Marty Mcmasters's Lounge Discussions

What a great piece of good news. Best of luck from here on out.

Nice! Very, very nice!

It just gets better! Onward and upward.

Thanks for such encouraging words! Best of all to you

Big congrats!!

I'm not sure I can call myself a writer if I'm not striving to be better.

I'm never satisfied. It's why I like to go back over some early spec scripts I have, when I have time, and rework them to improve what I can. Having an experienced mentor who is sometimes tough on me and never seems satisfied either, has pushed me to demand better of myself as well.

Lisa Clemens, the method you're describing sounds good. You should go over your script a few times and improve it. Your mentor should tell or give you advice how to improve it but if you constantly keep changing your script, it will become something else, a new script. At one point in all this re-writing process, your script is ready. Once you sign any form of SALE contract, the director or someone in that category should give you a few pointers to make it final. I don't think there are any PERFECT SCRIPTS on the market, there never were. Re-writing something over and over easily tuns into OVERKILL. I always read my scripts over and over, I don't have a mentor but when I read a part of the script, visualize it, and if it looks okay, that's it, no more changes. Again, I could be wrong about all of this but that's how it is for me.

No I don't obsess and go over it again and again. To be more clear, I have taken some of my early scripts from when I first started, looked them over (and usually thought- wow what was I thinking! I have come a long way haha!) and make it better. I think I'm picky and self critical of my spec scripts because they are my own ideas and written on my own time. Writing for others, I'm more likely to be less self critical or second guess myself! I do take notes from my mentor since I do a lot of writing with and for him. And on the ones I have been paid to write, I always welcome notes that help improve the script but that doesn't mean I bend immediately to what the director or producer sees as a possible improvement. For instance I have a script that takes place in the early 60s and a suggestion involved adding "hippy" dialog. Once I proved that Hippy speak in the early 60s was not appropriate, we moved on. Another time I was writing a fight scene and a suggestion made would have made the audience feel cheated out of some action and gone straight to the resolution. So I explained how I felt and once it was discussed, I came up with an even better idea than I had originally which made both of us happy!

Who is you favorite screenwriter?

Welcome to the site! Glad to know you're meeting some great people here - best of luck!