Scripts I want to read

It occurred to me a few days ago that, while I read a ton of scripts, I may not be reading the scripts that will best teach me how to get noticed in Hollywood. Sure, reading classics and works of the greatest screenwriters out there today are great ways to improve at the craft of writing screenplays, but these scripts were written by some at the height of their careers. What about reading those scripts that got an unknown noticed? What was it about those early works that caught a reader's eye and sent the script up the chain to be purchased and developed?

I took the question to one of my best Twitter partners-in-crime, @tracinell, who started getting the feelers out there to our online screenwriting community. It's been an interesting few days. Two scripts came up immediately, Juno by Diablo Cody, and Little Miss Sunshine by Michael Arndt. Beyond those two, I then pulled up the analysis of spec sales in 2009 by Scott Myers from Go Into the Story. For 2009, Scott had listed 67 sold scripts. I looked up each of the screenwriters listed to see how many of those were first time sales for the writer. The time-consuming task between the list and IMDbPro was an eye-opener. Here are my rough observations:

• By my loose criteria, maybe 11 of these scripts were from first time, unconnected writers. 
• Many of the scripts purchased were written by teams. While one may be a newcomer, the other was generally well connected which eliminated them from my list. 
• That's about 17% of sales.
• Many of the sold scripts were topping that year's Black List.
• Once someone sold ONE script, several others followed quickly. This is important. Have an arsenal of material. When you're hot, you're hot.
• Finding those first scripts to read isn't an easy task. Even back from 2009 sales, many of those films are still in development or in production making those scripts scarce.

I'll get to later years' analyses, but for now I'm letting 2009 sink it. Not the greatest news for unconnected writers but it's also encouraging: It does happen. Now it's just a matter of working on the craft to up those odds.

TWS

Best Books about Screenwriting and TV Writing

Whether you are a beginning screenwriter or have been honing your skills during the past decade, you are most likely always ready to read the best books on screenwriting. Sometimes, it's for inspiration, other times for motivation to stick to the craft despite the years of tenacious efforts seeking the first break into the business.

I have compiled a bibliography of the best screenwriting books I know about and use, and have made the list available on my Web site, AcademicBib.com. There are books on screenwriting and books on TV writing, each with a link to Amazon so you can get some information about the piece, read reviews and see if it's a book that interests you.

AcademicBib.com is a work in progress, so navigating the site is still a bit rough. However, using the links directly to the books on screenwriting and TV writing should make the search easier. Missing a book you're looking for? Let me know! You can post here in a blog comment or email the information to TheWriteScript@Yahoo.com.

Happy reading and, better yet, happy writing!
TWS

Pilot: getting ready for take-off

Grad school really impedes my writing. Comprehensive exams are finally over. I now have less than a week to make a few changes to the TV pilot and get it submitted to Scriptapalooza before Friday. Looking forward to having that done and getting the script "out there."

With the first week of TV pilots down and a few more coming up this week, it is already apparent that Hollywood needs a new crop of writers with fresh ideas and a different perspective. Frankly, someone's got to be able to present something that is not a formula-driven cop or lawyer procedural. These rehashed story lines are already old...and these are the new shows. Why can't creatives be more creative? Why do some people believe that the only stories of interest take place among cops, reporters, lawyers and doctors? I know these people...they're not nearly as interesting or exciting as TV makes them out to be. But for some reason, we keep perpetuating these myths.

No worries. I will rescue Hollywood and give you something worth watching and characters you want to spend time with. No cops. No lawyers. No doctors. No journalists.

Promise.

#Scriptchat

I'm a relative newcomer to Twitter. Fortunately, one of the first things I discovered was #scriptchat. Every Sunday there is a EURO chat and a US chat. It has been entertaining and enlightening about scriptwriting, and breaking into the business of writing, for TV and film. For someone like me -- a Hollywood outsider -- it has been priceless.

Tonight's guest host was TV writer/producer Jane Espenson. It is incredible to have a forum where anyone can ask the guest any question and get such honest answers, not just the usual "write" and "you can do it" b.s. It's worth an hour each week or you can read the transcript that's posted on the Scriptchat site the same night. Tonight's chat was progressing so fast, I'll have to read the transcript to pick up all the info I missed.

Whenever I find myself thinking that I'm wasting time on Twitter, all I have to do is remind myself of scriptchat and how much I've learned.

Pilot #1 -- Done

Pilot #1: Done and registered. I have my very first WGA registration number. I feel so...so...registered. Probably the first time I've been happy to be just a number. Yet there's something highly symbolic about having that number. There are those who start to write, and those who finish. I'm a finisher. I got through the marathon called the second act and made it across the line to pick up my number. Lots of starters...fewer finishers. That makes me feel good.

Now onto Pilot #2, f.k.a. the Spike TV script. Going to give it a quick read then come up with a plan of attack to finish it up.

Grad school picks up again way too soon. Dreading the workload and trying to balance all the balls again. Back to insane time management if I expect to have screenwriting time. However, I can ALWAYS find time to do the things I enjoy.

Scripped and Spike TV -- Not for me: Redux

Daniel writes:

I had the same moral dilemma, but if you read even closer, every submission except for the winner retains their rights. I guess just get a good legal team. And if you do win, well at least you get 2k and the bragging rights if they don't let you go further with it.

The Write Script:

Ever hire a lawyer? Let's say you win and want to challenge the legal agreement you acknowledged by taking on Spike TV (owned by Viacom). The retainer alone will be more than $2k. If you manage to win and get, say, the WGA minimum for a 30-min. piece, you won't have much leftover. In fact, you may just lose your house in the gamble as well.

Bragging rights? What's to brag about? I'm a schmuck? I'm so desperate I'm willing to give my work away and allow others to treat me like dirt? Who wants to broadcast that?

I'm glad the deadline has passed and I don't have to think about them any longer. The only moral dilemma here is on the part of the contest sponsors. They now stand for everything that is wrong with the business. I'll broadcast legitimate contests coming up and you can be sure I'll also broadcast which ones I consider bad for writers. But your comment (and thanks for commenting) highlights the attitude that many struggling writers have: desperation. If we weren't all so desperate, so willing to sell ourselves at ANY PRICE (and pay for the opportunity!), these crappy contests would go away.

Remember Walt and "keep moving forward."

Cold Open Trials and Errors

My cold open on Pilot #1 is pissing me off.

I feel I should be able to fix the problem quickly. In fact, at this point in the process -- essentially a completed script -- it should practically write itself. But it's not. I'm fighting with it throughout the day mentally, hashing out options and playing "what if..." games with new ideas. I want the opening to be funny, but it's taking place during an unfunny event. Everything humorous comes across as inappropriate, or distracting from the story or confusing.

[Note to Tina Fey: How do you handle this problem?]

I want/need to finish this. Soon. It'll work itself out. I expect tonight I'll lie in bed before sleep takes over thinking through the newest idea. Most of my brilliant ideas happen that way...in unusual places at odd times. Right now, I'm ready. I am open to the spark that will make all the words fall into place. My brain is creative and magnificent. I know the last few pieces to the puzzle will be found soon enough.

Yet, I'm impatient. Soon enough hasn't been soon enough.

Great Expectations

I have high expectations of myself. I fully expect that I will always do well in my classes, that I will continue to write good papers, do quality research  and soon get out of grad school adding those little initials after my name. I expect the same with my scripts. I never go into the writing thinking that I'll write something adequate or acceptable. From the outset, my intention is to knock it out of the park.

Home runs always? No.

The difference between having high expectations and of expecting perfection, is that high expectations still get the work done. Sometimes, you even impress yourself and others. Sometimes, you fall short of impressive and maybe you barely get to "it's OK." If you expect perfection, I doubt that anything will ever get written. Even if it does get written, it will never get shared with others. It will never get to the outside. Perfection, of course, is impossible. It's incapacitating because it's an unachievable goal.

My great expectations are to get the work done. That's the work of a writer. I've got the October deadline for Scriptapalooza for the TV pilot scripts. I plan to get a little writing done this weekend if the Universe allows it. My scripts won't be perfect, but they will be far better than the guy who claims to be a writer but can't get past the fear that others will deem his work to be just "OK." I've written long enough to be over that. My fear is in NOT getting the stories written. My fear is that you won't have the opportunity to see my stories on your TV or at your theater. That would be tragic for you and disappointing for me.

I don't want you to have to suffer that tragedy. But more importantly, I don't want to disappoint myself.

Relaxation begets Stress

What a great break! There's nothing like doing nothing. But now that the break is over it's difficult not to look at the calendar and wonder where 2/3 of summer went.

Really? Only four weeks left?

In mid-August, it's back to the University for the madness that is the Fall semester. That time of welcoming a new class of first-ever college students tasting their first morsel of freedom. It's a time of drama dealing with their tragic miscalculations of time needed to get passing grades and teaching less about science and more about time management. Frankly, I have my own issue with time (and the lack thereof) yet for different reasons. How I would love the workload of an undergrad! I could get As and solve all the world's problems during my spare time.

Really!

I'm getting into the academic mindset now that I've seen the calendar. Over the next four weeks, I'll start spending increasingly more time on the comprehensive exam study and the thesis. Less time will be devoted to screenwriting. Ideally, I graduate in December. Then I can be a writer without conflict, without guilt. I'll get two or three of my pilots ready for the October scriptapalooza contest and that will be it for screenwriting until December. Pilot #1 needs some minor work, Pilot #2 is partially drafted and Pilot #3 is merely a funny idea in my head and hasn't hit paper yet. I really doubt it'll be ready to submit this go-round.

Really.

I tell my students that all of life is a balancing act, that your time will always have competing interests. It's all about choosing which balls are worth juggling and then not dropping the important ones. Right now, I'm juggling too much. The grad school time suck, however, is nearly done. I'm really close and it would be tragic to drop the ball now.

Really!

Reading Pilot Scripts -- 30 Rock & Community

I found two scripts online for pilots that have been produced: 30 Rock and Community. Interesting reading. The first thing that occurred to me about each was that the main characters' names were later changed. For Tiny Fey's 30 Rock, the female lead, Liz Lemon was originally written as Lisa Lemon. The Tracy Jordan character was originally Lawrence Jordan . In Dan Harmon's Community, the male lead, Jeff Winger, was named Jeff Crocker. Frankly, I think the name Liz Lemon is funnier than Lisa Lemon. Yet I also think "Crocker" better described Harmon's character than "Winger." But what do I know?

My intention of reading these scripts was to see that from the creator's pitch to the pilot production, things get changed. The essential ingredients remain, but names can change, scenes are rewritten and some elements are simply scrapped for different elements. I don't know to what extent the changes came later from Fey or Harmon, how much was dictated from suits or were battled out in development. It doesn't even matter.

Would I freak out if some suit insisted on changing my lead character's name? Yeah, I might die a little inside, but when faced with the possibility of having a pilot script turned into a pilot episode, followed by an order for 13 episodes...hell, I'd be all, "Sure, change whatever you want. What do I know? You da boss." Did Tiny Fey roll over so easily? Next time I have lunch with her or find myself beside her on an airplane, I'll ask.

Until then, the writing continues.

Pilot #1 ... Waiting for more notes

Tonight I finished the fourth draft of Pilot #1. It's been sent to my reader. I'd set it aside last week to think about it some more. It's weird to read it after a few days off. All the fresh jokes seem old now...I've heard them SO many times. Hard to read the piece as though it's the first time.

Does every writer feel this way?

Here's the deal...

It has been quite a month for ideas. Not sure why, but TV comedies are crowding my brain right now. I see what's on TV and the new shows getting produced each year. Not many of them are shows I want to watch. Now I'm writing what I want to see. Here's the list of projects I'm working on:

Project 49
This is my feature film. The project is outlined and several major scenes are written including the first act. About 20 pages written so far on the first draft.

Pilot #1
This is the 30-min., single-camera comedy I am nearly done rewriting. I'm cleaning up a few scenes, writing in a few extra parts for continuity and then it will be ready for WGA registration.

Pilot #2
Another comedy that I am now writing a quick first draft. Good, high concept. Spike TV: Bite me.

Pilot #3
Yet another comedy that will get started once #1 and #2 are both done/registered. I'll jot down some notes here and there in the meantime, but I don't need to have too many projects going all at once.

For each of the comedies, they are three distinct properties with nothing (other than the writer) in common. I want my portfolio to show range and depth. I want to leave a reader asking, "What will the next one bring?" Predictability would kill me.

Pilot #1 -- Penultimate Draft

I'm not sure exactly how to say this, but...

I love the snot out of this pilot.

Bring on the C-4

This crap is crazy. It almost writes itself. The concept is simple. The characters are distinct, have purpose and well-defined goals. The joy of writing, of creating, is that when I need to or want to, I can blow shit up.

Thank you, Spike TV. Saturday would have been dull without you.

Spike TV -- this one's for you

Spike TV is stupid, but brilliant in how they acknowledge this and how they intentionally target their demographic. They are unapologetic in how they describe their viewers:

"Our guys drink beer, chase women, play sports, gamble and attempt at every turn to successfully put off adulthood. The characters in our comedies must reflect these traits, too."

I respect that.

I found out about their screenwriting contest last night on Twitter. Woke up today with an idea that is dumb enough for Spike TV, so I'll write out the 30 pages and pay the $20. I'm not going to spend too much time on it. For me, this is an exercise to see how quickly can I go from idea to submission. It takes me back to my journalist days. Writing on the fly was my drug. We were always "on." We never attempted perfection, but we did marvel in how well we could write given the restrictions of the deadline. Back then, I learned how to write drafts that were so far beyond "draft" quality. A draft had to be good enough for print. There wasn't the luxury of time for revisions. You learned how to edit as you go, proof as you type, and write ledes while driving back to the office.

At the very least, I'm building a portfolio. When someone says, "that's good, but what else do you have?" I will have an answer. In writing.

Metaphysics of Screenwriting

I am a new student of metaphysics. That's not to say I buy into everything that some make it to be, but that I buy into a philosophy, a way of thinking. The introduction last year was merely an introduction to the word, for much of what is in the realm of metaphysics was already a part of my thinking, already evident in much of my "doing" or at least the foundation of my belief system.

I don't speak for everyone who believes in or practices metaphysics, but I do believe in this:

• Thoughts create.
• Positive and constructive thoughts create positive and constructive things.
• You can choose your thoughts.
• You can choose what you create.
• I create. Everyday.

Applied to screenwriting, or anything else for that matter, visualization is a powerful tool to create something out of nothing. By creating a visual that is so intensely real of whatever it is I am striving to achieve helps in creating that reality. It's different than just dreaming about something, it's more like seeing it and feeling it as if you had no doubt it were true right now and a part of your lived experience at this moment. You imagine how you would feel, how you would be dressed, the sensations you'd be feeling along with the scents and sounds you'd hear as well.

What I am aiming to do here, write my screenplay, is the perfect project for regular visualization. See it and live it. I am posting this as a reminder to myself -- as is this entire blog -- not to convince you to do the same. The mindset is that my thoughts become my reality. I'm living that future right now, it's vivid and it's exciting.

I'm completely onboard.

Boffo!

Last night I watched "Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters" and I am still thinking about it. There were several quotes about scripts that I'm going to have to write down. I was hoping to find them on IMDB, but no luck. It's going to be one of those DVDs I watch over and over.

What it is, what it's not

Just to get a few things out there in my never-ending quest to postpone working on my research. Here are a few things of what I want this blog to be and what it's not.

What I have in mind:

• This is not a "How to Write a Winning Screenplay" nor is it written by someone who even knows what that is. I think I know a good story, I enjoy good movies and I'm a writer. I know lots of details about lots of things and I think I can turn some of that useless knowledge into a good story.
• This is not a "How to Make a Million Dollars Selling Your Movie Idea." Frankly, I have no idea how to make a million dollars but I'm quite sure it shouldn't be all that difficult. That's a different post, but for now, just know that I don't know the secrets, I do have any insider information and I don't have it all figured out. I do expect to figure out a few things along the way, and I'll share that here.
• This is not going to be strictly about my work on my script. My life is too full and busy for that. I have the same complications everyone else has. Some days I'm just going to write about coffee or vent about school. That's just the way it is and this is going to be my place to vent. If you don't like that, go read something else.
• I'm not writing for you, I'm doing this for me. It's a selfish way to get things out of my head, vent a bit and then move on. It's my own way of keeping myself accountable. Back in my journalism days, I wrote an occasional column about life...I miss those days. This is my outlet. If I'm lucky, it'll help me keep up on the things I have on my plate: my kiddo, relationships, grad school AND my script.

That's a start.

Work day

Today I'm being a grad student. After coffee, that is. Two weeks left of the Spring semester, then I can split my time between screenwriting and academia.

Adding links as I go. I am going to read "A Clockwork Orange" next. Chose it because I have the movie saved on my DVR. Read it first, then watch the movie.

OK...get to work.

Reading Scripts

In my spare time, I'm reading scripts. Last week, it was "Meet Joe Black." Today I'm reading "Witness." The next one I read has to be one that I've not seen the movie. All this visualizing is getting in the way of reading, slowing me down.