Please Check Your Dignity At The Door

40 Days of Pain 120 Pints of Beer & 3 Completed Scripts...


As a "aspiring screenwriter", I think the onus you put on determination is often blindsided by reality. Think about it...you walk into work (your office and/or living room) and look around. What is there? A boss? No. A pet? Sure. A punch in clock? No. Multiple ways to waste away time? The list of porn sites, video games and wikipedia links is too long too list, but they're there.

So who the hell is going to tell you to do anything?

It's easy for you to twidle your thumbs...or anything else for that matter- instead of getting down to work. But here it was for me, a small contract and a competition. The Nicholl Fellowship is one that many enter and few succeed with The ones that do are obviously talented and the ones that don't, well...who knows.

I don't think I'll advance. Not because I don't believe I can be a good writer...just because I don't think my craft is as complete as it could be (is it ever?). So why enter then? That's simple. Cause it was a test. It's easy to hold back and slowly pace yourself, which may very well be an inner working of fear and rejection, and it's easy to just assume the odds are too slim. But, in the words of 'The Great One'- "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

No kidding...

So I decided to play boss, because no one else was willing to. I had 40 days to complete a set amount of work, the pressing matter of a small assingment and something for myself.

It amounted to 3 feature screenplays being finished.
1- 8days
1- 9days
1- 23 days...

Had it not been for the Ephemere (a great Quebec beer)...i probably woulda just slept it off. But I neglected everything and got it done. Are they the best? Probably not. But anyone whose ever sat at a real job knows...the work has to get done. When you work independently- the standard to which you rate the quality is your own (barring prod interference). And that brings me to my dilluted point. How does the standard you hold yourself to, raise if there is no one watching over you and telling you to do it better?

Get it done. Then get more done. Then write so much more that it hurts. Just bang out so many pages, read as many damn scripts, books and articles that you can manage and just get it done. Anytime you look back on old work, whether it's writing or programming or office clerking...you see what you didn't the first few times. And then the next few times. Rinse, Repeat.

I've now come in at writing 10 specs total so far...I've optioned 3 to small, monopoly money, companies. After completing my 10th, I realize how much better the 9th coulda been...and so on down the line. But you'll never know how much quality you're putting into your scripts until you validate it with another. It's a lot like growing up, you can always look back and say "man, if I only knew this back then...it woulda been so much easier"."That's my opionion anyway.