Another Feature in the Works After Screenwriter Networked on Stage 32!

I watched my first horror movie with my father when I was eight. He tried his best to distract my eight-year-old self from the horror with a hilarious running dialogue throughout the movie, although I still ended up in bed that night with my parents. My father is gone now, but my love for horror and comedy runs deep and about four years ago, I thought I’d try my hand at putting the two together on paper.

I had no clue what I was doing. I had always loved writing but I came from a short story background so this whole less is more was a huge adjustment for me. My first script, for an original TV show, had blocks and blocks of descriptions. I had wandered onto Stage 32, read the forums, joined, and signed up for my first pitch with that poor script. To my astonishment, I got a script request. I was on top of the world! Then, I got a meeting request! All with my very first pitch and very first script. Watch out Oscars, here I come!

That eye-opening meeting changed everything for me. The executive saw a beginning script writer with some potential but I definitely wasn’t there yet. They helped me learn what should be in a script and what should be left out, which was a lot! I had a lot of work to do. They told me that this industry is hard, sometimes almost impossible but they were supportive and encouraging, seeing a lot of promise in my writing. I walked away from the meeting, mind blown and ready to start again.

It would take some time before my next effort was ready but eventually, I finished my first feature script. A creature feature horror comedy, of course, another favorite of my late father’s. I asked a lot of questions on the Stage 32 lounges during my writing, from how to format something correctly or even how to word a description and everyone was helpful and supportive. I sent it off for coverage from an Industry Reader at Stage 32. That reader gave me incredible feedback and for the first time, I thought I could do this. That reader really was responsible for giving me the encouragement I needed to keep going with this project.

I worked on this script, refined it, got notes on it, pitched it to numerous other people, and finally, I did a pitch with Lauren Whitelaw from OUTtv who was looking for features of all genres with strong LGBTQ+ characters, which is exactly what I write. I did a written pitch, and I got a script request. After that, I got a meeting request.

Lauren was great to talk to, had wonderful things to say about the project and could really see the potential in it. We are now working together to get it produced, which is amazing and incredible and something that would’ve never happened without Stage 32. From that first pitch for a script with pages and pages of descriptions, to that industry reader who saw something great in my writing, to meeting Lauren and this project that is in the process of getting produced, Stage 32 has given me all the tools to be successful in writing.

If I had any advice to other writers on Stage 32, it’s to just keep putting your work out there. Someone will get it and someone will see what you see in it, whether it’s the next Oscar winning script, or a horror comedy about killer zombie deer. When that happens, that moment when it’s more than just your mother, who I love more than anything in the world, thinking your writing is great… Well, there’s no feeling quite like it.

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