My, but things seem to be happening all around me, and at quite a rapid pace at that.
-It took a lot less time than expected to complete the latest rewrite of the western, so the waiting-for-notes game begins once again. This draft is two pages longer than the previous one, but with a lot more character development in play.
As always, I’m distracting myself from worrying about it by working on the low-budget comedy. Churning out 2-3 pages a day is a pretty good objective. Slow, steady and all that.
Meanwhile, the hard part continues to be making sure the jokes are funny, or at least come across that way.
-Over the past few weeks, it feels like there are more and more announcements from friends and acquaintances about positive developments in their careers. While I can’t say the same has happened for myself (yet), it definitely feels like something big is coming. Potentially soon. Call it a gut feeling. I plan on holding onto that sensation for as long as possible.
In the meantime, I keep writing (and rewriting).
–Tuesday’s interview with ScriptFest co-founder Signe Olynyk was, as expected, well-received. What I wasn’t expecting was that she would show her appreciation by setting up a special code for 20 percent off registration. The final cost minus one-fifth of itself. Very generous of her to offer up such an opportunity, wouldn’t you say?
Just enter the code MaximumZ20 at the checkout page, and watch the magic happen.
Even yours truly couldn’t resist and signed up. Yep. I’m going, and quite psyched about it, with the planning and strategy-building now underway. If you see me, feel free to say hi. I’ll be the tall guy in the glasses.
Any suggestions where a guy can grab some quality pie in Burbank?
-If you’re into film, TV, music and/or writing, and in the LA area, and are looking for an informative way to spend a Saturday afternoon, then I strongly suggest you check out the Three Cities Festival on May 23rd. Use the code TCFMAX to get 25 percent off the ticket price (which was pretty affordable to begin with, and this makes it that much more so). The number of available tickets is rapidly shrinking, so take advantage of this while you can.
-Hope you get lots of writing done this weekend, and Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there.
It’s been a very busy week for me, so my writing’s slacked off a bit and I want to try and catch up, so not much to say today.
Positive: Got to the end of Act One for the low-budget comedy. Splitting time between editing/rewriting and pressing forward. May give the first ten pages a test run at the writing group next week.
Negative: Reading a friend’s script that is, simply put, really, really hard to get through. Lots and lots of problems with it, and I’m only up to page 20. Torn between throwing in the towel or forcing myself to make it to the end.
Potentially positive: Got some great feedback on the western, so reorganizing stage is underway.
That’s it. Gotta go. Have a great weekend, and try to get some writing in.
It’s been a long time since I attempted to write a comedy, but the process has begun and I plan to see this through to the end. (the latest – hit the page 10/inciting incident plot point as of yesterday.)
Quite a challenge, to say the least.
For the time being, my objective is to produce two pages a day. Three if I’m on a roll. “That’s all?” you may ask. Yep, because a lot of that time is spent going back and fine-tuning the jokes.
I’ll crank out a scene, which usually includes a first pass at the jokes, then rewrite them multiple times until I think each one works. I’ve yet to hit the bullseye the first time out, nor do I expect to. It takes as long as it takes. I’m not in a rush.
If you don’t write comedy, you’d be surprised how tough it is to come up with a joke that isn’t a cliche, or has been heard before. Which is why it’s been such an unexpected positive result to discover that each day it gets a little easier. Not much, but just enough to make it seem slightly less daunting.
But add to that how comedy is subjective and everybody’s sense of humor varies, and we’re right back to extremely daunting.
What”s proven to be a huge help has been reading other comedy scripts and watching a lot of comedies to study how those jokes are done. I’ve really come to appreciate the Tina Fey/30 Rock-style, in that the joke, no matter how absurd it may be, fits in seamlessly and organically. Counter to this is the old-fashioned way (“Who cares what’s going on? Here’s a joke!” (rim-shot)), which feels forced and shoe-horned in, and is often not that funny. A cautionary example of what to avoid.
I suppose it’s even possible my daily output could potentially increase by an additional one to two pages, but I don’t want to strain myself.
-Thanks to everybody who contacted me after the developments of last week. It’s nice to know you’re not alone when things get dark, and a lot of those same people are more than willing to help you pull yourself out of it. A combination of working on the comedy, plus some encouraging feedback on the western (and its logline) have really helped put me in a better mood.
We all experience “one of those days”, but it’s totally another thing to have “one of those weeks”.
Exhibit A: Yours truly.
The week started off nicely. I had the good fortune to meet and chat with script consultant, interviewee and overall mensch Danny Manus. (For all you gentiles out there, “mensch” is Yiddish for “nice guy”.)
While awaiting notes on the western rewrite, I opted for an academic approach to writing the first draft of the low-budget comedy. I was going to read some good comedy scripts and see what lessons they could impart. The call went out asking for quality examples of this kind of writing, and some trusted colleagues came through. (Thanks, chums!)
That’s when the notes started to come in.
As my grandfather used to say – oy. To say they were heartbreaking is putting it mildly. I can honestly say they were given with the best of intentions and most definitely not mean-natured, but my faith and belief in my writing ability was given a thorough thrashing. And then some. (Although one note-giver, to their credit, did acknowledge that this is a “shitty, frustrating part of the process,” and advised me to not give up. I appreciated it, but it didn’t help much.)
The descent into a dark pit of despair had begun. I’ve been here before, and I do not like it. Any writer knows this comes with the territory.
My brain and subconscious were relentless in working in tandem to make me feel totally and utterly worthless as a writer. Any hopes or dreams I had about succeeding had been ground into a fine powder and cast to the winds, only to be blown right back into my face.
And then came the coup de grace: the response to a pitch I’d submitted to a production company last week. They’d passed with a brief 2-sentence rejection, including this gem: “Wanted more specificity with the throughline.” Keep in mind that my perception was a little out of whack at the time, so my overall reaction could be summed up with a very simple “What the fuck does that mean?”
Even reassurances from my wife and texts from a friend were little consolation. Thoughts of “failure” and “loser” were screaming inside my mind. Believe me when I say I did not sleep well that night.
But after I woke up and went through my getting-ready-to-leave-for-work routine, I kept telling myself that there had to be some kind of light at the end of the tunnel, emphasis on “had to be”. Giving up most certainly wasn’t an option. It had also been suggested to totally abandon the story as it was and start anew, which wasn’t ideal because I still have a lot of confidence in this story. Thinking straight was not going to happen any time soon.
Almost as an antidote came another set of notes, this time with lots of positive things to say, plus a few more comments of support and sympathy. These helped. That and desperately trying to refocus my attention on something, anything, that might help my creativeness and confidence get back on track. This is where the aforementioned comedy scripts factor in. They helped, too.
This is an extremely tough business to break into. There will be a lot more heartache and disappointment. Some days it’s easier to deal with, and sometimes it just slams you flat on your back. And since I can’t imagine doing anything else, I continue to learn how to roll with the punches and keep going.
As has been the case many times before, my condition has improved. My resiliency is stronger. My desire to succeed burns brighter than before. I won’t be giving up. All I have to worry about now is writing a script that’s funny. Easy peasy, right?
-Little did I know that while I was dealing with my own problems, a maelstrom of controversy was developing online. Apparently a successful writer who co-hosts a popular podcast about screenwriting made some disparaging remarks about script consultants, one in particular, based on an article the latter had written.
Seeing as how I’ve posted over 3 dozen interviews with consultants (with more on the way), I felt as if I could at least say something about this, especially since it involves this consultant.
I’d read the article in question a few weeks ago and found it extremely helpful. I’d already contacted the author last month about an interview, mentioning how much I’d enjoyed this article and a few of his other ones. He consented to the interview, and appreciated the kind words about his work.
All of the consultants I’ve interviewed have been gracious and grateful to have taken part, and each one is eager to help their clients improve. I’ve been asked which of them I’d recommend. Simple: all of them. Do your due diligence and find the one that seems to be the best fit for what you need.
The writer in question has been working for quite some time. He gets paid a lot of money to write movies that, to me, just suck. He’s also entitled to his opinion, but I’d hate to think that all the aspiring writers out there are looking to him for career advice.
-Half-marathon update. Did the Oakland 13.1 this past Sunday with a time of 1:58:16, thereby accomplishing my goal of under 2 hours. See? Perseverance does pay off.
By the time you finish reading this sentence, I’ll already have gotten back to work
Well, it’s done. I got to type in those glorious words “Fade Out”, thus bringing to a close the massive rewrite of the western.
The script now clocks in at a respectable 114 pages. No reason a few more can’t be trimmed with some diligent editing and polishing.
Normally this would be the part where I’d say how long this has taken, but to be honest, I really don’t know. I haven’t been keeping track. Two months, maybe? Something like that.
But the important thing is that I got it done. What a grand feeling of accomplishment. It’s quite nice.
All that work and effort has paid off, resulting in a pretty solid piece of material to show for it (if I do say so myself).
As much as I’d like to sit back, rest on my laurels and enjoy the moment a little longer, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Once this latest round of editing is done, the call goes out to friends and trusted colleagues for feedback, which will no doubt result in more editing and polishing. And then it’s on to shelling out some bucks for professional notes.
From there? I don’t know. Contests? Query letters? That stage is pretty far down the line, so not too worried about it just yet. Right now it’s all about making the script as bulletproof as it can be.
During this entire time, when the opportunities present themselves, work resumes on the low-budget comedy, the mystery-comedy and possibly the pulpy adventure. Feeling confident at least one, possibly two, could be done by the end of the year.
Maximum Z 