So? Tell me. Ever receive a Rejection Letter attached to your Beautiful, Bouncin' Bundle of Screenplay Joy? You know? Your "Baby?" WELL, I HAVE (I know, hard to believe, right?). Anyway, take it from me. There's a wrong way to approach such devastating news. That being, reading the entire letter, then driving your wit-filled, billion-point IQ cranium directly into the drywall.
Therefore, do what I do. Open the email and just scan at a rapid-fire eyeball rate to the single word, UNFORTUNATELY, then instantly delete, pour yourself a delicious hot cocoa, grab a handful of GHIRARDELLI Chocolate Dipping Squares (May I suggest the Sea Salt Caramel Dark?), leap onto your favorite comfy couch, and toss on the SAVED BY THE BELL 24-Hour TV Marathon Extravaganza.
Works every time.
You're Welcome.
Brock Out.
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This is a great process! I'm gonna have to try it next time. Sure beats my current response of standing in an empty swimming pool and staring blankly forward like I'm Pablo Escobar in Narcos season 2
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I do the same thing, Bill Brock ("Open the email and just scan at a rapid-fire eyeball rate to the single word, UNFORTUNATELY, then instantly delete"). Unless there's notes with the rejection letter.
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What fools to reject such a fine piece of art. You will find the right fit!
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Deborah Jennings Thanks, Deb. My perfect fit is to win the 541 MILLION Dollar MEGA MILLIONS jackpot tomorrow night, then self-finance all my scripts. It would be a real win-win….. WIN.
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Pat Alexander Ah! The Narcos Fool! I would have more respect for him if he were standing at the deep end and holding his breath.
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Bill Brock - I've tried that win the lottery idea but it hasn't worked for me yet, I'm sending lucky thoughts your way friend.
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Bill Brock I do one of two things depending on my mood at the time. 1) I write their names down on my "greatest hit list." It's a small town/industry/world and when I run into them or they want something from my future self, I will get do respond the same way in kind. OR 2) I am happy as it means the successful response/award winner response/ positive one is getting closer. and always, always I consider the source. xx
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I like your style, Bill.
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"UNFORTUNATELY (very short pauze) DELETE... I can only pay you $ 500.000 upfront for your wonderfull screenplay, what's you bank account number!"
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Susan Kelejian Damn, Susan. Jotting down names? Creating a hit list? I’m really digging the whole “Murder She Wrote” vibe. YES! Solve the crime of why your AMAZING works aren’t selected.
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1) See "Unfortunately"
2) Step machine for 15 minutes while punching air with 1lb weights.... THEN
3) Huge hot chocolate
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... then you meet this guy in a Hollywood cafe, he spills all his coffee on your trousers and offers to buy you a new one,; you both connect and start talking about what you love, movies. He tells you that a friend told him that he deletes all his letters starting with "UNFORTUNATELY"... Laughing, you cry out "that friend must be me," and say "let's get some chocolate with our coffee."
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I was ghosted before ghosted was the word for it.
One producer told me my agent at the time was a well-known nobody.
Rejection letters are the ladder upon which my career stands.
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Michael Dzurak Awesome Workout Regiment, Mike! Wanna create hit screenplays? Only write during an 86% Pure Dark Chocolate HIGH. A REAL screenwriter has a keyboard covered in gross, melted chocolate. MMMMMMMMM...... gross, melted......
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Pretty much what I did when I got more and more rejections for my novel Plastic Love. Even made a sort of game for it, coming up with rejection amount milestones (think I got to 150). After a while of course I decided to stop since my mental health took a bit of a hit. At some point I'll get back to it :)
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Banafsheh Esmailzadeh I totally understand your plight. I guess I’m one of the lucky few. As a professional actor for 25 years (retired), the rejections outnumbered the actual jobs. I did fairly well, considering it was my part time job away from my career. My agent at the time instilled some great advice during my down times— She said, go to the audition, read your scene, leave, and…… FORGET ABOUT IT. She was SO RIGHT!!! I’ve now applied the same logic to screenwriting. Expect rejection,
read email, leave. Hope this helps. Be well.
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Deborah Jennings Thanks, Deb. I've actually won a few times. Not big money, but it was something-- $630 and most recently, $200 a few months ago. : )
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Thank you Bill Brock and that's excellent advice. I did get two full manuscript requests that sadly fell through (but also taught me that the real anxiety begins when an agent actually wants to read your story lol made all the initial querying much less nerve-wracking and form rejections especially lost their sting [though the form rejection I got following a full request still stung lol]). So far though I'm doing pretty well with screenwriting even though I'm learning as I go so with any luck good news will come :D