I’ve been reading blogs and comments and have noticed a running theme…it seems a lot of us are struggling right now. Let’s do what we can to get ourselves out of this funk!
If you can’t stop thinking about it, don’t stop working for it.
Chin up! And good luck! 🙂
Last week I attended a networking event with a manager/producer guest speaker who said outright that screenwriters should focus on television. The television market is where it’s at, which is obvious with all the new original programming options at Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, among others. Movie attendance is down, so the studios are mainly looking for projects with a built in audience. Hence all the superhero movies, remakes, and those based on novels.
I wept a little inside. My screenplay, the one I’ve been struggling to rewrite, the one I wanted to use as my calling card, I could see was about to fall into the realm of obsolete. The advice given was to create two original pilots. Gracious. The one area I’ve been struggling in, and now I needed to create two different shows?! I barely had a viable concept for one. And what was worse, I had to write them. I couldn’t just have a fleshed out idea that I could pitch. There’s that pang in my chest again, even knowing what I do now, writing this out causes a twinge of anxiety, again. I left the event a little deflated but thankful for some honest advice from someone active in the film community. As writers, isolated, no matter how much we read or discover about the business, until we’re on the inside, we don’t know what’s really going on.
When I got home, I started looking through my half-baked ideas, and the gravity of the situation started to sink in. I have been working on my portfolio, trying to get all my ducks in a row, and I thought I only needed ONE tv pilot or web series idea, not a whole script. I started to bounce around some ideas, and thought I had come up with a couple of fairly solid ones, until my sister enlightened me. My fifth screenplay, Projection, influenced by the likes of La Femme Nikita, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Alias, could definitely work as a tv show. And the bonus, it would only need a little reworking as I had already written about 50 pgs. I know the characters, I know where I want the story to go (at least for a season or two), and who wouldn’t like to watch a female spy with special powers kick ass?!
One down.
So there you go, fellow screenwriters. A little advice from the field. I started following a few writers, a screenwriting career coach, and the editor of Script Magazine on Twitter, so I’ll hopefully have some more solid advice to share in the near future.
Happy Sunday!
Inspired by fellow blogger, Meg Writes Stuff, who writes short 100-word stories, I decided to try to something similar with the Writing Prompts. Last night at my writer’s group, I wrote the following three short stories. I did very little editing, my goal was to write as much as I could in two hours. Now, remember, I am a screenwriter. 🙂 I rarely write prose anymore, but I liked the idea of trying something different, and I’ve been so in my head lately I needed an escape…So here we go –
The Garden
The cool air was a welcome respite from the warmth of the ensuing party indoors. The scent on the air indicated the flowers were in full bloom. The muffled sighs and hushed whispers revealed she was not alone. Neither her soft-soled shoes nor the faint dragging of her gown made enough sound to give away her presence as she made her way along the crooked path. Her hands gently trailed the rounded edges of the bushes that lined the path, their prickly edges tickling her skin. There was a nervous energy about her. As she moved further inward, the darkness grew until she almost disappeared. A puff of white smoke. The smell of chicory*. She hastened her pace. Only a few steps more, and she would be in his arms.
The Castle Beyond
It felt like he had been locked in that dungeon for a century. When he was first interned he had tried his best to keep track of the days, looking for the wisp of light that tried its best to break through the smallest cracks, but as the days turned to weeks turned to months, torture, hunger, and fatigue had made it difficult to care. After so much time, death seemed the most promising prospect. Justice was not to be served here. Innocence was irrelevant. Rumors circled amongst the guards, and it was only then that hope returned. A crafty effort he had been planning for some time finally panned out and he found himself free. Desperation and sense of urgency propelled him forward until he took his first breath of fresh air. It had never tasted so sweet. His eyes, already used to the dark, made out shapes on the horizon. He knew the land well, and took shelter under a distant bridge. His prison had been just that, but at least it had been dry. He shivered throughout the night as a light rain turned menacing. By morning, half frozen and starved he got a glimpse of one of the most beautiful sights he had ever beheld…home.
The Archway
The Archway was considered a legend. The Elders had maintained that The Archway had been destroyed during the first Great War that had torn the land apart, but there were some, who quietly believed it still existed. After the clans disbanded and moved away, there were a great many things that had fallen into the domain of myth. Generations later, when my clan crossed through the Old Lands once again, the legend of The Archway was resurrected. The Archway’s true purpose had been lost over the years; some believed it was a gateway to the afterlife, while others believed it could transport the traveler anywhere they wished as soon as they crossed the threshold, or possibly into the Other Realm. Whatever its purpose, the idea that it was within reach was too great an enticement. After six days in the wild, a mist gathered about my feet and guided me towards a natural formation of steps in the hillside. With the sun rising before me, I had to hold my hand up to shield my eyes, and it was then I saw a glint of light bounce off an invisible structure. I approached with trepidation, but with each step The Archway appeared more distinctly and I became more certain. I had been chosen. I would discover the secrets of our ancestors. But just to be on the safe side, I drew my sword.
I’d love your feedback. It’s been a long time since I wrote like this.
Have a great and productive weekend!
*Note to self – I need a specific scent
This image inspires me, to take a vacation…if you, by chance, are inspired to write/create something, please share it!
Happy Writing!
Happy Wednesday!
Here’s a little update:
Last week I received my first link to a story inspired by one of my writing prompts. I was so excited! Please give the wonderfully vivid Things Best Left Forgotten by redgypsophila a read and offer feedback, and let’s start building! 🙂
Moving forward, I’ve started to have a few ideas of what I’d like to do in order to “build” this community. I’ve felt a little brain dead the last few days though, so it may be slow going. I blame all the new social media outlets I’ve been exploring.
I joined Twitter (my handle is @RachaelCMarek). Now that I’ve (slightly) got my bearings…I’d like to use this specifically as a resource, so if you have any tips on how to use it wisely, or can suggest people to follow that might be beneficial to writers, please, please, please share in the comments.
Then I signed up for Tumblr. I didn’t realize it was another blog, so that one will probably fade into obscurity, but I wasted a whole lot of time the other day…
I added a link to my YouTube page that I’m trying to build with the writer in mind. I’m trying to create “music to write to” playlists. This will be a work in progress, but if you’re like me and like to write to music, you may find a few new things.
And as if you needed one more thing, I saw a post about a blogging resource called Quora. This link is the article via The Write Life. Is anyone using this yet? Is it worth it?
Is all this other nonsense really required to be a writer…?? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, blah blah blah. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy some of these services (some much more than others); it’s a way for me to stay connected, keep in the know, learn new things, etc, but A) It’s too time consuming to maintain so many outlets. B) It’s too easy to waste inordinate amounts of time. And C) Why? This is not how it used to be, not even a couple of years ago. Yes, there are hints of bitterness laced with mind-numbing exhaustion. I take full responsibility for time wasted the last couple of weeks.
As for actual writing…I spoke to some of my new writer friends who helped me gain some perspective. I decided against the massive rewrite, as it would change the story completely, and am going to try to find the issue in Act I that is affecting Act III. I have been all over the place with this, and this might be one reason I’ve started to mentally check out. So wish me luck.
Wishing you all a productive rest of the week!
Do Something Today That Your Future Self Will Thank You For.
I’ve joined Twitter.
I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, in part because I have no idea what I’m doing. When I informed my Facebook friends, one of them immediately responded with #sellout. I replied, #haha.
So why do it then? I’ve read how useful a tool it can be, especially for writers. It’s a direct link to people in positions to offer advice, among other possibilities, and a way to build an audience. So it was time to jump on the bandwagon. My first tweet was, “Yes, I have succumbed.”
I’ve added the feed to my blog, and I give you fair warning it may be a little blank for a while until I get the hang of it. I’ll share any useful insight I learn about this along the way as well, as I’m sure to be on a huge learning curve for a while I can imagine. And I give you this promise – I will do my best to never use the following hashtags: blessed, selfie, nofilter, ROFL, YOLO, or any other annoying tag I’ve seen flung about.
I’m open to any advice, tips, or people of interest to follow if you’d like to share. Facebook, Twitter, and self-promoting, oh my!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Hi everyone!
If you’re up for the challenge, and are (or have been) inspired by the following (or any of the previous) image(s), please share whatever you create. Come back and post a link in the comments and let’s build a community where we share and inspire one another.
Happy Writing!
I always thought it would be good to have writer friends, but as writing is a (mostly) solitary pursuit, and as we tend to be introverts, finding other writers, especially those whose opinions I could trust, seemed like a fruitless and futile pursuit. This is not meant to be a slight, by any means, but a testament to my own shortcomings of maintaining relationships (even with those I already consider my friends). So trying to find new ones with specific traits, well, felt like it might be a challenge.
I have many acquaintances – those people you meet through work who become your Facebook friends even long after you’ve changed jobs, who you’ve never seen again, probably never will, and might not even recognize years later…you know the ones, we all have ’em.
But, building a circle, that’s a different type of beast to tame. When I was living in Arizona, I was fortunate enough to meet a unique person, a fellow geek, who included me and my sister in his circle. It was one of those inspired moments, when you realize you’ve met a kindred spirit. Unfortunately, we moved away. His wife and I maintain our friendship via Facebook through our mutual love of all things Whedon, Cumberbatch, and other geek related passions. So that’s good for me when I want to geek out, which is all the time, but they aren’t writers.
Making “real” friends gets a bit more difficult with age. For those of you too young to have learned this yet, you will. It’s a sad truth. By the time we’re a certain age, we have the friends we’re probably going to have the rest of our lives, and making new ones, regardless of similar tastes and interests is time consuming, and takes effort. By this stage in our lives, we don’t like to waste time and effort. So I was finding it difficult wanting to pursue new relationships regardless of its value.
When we moved to Los Angeles, where we really knew no one, I made a whole new group of acquaintances, none of whom were writers, which I sort of found surprising, as this is the land of “aspirings”, so I was at a loss. Where were they hiding? As I continued forward with my writing, and very often struggling, I realized I didn’t have many life lines. Only other writers can understand the daily struggles, the process, the moments of enlightenment, and offer one another insight or a life jacket. So I had to make writer friends.
As part of my New Year’s Resolutions, I joined a few writer’s groups via Meetup, and after some time, finally did make a couple of writer friends; one of which helped me yesterday brainstorm some ideas for the rewrite. Then, the biggest light bulb went on. As I’ve continued my blog, and begun to learn the value of such a world, I’ve realized that I have an entire community of writers at my fingertips. As we reach out, comment, and build relationships here, we are building our own circle.
So I would like to offer my blog as a part of the circle I’d like to create. Fellow writers, let’s help one another succeed. If you have questions, would like to offer advice, please feel free to do so here.
Wishing you all the best!
xx, Rach
A Writer's Discrepant Memoirs and Other Tales 