Writer gets a manager

Kristy at Matriarchal Script Paradigm shared some good news recently:

As most of you have already read, I had some great news to share with you guys. The script I co-wrote with Ralphy made finalist in the Tracking B Contest, roughly top 3 of 828 scripts. Because of that we were able to secure representation with a reputable manager at a top management company, and hopefully soon from now we can add an agent. You can find the details of the contest winners HERE.

Since the question of how one gets representation seems to be near or at the top of any list of queries with anybody I meet (students, GITS readers, strangers), I thought it would be of some value to ask Kristy about the particulars of how she landed a manager:

* How long have you been writing with this writing partner?

Ralphy and I met on Done Deal Pro forums through a good mutual friend early in 2009. We didn’t decide to write a script together until around July for this 30 day script exercise that was on DD. So I guess about 7 months. This is the only script we’ve written together… so far anyways.

* Where did the idea originate?

Well honestly we just did a lot of brainstorming and whittled it down to what we have now. We did a lot of “hey what about this idea?” “No” “Okay well we can try this and this” “Maybe if we rework this part” etc. I think from the beginning we knew only knew for sure that we wanted to write a contained thriller. I recently had read several contained thrillers and really enjoyed them and Ralphy had that genre in mind before we really even started so we just stuck to that. I think originally we were going to do a contained thriller on a cruise ship ha! That was quickly shot down because I actually went on a cruise with my mom during this process and I just realized that is almost impossible. There are way too many people on a cruise. It would be unrealistic to try to contain a limited amount of characters on a ship of that nature. So we just started throwing ideas around back and forth. I think we ended up coming up with a high school for the setting first. The next logical step was to have a teacher and student character and once we set those factors in stone we just ran with it.

* Why did you think it was a commercial idea?

I don’t think it dawned on us until after we wrote it how commercial it could be. But what I think is so commercial about it, is that it is something very universal. The majority of people have went to high school, are familiar with that location, and the experiences that come along with it. It can go further if someone had a teacher crush at some point or knew friends who had crushes on certain teachers. It just kind of plays on a lot of the taboo you see in the news about teacher/student relationships. I’m always amazed by those stories, being a future teacher myself.

* How long did it take you to write it? Rewrite it? Did you give the script to anyone to provide feedback?

I guess I should mention that the details of this writing exercise were to write a script from scratch in 30 days, essentially the month of August. So we had 30 days tops, but Ralphy and I wrote the first draft in 17 days. We brainstormed about a week into the exercise and then just ran like we stole it I guess you could say. Both of us are very much into outlining but we really didn’t have time so we just created it as we went. We managed to switch back and forth every other day writing. He wrote 5 pages and sent them to me. I’d read his 5 pages then would come up with my own 5 pages to mesh with his and so on, until we were done. We did a second re-write which I believe took us 3 weeks. We set a goal to have it finished by Halloween because the two of us need deadlines or else we would procrastinate to no end! After the second draft we kind of had that moment where we both said, “this is actually really cool.” We then made the decision to enter the Tracking B contest. The very last deadline was December 1st, so we spent the month of November putting together a 3rd draft. We sent in November 30th I believe, so roughly 4 weeks on that draft.

Yes we sent it to a few friends for feedback. No one read the first draft because we weren’t quite sure what we had managed to write in that 17 day binge and I don’t think neither of us really wanted to find out from someone else if it was awful. So we just set it on the shelf and came back to it a month later and figured out what problems we could from as an objective of a standpoint we could manage. The second draft I believe we had 7–9 friends read it and give us just some general suggestions. From that we did the third draft. I know we had several friends read the 3rd draft but I’m not sure we got notes before the Tracking B deadline. I guess we basically went into the contest blind with that last draft, even after changing the entire first act.

* Could you describe the specifics of your process in how you approached various managers and/or agents?

Supposedly there are 1,000 ways to skin a cat as well as to get an agent/manager. This is where my story will probably be different than most people who are represented. I have actually never sent a query letter in my life. I had planned on it at some point when I had my other thriller I was writing ready, but until then, I just put my focus on writing. Tracking B was a whim for both Ralphy and I. It was my first contest ever. I doubt it was Ralphy’s first. I’d have to ask him for sure though. So up until this point I had never approached a manger/agent for purposes of my own scripts. I had met a few managers/agents through my blog and just had some casual conversations with them, but nothing related to my own writing.

We were notified at the end of December by The Insider letting us know that we made finalist (Top 3) of Tracking B. Stunned would be an understatement on my end. I joked with Ralphy when we originally submitted it that we would win this thing, but then I saw there were 828 entries. To say the least I quickly withdrew my statement. Since the announcements didn’t go out for another week we had to keep the news to ourselves which is like asking a kindergartener not to ever talk again in my case. I think I drove Ralphy to the verge of madness that week… Anyways back to the question. The Insider contacted us I believe the next day saying that one of the managers on the panel loved our script and wanted to get in contact with us as soon as possible. The next day, which happened to be New Year’s Eve I believe, our manager emailed us an introduction of himself. I’ll get into details for the next question I see…

* What are the details about how you got signed by your manager?

Our manager wanted to call us on New Year’s Day to talk to both of us. For one I was thinking, surely he’d rather do something than talk to Ralphy and I on a holiday but I didn’t protest. I cleared my entire schedule for the day and sat next to my phone waiting. The first phone session I was so nervous. Who wouldn’t be? I look back and laugh now because Ralphy’s resume’ is impressive in terms of screenwriting, or at the very least relevant. He went to USC Film school and reads for a mini major, so he got to tell our manager all that. Then it was my turn… heh. I got “so Kristy, what about you?” And all that is running through my head is that I’m only 21 years old, I’ve only been writing just over a year, I live in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas, and I’m majoring in something that has no earthly relation to writing or film in anyway. Well luckily I didn’t scare him away right then!

He was pretty much enthusiastic from the get go about our script and idea. And I think you can’t ask for anything more out of a manager or agent. You want someone willing to work for you, fight for you, spend time developing your career, etc. So after the phone conversation Ralphy and I talked and decided we really liked him for many reasons. Our manager read the script again I think and called us back the following Monday and Ralphy and I basically told him, “Let’s do this thing.” And we were signed. It’s pretty much paperless these days. No contracts or anything like that to actually “sign.” It’s pretty much a verbal agreement and go from there. It was quick and easy, and honestly it makes it easy for people like me who don’t live anywhere near L.A. right now.

* What’s the status of the script project?

Good question ha! Well we got some notes back from our manager. I was really surprised that he sat down and almost went page by page with us over the phone to give notes. It was very thorough and we were able to discuss specific issues, problems, and solutions. Ultimately Ralphy and I went through 3 revisions. We sent it back to him last week and he said we’re done.

We are supposed to be talking strategy sometime this week after a few of his colleagues get a chance to read it. Until I know what that “strategy” is it’s hard to say. But it’s definitely still moving, in the very very early stages, but moving none the less. So I can’t complain.

* If there’s anything else you think would be helpful for aspiring screenwriters to read / know, please include that.

I can’t say it enough: read and write a lot. I only wrote for one year before landing this manager but I wrote A LOT. I wrote every day, every spare moment I had in a day I wrote just about. I learned something new from each script I wrote and I incorporated that into the next script to ensure I wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice. I definitely think you learn the best by doing.

Reading was tremendous in the learning process for me because it helped me come out of my shell as a writer. I think so many people are restricted because all of these so called rules. I used to regard those rules when I first started, but the more scripts I read I kept thinking, “They broke the rules and it worked so why can’t I?” So I think that is when I slowly began to find my true voice. I started saying what I really wanted to say on paper and I didn’t worry about anything else. I told my story how I wanted. I would read scripts and be amazed at how strong certain aspects were. But instead of being discouraged, I learned from them. I analyzed how pro writers wrote certain ways and I incorporated them into my own writing. It’s definitely not about reading the latest and hottest spec, use reading scripts as a tool for your own learning.

For more, visit Kristy’s blog here.

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