The Power Really works, again!

Okay, this is my third post about listening to the book The Secret: The Power. I've been waiting to get notes from a really powerful film producer for a couple months. We've been in touch, but he's been busy on productions. But I've been in gratitude and "love" for everything in my life this whole week. And so, guess when I heard from him? Today. Because I've been in gratitude -- all week! Okay, again, you might want to say no, that isn't why. But so far, I've had several freelance gigs come my way. And the producer I want to get notes from, is ready to talk to me about a new idea I have. All I'm saying, is it's looking like this whole gratitude thing is working for me! Sorry if I sound like a broken record. But I'm really hoping you already bought this book already! If not, what are you waiting for???

The Power works!

Okay two posts ago I mentioned that I was listening to the CD The Secret: The Power, but the author of the Secret. In it it says you must or should say all the things you love all day long in order to manifest success and money. So, today was my first day to do it. And guess what? I booked two freelance writing gigs! Both back-to-back calls! They both wanted me tomorrow, but one was willing to wait till Friday, the first day I was available. Okay, so, let's pretend it wasn't the book. Let's pretend. But I don't know. My first day and I book not even one gig, but two! All I'm saying is you must try it. There's no down side to being thankful for all the great things you see in your world. And perhaps, it just might manifest the success and money you are looking for. I wish you well!

Who's making a kids movie???

I have a nine-year-old son. So we see a lot of the animated movies that come out. For the most part, they're really good. The occasional stinkard comes out and we pass it up. But once in awhile a kid's movie comes out and it's directed/produced/written by the last person on earth that should be directing a kid's movie. Now I know, if you have power in Hollywood you can do anything you want. But I really do think someone needs to tell these people, "You can't direct this movie! You don't understand kids!" For instance, Speed Racer. Yes, I love the Wachowski team. I was mesmerized by the Matrix and left the theater in awe of them. But Speed Racer? I took my son when he was six years old. It was rated PG so I thought, how bad can it be??? There was nothing resembling the Speed Racer TV show I loved. It was all CGI effects with not much of a story line that was worth following. I'm sure in their mind it was exactly what they had hoped for. But the fact that it was aimed at kids too. Really??? The amount of cursing. The amount of violence. Please, make it a PG 13! My son was bored out of his mind and asked to leave 20 minutes into it. I was more than happy as no way did I want to subject my son to this. And if the story line was good, if the effects at all resembled my favorite childhood cartoon and not some futuristic race car world, then yes, I would have kept him and covered his eyes. Now this year is the holiday movie Rise of the Guardians, directed by Guillermo del Toro. He wrote Pan's Labyrinth which was one of my favorite dark movies of all time! Brilliant from start to finish. But Rise of the Guardians? Taken from the article written on deadline.com "$32.6M domestic box office for the five-day Thanksgiving holiday made it, in Janney Capital Markets’ Tony Wible’s words, “one of the most disappointing releases in the company’s history.”" Okay, my son could have predicted this. And in fact, did. When he saw the previews he said, "We are not going to see that. That does not look good." And when I saw the animation for it, I agreed. I could tell it was not geared toward any children I knew. So what gives? Yes Guillermo also worked on Kung Fu Panda 2 which my son and I loved. But maybe because it was already a strong franchise, he handled that well. But he also did Puss And Boots which again, my son had no desire to see! So what gives Hollywood? Why do you allow people like Guillermo and Wachowski to do children's movies when there are obviously so many other talented folks in Hollywood that will know how to appeal to kids? I'm not sure what the answer is. Other than to have Hollywood stand up to these successful powerhouses and say, "Nope! You don't get to work on this film!" Or if they can't do that, they just invite a room full of your target audience to see the storyboards and see if it even interests them! I guarantee you'll save the studio millions of dollars. If you're not sure who to find, I have a 9-year-old that so far has never been wrong. Luckily my latest holiday script I want to write he's given a thumbs up.

What do you love?

So I'm listening to the CD set of The Secret: The Power, which is the one of the books from the author The Secret, Rhonda Byrne. In it, she claims that if we are thankful and acknowledge what we love, then the things we want will easily come to us. If we have not be hugely grateful, then we will not see huge success and rewards come our way. When I read The Secret years ago, it really did open my eyes to a way of thinking that I do believe has brought many successes in screenwriting my way. So now I'm listening to this and feel, why not? So I plan to start asap and be thankful and remind myself how many things I love on a constant basis. She tells us it must be all day long, to be aware of all the good that is in our lives. For instance, I love that I wake up to a nice song on the clock radio. I love that my son cuddles me in the morning. I love that my husband helps our son get ready. I love that I see my gym friends in the morning. I love that my dog is happy to greet me when I come home. And on and on and on. It can't hurt and definitely makes us appreciate what we have. And it's possible that by being this grateful, being this in love with things we forget to acknowledge, we are bringing rewards our way. So why not try? As a writer, I am looking for more success to come my way. So I'm more than happy to try. What about you? I look forward to reporting the riches and success that comes its way. I hope you will too!

writing genres that don't go together

So years ago I wanted to write a superhero story. This was before the resurgence of the superhero movies, mind you. But mine wasn't like Spiderman or Superman. No. It was a comedy of a superhero. And since this was before the resurgence of superhero films, it was also before anyone had ever thought of combining comedies with superheroes. So when I asked a fellow writer, one who was actually writing for a TV show, what he thought. His opinion was, "You can't combine genres!" And it was fact, as he put it. That no one would EVER do that. Yeah, well, flash forward a couple years and there were tons of comedy super hero movies. Meanwhile, I'd seen a few that had stronger concepts than mine. So okay, maybe mine wasn't the right kind of comedy superhero film. But I will say what I learned from that, was to trust my judgement. Don't listen to other writers or producers say, "You can NEVER do such and such" and "Such and such type of movies are totally out!" Because believe me, someone will do it, and it will work. And someone will write a type of movie that might have been out, but do it so well, they can bring it back. Write what you love! Write what YOU want to write. But do it well. And if you do it well, you can never go wrong. Trust that if you feel the need to write it, it needs to be told. Of course, if you're trying to make a career in Hollywood, it does need to be commercial. So I'm not saying every single story will get made. But if you make it high-concept and you write it well, it will get the attention it deserves. And if you go against what Hollywood thinks you should do, you just may get even more attention for breaking the rules.

Do you need a partner?

So, if you're a writer, you either have a partner, or don't. You've either thought about getting one, or have decided to always write alone. But maybe you're like me and you've had them at one point and written solo at other points. Maybe you're not sure if having a writing partner is or will ever be your thing. But I thought I'd write a post and help you see the positives and negatives about both. For me, I always thought I'd write by myself. Then a writer friend in my writing group years ago asked if I wanted to pitch to Disney with him. I was like, uh, yeah!!! So that's how it started for me. We worked really well together and I decided I really liked it. But after that project, it felt sort of like dating, and I wasn't sure if we should get "serious". Which means, can I ask this partner to be my one and only partner on everything? After that, we pitched a few TV shows together, and did really well together with that too. But, just like in a marriage, in a writing partnership there are two people with two totally different styles, not just writing, but in everything you do. So when you have a writing partner, you have to find ways to get along so as not to tip the scale of success towards failure. I noticed that my personality was always towards writing and constantly getting our work out there. My partner on the other hand, didn't seem to have the same drive as me. I think he took it as I was pressuring him, and I took it as very frustrating. So we decided to split up. So if you have a partnership, things can go sour. We didn't let it ruin our friendship and still keep in touch. But I learned a lot from writing with someone. He was a very talented writer and I know that my writing improved because of our experiences together. My motivation got us in to places that he would have never tried. But he had the experience of working on shows, so he was able to use those connections to get us meetings and a sale. Once we split up, I was actually nervous if I could be as good on my own again. It was almost like going back to the dating world as a writer. I'd have to go it alone. I realized that I could do it and in fact was even stronger as a writer this time around. I didn't lose anything I learned with having a partner, and in fact only got better. Then recently, I had the opportunity to get a TV spec to a Creator of one of my favorite shows! Since I normally spend all my time writing feature movies, I knew that it could take some time writing a TV spec by myself: getting notes from writing group, waiting to rewrite, etc. So I decided to partner up with someone new this time. It was an old friend I knew from advertising who only writes TV specs. We had never written together before, but I liked his writing and he was excited for the opportunity. He'd never written with a partner before, so was a little nervous how it would go. But we both gave each other the room and respect to spread our writing wings. When you are writing with a partner, I find it very helpful to let your partner do things that you may not think will work. Most times, people who read what you've written will agree with you and also think it doesn't work. But because you allow your writing partner to try it, then it's not you always telling them no. There's nothing worse as a writer feeling like you can't express your style. So both of us had similar work ethics, which was part of the problem with my first writing partner. So that was nice to see this time. Plus, this partner is a really strong writer, but not great at getting TV scripts out to the right people, which is something I seem to be fairly good at. So I guess I'm noticing that a partnership is good if both can bring something to the table. Now we've gotten our TV spec to the Creator of the show we wanted. Now we'll see if anything comes of it. I still have my features that I write by myself, and maybe that's a good thing. So I can write with someone for TV, but then can write by myself when it's a feature. It's sort of like open dating! But in writing. Whatever you decide is the right thing for you, if you haven't considered it, I suggest trying it on a project. You don't have to make it a permanent thing unless you decide it's exactly what you've been looking for your whole life. And if not, then you can always go back to being single. In writing, of course.

How to handle the jealous writer

So if you're a writer, at some point you're going to come up against writers that don't want you to succeed. Occasionally I'll meet a writer like this who feels threatened by meeting any other writer, especially if it's a writer that they think might succeed before them. It really sucks meeting these writers, and truthfully, you don't always know that's what's happening when you do. What you might notice is you feel very insecure around them and start to doubt if you will ever succeed when you talk to them. If you notice these kinds of thoughts and feelings, then you know that's the kind of writer you're dealing with. Remember it says more about how they feel themselves as a writer, than how you should feel about your own writing. Once you remember this, then it's really easy not to let it upset you. If you're still not sure if you've come across this type of person, here's a few questions you can ask yourself. 1. Does this person make you feel insecure about yourself? 2. Does this person make you doubt yourself as a writer? 3. Does this person make you question while you ever became a writer in the first place? 4. Did you not feel this way until you started talking to this person? I think you can see where I'm going with this. So when you've come upon this type of person, ignore it! Remind yourself, this is all them. Not you. A confident writer in themselves will not make you feel less about yourself and your writing. Personally I believe that whenever I meet a writer it's my job to help them be successful. Because I think if they succeed, then my energy will help me do the same. I believe that we can't look at the world as "not enough" because then that's what will happen to us. I think that's something I learned from The Secret. And truthfully, I've noticed how it's helped me a lot in this world. The more people I help, the more they want me to succeed. I have seen doors open for me in ways others haven't and I believe it's because of that energy. In fact, I know it is. So when you're with another writer and you find yourself feeling insecure and doubting yourself, remind yourself it's them. And when you're with another writer, let them feel good about their writing and not insecure. I promise you, you'll see success come to you before everyone else. You just might thank me someday for this bit of advice.

It's a TV exec meeting!

I just realized I never wrote about the meeting I had over the summer. I guess they are becoming so normal I forget to share them! It's been my goal to share these experiences to help writers who have not been through them yet. So that when you are, you know what to expect. So if you've read any of my previous pitches, you'll notice that when I first started pitching "for real" I would get pretty nervous the first day and it would take me a few pitch meetings to really warm up and be myself. So over the summer, one of my friends who is a high-profile TV producer had asked me to come in and help him with ideas for a TV show of his, and that the network head would be there. Yikes! When I first posted this blog, I said I hadn't met with one of those before. But silly me, I had when I pitched to the ABC execs. But what I hadn't done is had a meeting with them. I've had a pitch meeting where you go in and say, hey, you don't know me, please buy my show. But this was a meeting where a person the exec respects and works with is saying, please meet this talented writer who you should respect too. NOW that was a new thing for me. I should probably back track and explain that my TV producer friend produces live event shows and award shows, things like the Emmys, but not the Emmys. So he tells me the Network exec is flying in from New York for the day and he wants help coming up with ideas. He tells me they want to revamp the show from previous years. He tells me a couple clips I can find online and that's pretty much it. He's so busy, he doesn't give me more direction than that. So, just as a heads up, if you're ever in that position, you do NOT wait for more direction! You dive in head first and figure out every single scenario they could probably want solved and how you'd solve it. You look at the show and figure out what you like, what you don't like, and what exactly you'd do if you were to make the show something YOU'D want to see. I repeat, you do NOT wait for them to tell you what to do! If you do, you've blown your opportunity to impress some really high up industry people. So, I spent a couple days getting my hands on as much info and clips of the show as I could. Then figured out what could possibly make the show even better. I knew that I only had one afternoon with this woman to impress her, so I didn't have my usual meeting or two to get comfortable. My TV producer friend trusted me enough to come up with great ideas, so I had to go with that and share exactly what I thought would help them. Luckily when I met the Network person, she was very nice and made me feel very comfortable. So once we started working and talking about the show, I told myself, "Here we go!" and started giving my opinion whenever asked or whenever I thought I could help. Both of them were very open to all my ideas and that only added to me feeling more and more comfortable. I will say, that when I have an idea for a show or script idea, I do have a knack for seeing the big picture and the ability to see what really can improve a story idea. Overall, the meeting went great. I'm glad I had that kind of experience. The more I work with high-profile execs, the more comfortable I get doing it. But it does show, as writers, we just need to trust ourselves and trust our opinions. I guess like anything, it takes practice. And the more we do it the better we get. Here's to seeing more and more of that in all our futures!

Get Smashed

I love the TV show "Smash". More than Glee. Not that there's anything wrong with Glee, but apparently I'm not a Gleek. But if there was a word to show you were in love with Smash, then I guess I'd be Smashed! The reason I love, love, love this show is because it shows the underside and behind the scenes of making a Broadway musical. Being someone who loves Broadway shows, I love being able to see the drama and the ugliness of getting a show to Broadway. I'd say my love for writing and acting started when I was in junior high school when I was in musical theater at CSUN. So I know what it's like to be around these kids who have dreams of being on Broadway. What Smash does so brilliantly is the characters seem so real, so true! There are flaws to the ones we love and heart in the ones we hate. The drama seems like it's all so real too. The ones who are married can't stay faithful but not just because they are bad people, but because they are real people. I can see myself in so many of these characters even if I haven't lived these lives. And watching the wannabe stars try to see their dreams come true? As a writer, I can dream with them. I want them to succeed because all of us who want to succeed in life, see ourselves in their heartache and their success. It's a brilliant show. And I hate to admit to my mom, but she was right! I do love it! And I can't wait for Season 2! To me, this show does everything right. It's one of those shows where you say, wow, I wish I had thought of that! To me the writing is just impeccable. If you're not already a fan, then become one soon! I promise you won't be sorry.

de Van Nuys

The reason I'm so giddy over this story about the guy who wrote a script and is directing it and Bill Murray is now starring in it, is because of what it means for us other writers. We all know that the road may be long. And we all may think who knows what can come of it. But we do know that we have to get our work out there and keep writing and keep sending scripts to who knows who. And then one day, just one day we may be lunching with Jack Nicholson or picking Bill Murray up from the airport with our script all earmarked with notes. It's what happens. And it could mean we're a 10-year overnight success too. I guess when I read it, I don't feel that far off from this happening to me. So maybe that's another reason why I'm so excited for this guy. I mean, I am working with a huge producer right now. And he's giving me notes. And the writers he works with are seeing their movies get made with huge stars, so I'm not that far from it being me. And then that means, if you're reading what I'm writing, then you're not that far off from it being you. These stories don't just happen to people in trade magazines, they happen to real people. And if you keep writing, and keep trying, you just may be next. So keep on keeping on! http://www.deadline.com/2012/11/weinstein-co-lands-bill-murrays-next-film-st-vincent-de-van-nuys/

Looking back

So I started this blog almost a year ago exactly. It was November last year, but on the 28th. I was home in bed sick with my son. Today I write, home in bed, sick with my son. Only today he's sick playing video games and I'm the one stuck in bed. So, hmmm...is there a theme here? Or just flu season? Any way, it's been a great year for my screenwriting, all in all. I just went to a movie screening last week for the big film producer I worked with all year. As of last year this time, I hadn't started working with him. But starting last December, our business relationship kicked off. It's not as fast as I'd like, but alas, we're working together. He's got about four films that he's producing as we speak, so that's keeping him pretty busy. Last week he invited me to a friends and family screening of his current movie that will be coming out next year. The year before, I would not have been invited to that. So that shows, it's definitely been a great year and moving things forward. I also just wrote a TV spec and am getting it to the creators of Up All Night. Turns out I have a friend who is best friends with the creator. Who knew?! I've also finished the script for the indie producer that is supposedly getting produced soon. This year soon? Early next year soon? Who knows. It's done at least. After five years of writing, rewriting, other writers coming on, coming back to me, I've finally finished the latest draft that has made it filming ready. So now the rest is up to the producer. I've also been in talks with a management company to rep me. They're reading my scripts and we'll see what happens from there. So to sum it up, that's not a bad year. I guess sometimes being forced to lay in bed and rest is a good thing for me. Especially this year, I feel like I am burning candles at six ends, not just two. So sometimes the only thing that will get me to slow down is when I am sick and forced to relax. I keep thinking one of these days I'll learn how to rest before that happens. It hasn't happened yet. I've got two weeks before my next writer's group. We're taking a holiday break. I am in dire need of some rewriting of my first draft of my latest comedy and I think the holiday might be a good time to do that. As we move towards the new year, ask yourself where you are in your writing. Have you reached the goals you set for yourself? And if not, then are you getting closer? What else can you do to reach those goals? Believe me, my goals haven't been met yet. But I am getting closer, and as they do, I see that I am inching closer to seeing my dreams realized. And it's nothing short of awesome!!!