When it finally all clicks

I was reading an article by a writer who's finally getting noticed by Hollywood. And she said how all of a sudden she knew her scripts were ready when it just all clicked. I know that feeling and maybe you do too. But if you don't, that's okay too. It just means you're still at the learning point of your writing career. It's not something you can force. It's not something you can rush. Developing the tools to become a writer that will get you hired and sell your scripts is like a fine wine, it takes time. It takes studying the craft, learning as much as you can, and getting comfortable with breaking the rules you've learned.

I always wondered if I'd know when I finally "got it". Believe me, I felt many times before that I was there. But most recently I've rewritten two scripts, one for a producer and one with a writing partner. And both scripts, I just could tell I'd be able to figure out how to fix these rewrites. I could see it clearly. I'm not saying it came easy. Oh no. Especially the one for the producer. Since that was a page 1 rewrite, I was basically starting from scratch. But once I knew the new story, then I knew what had to be done. And I could tell what beats to hit and what would make the story flow in the best way it could.

And the rewrite with the writing partner, I could see it as clear as day what had to happen to make it a strong enough script to be ready to go out. I could just tell that something had changed in my writing. Maybe it's like hiting puberty. You don't really know you're in it while you are. But when you get to the other side of it, and you've got boobs or a hairy chest (hopefully not both!) then you realize, wow, I've blossomed!

So keep at it if you're not there. There's no waste of studying your craft, no waste of reading scripts, analyzing movies. It all helps you get to where hopefully you will be having meetings and selling scripts and seeing your ideas on the big or little screen. We can all hope it's sooner than later!

Who reads the rewrite?

So I mentioned at some point that I was doing a  huge page 1 rewrite for a big production company. It's very exciting and with their ability to get it to anyone, this could be a great opportunity to see something produced with big names staring in it. So when I finished the rewrite, I was very happy with it. But then I realized, wait, no one else has seen it! So how do I know the producers will agree? I emailed my agent friend at ICM and said, what do I do? If I send it to writers for notes, they'll give me notes that could be completely opposite of what the producers want! That would be so counterproductive. He agreed with me and said only send it to someone that's checking to see if you missed anything and to give you an idea of the read. No notes! So that's what I did. I have two writer friends that I know can read it constructively but also are not looking to rip apart every thing I created. So if you have someone like that too, cherish them!

So I got my script to these two friends. They gave me raving thumbs ups, and then off to the producers it went. Now for the hard part, waiting! And here I thought the writing it would be the hard part! Guess it's good that I'm finishing up a rewrite with a writing partner to keep me busy!