Screenplay Completed!

Suddenly I am wondering what took me so long. Fear is an amazing thing, and it must have been that, methinks, but some wise friends told me to loosen up a bit and get things flowing.

Since moving to the prairies (where it's supposed to be hot and dry - my personal favourite - but is decidedly neither thus far) I seem to have opened up again. The confined idea of living on an island, engaging in public service and behaving properly for the most part with family only in the distance served, as it turns out, to tighten me up beyond belief. There are still parts of my body trying to relax (note to self - book body work), but the finest news ever is that my creativity is sparkling again.

I want to move on with projects, not dust them. I want to paint, cook, refinish furniture, arrange flowers, and generally invent things. And more importantly, I want to share them. So e-mails went off to two producers and my agent today, in the hopes of having someone read the finally finished - one year later - SERIOUS. It's the story of a reporter in a small town who is curious about a number of recent suicides. While he's investigating, his son is being set up as the next victim.

Here is a sample of the open spaces that give one room to create.


I know. It's taken in winter, but you get the idea. There's a LOT of space here!

It's a new day...

I can see that you will have no faith left in my resolve, anything I promise and most of what I say, but here I am anyway, carrying on carrying on. It's April 3, and I see that the last time I visited here was November. Pre-Christmas, pre-move, pre-"all is well".

Now I am in the middle of the moving process, just having said my farewells to Victoria, and taking a week to visit my way into my new life in Calgary. My new life, by the way, is the worklife I have been attempting to create for 30 years. It's strange when you suddenly get what you want. You don't even really see it coming, but here it is and it's so good.

I now have writing contracts filling five days per week that I can do from anywhere. I choose to do it from the same city in which my family is currently located. It doesn't matter if they are always there, I will enjoy whatever time there is with them before they decide to move on.

When winter comes, "anywhere" may be somewhere there is palm trees. I do crave palm trees from time to time. I know things change and I enjoy it. I've not chosen a change for a long time, and this one feels so right.

The only thing better will be to make my writing-for-a-living screenwriting. For now, though, as my good friend tells me...enjoy the success (wallow in it, I believe she said) of achieving this long-term goal. And I am. Wow. squirm, stretch, roll, wallow

The Work Goes Well

Just checking in to say that I work on this nearly every day, and the ending is shaping up well and nearly done. Then, I go back to Act 1 to do some layering.

Question for ya. Would you rather know who the "culprit" is about the midpoint and watch them interact from that moment on with their blissfully unaware victims, or would you rather wait 'til the end to find out who dunnit?

Really Writing...

At last, I am into the swing of things and pounded out 25 pages this weekend. What a great feeling. There is hope of completion now, and I'm anxious to get some readers on it.

I also sent a scene off to an expert for an accuracy check. It feels good to be on it. Tra-la, tra-la...

Day 3 - Bingo!

This 3-day event has come to a close on the best possible high note! The last thing this afternoon was a pitching session, where we got to tell three producers about our scripts, and get feedback on the pitch itself. The last one our table got to speak with was a woman who works on budgets under $2 million. We all went around. She said my story was compelling, and I said it was doable for that budget, and that was it - she was on to the next writer. At the end she talked a bit in general and slid in this sentence so quietly I wasn't sure I'd heard it. "I'd like to read your (motioning towards me) script, because I worked as a journalist in the past, I have a child, and I can identify with a small town. I like this."

Blink.

What'd she say? Did she say what I think she said?

Yes she did! BIG GRIN.

I was the only one who got asked on the spot. (She said, humbly.)

Every other producer we met except one took our one-sheets with them, and most of the script requests will come from that, so I don't know what else will come up for me. There will be lots for the others in the class, that's for sure. There are tons of good projects.

Gary says that this gal makes a lot of movies, so that sounds pretty cool to me. She said she sometimes partners with writers (which I think means there won't be money until it makes some, I'm not sure). It doesn't matter. A LOT of these people have just said, Get something MADE and you'll have a lot more luck going in.

She could change her mind as soon as she reads the one-sheet for all we know, so it's one of those mini-successes that we take a moment to celebrate and then move on. Also it means I'll be writing my ass off when I get home, as the script is not ready.

Two fellow writers offered straight away to read it for me, which is awesome. There is so much support in this group. I'm so happy, I just may go out and buy a purse!

Three more Sleeps!

With the Hollywood meetings looming large, we had another conference call about what we need, and the almighty "One-Page" reared its head again. The first one I'd done way back had way too much in it, so I didn't even re-visit it. I just started over. I got a short, zippy pitch written and off to colleagues for critique. It only seemed to fit the bill for one of the three who read it. They needed a little bit more. So now that is out there to two additional fellow writers who hadn't seen the first one, and my first e-mail back said, "May I be brutal? Call me." Uh-oh.

On Tuesday evening I have a one-on-one call with the instructor to review this item. It's a marketing tool designed to make a producer want to read your script. If the first line doesn't grab them, they won't read on, and so forth. So it needs to be brief but tweak the curiosity, or help the producer see that you've got a character who would attract an A-list actor, or be easy to make for a million dollars, or something appealing to his/her business sense.

If you think this is easy, you are mistaken. Believe me.

In regards to progress on the re-write course assignments, I did get #7 done, and that leaves 8, 9, and 10. I'll be able to get back to these once this one-page is done and I'm on the road. It's good that I'm nearly ready because it's almost time to go. I will keep you apprised as I go. Cheers for now!

Oh - BTW, I have a new story posted on LifeasaHuman - could give you a giggle: http://lifeasahuman.com/author/pegainsley/

Great to be back at Script Work!

It's not the joy of getting assignments done so much, as it is the joy of discovering what the assignment is meant to show you. I think that must be the sign of a well-constructed course. Or a writer hungry for instructions. Or both.

Thinking about the part each character plays individually brings another level to story. If I keep discovering more levels, I don't know when the actual script will get written. I have a decent starter kit, but the opening scene has already changed, which changes the all-important first ten pages, and because of what I'm inventing for the characters, the rest will change quite a bit too. My hope is that with all the groundwork in place, the script may pretty much write itself. Then all I have to do is wordsmithing. Tra-la.

Of course, if you stay tuned, you may find that this is not the way it goes at all, but this we will discover together. Anyway... assignments 4, 5, and 6 are completed and have been posted for feedback from a colleague. Now I must take the time to get some groceries in the house and then I need to back-track to assignment 3, which is the full screenplay beat - by - beat. When I accomplish this, the darn thing may just be able to write itself. Ever onward, I am proud to report this progress, and I remain truly yours, gentle reader.

In the Light of Day

Okay, now we have direction, we will get on with the next assignment. It is to have another look at your beat sheet. A beat sheet is the story, step by step, scene by scene. I never really did have a full beat sheet, as things kept changing, and before I got to the end of the story, beat by beat, I would be moving things around, or changing the flow, and so now here goes.

I am very much looking forward to getting this finished (I did get a start on the weekend) as I really need to know the story from front to back and inside out by the time I get to Hollywood.

As the end of April nears, I realize only May remains to do the work necessary.

That's okay. I get done exactly what I need to get done to have the level of success I'm supposed to have in June, and that's a high level!

I love you for being here. Bye bye for now...

One Short Evening for Woman, One giant leap for Screenwriter

It may not seem gigantic to non-screenwriters. In fact it may look totally ridiculous when held up as a shining accomplishment. To other writers who tackle short stories (I believe one of the most difficult written art forms there is) it may seem like nothing happened tonight at all, but to the screenwriter... this is big - golden - a coup!

I am talking about the logline - not to be confused with the pitch, although I always do. Yesterday I left you with a pitch and today it was scrapped thanks to input from a fellow screenwriter with a whole lot more pitching expertise than me.

You may at this point be anxious to read the logline, but not until I've gained advice from colleagues who know about such things.

And don't forget, 24 hours from now this logline may be scrapped too. Re-writes are a way of life, and this is the beginning of the re-write process. And I'm determined to begin here, even though I am now three (count 'em) lessons behind.

I am happy with the tone of this one. I have changed genres, you see. My LA project is going from a thriller to a Fargo-like dark comedy. It's a difficult change that will be a lot of work, but with the sparks created by discovering something new (thanks to colleagues, generous fellow writers) and writing it so it makes you giggle, it becomes imminently do-able. And for today, it feels like a giant leap for this screenwriter.