Could it Be?
Oct. 26th, 2006 12:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queenoftheskiesFriday is ALMOST here!
Hooray!
I'm praying for no overtime this weekend. We'll see what happens.
Things have been tough this week. Tough for the past couple of weeks, actually.
However, good things happen even in the midst of turmoil, and for those good things, I am extremely grateful.
Fist is that when I stepped on the scale this morning, I was down a couple more pounds. Now there's a definite possibility that I can attain the goal I'm hoping for by the end of the year. That would require a loss of an additional 15 pounds and I believe I'd hit the goal I'd set for myself at the beginning of the year.
Second was that I got my first set of professional notes on the screenplay that I'd completed in the story development and the screenplay classes I took over the summer and early fall.
I'd already gotten some really great, enthusiastic response from the teacher over the course of the class and had felt like I'd done some good work. I was particularly pleased with the story development and I thought the writing was coming along well, too.
Then the first 8 pages got ripped to less than shreds in a writing group and I was kinda left wondering why I even bothered with screenplays if I was such a sucktastic writer, you know? In fact, I was left wondering why I bothered with anything.
So, the notes really came at a time I needed them.
The note-giver, a professional screenwriter, said that my screenplay was very well-written. He loved my story. In fact, a couple of the scenes he pointed out that he specifically enjoyed were a couple of new ones I'd added in the rewrite that were special to me.
He had a couple of ideas for streamlining little bits and pieces of it, most of which I can really see.
He said he'd like to see the hint of romance between two of the characters. Maybe. Not sure yet. I can kinda see that, but I have to give it more thought. It wasn't a suggestion that I should do it. Just something he would like to see.
It was nice to see the thoughts that came from the read of the screenplay because it meant that he had connected with my characters and he particularly liked the emotional bits and said he'd really like to know more.
Not that you can explain everything in a movie, but the point is that he liked the characters and the story enough that he became involved and wondered about backstory and the like.
He didn't find anything that didn't work, but suggested maybe losing the last scene or two and ending on the emotional high that happened a couple scenes from the end. Which then led me to think of an addition that would make it an even bigger emotional high and I think it would be more satisfying to me and the reader both.
He also asked me a question about a section near the end that got the gears turning in my brain with what might be an even better scene than what I've got in place already.
I get to ask him a handful of questions, so I'm considering a couple of new possibilities and plot twists that I'm going to ask him about. It won't make huge changes in the story, but I think it will add some action (though there's plenty already) and I think it'll add even more emotional depth.
So, that's good.
I get a second set of professional notes in about three weeks. Looking forward to that, too.
Now I just have to get out of this emotional funk and try to ignore the bad things going on. Maybe a weekend with no work and a lot of rest will help.
Hope everyone has a GREAT day!
Hooray!
I'm praying for no overtime this weekend. We'll see what happens.
Things have been tough this week. Tough for the past couple of weeks, actually.
However, good things happen even in the midst of turmoil, and for those good things, I am extremely grateful.
Fist is that when I stepped on the scale this morning, I was down a couple more pounds. Now there's a definite possibility that I can attain the goal I'm hoping for by the end of the year. That would require a loss of an additional 15 pounds and I believe I'd hit the goal I'd set for myself at the beginning of the year.
Second was that I got my first set of professional notes on the screenplay that I'd completed in the story development and the screenplay classes I took over the summer and early fall.
I'd already gotten some really great, enthusiastic response from the teacher over the course of the class and had felt like I'd done some good work. I was particularly pleased with the story development and I thought the writing was coming along well, too.
Then the first 8 pages got ripped to less than shreds in a writing group and I was kinda left wondering why I even bothered with screenplays if I was such a sucktastic writer, you know? In fact, I was left wondering why I bothered with anything.
So, the notes really came at a time I needed them.
The note-giver, a professional screenwriter, said that my screenplay was very well-written. He loved my story. In fact, a couple of the scenes he pointed out that he specifically enjoyed were a couple of new ones I'd added in the rewrite that were special to me.
He had a couple of ideas for streamlining little bits and pieces of it, most of which I can really see.
He said he'd like to see the hint of romance between two of the characters. Maybe. Not sure yet. I can kinda see that, but I have to give it more thought. It wasn't a suggestion that I should do it. Just something he would like to see.
It was nice to see the thoughts that came from the read of the screenplay because it meant that he had connected with my characters and he particularly liked the emotional bits and said he'd really like to know more.
Not that you can explain everything in a movie, but the point is that he liked the characters and the story enough that he became involved and wondered about backstory and the like.
He didn't find anything that didn't work, but suggested maybe losing the last scene or two and ending on the emotional high that happened a couple scenes from the end. Which then led me to think of an addition that would make it an even bigger emotional high and I think it would be more satisfying to me and the reader both.
He also asked me a question about a section near the end that got the gears turning in my brain with what might be an even better scene than what I've got in place already.
I get to ask him a handful of questions, so I'm considering a couple of new possibilities and plot twists that I'm going to ask him about. It won't make huge changes in the story, but I think it will add some action (though there's plenty already) and I think it'll add even more emotional depth.
So, that's good.
I get a second set of professional notes in about three weeks. Looking forward to that, too.
Now I just have to get out of this emotional funk and try to ignore the bad things going on. Maybe a weekend with no work and a lot of rest will help.
Hope everyone has a GREAT day!
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 01:18 pm (UTC)Have a good day.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 01:43 pm (UTC)Writing groups are rarely any help in screenplay writing, mostly because they're not looking at the right things. I remember heaving a script across the room and leaving it where it was for years because the guy was "helpful" enough to tell me my language was too elevated for screenplay writing, and then proceeded to butcher everything at the prose level--never mind that the characters and plot needed work.
I've had other experiences, too, with similar issues. But the reader gave you the best advice you can get. He looked at what was important: scenes, intensity, and so on.
TBH, I've stopped with peer review, and it sounds like you're about at the same point I was when I did. Trust your instincts and find people who know what they're doing to read for you.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 02:19 pm (UTC)I wonder if the writing group is the right place to get feedback on a screenplay. What gerriwritingblog said was true, novels and screenplays have different focuses and can't be looked at in the same way. Can you find a screen writing group as well?
no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 02:39 pm (UTC)The screenplay stuff sounds great, it's so good to get that kind of feedback :D
no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 03:16 pm (UTC)after many years and many miles (and many many workshops), i've learned two things about getting ripped to shreds:
1. ultimately, my peers were right and the writing needed work.
2. i was simply not ready to listen and reacting defensively.
3. if there's an honest possibility that no. 1 or no. 2 were not true, then i shouldn't have been in the workshop to begin with.
this has nothing to do with how good/bad/indifferent a writer i was/am/will be. and it certainly wasn't personal (most of the time, anyway).
it has everything to do with perspective.
my biggest personal stumbling block as a writer is lack of perspective. but i've learned that the sooner one can recognize one's own defensive reactions to criticism, the sooner they can think through them to the other side.
don't let it bring you down, as the song goes ~ it's only castles burning.
: D
no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 03:26 pm (UTC)if you're in a group where there's no bar or wildly varying degrees of craft skill, then i think it's impossible to get consistent critiques that will satisfy your ego and challenge your need to grow (both of which are essential in a workshop setting).
no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 03:52 pm (UTC)I tend to put more stock in the notes I get from them than I do notes I get from a critique group because they're more actively writing in the medium I'm writing in and because they've been there, made the big movies and probably know what they're talking about.
I have learned, though, that everyone has a different opinion, nobody thinks alike, so what I'll recognize as problems the most are items that multiple people point out as problems...items that aren't merely a personal preference, like "I'd like to see Character A fall in love with Character B" or something like that.
So far, though, out of critiques from the workshop and from two working-in-Hollywood writers, though, I've only received that one really negative response from the group.
So, maybe it's just hurt feelings and maybe I'm unwilling to be reasonable, but I think I have to weigh ALL the responses and not just believe that everything in the negative is the only true and correct way.
In any matter, I will always strive to be better, whether I actually achieve my goals or not.
Janice
no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 04:08 pm (UTC)exactly ~ so:
if you've only received one "really negative" response, maybe worrying that it was "ripped to less than shreds" is sorta not useful to you emotionally (and obviously not useful to you in terms of your work).
focus on the good stuff and run with it.
: D
no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 11:34 pm (UTC)In my experience with writing workshops and comments, a lot of negative feedback results in the reviewer either not completely reading or comphrehending what was written. I once posted something to OWW and one of the responses was if I was trying to write an episode of Charmed. I found it both irritating and hilarious.
Emotional funk is what keeps making us get up and do it over every day. When you manage to get out of yours please let me know how you did it as I'm not very succesful at getting out of my own. :D
no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 01:12 am (UTC)Does this mean you might have sold the script?
I'm glad it's almost Friday as well......
Date: 2006-10-27 02:25 am (UTC)take care,
Chris