Who cares how many other people are writing screenplays?

I joined a new TV writing group recently. Great group of women. Yes, it's also an all-women writing group, which I'm digging. Nothing against men. But it's fun surrounding yourself by other talented female writers. So a couple are kind of new to the TV world. You could say younger than me. No, I won't tell you by how much! More than one year and less than 100. But what I can tell you, is these gals tend to go to a lot of writing events. Something I've stopped going to because I feel it just takes away from actual writing. But they're single, no kids, unlike me, so have much more time on their hands. But part of the other problem with going to these kinds of events is you see how many other people are out there trying to do what you're trying to do; Attempting to make a career out of something you want to do. Something you've been told could be hard to actually become a paid one of.

So one of the gals said she got really intimidated by seeing how many other writers were there. The others didn't speak up but had that "Oh yes, I was panicking" look on their faces. Luckily, I've been down this path before her and reminded her/them, "Don't worry, most of these people won't finish a first script. And out of those, most won't do a rewrite. And guess how many won't write script #2. Won't keep at it after a year. Won't keep at it after two!" The thing is, most people that are trying to be real, paid writers, are few and far between. Okay yes, many are very talented and hard-working writers and for some reason their careers don't take off. But many of them, most of them, just don't have what it takes to really become a paid writer. So you can either let the amount of people that are also trying to get their writing career launched intimidate you, or you can remember that most of them are just pretending to be writers. That's how I see it. Because if you really love writing, really want a career in this, nothing like too many other writers, should get in your way. Because I also preach "our thoughts create reality". And if you believe it, it will happen. And that's something most other writers don't have either.

RIP writer that could have been

So as writers go, we tend to have writing groups. And these days, some of those groups are online. Which means we end up being online friends with people we never meet in person. Luckily I've "met" some really great writers that way. And one of these, Sandy Corkins-Schmidt, just passed away this week. I never got to meet her. I barely knew her. But I do remember her smiling face, seeing kind words posted from her. I know she placed in several screenwriting contests this year. And of course when everyone online heard of her passing, there were only kind things to be said about her. But what does this have to do with you? Well, she was young. I would assume in her 40's. Which to me, is too young to pass away. So the reason I'm writing about her, to you, is that I hope this reminds all writers, that you need to stop waiting to get those screenplays and TV scripts written. Because we just don't know when it's our time. Life is short people. And if you aren't doing what you love,  you aren't following your passion to be a writer, then why aren't you? For me, my dad passed away when I was 23 and he was only 51. It was the most tragic thing that had happened to me. But it taught me never ever to take life for granite and to live every moment to its fullest. It's given me the passion to always keep writing and never waste my time doing anything unimportant when I could be writing instead.

So please writers, stop procrastinating. Stop watching too much TV when you could be writing your own TV scripts. Stop hanging out with friends ALL the time, when you could hole up and finish your outline or your rewrite. You're a writer. You're meant to write. You have the passion to be a successful writer. And if you waste too much time, you'll never see your dream realized. To me, writers were put on this earth to tell their stories. So tell your story. Before it's too late.

characters and orange juice

So I was watching one of my favorite speakers, Wayne Dyer, on a youtube video and he was speaking about how if you squeeze oranges, orange juice always comes out. That it's made of orange juice and so each time, that's what you'll get, that's its true substance. Makes sense. Then he goes on to say that when people are stressed, they like to blame how they behave or act on other situations or people, but that their true nature is what comes out in those situations. So if they act like a jerk, or angry, or mean, or sweet and happy, that's what they are, that's their true nature. They can blame it on anything they want, but truly, that's their true nature. So it got me thinking that that works for our characters as we're writing them. I've always heard that a true character's nature comes out when put in stressful situations. And it's our job as a writer to create the world to put them in conflict, put them to the test. And what our story will show is our character's true nature. It's nice to think of it that way, knowing it's our job to squeeze that orange juice out. If we're not, we're not telling the story. We're not putting them in enough conflict or stress if we're not doing that. When we're writing our story, we can think of the first 10-20 pages of our story, that we're starting out with a nice, round plump orange that we just picked. That's our character before anything has happened. And then comes the inciting incident. That's when we slowly see that orange juice, or character's true nature, come out. Drip by drip, story beat, by story beat, as the conflict rises, the pressure is put upon them, until we end up with a nice tall glass of a fresh juicy story. A full glass of orange juice. Or, a nice fully fleshed out character and story. Drink up and enjoy!

Don't judge

So I usually write about screenwriting, but today I felt the need to write about what it's like to be judged as a woman in today's world. The reason I felt like doing this is because of the fallout from Renee Zellweger's new face. Before her new critics, she was in the trades and news for not looking good. People tweeted and commented on how horrible she was looking. Really? People? Why is it that from the safety of every one's homes they feel so nasty and mean about ripping apart a person. She's a person, remember? So then recently she does who knows what to her face. Facelift? Botox? Facials? I don't know and I don't care. So now she's ripped apart for no longer looking like she used to. Luckily it seems like she's not caring and letting it roll off her back. And I hope she really feels that way. Because I can only imagine what it's like to be judged by every Tom, Dick and Mary in the social media world. It's hard enough as a woman in today's day and age to get older, but when you're an actress in Hollywood the standards are even that much tougher. So what's an actress to do? I guess learn to develop a thick skin. Easier said than done I'm sure. Because most actors are insecure as it is. If you're an actor reading this and you don't think you are, I bet, you are. And if you can't get a thick skin, stop reading social media and tabloids. It's sort of like a tree in a forest, if you don't read it, it didn't happen. And for the rest of us writers and other non-actors, stop caring what actresses do or don't do. If you have that much time to criticize what an actor does or doesn't do, you've got too much time on your hands. Which is why, I'm going back to my new outline. Ciao!

As High As The Sky

No, not me. It's the title of a little film that needs to get attention. I happen to know the writer, director, Nikki Braendlin, but hadn't been in touch in years. I saw on her Facebook that she started to film said movie and was excited for her and wondered what kind of movie it would be. Well as luck would have it, she posted this week that it was free on Hulu, with commercials. So I thought, sure, why not! I thought I'd watch it in two days because what writer has time to watch a movie in one sitting. Not me at least because I'm always writing something.

Well, I loved it so darn much I sat and watched the whole thing all the way through. I didn't just love it a little, or love it because I knew her. I looooved it! It was really well written, the characters were done so wonderfully, the story was heart-warming and sweet. From start to finish, Nikki just hit it out of the park. I have since gotten back in touch with her and we're going to catch up, because I was so darn impressed. But now it's your turn. You must watch this great little film. The message was great. I loved the casting. Really could have watched more of these characters even beyond this movie, and that's a rare thing to say. I won't give away any plot points or ending, but I'll just say it really touched me. I had never been more proud to say I know a fellow writer.

Just as I was writing this blog, I opened an email from Sundance touting "4 movies you must watch online right now". Well, I'm going to make it 5. Add As High As The Sky to your list. You'll be happy you did.

My favorite writing trick

Every so often writers get "stuck". Whether it's on a new idea, in the middle of a first draft, a huge rewrite or writing a bit of dialogue. And if a writer is stuck, how is that writer to become unstuck? Well one of my favorite techniques, always seems to be the perfect trick. What I do is I write down all my thoughts as if I'm speaking to a friend.

For instance, let's say you're writing a script about a Clown that wants to tell his parents he's not going to finish clown school. His parents are clowns too of course, so this is a big tragic moment in the clown family. So what if you're not sure how to begin the clown scene? So what I do is write down every possibility I could possibly think of. "So child clown tells his parents in a letter, because he's too afraid. But maybe that's not cinematic enough, so what if child clown brings in all his clown friends and they do a clown act, and they crack the parents up and at the end, child clown says, yeah, not going to clown school. Or what if he crashes his clown car on purpose and now tells his parents he has no way to get to clown school." 

But as you see I literally throw out every idea that's in my head. By getting out my thoughts, I actually keep myself from being stuck. It's a great technique that I use over and over and always seems to help me out of a jam. I think the hardest part of being a writer is that we live in our head. So if we can just put our thoughts on the page, we can keep our story moving forward.  

The scene you get on the page doesn't have to be perfect. But at least if it's on the page then it gives you a place to start and somewhere to go. So try it next time you find yourself stuck. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. And if you write a clown script based on my idea, please put me in the "special thanks to" at the end of your movie. :) 

You can take a hit

In the boxing world, if a guy gets hit, he gets back up. That's his(her) job. He gets hit, he gets back up. He gets hit, he gets back up. Well, writing is no different. I mean, metaphorically of course. Hopefully we aren't really getting hit. But each step we take in screenwriting has so many chances for us to feel like we got knocked down. But we can't stay down. We have to get back up. And each time we do, it moves us closer and closer to seeing our dreams of being a paid screenwriter come to fruition.

I remember my first time I had to print out a script at Kinko's. I was so scared to take it there. I know, silly. But I was! I lived in Hollywood and was so afraid that only "real" screenwriters printed scripts. And that if I went there, they'd laugh at me and tell everyone there, "Get a load of this girl who thinks she's a writer!" Okay, little did I know that there were thousands of other people trying to be screenwriters too and they didn't give it so much as a glance. But for me, that was a hit. I had to take that chance that I'd get knocked down. And it didn't happen that time, I dodged that hit and that allowed me to go in for the next possible hit. Taking more screenwriting classes. Joining writing groups and getting critiqued. Entering contests! Sending out queries! There were rejections upon rejections. There have been many. But they have also opened me up to "yeses" too. So you have to take those hits. Because without the hits, we wouldn't have the success. And each hit makes us stronger and stronger.

So do it. Go for it. You have to at least try or you'll never know if you could have one day been the champ. Okay, that's really corny. But hey, I had to go for the whole boxing thing, didn't I? But you get what I'm saying. Keep trying. The bell hasn't run yet!