The Indian food I had for lunch must have been laced with some sort of powerful depressant, because I I can barely keep my eyes open or sit up straight. Maybe it's just been a long week. It's far from over. Have a meeting in a few hours to discuss a freelance illustration project I'm working on, and tomorrow I have to be at a car dealership at 7 a.m. (thanks Toyota recall!), and hopefully out of there before noon to sit for a portrait (not kidding). Then a concert tomorrow night.
What does any of this have to do with writing? Today I submitted the proposal for "Being" to a script contest. I know, I know, script contests are scams and they won't get your work in front of the right people and you're just giving over money you could have spent on coffee to fuel writing your next script. I get it. But the entry fee wasn't more than a typical dinner out, and it's run by a well-established TV writer whose book on writing for television is practically gospel.
But really, entering such a contest was simply something that forced me to get back to work on the pilot script. After my script studies related in the last blog update, I went back through the "Being" pilot, re-examined it, figured out if there were natural act breaks (there were), and tightened it up. I also brainstormed another episode logline, which means I now have at least four episode premises I can expand into future scripts. And, even if I don't win first or any other prize in this contest, I've gotten that much more work done, and possibly made more connections with other people who could be guides in this wondrous world of writing for the screen(s).
And hey, let's remember that the last contest into which I entered the pitch for "Being" resulted in an agent asking me for a script, which is pretty low on the worst outcome scale, even if he didn't think the writing was up to snuff yet. I'm hoping this latest iteration proves otherwise.
