIP from the Black List!  Nice, especially since it entered double-digit basic views a couple of days ago. Hoping to get a professional review sometime in March.

Not-so-good: a manager who read the script passed, claiming “while I enjoyed the read and did think it was well-written, I just couldn’t get excited enough about it to warrant taking on a new client or project right now.”  I’m still not sure exactly how to interpret this, but it still boils down to “thanks, but no thanks.” Oh well. C’est la vie.

(Gotta admit it’s somewhat of a silver lining that just about all of the rejections from those who read the script mentioned how much they liked it.  Just not enough to take it to the next step.)

So what now?

Easy. Spend a few moments feeling sorry for myself, put it behind me and soldier on to the category labeled “Promising,” in the form of  the overwhelming need to start on pages for the western.

The only way I could feel better was to write.  Doesn’t matter if the outline’s not 100 percent. I HAD to do this; not only as a form of catharsis but to feel like I was actually moving ahead and remind myself of the potential awesomeness of this story.

So I did. It was only half a page. Nothing fantastic, but at least it was something.

(just wondering – are you still supposed to write ‘FADE IN’? I’ve heard both yes and no.)

It’s been quite a while since I started a new script. Any writer will reinforce the concept of nothing as intimidating or challenging as a blank white screen, with that little blinking cursor just sitting there, ready to spring into action.

The key is to keep the cursor moving.  Which is exactly my plan.

The awesomeness comes later.

A mini-saga in editing

Maximum Z Black List, editing, screenwriting
A little bubbly for a little milestone

In only a little less than four hours, I managed to complete a pretty strong rewrite of the first half of DREAMSHIP.  Even better, I was able to cut enough to take it from 62 pages to 55, which is much more acceptable.

Being able to really trim the fat not only helps the script flow better, but also improves your writing.  The more you can say with fewer words, the better.

It was surprisingly easier than expected to manipulate the scenes to get the most out of them.  Maybe it was drastically cutting whatever wasn’t needed, or finding a way to cut a scene by half, or combining two scenes into one.  No matter what was needed, I did it.  This included cutting a line I absolutely loved, but it had to go.  Besides, I can always use it later.

I especially liked getting rid of a drawn-out sequence that was too similar to something earlier in the story and reworking it so it was shorter, different and made my protagonist be more active and help drive the action.  Good things all.

But that’s enough high self-praise. Time to move on to the second half.  If I can be as strategic in the initial writing phase as I  am in the later editing, AND I can do a healthy output of pages per day/week, then this thing will be ready to go sooner than anticipated.

No complaints.

-I haven’t been able to read many scripts lately, especially those from the Black List.  For the most part, I’ve been underwhelmed by a lot of this year’s selections, and ScriptShadow has been covering a lot of them.  I’ll go over the list again and see if anything catches my eye.  Any suggestions?