James Bodley: Author and screenwriter in Paris, France.

Rewrite blues

Rewrite blues

The old old story. The slam of Coverage notes to the plexus. The winning post in sight suddenly rockets away into the distance.

Shock. Disbelief. Indignation. Dismay. All that ‘expletive deleted’, and still no “Recommend”?!

Quick, trot out the Band-Aids, the aphorisms, grandma’s old sayings:

“You are not the problem. The problem is the problem.”

“There is a cosmic law, every satisfaction must be paid for with a dissatisfaction.”

Hey, ianyone’s got a magic potion, you just found a regular customer…

Best thing since sliced bread or yet another miracle face cream? A murky puddle or a champagne vat where cream always bubbles to the top? Beats me. Four point six zillion guitars sold and most lurk in cupboards. Rich pickings from wannabees. Anyway, feel free to peruse my glossy loglines and gasp at my endless qualifications. May we all meet on the production lot of our dreams. But for now, don’t hold your breath and hey, get back to writing…

I have in the last twelve months started doing more non-screenplay writing for the screenplays than ever before.

I am finishing a screenplay called Unfare. A taxi driver grieving for his dead wife hallucinates having breakfast with her every morning. A small side story is he is starting a new relationship with a barmaid at his local bar. He is keeping this secret from his dead wife as he feels like he is cheating on her.

This is a small part of a greater overall story. But to make sure I understand their relationship. I wrote an short story about their romance. It will never appear (may be glimpses) in the screenplay. At first I thought I had found a great way to procrastinate. But my subconscious writer knew I needed more.

I share this in a hope people will try new things to unlock the thing in their head that is so far untapped. If you have a “little something you do” and want to share, that would be great.

Searching for some advice from my fellow writers. How do you all find the focus when going through say emotional problems outside of your writing life? You know issues with a significant other, troubles in the workplace, or family. How do you all somehow temporarily put those negative thoughts and situations aside in order to fully dive into your script? Sometimes that's really difficult for me. I'll be 10 or so minutes into writing when a voice comes into my head distracting me, talking about said "issues". Mind you I've already spent what I think is enough time pondering those issues, but I can't do that all day or I wouldn't get any writing in. So, what are your tricks to tell that voice to come back after business hours?

Fellow colleagues! I live in Paris, France and recently found Stage32, so am still trying to figure things out. Got a Recommend this month from Industrial Scripts and now on tenterhooks awaiting coverage of another. One project ends, a chasm opens…

Hi James. I'm RB, Founder and CEO of Stage 32. As a screenwriter, producer, actor and filmmaker, I know first-hand the challenges all creatives face finding work, landing representation, launching projects, securing funding and simply making the connections that will make a difference in their careers. That's why I created Stage 32. Since our launch in September of 2011, the community has grown to 1,000,000+ members representing every country on the planet making Stage 32 the social network uniquely populated with the most creative people on Earth.

This is a network for you, built by you. Like most things in life, the more you participate, the greater the rewards. We ask all new members to pay it forward by inviting 5 fellow creatives to the network and by spreading the word of Stage 32 through other social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The more creatives, the stronger the network. The stronger the network, the more opportunities.

Thanks for joining the movement and for being a part of this most talented and inspiring community. I very much look forward to your contributions.

Thanks, and have a creative day!

RB

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Hello James -

Welcome to the community! I'm Amanda Toney, the Managing Director at Stage 32. Since 2013 I've been proud to oversee Stage 32's Next Level Education, which provides you the most up-to-date tools necessary to become a better creative.

Over the years Stage 32 has worked with over 500 industry executives and professionals to teach online webinars, classes and intensive labs exclusively for you - our Stage 32 community. We bring you instructors who have worked directly on some of your favorite films, TV shows or theater productions to teach you in-the-trenches information that you won't find anywhere else on producing, directing, financing, writing, packaging, acting and more.

Our Next Level Education has a 97% satisfaction rate and averages 4.5 out of 5 stars. Plus, we've had the honor to be called "LinkedIn meets Lynda.com for film, television and theater creatives" by Forbes Magazine.

I encourage you to take the next step to continue learning and expanding your career by clicking here, or clicking "education" on your top menu bar.

I'm grateful you've joined the Stage 32 community. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Amanda