Quest success story
Charles Darwin would be proud.
About a year ago, I started The Quest, a unique program in which I work with writers one-on-one, teaching them character-based screenwriting as well as proven professional practices of the craft.
From that evolved The Quest Initiative in which I invited people from around the world to submit loglines as a way of surfacing talented writers to be considered for The Quest — for free.
And from that evolved yet another iteration: Go On Your Own Quest (GOYOQ). For those who did not get selected for The Quest Initiative, an opportunity to use the structure of The Quest to learn screenwriting theory, prep a story, then write the first draft of an original screenplay.
Even in this short amount of time, there have been some wonderful Quest-related success stories. Here is one of them from writer Alan Donahue:
Hey Scott,
Before the new Quest Initiative starts, I just wanted to share my own success with last year’s GOYOQ. First, I just wanted to share a little back story on my screenwriting career.
I attended the Academy of Art University’s online film degree program, and quickly made screenwriting the main focus. I entered one of my first spec scripts into the 2007 Nevada Film Office Screenwriting Competition, placing 2nd overall.
It was great at the time, but gave me a naive confidence and did nothing to prepare me for the real screenwriting world. I got some great prizes, but in reality, my screenplay, “Jerry Jones & The Living Dead Las Vegas Zombie Attack”, was going nowhere.
I wrote a few more specs that placed in contests, but nothing really came of them. I tried cold query letters, faxes, and emails with no response. All of this effort was using just my University screenwriting training — which wasn’t enough. While my screenwriting aspirations dwindled, I started focusing on more stable jobs: online writing and video editing for a wedding company.
This is where the Quest came in. The idea really rejuvenated my interest in screenwriting again. News of the Quest helped me discover this blog and learn so much in a short amount of time. The content that you post here and is discussed weekly on John August’s podcast goes above and beyond anything I learned in college. It really expanded my screenplay knowledge and helped me connect with the community more (including the two “Words for…” PDFs I contributed here).
While I didn’t get selected for the Quest, I kept the momentum going and dedicated time to my own projects. The spec I developed for the Quest is currently in a rewrite stage and I also used the GOYOQ to go back and rewrite a thriller I wrote a year earlier.
This is where the success comes in. Pitching to a specific company, I was able to get my rewritten thriller spec into the hands of a producer. He loved my writing and while it didn’t create a six figure spec deal, it did get me an assignment and a contract. I am actually getting paid to write a screenplay.
One of the best parts about all of this: I live in Connecticut. No flights, never been to LA and I conducted the pitch, treatments and story discussions all over the phone. Now I can live out my dream while staying at home with my fiance, niece, nephew and dog. Not only do I have this first assignment, but I am pitching another story very soon!
It’s just the beginning of a hopefully long and prosperous screenwriting career. It still boggles my mind that I broke into the business, but I know it wouldn’t have happened without the GOYOQ and John August podcasts.
I hope this inspires other writers to not give up. I was already looking forward to this year’s Quest until I got the news, but I am still applying my story ideas and loglines for future projects. Once my screenplay goes into production, I cannot wait to share more about it!
Thanks again for all the work and dedication you put into your blog.
Alan Donahue
This makes me happy. At their core, Go Into The Story and Screenwriting Master Class are about educating aspiring writers so they maximize their chances for success in the entertainment industry.
And Alan has.
So here we are, just starting Year 2 of Quest related ventures.
If you get selected for the upcoming Quest Initiative, great.
If not, you can contact me about working one-on-one in The Quest, the workshop that started it all.
Or we will be running Go On Your Own Quest again this year under the auspices of The Black Board.
Obviously I won’t be presenting the lectures and specific writing tips from The Quest for GOYOQ participants, but I do have a set of daily posts which combined with the schedule can provide you the structure within which to develop and pound out an original screenplay.
Just like Alan Donahue did.
That’s not all of the Quest-related success stories:
* Richard Cordiner, one of the finalists in The Quest Initiative last year, signed a two-film blind deal with Warner Bros.
* Lynelle White, another one of The Quest Initiative finalists last year, landed a writing gig on the TV series “Army Wives.”
For the record, I sent all of the Quest Initiative finalists the entire set of lectures from my Core curriculum [48 in all]. Hopefully a little bit of that ‘magic’ rubbed off on them.
* The very first writer I worked with privately in The Quest recently signed with a major management outfit. More news on that soon.
Early results suggest The Quest works.
Congratulations, Alan Donahue! Best of luck with all of your creative endeavors.
And best of luck to everyone who is on their own writing Quest!
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