electric mist

on editing / screenwriting

[Correcting the title to actually say 'screeNwriting' instead of 'screEwriting' because I apparently need to marry a spellcheck. Thanks to saltation for commenting.]

I'm nearly finished with the small edits the pub'd friend suggested (couple of entries back). The majority of these were so simple, I did them in just a few hours, and I probably would have been finished if I hadn't been battling headaches most of the week last week. (That resounding silence here for a weel? Cluster headaches.)

The few changes that have been taking more thought / time are turning out to be a lot of fun, too. Which is why I typically love the editing / rewriting aspect of writing (and I often wonder why so many other writers really loathe that part of it.) Sure, the first draft is the passionate draft, but the subsequent drafts refine and bring the story to life. Possibly my background in oil painting helped me with this; in oil painting, it's all about layering. You start with the darkest undercoat, the base colors of the general shapes and you continue layering in colors until you've defined the image, with highlights typically going last. (And obviously, you can go back and forth during this process and add back in darks if you've highlighted too much.)

Another cool thing -- I scored getting a three chapter critique from another published writer / best-seller. She even offered to critique a synopsis, too, but I actually have to write the damned thing before that part can happen. I'm hoping to finish these small changes and get the chapters out to both writers for feedback, maybe by the weekend.

~*~

The weirdness continues with the script. A bunch of management companies in L.A. apparently got the names of all the Nicholl people and started requesting scripts last week. I've gotten way more than I'd ever gotten before, and I think it has something to do with the script's title (which is funny) and the genre (action / comedy). I've had one request already from the reads for a meeting, which I don't know if I'm going to take. Maybe if there are more requests for meetings, it would be worth the travel.

My attitude about that has certainly changed dramatically from the last time I had a script that interested people in L.A. I used to be willing to hop on a plane any time and go take meetings. Now, when it's actually easier for me to do so, I find myself weighing what the value of the meeting will be. Which, I am sure, is why most management companies don't really want to have a client who lives outside of L.A., because we're always weighing the cost of travel vs. rewards, and L.A. and the film biz isn't a business where there are necessarily quid pro quo rewards. I'd say that more than 80% of the business is who you know, which means, you've got to get meetings and more meetings and get to know the execs on their way up, and get your stuff read by as many of them as possible and continue meeting with them until you stand out in their minds from the crowd... so that the next time they have a potential assignment, your name comes up as someone they want to hear from -- get your "take" on how you'd do that idea. And after a whole bunch of pitches like that, you eventually land an assignment.

All of which could happen in a few weeks or a few years; there's really no way to know. The one thing you do need? To be there, so that when someone says, "Hey, can you go to lunch Tuesday?" you can say, "Sure." And when they call and have to change it to Thursday or coctails or possibly the following Saturday and then move that meeting to the next Monday? You're not worried about catching a flight out and getting back to your real world.

I've been there, done that with the meetings. I know my attitude is bad, with regards to the screenwriting thing right now. If one of the big management firms who requested the script were to read it and get all hot and bothered and think they could sell it, I'd be enthused, I suppose. But since I know how so much of this works, it's not likely to happen that way.

The other real change is that I am just so loving writing the novel. Even if the pub'd writer friend can't set me up with her agent like she thinks she can? I'm loving the process. I could no more not write than not breathe, and this novel is so much fun; it cracks me up daily.

Speaking of, I need to get back to work on it.

Posted by toni at October 20, 2004 10:49 AM