I think, therefore I blog…

really struck a nerve inside of me with his current post, “”

YOW!

Great post my man… I actually tried to comment on your post over at your blog and after an hour’s worth of writing, I realized I’d be better off RANTING RIGHT HERE.

You said:

“Do you know what it means to have one of your scripts turned into a movie? It means that your weaknesses as a writer will become public knowledge. Do you honestly think that because you have a couple of movies under your belt that you can STOP studying the craft?”

My answer? NEVER! Yet, how many screenwriters do you know that do in fact continue to STUDY the craft? This is one of the reasons I like blogs… They enable me to read about screenwriting OFTEN. They enable me to think about screenwriting OFTEN. Reading several blogs a day never fails to snap, crackle, and pop a synapse that requires me to study a little more.

Not that I am the end-all know-it-all on how to write a screenplay and get it sold but Jesus H. Christ, one could spend literally thousands of dollars for all the information floating around out there and more than half of it isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. So… If I can somehow help fill the gap with some USEFUL KNOWLEDGE and only one screenplay turns out just a little better, I will count that as SUCCESS.

I seriously just want everyone to WRITE the best fucking screenplay they can and I will tell you every Goddamn trick in the book (that I know) if it will help.

Take your current screenplay that you slaved over for six months to a year… CAN IT BE BETTER?

Probably. Well, DIG IN MOTHERFUCKER! I am fucking tired of seeing the lazy shit I see on the screen.

And you know what?

Most of the stuff I read from people trying to break in is lazy too. No offense meant (you KNOW who you are) but that is the truth as I see it. We’ve somehow dumbed down the ART OF SCREENWRITING and STORYTELLING to the point where only a certain demographic gets off their asses and buys a movie ticket. The same demographic that pushed .

Which is fine. Good for them. But what about the rest of us? What about the demographic that really controls the cash?

We have a job to do and to do it we have to get off our collective asses if we want to see this industry survive.

I only found the community a few months ago after being frustrated with “some” of us in the industry.

I’ve read some outstanding things out there. Things that have made ME think about my own writing and I admit, I am even a little addicted to reading all these blogs because there’s quite a bit of knowledge out there and what I really enjoy is ANYONE’S take on the subject of screenwriting or any aspect of it.

I just had a conversation with a very well known script doctor last night about this very thing. Why aren’t we ALL aspiring to write screenplays that turn into films WITHOUT the shelf life?

What can we, as screenwriters, do to write a film that certainly will fade away from boxoffice sales only to be reborn in DVD sales… Lie dormant for a few years until it strikes a collective nerve with some other segment of the population and lives on?

I don’t know BUT I HAVE A FEW IDEAS as I’m sure a lot of YOU do. However, before we can attempt to do that, we’ve GOT TO KNOW our craft… We’ve got to be able to meet a baseline and therein lies the rub…

WHERE THE FUCK IS THE BASELINE?

Unfortunately, you seem to be correct in your post, Mystery Man.

SECRETS.

SHHHHH. Don’t tell anyone.

Sheesh. But having said that, another fascinating problem/phenomenon I’ve seen recently (within the last two years) is the PERFECT FIRST DRAFT.

Uh… No.

Again… I am not the and I would be the first to tell anyone to get a second opinion but what is this garbage about the first draft being perfect?

I recently gave a screenwriter friend (not anymore) 39 fucking pages of notes and he was pissed off that the notes didn’t read a little nicer…

Eat me.

I keep meeting wannabe screenwriters who are simply too lazy to learn and when you tell them that their screenplay needs work, they try to justify every friggin’ note you gave them just like Mr. Berman did to his friend in the book, … LOL.

I KILL to get honest hardcore feedback on my stuff. It’s the only way to really separate yourself from the work and take a step back… Which is WHY you really do need to find at least two (three is better) screenwriters that know what to look for when they read your stuff.

And… If you can’t get someone who knows what they’re doing to read your stuff, then it’s time to spend a little money. Yup. The truth hurts but here’s the biggest secret of all…

Come up with a . Shop that around to regular people who go to the movies AND even those who don’t and see what they say about your idea. This exercise ALONE could save you a year’s worth of hard labor.

If it doesn’t work right away but the Goddamn thing , start tweaking. Go fucking CRAZY with that concept. Throw in as many elements as you can to twist it into something I will gladly pay $10 bucks to see.

On the other hand…

Who gives a shit if you have a ? I figure there must be thousands of well-written screenplays out there… Maybe HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS! So what?

What’s the POINT if nobody will make it? What’s the point if it’s not the kind of story that puts asses in theater seats?

I would rather read a poorly-written screenplay with a great high concept instead of a shitty concept wrapped around a well-written screenplay.

Why?

Because there’s a story that I want to see in that high concept. I don’t give three shits about the . She’s cute but she AIN’T THAT CUTE.

Damn Mystery Man, it’s 5:06 A.M. and here I am ranting about your post while my cursor sits here blinking at me underneath the Protagonist’s name…

Oh well.

You definitely hit a nerve but you’re right on target… We don’t discuss the craft enough. We don’t share ideas enough. We don’t pass on knowledge like we should.

But are WE really the problem? I only ask because I’ve been in screenwriter’s groups where it seemed as though none of the members except myself really cared about writing a great screenplay. God forbid someone give you a screenplay and you take the time and effort to make notes only to have those notes absolutely frowned upon.

Sheesh.

I’ve even tried the forum thing a few times… I’ve read a lot of screenplays and except for maybe three… COUNT ‘EM, THREE screenwriters, nobody ever takes the effort or the knowledge seriously.

So you bang your head against the wall trying to help because you get asked for help but hey… Does anybody even really want it? Hence the reason I blog.

I blog to help but I also blog to vent (like this) and even more important, I take my ideas about screenwriting and write them down so they make even more sense to ME and hopefully a few others out there in cyberspace.

I love the craft so much I can’t fucking sleep at night. I can’t watch a DVD like other people. I have to put my in stopwatch mode and time every structural moment.

Hey! I enjoy it!

I buy just about every new book out there. I read articles. I devour articles. I even buy old screenplay books off eBay for maybe… Just maybe… Another little scrap of information I can add to my .

Is it worth it? Oh hell yeah. I just wish I could talk more about it with real people. LOL. Unfortunately, all I want to talk about is screenwriting and most people find that pretty fucking boring.

So I blog. I blog to get it out of my system but it ain’t workin’. The more I blog about it the more I wanna blog about it.

And the less I rewrite.

Hmmm.

Any ideas out there? How DO WE create the ? Syd says we have already… LOL.

Do we create yet another bullshit forum where only a handful of members give?

Hmmm.

Maybe a forum with some interaction rules or you’re out on your ass? LOL.

Hmmm.

I’m ready to share. I’m ready to give.

And take.

Unk

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While I write – you can read…

As long as YOU’RE not writing that is…

If you’re writing, KEEP WRITING. This stuff can wait — YOUR WRITING CANNOT!

As per request along with several others, I am working on a list of screenwriting books that I highly recommend… The difference being with this list is WHY I recommend the book.

I’ve also been getting a lot of emails about my list of rolling blogs to the right… Hey, it’s just an experiment and YES, I have visited every one of these blogs. For the first few days, I just checked to see if the blogs had something to do about screenwriting… If so, I threw them up.

Now I’m perusing them blog by blog for updates… If they are a couple of months old, no problem… Any older and I’ll probably drop it from the list.

I might eventually BOIL them down to the ones that I feel are the best of the best but that’s further down the road.

Back to the rewrite…

Unk

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A screenwriting book that sucks…

FADE IN The Screenwriting Process Written by Robert A. BergmanOur second … Pretty soon we should OWN that search phrase in … Oh, we already do… LOL.

So I’m ALWAYS reading screenwriting books. Some are and worn while others look absolutely pristine… Because they suck.

The one I just finished reading, sucks.


Written by Robert A. Berman

I know this may get me in a little hot water with some of you readers but holy shit… I hope nobody out there who did purchase this book took it seriously enough to actually write a screenplay based on the information inside.

I’m in today because of a meeting we have with the … I actually got here yesterday and bought the book at a local bookstore… After all, it does have a great title.

Yow. This book HURT me. What’s worse, is the author’s screenplay in the back of the book. Yikes! He tediously mentions throughout the book that he did everything he needed to do to this screenplay but I submit he failed to do the most important thing.

Shitcan that script.

Okay, maybe not completely shitcan it but this thing needs some serious rewriting to bring it up to player’s level.

Just like my earlier posts on , this is definitely the book to buy to learn what NOT TO DO.

The screenwriting process? Please.

I’m not really sure about the legal ramifications so I won’t include any of the material from the book but wow…

The author admits that he’s never sold a screenplay… If the rest of his screenplays are anything like the one in the book… Whew.

Talking heads all the way through. Exposition at its finest!

The author also admits that his “other scripts” are “pretty good.”

He does mention the loglines of the other screenplays and in none of those loglines did I read a high concept. Maybe some of the stuff he’s written would translate to a low budget Indie film… Nothing wrong with that however, in the book, the author explains how he holds a yard sale to come up with $2000 to go to Los Angeles for a week to get an agent.

He comes up empty of course but I detected a kind of “” attitude while reading about the meetings with the agents. This is a solid case of someone who thinks their shit doesn’t stink.

While he admits that some of the notes others have given him will in fact improve the screenplay, I never really got the idea that he believed the notes at all… Rather, these statements come off as obligatory.

If one can learn ANYTHING from this book, it’s this…

Do NOT quit your well-paying job, hold a yard sale and sell all your fishing tackle, take the $2000 and go to Los Angeles for a week and expect to pick up an agent or maybe even sell your screenplay.

That’s exactly what the author says he did… He does come up short of course which is to be expected.

Let me also say that I have no problem with someone writing a book that’s never sold a screenplay before… What I DO have a problem with is a book that purports to be a book that will help those of us to write a screenplay and sell it.

This book FAILS on all levels as far as I’m concerned. There is some decent reading in there but this book is also more expensive than a LOT of that we should all be making .

Needless to say, I found more than a few problems with this book but I feel too exhausted to list every one of them RATHER, here’s what I want to do…

I want to start our very own little right here at … I want as many of YOU to read this book as possible BUT I don’t want you to go out and buy it. For that reason, let’s get a list going on a first come first served basis…

Just send me an email IF you’re interested in reading WHAT NOT TO DO and I will send you the book for free but there is one catch. You must agree to read the book right away and send me some kind of review that we can post here on the blog. In addition, you’ve got to send the book on to the next person on the list who wants to read it… So yeah, you gotta pay for the postage…

If nothing else, READ THE SCREENPLAY in the back of the book to see what I’m talking about. Learn what a screenplay with talking heads is like. Learn how to tell a story through exposition.

If you’re interested, throw me a comment and an email and let’s get this book passed around.

Unk

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