Bob Irish: Director, filmmaker and producer in Meridian, Idaho.

Hi, Bob: There are always things going on in the Treasure Valley. Have you heard about the Idaho Media Professionals? It's a group that gathers the 3rd Wednesday every month to network and hear a guest speaker. They also meet the last Tuesday of every month, recently changing their meeting place to Ling & Louie's, 3210 E Louise Dr., Meridian. They'll be gathering there 5:30-7:00 next Tuesday, 8/26. I can't always attend, and I have a part-time day job that requires that I work until 5:30 on Tuesdays. However, if your schedule would allow you to attend next Tuesday's gathering, I'll make it a point to be there so we can meet in person and I can introduce you to some of the members (You don't have to be a member to attend). With rush hour traffic, I probably won't arrive at the restaurant until 6:00-6:15. It's a really fun group. Would you be interested in attending?

Sorry I missed it. I'm just getting into writing and would like to get my feet wet a little more before attending any meetups. Thanks for the invite. I look forward to getting feedback when I have a little more to show.

Oh, don't be shy. One of the founders of IMP and a regular attendee at the monthly Boise luncheon & monthly Meridian mixer is our local Script Doctor, having worked on past TV sitcoms in LA. He's a super nice guy and would be a good "sounding board" should you have any questions about story structure, format, writer's block, etc. Until you feel comfortable surfacing, keep an eye on the Idaho Media Professionals website for upcoming luncheons and mixers. When you feel the time is right and you make plans to attend one of the functions, please let me know. I look forward to meeting another fellow writer. All the best, Louise

My process: 1) Brainstorm - Concept/Idea. 2) Plot - Brief outline of characters and story. 3) Pageline - A timeline of pages between major plot points/acts. Example - Intro of characters and first plot point should end pg 20. Minor turning point around pg 40. Major turning point around pg 60...etc. 4) Write - Use each plot point/act as a milestone. Example: If I shoot for a 20 pg character intro and have 5 characters, then the main character will get the lions share, with the other 4 characters dividing up the rest or overlapping with the main. The page count is only a guideline and will change. 5) FINISH IT! - Write each day, completing each milestone until the script is finished. 6) Breath - Put it down for a few days. 7) Read/Edit - Read it over and correct mistakes. Have someone else read it and edit it. 8) Polish - Read it again and chop out unnecessary scenes, characters, dialogue. Tighten it as much a possible. 9) Repeat - Steps 6-8. 10) Submit - What's the point to writing if you're not going to do anything? NOTE: I haven't made any money yet but I'm getting great feedback from every contest that I've entered.

I'm big into pre-writing as much as possible. My whole system is built around the mindset of a note based system. I.e I'm not sitting staring at blank pages and thinking what's next. Everything starts as just scratching down notes, tons of notes, I'll really letting the subconscious mull over ideas and churn out more, I'll do a load of research. This goes into Evernote on my computer or phone and I compile it all into a single document. That document then grows and grows with everything from title ideas, to concept, to character, dialogue lines, and moments all separated under different headings. When I think it's ready to be written and I'm ready to write it, it all gets separated into documents such as scenes, stories, characters. Then more and more notes get added to those documents until I can firm something up. At that point I'll so things such as a character alignment matrix and go through a bunch of story development tools I have created. Tools which ask me the questions I need to be putting to my mind. Questions like what the climactic mid point event is or what the tests are in the third act. Once I have that, I decide what my sequences are going to be, how do I get from A to B to C. Once I have those sequences I put each through another development tool, again a series of questions that help me decide precisely what's going to happen and how that's going to break down into scenes. That pretty much gives me all the beats. So then it's a case of jotting down what happens. This is a sort of pseudo treatment, a scene heading, lines of what happens, mentions of what people say. That more of less gives me a first working draft, it's messy but it's all there, it's a story. I can then sit back and think about it. Changes aren't too much of an issue because it's just notes, it's not painfully laboured over purple prose. Once I'm happy, I can just go in and start turning it into actual formatted writing. The cool thing is I can go in at any point here and focus on the areas I'm most excited about. If I want to toy around with a third act stand off, I can. If I want to enjoy writing a midpoint comedy punch up, I can. When that's done, I have a screenplay, a rough one really but way way tighter than if I'd gone in blind. Then hack, polish, hack, polish, hack, polish.

Write every day until your fingers ache and your eyes bleed. Write until you forget how to spell your own name. Then write some more. When you think you've got something decent, throw it away and start over.

Option 2.

A few weeks ago, I posted a job opening for a co-writer for a movie I'm producing. I had a tremendous response. This could be because this movie is actually going to be made... I've worked hard to put myself in the position to make the movie (full time for the past 4 years). Raman, learn, raman, work on film... With that being said, everyone has an idea for a movie. Most are actually good stories. Few have the ability to be made into a film. ME, I'm going to make my story into film because I've chosen to be a film maker. I work with film more that I do anything else. That makes me a film maker. If you spend more time being an attorney, you're an attorney. I think you should really look into time management... And Alle's wrong, you can learn talent. If she thinks otherwise she should post the nursery rhyme she wrote in the third grade... It does however take time to build skills. I'm sure that Alle has spent over a decade building her skills... as well as the rest of us (USC Creative writing '94). So, I suggest #2. Put in the time and keep the faith! Good luck!!

... and be willing to take on a partner when the time is right... or pay money. lol, this second post is after my morning coffee... ;)