Well, the emails have been sent out to all 6,304 of us Nicholl hopefuls regarding possible advancing to the next round.

Despite my positive thoughts and efforts, I was not among the fortunate.  I didn’t even get a p.s. saying how I was THIS CLOSE to making the cut.

It’s somewhat depressing, but I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and comments from people in my situation.  The responses have ranged from ‘They never like (genre) anyway,’ to ‘That’s it.  I’m done.  I will never enter this contest again.’

I’m probably more reluctant to try again next year.  But somebody posted an interview with a previous winner who said she had entered her winning script the previous two years, only to lose out in the first round.  But when she entered the third time, she was able to make it to the winner’s circle.  I’m more intrigued what changes, if any, she made to her script.  I bet I could do even more to improve Dreamship, but that’s something to think about later on.

In the meantime, I’ve already broken several self-imposed vows regarding Baby Likes Jazz.  I haven’t been able to write every day, which is my own fault.  While I should be about halfway done, I’m only up to page 20.  I went back and edited/rewrote those pages, which I told myself I wouldn’t do.  But I also like them more than I did before, so that might not be a bad thing.

While I’m trying to get this first draft done, I’ve also been very concerned about whether or not it’s funny.  It’s hard to self-analyze on that front.  I’m not the kind of writer who does Hangover-type stuff, but I wish there was a way to improve.  Maybe writing every day will help.

Part of me also wonders how serious I am about getting this done.  It’s a cute concept, but doesn’t exactly scream “Commercial!”  I think I decided to take it on because I wanted to see if I could do it.  Maybe in the end it would work better as a writing sample.  Unless I can make it better.  We’ll see.

I’ve also started thinking about two other ideas I began developing before I dove into Baby.  One a mystery-comedy, the other another fantasy-adventure.  There are still lots of details needed to flesh out both, but I’m already looking forward to taking them on.

-I’ve mentioned to the wife about upcoming pitch festivals in August and September.  I like the idea of going, but wonder if it’s really worth it.  Then again, it’s not like anybody’s breaking down my door lately.  I’d probably pick one and take it from there.  We’ll see.

I finally decided to bit the bullet, stop tinkering with the outline and start writing actual pages on Baby Likes Jazz.

It’s fun.

I’d forgotten the rush/thrill/satisfaction of doing  it.  Granted, I’m only up to page 8, but that’s after 3 non-consecutive days.  As much as I’d like to have at it every day, that just ain’t gonna happen, so I’ll take what I can get.

I’m also trying a new approach during this first draft – to resist going back and rewriting what I’ve already done.  Granted, I’ve already violated that self-imposed rule, but I’ll try to do better.

I figure if I keep at it on a semi-regular basis, I could possibly have a completed draft by the end of July.  And that would be great.

I’m finding that my writing ability is being put to the test during this time because some of my scenes in the outline have more in them than I can use in the script, so there’s always that ongoing  self-editing.  This is forcing me to slightly alter what I want to put in so that it still supports the story.  Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it ain’t.

Even though this is supposed to be a comedy, that aspect is once again proving to be the hardest to accomplish.  I’d rather write something that made the reader/audience laugh out loud, rather than a slight chuckle or even worse, not respond at all.

Writing comedy has to be more than having characters say something sarcastic.  I have to work on that.

On a positive note, I gave the first 3 pages to my fellow former writing group member to get her feedback.  She liked them.  Not too bad, but the challenge will be seeing what the folks in the new writing group think.  They’re meeting tonight, but K is out of town through Sunday, so I won’t really know until I attend next time, and I don’t know when that will be.

-I’m connected with the Nicholl people via Facebook, and they’ve been posting rave comments about unidentified scripts.  The scary part is some of the comments could refer to my entry, which is nice to think.

But the realist in me is thinking “It’s not me.”  I think they’re not announcing the first round of finalist until the end of July, so I’m trying to keep myself distracted by working on Baby Likes Jazz and doing my best to not think about the Nicholl.  That’s not easy either.

But for now, I write and I dream.  Then I write some more…

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.