Time Flies - 100th Post!

This is my 100th post, yay!  I know I haven’t been blogging every day, I guess I’ve just been trying to focus on writing that new pilot right now.

Speaking of…writing this pilot has been a new and interesting experience.  For starters, the show is a lot more “cable” than what I usually write, which is cool with me…I like to watch cable shows and I'm trying to stretch myself after all.  It’s also my first time tackling a “period piece.”  That is to say, the pilot isn’t set in 2011.  The experience has been fun, but before I can really get into the writing of the actual script, I’m having to do a lot of research…library here I come!

Google Classic: For researching your retro TV show

Like I said a few posts back, I wanted to do something more out of the box for this pilot since the last one I wrote was much more mainstream.  As it happens, I had this seed of an idea I’d kicked around a while back, but I thought the premise was too “out there” or rather there was just something about it that did not work.  I came back to it recently and realized that the real problem I had with the idea was that it wasn't convincing as a modern story.  By setting it in a different time period, it suddenly became plausible to me.

So yeah, I guess you can say I’m getting on the Mad Men/Boardwalk Empire train.   And why not?  Period piece type shows are very hot right now.  Both of those shows (Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire) are magnets for awards, and more importantly, even though both are cable shows, they seem to be the type of shows that networks want.  There were several “Mad Men effect" shows as I called them this pilot season and 2 of them, Pan Am and The Playboy Club, got picked up.

I do worry that my sample will look stale if both those new network shows fail and people cool to the idea of retro set shows, but I’m trying not to think about that right now.  After all, even if this trend does briefly end next year, I don’t think period pieces will stay gone for long.  Before we could time travel with Mad Men there was Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, The Wonder Years, Homefront, I'll Fly Away, American Dreams, Swingtown, and That 70s Show just to name a few. I think there will always be a place for shows that either feed our love of nostalgia or that take us back to a different time we didn't get the chance to experience.

Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Blog Post Ever Written

Happy Friday, all!

Okay, Pom Wonderful...where's MY check?

Ah, I kid I kid.  Let's see, what's new...outlining my new spec, but the mood struck and I actually wrote the first draft of the first act, so that’s good…just need to buckle down and focus on actually finishing the outline before I get too far along writing scenes or I know I’ll get stuck later.

In other news, I obviously saw the new Morgan Spurlock film, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, and found it really funny and enjoyable.  That being said, I don’t think it said anything new or amazing that most people don’t already know/assume…yes, product placement happens…a lot...yes, it can be funny... yes, it can be necessary to make money/finance films and TV shows... yes, you should take advantage of that and take the money but try not to "sell out."

One of my favorite parts of the movie that was not entirely related to the overall point of the movie was a scene where Morgan had to identify his “brand.”  I actually mentioned this idea of "brand" last Friday and I’ve alluded to it before when I talked about streamlining the genres/types of pilots, specs, and screenplays you write.

So yeah, think about your “brand” so people will "get" who you are as a writer.  I know it’s hard for a baby writer and I struggle with it ALL THE TIME.   I want to be a special little snowflake and write all sorts of stuff in different genres, or I read a new book/see a new show/watch a cool movie and feel all inspired to try something like what I’ve seen.  I guess growing as a writer is about learning to balance that urge to stretch/try new things, and perfecting a specific style.

On a slightly related note, Idol did another “express yourself” themed show last night and the Idol wannabes got one of their best chances to show their “brand” as it was "Songs of the 21st Century Night."  I think some Idol winners have struggled with “brand” in the past. You win the show by essentially being an awesome karaoke singer and singing songs in a bunch of genres, some of which haven’t been Top 40 popular for 20, 30, even 40 years, and then you’re expected to be a current artist…it’s tough.

Speaking of expressing yourself what was with all the Lady Gaga drama this week?  If I’m all caught up, here’s where things stand: no, she did not rip off Madonna's Express Yourself when she wrote Born This Way, and no, she didn’t tell Weird Al not to parody her (by the way, I happen to enjoy Gaga AND Weird Al, and Perform This Way is fantastic...even if it does sound suspiciously like Madonna's Express Yourself).

Pretty Boring

Happy Friday!  Let's see...what's new...I’ve been playing nurse the past week to my Significant Other who had some minor surgery, but is recovering nicely.  Other than that, just working on that new TV spec after catching up on all the current episodes of the show.  And…that’s all from writing land...pretty boring.

Speaking of pretty and boring, Perfect Pia got voted off Idol.  While I was surprised to see her go, I always did find her a tad robotic.

But, I thought auto tune was "in"

Even a super “perfect” singer like Celine Dion has lots of fist pounding/chest thumping passion in her shows, and Pia was kinda…stiff.  But, she’s young and incredibly talented and she’ll probably get more comfortable in her own skin...with time.

I guess I could say Pia was like a script that hits all the beats at the right pages but fails to get you because it’s just...dull (or to look at it from the inverse, yeah the script for The Social Network might break all the rules, but screw “perfect” and “normal” because it’s an extremely compelling read).

Or…maybe there’s no writing related lesson to learn from Pia’s surprising early exit, but rather, a writing contest related lesson and that is: even if everyone tells you you’re great, taste is subjective…or...win or not win, if you have a product people want, and you market it well, people will buy it…eventually.  Sure, Carrie Underwood won the show and sold a ton of records and won tons of awards, but for every Carrie there is a winner like Ruben or Taylor who flopped while contestants who lost like Chris Daughtry, Jennifer Hudson, and Clay Aiken have gone on to more success.  Heck, some famous singers like Colbie Caillat didn't even make the cattle call cut to sing for the judges.

In other words, well, I don’t know exactly what my point was.  Talent wins out in the end?  Or…keep working hard, and stick with it!  Or…contest?  You don’t need no stinkin’ contest!  Take one of these and remember it if you ever get rejected by a writing related contest…especially if you make that first or even second cut, only to fall short at the end (I know I did).

In other non Idol entertainment news, Alec Baldwin said 30 Rock was ending next year (boo) then back pedaled and confused everyone (huh?).  Oh, and after teasing about it in numerous interviews/excerpts from her new book (that I’m super psyched to read) Tina Fey announced she was 5 months pregnant (yay!  I clearly love babies) and also she will host SNL on May 7th (double yay!).

See, John August also suggests writing a TV spec!

Happy Friday (it’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday)!

I’m in a good mood today despite the recent gloomy weather because I cut my new pilot to under 60 pages, I’m at work on my latest TV spec (which I’m psyched about), and I’m about to enjoy a piping hot bowl of noodles.

Speaking of, (TV specs, not noodles) yesterday, John August suggested on his blog that a team of baby writers who were getting attention from their spec screenplay tackle a TV spec as their next sample.  This raised some eyebrows but I couldn’t agree more with his spec advice.  A while back I also recommended writing TV specs (for different reasons, I admit…to practice the craft of TV writing before tackling a pilot, to use to apply for contests) nevertheless, it’s nice to see a pro promoting TV specs as good viable samples.

I must say, though, that he’s also TOTALLY giving away the secret that all us TV focused writers know already…that TV is where writer’s have it best in the industry and where the bulk of the best writing happens.

Anyway, even if you don’t listen to me, listen to John August and get cracking on a TV spec of your own…deadlines have already passed this year for certain programs (Nickelodeon) and others will be approaching soon enough.

Baby Idol

Happy Friday!  It’s been a pretty productive week.  I would have liked to get more work done on my newest spec, but I couldn’t resist going back to my pilot for a few tweaks I had on my mind, as well as picking up a few long suffering projects.  It was also a productive week of watching American Idol…I think I’m into the new season for now, the talent level seems higher than it has been in recent years, although the judges are all way too nice…seriously, is Randy going to be the mean judge now?

Anyway, every time I watch Idol I can’t help but flash back to my own experience as a finalist for one of the TV writing programs and think that their selection process (and the selection process of many fellowships/script programs/contests) is a lot like Idol.  Think about it, lots of people who want a shot at turning their passion/hobby into a professional career sing a song/submit a script and hope their work is good enough to get noticed.  Then, if they make it past the first round they get to sing again/submit other scripts until they get to actually do their thing at an interview/on the live shows until finally…well, you get the idea.

I think one good thing about thinking about writing programs/contests that way is that it shows the importance of having multiple scripts (having more than one song).  Like that Scotty kid this year.  He sang that one song GREAT, but it was the only song he sang for a LONG time and people (me) as well as the judges started to wonder if it was the ONLY thing he could sing and that was a concern…one song does not an Idol make.  The same goes for scripts…if you only have one great sample, you’re like Scotty, singing the same song, over and over and over again…and one script does not a writer make.  

Baby lock them doors...

Almost finished...

I’m almost done with my pilot!!!  Sigh…that was supposed to read: I FINISHED MY PILOT!!!  But, I’ve got to write this post before tomorrow, and at this moment I’ve still got 2 key scenes I’ve outlined that I’ve yet to write.  When those are done, I will do a little happy dance, then put the script away for a week…and then I’ll pick it up again and rip it apart.  I’m good on page count now, I had some problems with length early on, but now I’m at 57 pages with only the 2 scenes left to flesh out, so I think when I'm done editing I’m going to be close to my goal of 60 pages/a little less than 60 pages.  My only problem is that I think my first act still feels too long while a couple of the other acts feel too short…but fixing that will come LATER.

I know I need to get faster with my writing (the turnaround when you’re writing on an actual show is FAST…shows gotta get made) but since this is my pilot/baby and will probably only ever be a writing sample, I’m willing to massage and nurture it for a nice long time.

Next week while I'm letting the pilot rest, I’ll probably start a new spec for this year’s round of TV writing program applications (depending on what I decide to spec).  I’m trying not to start too soon since the fate of certain shows I’m interested in isn’t so certain right now, and I don’t want to get a ton of work done on a show that gets cancelled...so we'll see.

Anyway, that's all for now...gotta get back to work...BUT, as a side note, I will leave you with my random thought of the day and that is...what is up with that Adrien Brody Stella Artois commercial?  

"STELLAAAAAAA!" (said in Marlon Brando voice)

I find it SO…I don’t know…it’s kind of sexy, kind of nuts, kind of hilarious since he’s serenading a beer…at least it’s memorable.  Hey, side note to my original side note, did you know that Stella is like Bud in Europe (they’re actually both owned by Anheuser-Busch)?  My friend who has traveled a bit says that Europeans make fun of American hipsters who go on and on about how much they LOVE Stella because it’s like going on and on about how much you love Bud Light.  Okay, side note over, back to work!

Speech Control to catch typos

It’s Friday, which means it’s time to talk about the exciting things I’m writing this week…okay, I’m still working on my pilot, but since I'm nearing the point where I'll be passing it along for notes, I’ll take a moment to talk typos (I was also thinking about typos since Lifehacker just did an article asking for tricks to avoid typos).  Don’t you just hate when you proof and spell check and proof and spell check, only to later find you made mistakes that were hard to catch e.g. repeated words that spanned 2 lines, mistakes spell check won’t catch like then instead of than, an instead of and, or any of the your or its variations?

I’ve been proofing my new pilot a lot this week as my first draft finally takes shape (well, I’ll say it’s a first draft when I show it to people, but it will be more like a 5^th draft when I’m done fixing it).  It’s really important to me not to have distracting mistakes when I pass off my work.  For starters, I want anyone reading it to focus on content and not technical errors.  I will have someone who doesn’t prefer to make story comments (like my significant other) proof for punctuation and grammar, but there’s one trick I really like for proof reading.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who uses this, but if you haven’t tried it, I love the Assign Voices and Speech Control features under Tools in Final Draft.  I think the real purpose of these features is to have the computer robots act out your script for you, but I usually just set all the characters and descriptions to 1 monotone robot voice and have it read.  It’s amazing what mistakes a robot 3^rd party will catch that your eye just glossed over after hours of reading.  Also, the robot voice will help you catch run on sentences you’ve ignored, or even better, chunks of action description and dialogue that are probably too long.

Speech Control is my robot friend

Keep warm, keep writing

I’m actually out of town today/the rest of the weekend and am writing this on Thursday – okay, I always write the day(s) before my posts go up, but this one feels like funny time travel since I'm away from my office.

Today, I’m someplace that should be warm but isn’t because of the residual effects of all the crazy weather our country has been having.  Seriously, I hear it’s like The Day After Tomorrow in all those “flyover” states where most of my family lives.   But hey, if you’re stuck inside, what better time to buckle down and get some writing done?

Speaking of writing, I’m feeling better about my pilot now on several levels.  Probably mostly importantly, I was talking to a TV writer friend who recently made the jump from baby writer to pro, and they stressed the importance of having lots of samples, in particular original samples (i.e. pilots over specs).  I guess this shift from pilots to specs has been happening for some time now, but it feels good to be on the right path.  I mean, my friend basically said that agents don’t even want to look at you if you don’t have a pilot…or alternatively that they know several pro writers who made their mark with one really excellent pilot.  So, pilots away, keep warm, keep writing, and have a lovely weekend everyone!

Save the pilot!

It’s 80 degrees in January and as much as I’d love to be playing outside, I’m inside trying to finish my new pilot.  I stopped for a while this week to finish reading a couple novels I’m sure I’ll talk about at some point (and to work on a novel I’m also kicking around...that old writer’s ADD).  I guess I was also feeling a little discouraged by the pilot and had to set it aside because it’s waaaay too long (ah to be J.J. Abrams and get 2 hours for a pilot…not that my family drama needs 2 hours but I could probably use it). 

Anyway, I know I’ll get through it, and make the cuts I need to make, but I think what’s harder than running too long right now is feeling a little lost at the end of my episode because my original outline falls apart a bit near the end (i.e. it degenerates from lovely little summaries of each scene in each act to a list of things that I know happen in roughly the right order in the last 2 acts).  And didn’t I just mention how important outlines are?  Well, they are, and this proves it.  Shame on me.  Now, here I am, stalled on finishing my first draft because I have to go back and fix the original outline. 

But, let’s not dwell on that.  Instead, how about some resources for writing an outline?  Don’t know how to write an outline?  Everyone has their own preferences, but I think the library section of John August's site has some excellent outlines of his own work (film and TV), and if you’re a baby screenwriter and haven’t heard of Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat  beat sheet you really should check out that site (and read the book!).  Not that a screenplay has to hit every single Save The Cat beat right down to the page (I’ve heard some people say they dislike this because it’s so predictable) I still think it’s a great resource for anyone starting out who needs that guiding hand to get through a screenplay (and isn’t that all of us, at some point?).

WTF is my script about!?

As I write this (earlier in the week) I’m still working on my new 1 hour drama pilot.  On my new blog schedule, I’ve reserved Fridays to talk about my own writing, so here I go.  Let’s see...I’m on page 51, which probably sounds like I’m close to finishing, but I’ve got over an act still to write so a major blood letting will happen once I’m done.  I see myself having to cut down several scenes I like, and just plain cutting a bunch of stuff I outlined…no wonder I've been procrastinating this!  

But, cutting down is nothing new for me.  If you can’t tell from the blog, I tend to be long winded when I don’t have a page limit to hold me back.  I’m used to deleting my precious words (or cutting and pasting them to use another time).  It’s amazing what setting something aside for a week will do.  I might think I can’t live without a scene now, but next week I’ll be brutal and say: “Wow, what was I thinking?  DELETE!”  I think the biggest changes will have to come in my first act.  Of course, trying to put all my puzzle pieces together just how I want is taking more space than I want.  Right now, my first act is 22 pages, which wouldn’t be so bad if my show only had four acts, but it has five (plus a teaser) so that’s too much...especially since I’m just a baby writer.  I’ve seen a lot of pro pilots around 60-65 pages, but I figure for a baby, a little shorter is always better.

Anyway, yeah that’s where I am, but I’d be making no progress if I hadn’t outlined the episode before I started writing.  That leads me to a short but amusing article I read on Lifehacker.  Outlining/making a beat sheet/breaking your episode/writing a logline...all that sort of groundwork is ESSENTIAL (I think) to a writer (especially a baby writer), but I know a lot of people don't enjoy it.  I know people who feel like they’re dumbing down their complex ideas when they create a logline, or that they’re sapping their creativity by tying themselves down with an outline...for me, I sometimes think I just suck at it (especially loglines).  So,  if you want to make the process more fun, read the article.  It basically says that asking yourself short, profane, and confrontational questions about your work can elicit shorter/focused and more convincing answers.  I think that’s just the type of useful feedback you need, whether you’re in the early outlining stages, or are pitching your finished script to someone.  So try it, ask yourself: “WTF is my script about!!!???” and see what you get.