frustration

From the archives: If only you could eat a bad script

Maximum Z baking, comedy, determination, disappointment, fantasy, frustration, PAGE, perseverance, persistence, screenplay, screenwriting, script, westerns, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Rather a tasty metaphor, no?

I’d originally planned to repost this because I liked what the topic was discussing. It became especially pertinent after reading the first line. The past repeated itself this week with my fantasy-comedy also not advancing to the quarterfinals in PAGE this year. It stung a bit – especially after an earlier draft accomplished it two years ago. But it is what it is, and I’ve gotten past it as I focus on more important stuff. In the meantime, enjoy this post from July 2016.

Before we get to the gist of today’s post, let’s address the elephant in the room: my western did not advance to the quarterfinals of the PAGE contest.

Honestly, I was a little surprised; I thought it would have done better. After a brief wallow in disappointment, I shrugged my shoulders and moved on. It’s just another one of those things over which I have no control. I still have a ton of confidence in this script and might submit again next year. Also waiting to see how it fares in Austin and the Nicholl.

True, it was a rather lousy way to start the weekend, but over the next couple of days, I managed to redirect my focus, which included a nice long run that involved traversing the Golden Gate Bridge, and attempting something I’ve always wanted to try:

Making a pineapple upside-down cake (from scratch, naturally).

Guests were coming over for dinner, and I’d made pies for them before. But this time,  I wanted to try something entirely new and preferably a little challenging. I’d say this falls into both categories.

I scoured the internet for an ideal recipe, found one to my satisfaction, and followed the directions to the letter. The result? It looked like it was supposed to, and that’s where the similarities end. A little too sweet and the center was still kind of goopy. Nevertheless, my guests still liked it, and K & I split the last piece after they left. Not bad for a first attempt.

Why did it not turn out the way I expected? A lot of reasons. The oven’s a piece of junk. It didn’t bake long enough. The ingredients and the amount of them probably need to be tweaked. No matter what, I know now that I can adjust all of these next time and get closer to the results I seek.

Except for the oven. It will forever remain a piece of junk until it dies. Which can’t happen soon enough. But I digress.

Notice all of the comparisons you could make between baking and writing a script? Trying something new and long-sought-after. Seeking advice and guidance. Following the guidelines. Doing what I was supposed to. An okay-but-was-hoping-for-better initial result. Planning ahead on what to fix/adjust for next time.

If a less-than-determined baker ended up with the cake I made, they’d probably denounce the whole process, give up entirely and probably buy pre-made stuff at the supermarket. But we’re made of sterner stuff. We hit a snag or some kind of unforeseen development, and we compensate as best we can. We learn what not to do next time. Sometimes you end up with something jaw-droppingly amazing, and sometimes you end up with something totally inedible.

With this whole experience behind me, I can now focus on projects of the immediate future, which includes another round of editing and revising a script, and making a pie or two for a dinner party this coming weekend.

It’s my intention to have the results of both of these undertakings be totally and utterly irresistible when they’re done and ready to serve.

Just stumbling my way through

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T-minus one week to shooting my short film SHECKY, which means constant checking and re-checking of the seemingly infinite list of “stuff that needs to get done”.

And just about every item on there involves me asking a ton of questions to those with much more experience and doing my best to not feel foolish while doing so.

Fortunately, everybody has been extremely understanding and patient while explaining, coupled with “You’re actually doing a really good job.”

Certainly doesn’t feel that way.

One of the things I severely dislike is not knowing how to do something I’ve set out to do. It’s very frustrating and can easily throw you off-kilter. But nobody’s good at something they’ve never tried before. (Hello, screenwriting!) Mistakes will be – and have been – made, and the best thing to do is learn from them.

Which is what I’m trying to do with this.

I’ve also been told on multiple occasions of how excited everybody is about the project and being part of it, and how great it’ll feel during the shoot and once it’s all over.

That’s what I’m hoping (post-production notwithstanding). In the meantime, back to the list.

Just not their thing?

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(Apologies for no post last week. Had some important family stuff going on.)

Although my current focus is all about the crowdfunding for my short film, I got a bit of news earlier this week that really made me stop and think.

I subscribe to International Screenwriters’ Association (ISA), and one of the benefits of that is free entry to some of their contests.

I took advantage of that and entered my fantasy-comedy into the Emerging Screenwriters Sci-Fi/Fantasy contest.

It made quarterfinals, which was nice, but did not make the semifinals, which was not as nice.

My first reactions were naturally “Man, this script must really suck,” and “This does not bode well for the other contests I sent it to.”

After the requisite wallowing in remorse and self-pity, I’d remembered something else about this contest. When the list of quarterfinalists was released, I recognized a couple of names and titles I’d seen before.

I checked which of those scripts had advanced and which had not. One in particular that had not was a script I knew had placed in one of last year’s major competitions.

That gave me some pause. A script like this, one of exceptional quality, had NOT advanced in this contest? That just didn’t seem right. How could that happen?

This once again reminded me that IT’S ALL SUBJECTIVE. Your script isn’t going to click with everybody. I don’t know what the criteria for the readers or the contest are. Maybe the script wasn’t “genre” enough for them? Who knows?

I’ve gotten a lot of great & positive feedback on my script, and it’s done moderately well in a few other contests. Not that I’m comparing mine to this other writer’s, but neither script advancing doesn’t mean they’re bad. Just “not what they’re looking for”, and there’s nothing to do about it.

While it would have been nice for the script to advance, it’s not the end of the world that it didn’t. And it was still free.

I’ve been slowly pulling back from contests overall, and this kind of result is a contributing factor.

And almost as a counterpoint to this experience, I recently got a very nice pass on the same script from a reputable management firm that invited writers to submit. I had a strong suspicion it wasn’t the type of material they usually worked with, but figured I’d take a chance. Even though they passed, they liked it, and had some very nice things to say.

Now it’s back to the short film crowdfunding (currently at 34% with just over 3 weeks to go, so hope you can chip in. Thanks!)

From the archives: FBD is a BFD

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This post from July 2024 is about when I was first starting on this new story idea. I’d put that one on hold to spend a lot of time polishing and rewriting another script, so work on this one has resumed. There has been some progress on figuring out the story, but a lot of what’s mentioned in here still rings true – especially the subject.

Enjoy.

Working on this new script idea is proving to be quite a challenge. It’s still in the very early development stages, so any and every idea is being written down for potential use. No doubt some will stay, some will be trashed, and some will be altered/revised/modified to varying degrees.

Adding to all of this is that a big part of the story is similar to parts of a very beloved and well-known film – so similar that it’s one of my comps – so I also need to come up with ideas so my story safely falls into the category of “Familiar, But Different” – FBD.

It’s my goal to have this story be reminiscent of that other one, but not so much that it feels like I’m totally ripping it off. I’ve read a lot of scripts that fall short of that, so doing what I can to avoid falling into that trap.

This film also has a lot of iconic scenes, so it’s even more important I put my own spin on the concept to really hammer home its FBD-ness. The absolute last thing I want is for somebody to read this and think “There’s nothing new here”.

A key part of this is breaking down the components of the original film – not just the story, plot and characters, but seeing what worked, how the various storylines and subplots were laid out AND how they were connected. I can then use all of that as a springboard to putting my story together, and then fine tune as necessary.

Challenging, but not impossible.

Great as it would be to have the final result ready now, finding a new way to tell this familiar story is part of what I enjoy about doing this. I like to call it “go for the hard turn”; Just when you think things are going to go a certain way, there’s a yank on the steering wheel and all of a sudden things are heading in a whole new direction that makes you want to keep going.

One thing I’m fairly certain will play a factor in putting this together is that I’m just enjoying working on it. I don’t think there’s anything like it out there, so there’s a certain thrill to exploring the unknown, so to speak. It’s a priority for me that when it’s totally done – no matter how long that takes – it makes a strong impression for both the story it’s telling and how it’s written.

Even though it’ll take a while for me to figure it out, I’m confident I can make it happen.

Muscle memory kicking in

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It’s been a while since I’ve worked on a new project, so there was the initial sensation of feeling overwhelmed and constant thoughts of “Is this going to work?”

I’d spent so much time rewriting and revising the previous script, so sitting down and having that blank page staring back brought back that all-too-familiar sensation. You know the one – you’re so used to working on a script that’s around 97 or 98 percent complete, and now you’re back to one that’s in single number territory, or at least low double digits.

Fortunately, I’ve been down this road before, and like with writing at any point in the process, the only way to get it done and move things forward is to put that ass in the chair and get to it.

Which is what I’ve been doing.

Plot points are in place – some a bit on the vague side or primarily functioning as a placeholder (“____ defeats _____”), so now it’s about filling in all those blanks that connect them.

Some have been created easily, others took multiple attempts, and some are still very vague. Notebook pages are filling up as I write down everything and anything that comes to mind, no matter how crazy or wild it might seem. Ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere, so why not hang on to all of it?

They don’t call it a work in progress for nothin’.

Very important – the first draft is going to be a big flaming mess, so don’t stress about it. Just get the damned thing written.

This has been the experience with previous scripts, so there’s no reason to have it happen again. It’s all about taking the time to figure things out. Also like usual, there’ll be a lot of stuff that will most likely end up not being used, but that’s how it goes.

It’s been a while since I last went through this part of the process. I’ve missed it, and am just as eager this time around to take it on.