Afternoon all
I've had an idea for a decade at least. I've watched numerous tutorials, chats forums and interviews on youtube, been to night classes and screenwriter weekends, listened to the chap giving free advice on that twitter speaks thingamebob and have been scribbling in notepads numerous notes (typed and slurred) on my iPhone down the years. So I thought I was reasonably prepared for the next stage.
At the beginning of '21, the plan was to draw up an outline, treatment, do all the things we're told to do. When in August, I hadn't got beyond a page, I thought sod it. Just write. It's the story you've been thinking about for years, figure it out along the way.
So I did. Finished the pilot episode of six on New Years Eve. Have a bunch of new notes for things that are going to happen in subsequent episodes, and plenty for prequels and sequels if it ever goes anywhere.
Now it's in the hands of two reader friends. A screenwriting lecturer and a former reader for a US studio.
We'll see what they come back with before I venture forth to see what a wider audience has to say.
The wait for notes is excruciating.
We'll have to wait and see whether it was a wise move but I wondered how others had fared taking this route ?
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Great to hear! Sometimes just getting any part of an idea that’s been in your head on paper gets the ball rolling. I sometimes tell people that you often need to get the jigsaw pieces out of the box first to start putting the whole picture together : )
Hi, David Barrett. Great to meet you. How I fare waiting for notes? I usually work on another script so I don't think about the first script/wait.
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I think people do this completely backwards. Write the script. Then write the treatment. Then write the synopsis. Then write the logline. Then write/create the pitchdeck.
That way it's organic. The reason it's done in reverse is because "old Hollywood" was making/pitching deals in bars and restaurants..."how about this idea?" No good..." ok how about this idea"...
Just my opinion...FWIW. BTW, there is no reason to take 3 years to write a script. It should be 2 weeks if written organically. The characters start talking to you, action ensues...you just listen to them and take dictation. Simple.
I would appreciate any advice on where to seek advice or services on a set of 30 stand-alone stories on the two careers of a police union president and his friend one of the greatest burglars in America. It involves all true events including kidnappings, jewelry heists, and unsolved homicides, billions in city and state revenues taken in staged arbitrations, and the street humor of the cop. My main problem is the transition of one event to the other and finding competent editing.
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Congratulations on taking a big step!
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Oh wow David Barrett, reading this made me smile... same here. I have notebooks full of notes, attended writing workshops, read all the masters on screenplay, drew stuff and scribbled. I resigned from my paid contract at the start of last year to focus on writing my story after numerous attempts to get it on the page. It was the best decision I could have made. Keep going... just keep writing!
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@Tom Sounds like execution needs perfecting. I suggest reading all Linda Aronson’s works book 21st Century Screenplay and free online tutorials if you join the website. I studied under Linda but if you don’t study with her there’s still access in other ways. Sounds like you’ve two intersecting stories both of equal importance to run parallel narrative.
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Thanks, Debbie as I allowed the stories to sit until I observed two of my characters are on Amazon with their own books which is humorous because I was a trusted friend and follower of their escapades.
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@David Iv’e done same as you in the past but also done all the other routes in possible. There is no one door in. Notes are obviously a bonus but there is so much fear and trepidation about what other people think that a lot of writers shoot themselves in the foot and procrastinate or don’t write it. NOT everybody will like your script but somebody might. I’ve had mixed results from feedback EG On one script two liked it, one did not understand my writing and the other listed mistakes that were not “paint by numbers” Hollywood format.
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Well said @Juan, the most important question is “Does this show have legs?” in any unique form whatsoever over stereotypical norms of one club.