Kelli Lightfoot's Lounge Discussions

While it's a well known axiom that Hollywood kills with kindness, don't fall into the trap of black and white thinking. All those tiny wins add up in time and eventually snowball.

Play the odds too. You can come at this with a lottery mindset or a pragmatic mindset.

The great thing is that it's possible! As Neil Gaiman says, "Keep moving toward the mountain ..."

If this is your dream and this is who you are, you will never run out of bait, because YOU are the bait. The oceans are vast, fish are innumerable, and fish have to eat to survive. Keep fishing.

Congrats, WL! You’ve kept at it and your hard work has paid off. I agree with CJ, those are all wins! Keep forging ahead and enjoy it all!

Thanks again everyone! It's so good to see so many positive comments, once again. It really feels that we are all turning a corner here and I for one am super glad to see it. Cheers to all of us who take a shot at the impossible that is only possible if you take a shot at it.

Thanks bro! How am I going to top that in shorts?

That mask isn't gonna safe his teeth.

Stay away from my sister.

Get the hint. You've been on your knees for three years. The answer is "NO!"

There's always some dude, fcking it up for us real guy's!

Very, very interesting. I will follow this!

if you wish tips on Greek myths, i'd love to help

Well this just made my day :)

So wonderful to hear that you're fulfilling this dream and making your heart happy, & so thrilled to have you as a member of our Community.

Good on you for fulfilling your dream, Dawn. Lots of networking opportunities on this site like the Writers' Room. Great lounges. Lots of folks eager to help.

Go for it, Dawn...best wishes

Welcome Dawn! I'm right there with you. I'm not retired but I am many years into my professional career that is not in the entertainment industry and I am moonlighting to become an author/screenwriter by trade and identity. I'd love to network with you.

Great decision to enter screenwriting. The world needs great films.

Hey, Sharon. Welcome! Blending Pharmacy Tech and screenwriter--could be horror script!!!

Hi, Aray! Lovely to meet you and thank you, I hope if anything the feedback is constructive and of value. We can all scale together! All the best with your endeavours and hopefully chat soon.

Love this!! Best of luck to you!!

You too, Jordan!

Hey Shaz. How have the last 7 months been? Still climbing? Here if I can be of any support. I have plenty of metaphorical crampons, carabiners, ropes and harnesses to help you avoid those script rock-falls and story crevasses!

Hey, Amir. Nice to meet your. What do you write? I write sci-fi, fantasy and horror. Currently working on a TV series pilot.

Pleasure to meet you Lucy and Martin! I also love sci-fi and horror genres, plus I'm very much into mystery and thriller. Just finished one - The Nether Gloom - a very dark story about a priest and his astral journey ))

Sounds real cool, Amir!

Good morning Amir! I'm pretty new to this site as well, but welcome!

Thank you Kelli! Nice to meet you! It's 22:12 over here )) but still... Good Morning Kelli and wish you to have an enjoyable day!

Notebooks. cheap notebooks. pens and pencils. I like this method because I don't feel trapped in the software of the screen. Lists. I make lists -- sequences, actions (your method is strong), scenes, pieces of dialogue --- without regard for shape or where things fit. Just let 'er rip. Then with all your bounty begin to shape sequences.

Vital, that's the way I do it, too!

I call my version an "outline/scene list," in that I try to describe how each scene's supposed to play out. Any sort of dialog I really, truly want to put into the screenplay I'm planning out goes into the outline/scene list as well. And while I'm building the OSL, I also do research on the world I'm trying to construct with that screenplay. (For example, when I was working on "Pixie Dust," I went online to learn as much as I could about the school "Pixie Dust" depicted, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities...especially the school's campus life.)

Gotten myself to where I don't want to launch an actual screenplay until I've developed an OSL beforehand. (And even when I'm actually writing the script, I continue to hit Google for extra research...anything to help make things lifelike and believable.)

Once the script's FADE IN-FADE OUT boundaries are determined, I run it through Prewrite for further fine-tuning.

Great post, Vital! All the VERY BEST to you!

Thanks @CJ Walley. That was a nice read and I checked out PreWrite looks interesting.

Like I said I'm not exactly a writer but I try to put down on paper the film I see in my head.

It is right @Rutger Oosterhoff. I like working with teams because it makes everything a lot better in the end. More ideas and more stuff gets done well.

@Douglas Glenn Clark that's really interesting. Myself I kind of go between analog and digital all the time. I do stuff digitally then at one time I make notes and of course lose them and then make them digitally again.

@Jim Boston well I had the story in my head so I just wrote the outline with scenes and a short description and then started expanding.

It's interesting because I get to a point in a couple of scenes where I get stuck a little but by doing this I can move on to the next scene and still get some work done. Where when I was writing from start to finish I would get stuck and that's it.

So this way at least I get more done before having to figure out all the stuff.

I consider myself to be primarily an author - prose and literary fiction, but I woke up one day with a movie in my head and I'm in the process of writing the screenplay. And by "in the process" I mean I am literally learning the mechanics of how to write a screenplay. That said, I am approaching it pretty much as you have lined out. It lets me flesh out my story while I figure out how to make it a movie.

@Kelli Lightfoot oh that's cool and yeah it helps me too. I've started writing a couple of things but never finished because of this exact reason because I always got stuck. But with this one I'm just flying trough the first draft.

When I finish this one I'll go back and try the same way.

Good luck with your screenplay.

Hi Kelli!

I say better late than never! I understand the feeling of imposter syndrome but comfort myself in the idea that EVERYONE feels that way at some point. I guess we can use places like this to increase our confidence and be part of a like-minded community, hopefully the feeling fades. :-)

Funny Kelli... haha! The Stage32 Screenwriter Imposter Syndrome support group meets in the Lounge every Monday at 9:00 pm. Bring donuts ... I'll see-ya there :)

Hi Sara! Yes, I am doing research for a historical fiction novel right now. I have about 3 or 4 movie ideas that I'm fleshing out as well. I've got Final Draft and some books on the shelf to learn how to write those screenplays. And after the book and the movies are written, what am I going to do with them? No clue. That's why I'm here.

Robert, I'll be there with bells on. And some tissue.

Welcome to Stage32 Kelli :)