It is, officially, contest season for spec writers. This is the time where dozens of writing competitions want your scripts, short stories, poems, etc…
I have never entered a writing competition before. This is mostly due to the fact that I believe I’m still in the learning process. I have written 3 feature length screenplays, a short script, multiple short stories, and one story over 75,000 words. Going back and reading them, it tells me, first, how bad they are, and second, how much I have approved. What I’m doing know, I believe, is far better than my first few tries. This is all about practicing (actually writing) and learning by reading as much as I can about writing. I feel I am at the point of not only sharing my screenplays and stories, but to shell out some of my hard earned dough and enter a couple screenplay competitions, maybe a short story contest. The problem is that all of the credible contests cost anywhere from $35 to $100 to enter. With the hotel business not the type of career that you can make a fortune at, and with taxes due next week where I have to pay the most in taxes I have ever in my life, (Single people without kids get screwed. Or do they? [Ha, Ha] I’m not needy or high maintenance - I would be a perfect ‘dependent’), I’m not sure it is the best investment at this time.
Anyways, back to writing contests. Could I be scared? Am I afraid of the “… thanks for entering but you were not good enough and you should really try another career choice because your writing is crap and you should be ashamed of yourself for paying the money which would have been better spent on a “book for dummies” on any subject other than writing” rejection letter? But what if I get the “…. Congratulations. Your screenplay was amongst the top five of the hundreds of screenplays submitted. You are more talented than you thought, you have a bright future in this business and you should move to Los Angeles, hire an agent and, oh by the way, Martin Scorcese wants to buy your script and believes Leonardo DiCaprio would be the perfect choice for the lead role” letter.
Could I scrape a few pennies from the usual places, buy the single burger instead of the double with cheese, and drink domestic beer instead of foreign or micro brews? I sure can. I could even take more drastic actions like cutting back on the several movie and sport channels I have on my satellite TV, or I could…
Oh Crap! It is all about finding out that you are still amongst the thousands of other want to be writers fledging away at an improbable task of becoming a paid writer. Those bastards that don’t have to wear a tie, can sleep in or stay up late, and actually get paid for throwing words on pages, telling stories. It’s not about money. A hundred bucks or so won’t break my bank. I can research the dozens of writing contests and pick the best and most respected ones and enter a couple.
The question, from a proud but repentant procrastinator, is will I do it?
Saturday
Sunday
Jury Duty
A day after jury duty.
I had the privilege of serving as a juror yesterday. I spent my morning and early afternoon sitting amongst 50+ people in a large room surrounded by a couple microwaves, several types of seating, dozens of books (no one would ever think to read), and a judge tell me the history and importance of trial by jury.
Just hours before I was slumped over in a chair in the juror room, I was doing my best to meet that 8am required time to check in. Just as I was ready to leave my home, I was at the moment of truth - Should I take something with me? Then I did what I would regret for the rest of the afternoon; I looked at the small notepad in the kitchen just sitting there, staring at me right in the face. Next to the note pad was a pen. I, for whatever reason (I know now), chose to ignore that moment of truth and leave without a piece of paper to write on. For a writer, choosing not to have the ability to write (or type) words, is hard.
Have you ever been in a situation where any choice, no matter how small it may seem at the time, ends up effecting your whole day? Magnify that for writers.
That choice I made frustrated me to a point where I started to pace around the juror room. Characters were all around the room (what I mean by characters, is that I saw so many characterizations). Stories were there in that room. There was a ripe and foul (in a good way) odor of people that wanted a story written about them.
(Writers, no matter their level of success, spend every moment of their lives in public studying people and, not only how they act in certain situations, but how they dress and speak to others, especially their body movements.)
I fucking, and I repeat FUCKING, lost that moment to write. My day, amongst the dozens of people, was spent in exile. I was so disgusted in myself…. (and they didn’t even call my name)
Forward to a couple hours later. Relaxed, I pick up a book on screenwriting and then (after American Idol, of course) started to watch one of the DVR’d saved event of “Saving Grace”. Between reading a couple chapters of the book and watching a (Brilliant!) character driven TV drama series, I rejoiced in my choice this morning. I am so happy I didn’t pick up the small notepad as I left at home. The pacing in the jury room not being able to write that I endured this morning was worth it. I would have never realized the moment of picking up the book that night.
Characterization… format… structure… genre… character vs. story, structure in relationship with genre, scenes within story where scenes would mean more if paced somewhere else… should this scene be here or later in the screenplay… Is the relationship between the hour TV show and the screenplay the same? Why do characters become more important in certain scenes but not in others, even though the audience is more moved in scenes that doesn’t move plot? Did that scene need to take place in this setting? What if I moved it to another location…? Why do I continue to write questions and words when I should be sleeping?
I had the privilege of serving as a juror yesterday. I spent my morning and early afternoon sitting amongst 50+ people in a large room surrounded by a couple microwaves, several types of seating, dozens of books (no one would ever think to read), and a judge tell me the history and importance of trial by jury.
Just hours before I was slumped over in a chair in the juror room, I was doing my best to meet that 8am required time to check in. Just as I was ready to leave my home, I was at the moment of truth - Should I take something with me? Then I did what I would regret for the rest of the afternoon; I looked at the small notepad in the kitchen just sitting there, staring at me right in the face. Next to the note pad was a pen. I, for whatever reason (I know now), chose to ignore that moment of truth and leave without a piece of paper to write on. For a writer, choosing not to have the ability to write (or type) words, is hard.
Have you ever been in a situation where any choice, no matter how small it may seem at the time, ends up effecting your whole day? Magnify that for writers.
That choice I made frustrated me to a point where I started to pace around the juror room. Characters were all around the room (what I mean by characters, is that I saw so many characterizations). Stories were there in that room. There was a ripe and foul (in a good way) odor of people that wanted a story written about them.
(Writers, no matter their level of success, spend every moment of their lives in public studying people and, not only how they act in certain situations, but how they dress and speak to others, especially their body movements.)
I fucking, and I repeat FUCKING, lost that moment to write. My day, amongst the dozens of people, was spent in exile. I was so disgusted in myself…. (and they didn’t even call my name)
Forward to a couple hours later. Relaxed, I pick up a book on screenwriting and then (after American Idol, of course) started to watch one of the DVR’d saved event of “Saving Grace”. Between reading a couple chapters of the book and watching a (Brilliant!) character driven TV drama series, I rejoiced in my choice this morning. I am so happy I didn’t pick up the small notepad as I left at home. The pacing in the jury room not being able to write that I endured this morning was worth it. I would have never realized the moment of picking up the book that night.
Characterization… format… structure… genre… character vs. story, structure in relationship with genre, scenes within story where scenes would mean more if paced somewhere else… should this scene be here or later in the screenplay… Is the relationship between the hour TV show and the screenplay the same? Why do characters become more important in certain scenes but not in others, even though the audience is more moved in scenes that doesn’t move plot? Did that scene need to take place in this setting? What if I moved it to another location…? Why do I continue to write questions and words when I should be sleeping?
Saturday
Loneliness, alcoholism, depression and all that good stuff
Stanislavski, the well known acting coach, would ask her students, “Are you in love with the art in yourself or yourself in the art.”
When I decided to devote my time to become a writer, with specific intent on being a screenwriter, I never really thought about what would come of being a successful screenwriter. Sure, I daydream of what it would be like to sell my first script and having well know directors and actors translate my words and my story to the big screen, but I never thought about it in terms of that being my “ultimate” goal. I just started thinking about what stories I wanted to write and then I would sit down in front of the computer and do it. The problem for me is that everything I have written and am writing right now, goes against everything that would help me break into the business. See, the types of stories I write are minimalist in nature. I’m more into the internal reason why people act as they do. There have been fantastic movies written about people struggling internally like the loss of a loved one (“The Accidental Tourist”, “Ordinary People”, “The Doctor”, “Terms of Endearment”) and people struggling internally with alcoholism and self doubt (“Naked”, “Tender Mercies”, “The Hustler“, “Leaving Las Vegas”, “The Days of Wine and Roses”). These types of stories fascinate me - stories about people struggling internally. Unfortunately for me, these are not the types of movies that are made today. I guess if I really wanted to increase my chances, I would change what I write. I could do as much research as I could about movies genres that are hot right now or have had a long run of commercial success like Horror movies and Romantic Comedies. Maybe I could write Saw VIII, the fifteenth movie about Jason, or a new sequel to the Halloween franchise. Maybe I could watch the last twenty years of the same romantic comedies that are, basically, of the same format and structure and then write as many as I could until I mastered it. This for me is down right boring and it would probably end in me giving up writing altogether. The answer to this is that I will continue to write screenplays with characters that I would like to see on screen.
I bet you’re thinking…
Why do these types of stories fascinate you? Why does loneliness, alcoholism, and dealing with personal, internal struggles interest him so much?
To add to this…
Some of my favorite writers are people that have lead that type of life like Dostoevsky, Poe, Hemingway, Checkov, F. Scott Fitgerald, and many others that committed suicide, had bouts with alcoholism, or who had failed relationships that contributed to alcoholism and/or suicide.
It is not because I relate to those authors or stories. In fact I am quite the opposite. I love life, I love to smile and I love to be in the company of friends and family. Nothing is better than spending time with people you love, laughing and having fun. The difference, I guess, is that we all have our internal things we are working out. We deal with these things on a daily basis - they don‘t go away. Often dealing with stuff like this leads to loneliness, alcoholism, depression and the separation of the inside world to the outside world. People have hard times dealing with the bad things life gives us. I ask myself, why aren’t more movies made about people who deal with these things? I am trying my best to stop this by writing as much as possible.
When I decided to devote my time to become a writer, with specific intent on being a screenwriter, I never really thought about what would come of being a successful screenwriter. Sure, I daydream of what it would be like to sell my first script and having well know directors and actors translate my words and my story to the big screen, but I never thought about it in terms of that being my “ultimate” goal. I just started thinking about what stories I wanted to write and then I would sit down in front of the computer and do it. The problem for me is that everything I have written and am writing right now, goes against everything that would help me break into the business. See, the types of stories I write are minimalist in nature. I’m more into the internal reason why people act as they do. There have been fantastic movies written about people struggling internally like the loss of a loved one (“The Accidental Tourist”, “Ordinary People”, “The Doctor”, “Terms of Endearment”) and people struggling internally with alcoholism and self doubt (“Naked”, “Tender Mercies”, “The Hustler“, “Leaving Las Vegas”, “The Days of Wine and Roses”). These types of stories fascinate me - stories about people struggling internally. Unfortunately for me, these are not the types of movies that are made today. I guess if I really wanted to increase my chances, I would change what I write. I could do as much research as I could about movies genres that are hot right now or have had a long run of commercial success like Horror movies and Romantic Comedies. Maybe I could write Saw VIII, the fifteenth movie about Jason, or a new sequel to the Halloween franchise. Maybe I could watch the last twenty years of the same romantic comedies that are, basically, of the same format and structure and then write as many as I could until I mastered it. This for me is down right boring and it would probably end in me giving up writing altogether. The answer to this is that I will continue to write screenplays with characters that I would like to see on screen.
I bet you’re thinking…
Why do these types of stories fascinate you? Why does loneliness, alcoholism, and dealing with personal, internal struggles interest him so much?
To add to this…
Some of my favorite writers are people that have lead that type of life like Dostoevsky, Poe, Hemingway, Checkov, F. Scott Fitgerald, and many others that committed suicide, had bouts with alcoholism, or who had failed relationships that contributed to alcoholism and/or suicide.
It is not because I relate to those authors or stories. In fact I am quite the opposite. I love life, I love to smile and I love to be in the company of friends and family. Nothing is better than spending time with people you love, laughing and having fun. The difference, I guess, is that we all have our internal things we are working out. We deal with these things on a daily basis - they don‘t go away. Often dealing with stuff like this leads to loneliness, alcoholism, depression and the separation of the inside world to the outside world. People have hard times dealing with the bad things life gives us. I ask myself, why aren’t more movies made about people who deal with these things? I am trying my best to stop this by writing as much as possible.
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