Countdown to FADE IN: Day 7
7 days from now, participants in Go On Your Own Quest are scheduled to move out of Prep and into Pages: In other words, type FADE IN.
Over on the GOYOQ forum [which is free and you are invited to join], some folks have been posting thoughts on what they have learned thus far during the Core and Prep parts of the process. This week as we count down the days to FADE IN, I’d like to share some of those observations with you.
Today: Linda Mulvey
Things I’ve learned from GOYOQ:
1. Ideas are important. Good ideas are incredibly important. So have lots of ideas. And don’t be afraid to beat them up, play with them, knock them into shape.
2. Loglines are important. Loglines are also hard. So keep working with loglines. (For the record, it’s not getting any easier yet, but I imagine it will in another twenty years or so at my current rate.)
3. Getting pages written is important. Getting pages written can also be hard what with distractions such as the Internet/pet guinea pigs/days when your hair is “difficult”/wondering why there’s a slice of cake in the fridge that no one else has eaten. I mean, is there something wrong with it? Has it fallen on the floor? Is it poisoned and my spouse is trying to get rid of me?
4. Knowing that if you keep working, you’ll get better.
Number four for me is the key. Since I stumbled across the Go Into The Story blog and subsequently threw myself with abandon into GOYOQ, how I approach my writing has changed utterly.
Something has just clicked. I can’t put it any other way. It may be that the years of slog I’ve put in writing terrible scripts, combined with the GITS blog and the Quest/GOYOQ have created a sort of perfect storm, but I’m now starting to see results when I send my work out, with read requests coming in and fairly-decent placements in competitions (semi-finalist in this year’s PAGE awards etc.)
As a result, GOYOQ has been enormously helpful in focusing my strengths, addressing my weaknesses (procrastination/lack of belief/being way-laid by cake) and making me understand that there is no magic formula into becoming a working screenwriter. There is no book or course or incantation to Buddha that will help.
You just have to be good. It’s really that simple. Just be good. And have several kick-ass scripts at your disposal. Because if you’re good and you send stuff out, you will get noticed. (And they will invariably ask for something else to read.)
Here’s how the Pages part of the GOYOQ process is structured: 10 weeks, 10 writing deadlines, 10–15 pages per week. You should target Monday as the start of your writing week and Sunday as the day you deliver your pages. Repeat each week for 10 weeks and voila: Your first draft. Done by December 30. Great way to end 2012.
By the way, the 8 writers with whom I am working in The Quest are following the same schedule. So if you believe in strength in numbers, between the positive energy of that group and your fellow GOYOQ participants, especially if you join the Forums, you should feel a swell of momentum to push you through this muscle draft.
7 days to FADE IN. Hollywood needs great stories. Here is your chance to write one.
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