Letters From America: A good day, on the whole.

originally posted 8th March 2004
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Draft Zero of the Enterprise spec is finished.

It's not a First Draft. It's not at that level yet. What it has, is enough words to fill fifty pages in screenplay format.

Now that the final "Fade out." has been typed, I've printed it out and read it end-to-end for the first time.

The first act is pretty good, in my humble opinion. Unfortunately the other three-quarters of the script sucks big-style. Genuine queue-up-to-avoid-it type writing.

I read the whole thing for the first time a couple of hours ago. When writing the Zeroth Draft I try to not go back at all if I can avoid it - the temptation is too high to spend your life re-working the bits you know are wrong instead of finishing the damn piece.

But now, reading it end-to-end for the first time, I had my Editor hat on. And the *structure* is mostly there. It's just the words that need changing.

If I was a showrunner who received this script, I'd fire the original writer and pass it on to the person on my team that was good at dialogue to straighten the damn thing out.

Unfortunately, I'm on my own here.

But I can see where the problems are. Looking at it now as a final piece, I can see what the original author is trying to do in the script. Despite the fact that everyone wears their hearts on their shoulders and baldly states their point-of-view.

So what I'll be doing over the next couple of weeks is taking the scenes apart and attempting to re-build them with real characters instead of the cardboard cutouts currently serving duty as place-holders.

Then maybe it'll be worth showing to someone else.

But having said all that, finishing Draft Zero is worth celebrating. It's a cut-off point, a waystation, a milestone.

So I treated myself. Since I moved into this apartment building, I've had my eye upon the big switch in the elevator marked "Emergency Stop", and I've been saving it for just the proper occasion.

Worth the wait.

Where there's a Will

William M Akers, writer of Your Screenplay Sucks! is going to be in London in the next couple of weeks.

Anyhoo, turns out he's doing a workshop at the Met Film School on the evening of Thursday 2nd July at 6:30pm. Looks like it might be interesting.

Fifteen quid cash on the door to get in, and you need to book a ticket beforehand. Details are here.

He also has a blog.

Good christ on a bucket, you don't mean it's actually happening?

Trailer for Just For The Record, the new film from our very own Phill Barron.



Looks like fun.

Writers' Social, 16th July 2009

It has been pointed out to me recently that a Writers' Social has not been organised for a long while.

So the delightful Sara Baroni and I have organised one.

It's in the Knights Templar pub in London on Thursday 16th July from 7pm till closing. In this pub at this time we will be drinking beer, and talking about the UK screenwriting industry.

Why not come along and do the same? All welcome.

Hope to see you there.

Second Stage Launch

So I was at the launch do for the Screenwriters' Festival last night. This was actually the second launch. We reckon they can probably fit one more in before the festival itself, which is October 26th to 29th.

In addition to a glass of free wine (which always cheers me up) and some starspotting in the BAFTA bar, we got to see a few people talk including a couple of agents, two writers who are at the end of the beginning of their careers (or possibly the beginning of the middle), and Christopher Hampton.

The common theme running through all of these presentations was this though: it takes hard work to be successful. A lot of it.

Christopher Hampton hasn't done too badly for himself. And he's got a pretty good hit-rate for features - fully one in three of the films he's written has actually been made.

Both of the new writers are several features plus change (sitcoms, dramas, etc.) written before starting to get any traction at all. And even now they're only just starting to emerge from the fray.

So: Work hard. Repeat until successful.

The helpful advice is all really in aid of promoting the festival, though. I mean, that's what a launch is for. And what you really want to know is: is it worth the cash?

In my opinion, yes. I've been for the last few years, and I'd say there's two main reasons to go.

Firstly, there's getting to hear from writers who make a living at this. A lot of them, in the same place at the same time. Learning what they did right and wrong helps you to avoid the mistakes they made and make brand new ones of your own.

Secondly you get to hang around with other writers at the same stage as you are. It's as much of a social event as it is a learning one. And to be honest, that's the most useful thing of all.

Other bloggers were at the event too, and I'm sure they'll chuck in their two'pennorth over the next few days. As of right now, the only post available is at Phill's place. It has the advantage over this one in that it also contains a diagram of sperm.

If you're thinking of going, don't forget that you can get funding from your local screen agency.

Hope to see you there.

Josh Friedman on the bubble

Creator/Showrunner/Sometime Blogger Josh Friedman of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has posted about what it's like being on the bubble.

Sadly, the show didn't get renewed.

"Everyone says having your show cancelled is like a death but I've been dead before and at least when you're dead you don't get thrown off the Warner Bros. lot for haunting your old parking space. They probably mean it's like the death of a friend or a family member but that shit only hurts when it's YOUR friend or family member and even then it's mitigated by age, lifestyle and whether that person was a Hollywood friend or a real one and whether that family member left you money.

"Losing your show is more like a surprise divorce where you get served papers in the morning and your (ex)wife is fucking Human Target by three in the afternoon using the same time slot your child was conceived in and also where she did that one thing that one time on your birthday."

More at Josh's blog.

The same act of writing, but in real time.

Stephen Gallagher has written a post about how the freelance writing process works in US TV.

And there's a promise of another post on the Writers' Room system coming soon.

Well worth your time.

SAG negotiations

I don't have a horse in this race, unlike the WGA strike.

But the members of the Screen Actors Guild are now deciding whether or not to accept a proposal squeezed through by 53% of the SAG Board. So, not exactly a roaring endorsement.

You can take a look at the highlights, together with arguments for and against, in the SAG Referendum Packet.

Time for the members of the SAG to decide. I wish you all good luck.

Adaptation

Earlier this year I wrote an article for the Spring 09 issue of the Writers' Guild magazine about how I adapted A Christmas Carol for the stage.

Should you be tempted to give it the once-over, the Guild has just made it available online.

Special Offer

I've blogged before about why I think you should join the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.

But I think it's worth going through it one more time.

• They have a very good pension scheme
• They will have their lawyers look through your contracts in order to prevent you from being fucked
• There is a welfare fund to assist you should you fall on hard times.
• They negotiate minimum rates for theatre, television, film, and radio
• They will give you advice and help on all aspects of writing

You could say: Well, I'm doing all right on my own, why do I need them?

Because your position becomes more powerful, not less, when you are part of a group. Because - and I hate to have to be the one to break it to you - producers and directors do not have your best interests at heart. They have their own. And that's as it should be.

Anyway, this Wednesday, 13th May 2009, the Guild is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. So there's going to be a special offer.

If you want to join the Guild for the first time, either as a Full Member (must have sold something) or a Candidate Member (still working on that), you can do it for just fifty quid this year.

To become a member you need to call the Guild's Membership Team on 01952 214 063 between 9.30am and 5.30pm on 13th May 2009 and quote the WGGB Anniversary Offer. The offer's strictly limited to 50 people, though. You know. Being a 50th anniversary deal and all.

It's a good deal.