Stephanie Acon's Lounge Discussions

Andrew Barnett I was just lamenting about this!!

I'm currently physically disabled and can't get around so I can't go to events and stuff like my agent keeps wanting me to and I also live in an area where there are practically no events to go to. I don't do the whole socializing scene anymore since I've become disabled because I do not want to tell my story, I'd just rather sell the script and get it over with.

In these days it seems like a lot of the schmoozing could be done online since we have enough technology to be able to do so. It seems like a waste to have to go out and actually rub elbows with people when you can do almost everything you could do IRL online. I want to know what the actual difference is? We have video chat now if you're that concerned about the people not being who they say they are, geeze.

And while I'd love to work on a production team, I seriously don't think that one member being on a conference call on skype is going to make that big of a difference in the film as long as they're not the actors starring in it.

-G.R.B.

Hi G.R.B., when people meet me in RL, at first, they'll assume that I'm simple-minded. That's because I have the manner of a quiet tradesperson who's worked outdoors for the last thirty years. Actually, in some genres, I'm in the top ten percentile of students in the highest ranked university in the UK. I'll probably stay for a PhD, there's so many things that I want to think about and explore.

If I'm not saying anything, I'm thinking, and I have a quick, incisive mind. I don't have anything to lose and I'm not desperate for work, so I can afford to be up-front. I don't want anyone to have undue financial or employment-related leverage over me. Once they've got you in this position, what's to stop them turning the screw? I've heard RL stories where professional writers have sold a TV series and they've worked with team only to have their story wrestled off them mid-series by the company and other writers. If you watch children at play, they are all trying to grab the best toys in the room and keep them for themselves. Human nature doesn't change, it becomes more sophisticated and honed in adults.

Like you, I don't want spend my time explaining to anyone why I am this way. Many professional people react with incredulity, assume that I'm joking, when I tell them, straight, that I couldn't work with them because I'd be scratching the paint off their office walls if I had to sit in room with other people day-in, day-out.

Thinking about this networking, chasing around and pitching your screenplay, to me, doesn't seem worth the reward-- we all want different things out of life. It's a lot of energy to expend, and it puts put me in mind of professional poker players, who take the risks but only a tiny percentile will make a living from it. There's got be a mile-high carnage heap of broken dreams and families around anything with this kind of risk-reward ratio. In Call of the Wild, Jack London noted,the ones making fistfuls of guaranteed money were selling shovels and supplies, not (all but a few of) the prospectors. I've already been offered decent money to edit a novel, also to tutor 1-1, hours to suit. I didn't have to ask or pitch, they came to me. I imagined there might be similar peripheral jobs, (that don't involve travel and too much interaction) around the screenwriting industry, but I'm not working on spec, hot air, or for nothing. I don't need to.

I don't mind the pitching and stuff so long as it can be done in virtual reality. I mean, I get that you have to sit down and talk story with people sometime, it's just I don't get why it all has to be face to face.

I'm an author too so I'd like to know where my fistfuls of guaranteed money ran off to... lol. ;)

-G.R.B.

Dan, I'm asking these questions because I have to write a screenplay for a university assignment. It's has to be to a high standard. Sometimes, it helps to write the creative part of an assignment with the intention of publishing, like my short stories and poems and explain about the successful submission and editing processes. I can't see this happening for me with screenwriting because it's a totally different industry . The moment those agents said, "you have to work with us and a team of other screenwriters, travel, and act like an employee", I flipped out of any connection with idea. Simple as that. Who knows if I could write and sell a screenplay? If those are attached conditions , I'm not interested. So the assignment is going to be a technical exercise. I enjoy screenwriting but I wouldn't enjoy the rest of it.

GRB, "fistfuls of money"; don't ask me. I was paid $20.00 for a short story that took weeks of spare-time editing and much worrying. I decided I wanted write because I love writing and it seemed a reasonably asocial occupation. Screenwriting means you have work with groups of other people in face-to-face conditions, which one reason I took up writing-- to avoid. I enjoy working 1-1 and online but not in RL groups.

Victor why compare yourself to the creations of others? Whoever wrote whatever movies you're referring to had their own reason for writing them...and you have to have yours. Forget the "others". I don't look to my left nor my right. Nor do I think anybody's anything is better than mines. I personally have my own purpose for writing the stories I write, and feel nobody can do what I do how I do it. That's how YOU have to enter this game. Like an emerging warrior, confident, own style, no competition. Period. GOT IT

These weren't the works of ones with literary superpowers. Those were team projects built around solid principles of writing, drama, lighting, sound, film making, etc. They were well crafted from thousands of hours of writing and rewriting, shots and reshots, etc. No point comparing yourself to them, because you're comparing yourself to a well experienced "crowd" and not a single individual. Instead of comparing, I'd recommend you take notes of the parts that really moved you and try and integrate it into your own project within your own budget.

Speaking personally, I often find myself comparing when I don't have a driving vision for my next project. Its easy to fall into depression. What works for me is to simply brainstorm and allow my imagination and passion to get me going unto the next project.

Learn from the movies, the television series, and the people that inspire you and intimidate you. This gives you a sense of direction. But don't compare yourself to them. That's just a recipe for procrastination.

I think the best thing you can probably do is compare what you're working on now to what you were working on a year ago. As long as you're improving, even if it's just a little bit, with each project, you're on the right track. And if you're not improving, even just a little bit with each project, you need to pinpoint what needs improvement. Then you need to focus on that.

Go watch a couple of made-for-Syfy flicks (Sharktopus, Arachnoquake, Raptor Island-sheesh!). That will cure any feelings about "what the hell am I doing?" For every masterpiece, there's a dozen shitbombs. Write the stories you want to, the best that you can, and be content within yourself. :)

If it were me, I'd use some kind of unique action or gesture to link to the ability. Think about how Samantha (Bewitched) used a nose twitch to invoke her ability.

You're telling the reader too much. Just put something like 'his eyes go rigid. The door slams' or something along those lines of action

Have you read scripts where the characters use esp and telekenesis? That's a good starting point.

I write from the heart, from a point of truth, purpose, and urgency, and I DON'T follow "formulas". I follow common sense.

This is a great topic Unc. I would be curious to learn what screenwriters who currently sell are doing. So many I've spoken too are save the kitty people cuz it allows them to get up a rough quickly. Rutger, I love the "Creator of Ideas" moniker, I'm gonna license that from ya!

haha-no broblem D.

1 - no, #2 - no, #3 - no, #4 - I prefer laying my stories out in a linear structure but I've been known to jump from place to place as appropriate, #5 - I'm pretty conventional but drift towards the weird at times, #6 - mostly, I fly by the seat of my pants.

I learned the three basic guitar chords, and now I just riff ...

Brandon, I agree with W. Keith. Everyone is sooo sensitive these days. I don't think you should include profanity in the title as that may be interpreted as a way of getting attention and detract from the creative and intellectual nature of your work. You don't need to.

Great feedback! I’ve since committed to a title without profanity, but going forward, this type of feedback will be useful and hopefully help to others who might consider profanity in their titles too!

If the profanity in the title seems appropriate to the tone of the overall screenplay, or otherwise legitimately justified, then I wouldn't necessarily object to it. However, it is probably advisable to imply the profanity, rather than spelling it out expressly. For instance, substitute a blank (_____) for the profane word or an asterisk (*) or other punctuation or symbol for some of the letters in the profane words. Or maybe use a more refined phrase or term that essentially shares the same meaning with the phrase that is considered profane.

Sh*t My Father Says ... made to network TV, ya gotta be discrete

If possible, it may be more palatable to everyone if you misspell the profanity word, or spell phonetically. Inglorious Basterds comes to mind.

Nice to meet you Stephanie!

Welcome!