I know it’s been a while since I’ve published a post because I’ve been working on other projects, one of which is an e-book: The 7 Stages of Success: Finish the First Draft.  This project has been difficult for me, as you will see when you read the first few pages, because I’m struggling with my own ‘success’.  The other day, I told a Write For Hollywood reader that she must publish her books because they’re of no use to anyone locked away in her drawer collecting dust and she replied, “Done.”  That inspired me to get this book out to you.  How can I tell someone to put her work out there and not do the same myself?

Success is first an emotional battle.  You need to determine what success is to you.  That’s not always easy to do especially when we’re confronted by family, friends, and society’s expectations.  Success isn’t about the amount of money you get or how many awards you win, it’s about being fulfilled as a person.  There’s a reason you chose to write screenplays; what was it?  Most of you will likely say it’s to share your stories with others.  Deep down, all any of us wants to do in life is to help people.  We can’t all be doctors, but regardless of our profession, we can help people.

This is one way I can help you.  I may not feel like I’m a success yet because I ‘have yet to be produced’, but I forget that I have been produced.  I worked in advertising for several years, I worked at a television station where I produced advertising creative, I produced several websites, short films, a stage play, etc..  But I ignored all this because I haven’t had a television series picked up or a feature film produced or written for an existing series.  That is my gauge for success.  Or, rather, it was.  I need to change how I view success.  I’ve been working at this career now for several years at an age when most people give up.  Maybe that’s foolish, but that’s my decision.  When it came time once again to decide whether to give up or keep going, I decided to keep going because I knew I had more in me, I knew I hadn’t given it everything I had.  But the longer I keep going, the more I wonder whether I have any more to give.

Rather than give up, I’m changing focus, examining things from a different perspective and redefining what success means to me.  I’m writing this book series hoping it inspires you to keep going when things get tough because I needed someone to encourage me when I felt like giving up.  I still do.  So please, share your stories with me and maybe they’ll end up in the next book!

Here’s the book, buy it!  

Yolanda

Completing your first draft is possibly the hardest thing to do for many of us.  The whole process of understanding the language of screenwriting, developing the characters and story is in itself daunting, but actually sitting down and writing the thing is like climbing a mountain.  Sometimes we think we’ll never finish it and we wonder how anyone else ever did especially when we hit the second act and have run out of ideas.

So what I want to know from you is, what are your first draft stories?  How long did it take you to finish it?  What did you do to celebrate when you finished it?  How bad/good was it when you went back to look at it later?  We all remember our first time.  If you’re still writing your first draft, let us know how you’re progressing or what you’re doing to keep going.

The best submissions will be published in a book, so don’t be shy!  Check us out on Twitter @write4hollywood to see what others have contributed!

Feedback isn’t a to-do list of fix-its.  You need to interpret feedback and you’re allowed to disagree with some points if they don’t make sense.  Make sure they actually don’t apply and aren’t just a knee-jerk reaction to criticism.

The more experienced the reviewer, the easier it is for you to understand what they’re getting at, but when starting out, chances are we ask inexperienced readers to give us feedback.  When you interpret your feedback to get to the heart of the problem, you spend less time wasted on irrelevant points and start with the bigger issues.  As a result, the smaller problems go away.

Let’s break this down.  Here’s a list of possible comments on a screenplay:

• Intercut isn’t formatted right
• There are too many characters
• I don’t understand why John is introduced in act two because he never returns and his plot isn’t resolved.
• The relationship between your romantic leads isn’t believable; they don’t seem to know each other
• Your paragraphs are too long.
• Think you need a scene on page 30 between the diner scene and the street scene. doesn’t make sense
• Why is your heroine eating a burger when you set her up in act one as a vegan?

If you look at the notes above, you can group them into categories: formatting, structure, character.

1. Formatting is something you’ll have to fix but is nothing to stress over, so that’s paragraphs and intercutting done.
2. Too many characters, John’s character and a missing scene on page 30 all relate to structure.  Why do the two character comments relate to structure? Because they’re essentially the same comment: too many characters is a sign of filling the act II gap.  This means you need to deal with your leads and toss the extras.  The missing scene could be something you deal with directly, but more than likely you haven’t worked out your structure properly, which is why there’s a gap in logic.  Work through your structure and these problems will fall away.
3. Burger-eating vegan and the unbelievable relationship are character problems.  When you have inconsistencies in character behaviour, either you have made a simple mistake or you haven’t developed your characters.  If you have a romance in your story, you have to make your characters compatible and show that they like each other.  When someone says they don’t seem to know one another, that shows that the writer doesn’t know them.

By grouping these comments, you can get a clearer picture of what is actually off with your script and save yourself valuable time.  If you went back and fixed each item listed above, your structure will still be off, your characters will still be weak and you will not have fixed your script so you’ll end up getting similar comments again and again.  Try not to blame the reader especially if they’re inexperienced because they may not be able to accurately describe the problem.  But the fact that they pointed something out, makes it worth examining.

The more scripts you review yourself, the easier it will be for you to identify the major issues that need resolving and how these minor ones relate to them.  The minor problems are symptoms of a bigger issue; like a sneeze is to a cold.  Don’t cure the sneeze, cure the cold and your script will be healthy again!

By request.  This one’s for you, Shaun!

When you pitch a feature script, just as with your television projects, you need to have a one-sheet to leave with execs.  I briefly touched on it in an article from the Creative Screenwriting Expo (click for full article)     I have a more detailed description below, so scroll down to check it out!

Here’s the one-sheet info as provided by Danny Manus at the Expo:

One Sheet:

• Name, email, contact info.
  • Mucho importante.  They need to get in touch with you.
• Bio.
  • Keep it short
• Title, genre, logline, 1-2 paragraphs on your story
  • Yes! Make sure it’s tight!
• Loglines for other projects
  • I disagree.  I think it’s best to leave one project per page.  If you’re pitching one company and you have five projects, how are you to know which other projects suit them?  You don’t have time at a pitchfest to tailor your one-sheets to each company.  Keep it simple.
• Make it visual – paper stock, font, images, poster
  • I disagree.  Several other people have said this is gimmicky.  If your story stands out, you won’t need all this fancy stuff for them to remember you.
• No typos
  • Duh.

Final word – Don’t follow up with them unless they ask you to!  They will contact you in 3 weeks if they are interested.

Here’s my take on the feature film one-sheet:

There is no single way to write a one-sheet.  Its purpose is to sell your project, so whatever accomplishes that in the simplest, most impactful and memorable way is for you to decide.  Some people use visuals, I prefer simple text with a lot of white space.  If you use visuals, make sure they are professional.

Title – make it bold and big.

Like the TV one-sheet, I identify Title, Product (feature and running time), Audience, Genre, Writer, Contact, WGA# all at the top.  It makes it easy for execs to identify what it’s about without having to read your synopsis again.

LOGLINE

I normally put a tagline after the logline, but it’s not necessary.

The body of the pitch document is your synopsis.  Make it creative, captivating, punchy and make sure it sells your story!  You want to tease your reader into wanting to know more so they ask for your script.  Tell them as much as you need to for the story to make sense then hint at the ending.  When you pitch live and the exec asks you for the ending, TELL THEM!  Do not hold anything back expecting them to read it because they won’t.

Make sure your synopsis identifies what is truly unique about your story.  Also, if it’s based on a true story, make sure they know you have the rights to that story.  If there’s a special action scene or visual effects that’s never been seen before on screen you might want to include a description or hint at it.  I tend to steer clear of cliche phrases like “hilarity ensues” because it’s vague and means nothing.  Tell the story, don’t get side-tracked into subplots and unnecessary details.  If your script is a comedy, make them laugh, if it’s a horror, scare them.  Inject some emotion, blow them away.  It’s like writing for a book jacket.

The final paragraph I summarize the essence of the project, address the theme of the story and compare it to another similar hit film.  Never compare it to a flop.  Something like: ‘In the vein of ‘Toy Story”, “Garbage Men” is a lighthearted revenge story in a world where the only disposable item is friendship.

Like I said, there’s no one way to do this and it can be harder to write than your script.  Sit on it for a while, have people proofread it but also ask them to read your script to be sure what you have on the page matches what’s in the script.  Don’t send it out before it’s ready.

Good luck!  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I know what a nightmare this can be.

Hope you had a fabulous year writing!  I’ll see you in January!

-Yolanda