I'm either the smartest person I know or the dumbest, but I won't know which it is until I have either brilliantly succeeded epically failed.
After learning the rewrite of THE ONLY WAY OUT (the one that included the Marty (Producer), Steve (Producer), and Eric's (Director) notes) hadn't even made the Quarterfinals of The Academy Nicholl Fellowship Screenplay Competition when the original version had made the Semifinals, I was crushed, and I knew that I was now faced with a difficult choice.
I could brush off the defeat, console myself with the knowledge that screenwriting competitions are highly subjective, and keep moving forward with the script, assuming it was still fabulous (as proclaimed by the producers and director). Or I could take another stab at rewriting it for the 8,000th time.
My favorite mug was designed by my friend's incredibly talented teenage kiddo! Check out their incredible Etsy store, Down the Rabbit Hole.
Me being me, I decided I needed to rewrite the script and here's why.
I was never 100% happy with the version I'd concocted with the producers' and director's notes. There really is such a thing as overwriting and, as an overachieving people-pleaser, I overwrote the hell out of this draft in an attempt to please everyone on the team.
The original version of the script, the award-winning version, was told from a single point of view. We saw what the main character saw when she saw it. It was tense and thrilling and felt, in some ways, a little like a mild horror-thriller. The story was also about a real threat to our public lands and those of us who recreate on them.
However, when I incorporated the producers' and director's notes, I made a lot of thematic compromises, added unnecessary characters and set pieces that bloated the story, and added in various other points of view at the end of the script that didn't make sense. I felt like I had "man-ified" the script because one of the producers was concerned that it was too much of a "chick" flick.
Although the team loved this draft, I wasn't happy with it. In fact, I was grieving what was lost. The thematic messages, the real-life issue the script was about... This is what made the script so compelling and what prompted me to write it in the first place.
Additionally, the newest version was being submitted to various people and we weren't hearing back. At all. This wasn't a good sign.
There's nothing like suffering defeat to kick me into action. After feeling sorry for myself and licking my wounds, I decided it was time to rewrite the script and bring back all the elements I had stripped out of it. I was also going to take a different approach because I knew that if I simply took the script back a few drafts, it would be stupid to expect a different result once it was back on the market.
After having spent six months working on product integrations and living in the world of marketing I began to see the script in a different light. The script kept getting turned down due to the budget and the single character POV in which it was written. The reasoning was that for the script to succeed, an A-list actress needed to be cast in the lead role and even then, the fate of the entire film would fall upon her shoulders. Hollywood and investors are risk-adverse so placing the success or failure of a $30-$45 million film on one actress is a nearly impossible ask.
I took a step back and looked at the screenplay's structure through an actor's point of view. The whole purpose of an actor acting on camera is to BE ON CAMERA. My lead character, obviously, had all of the screentime, but that meant the antagonists and the co-protagonists had very little screentime. I asked myself, who would want to play an antagonist or co-protagonist whose face wasn't on screen for more than a few seconds during the entire 90-minute film? That's not a great role for any actor.
Determined for this script to succeed, I set out to construct a version of the script in which the main character still drives the story, but where the audience is also able to see and learn more about the co-protagonists and the antagonists. I wanted to then mirror the story's family theme in all of these stories.
Because I wasn't sure the rewrite would work and because I'm an anxious person, I spent a few days debating whether or not to tell my manager and the team about the Nicholl Fellowship defeat and my plan to rewrite the script. Should I just rewrite it, see if it worked, then send it? Or should I disclose my plan?
But then my manager, Stephanie Rogers called. Feeling particularly brave, I told her about the Nicholl defeat and said I planned to rewrite the script (yet again) because I felt it lost something in translation and I felt it should have done better in the competition. I could hear her smiling through the phone.
"That sounds good, dear," she said warmly. "I look forward to reading it when you're done."
Once we hung up, I emailed the rest of the team informing them of my rewrite plan. Marty promptly called me. He was incredibly encouraging and said, "You have great instincts! Trust your instincts. I look forward to reading what you come up with."
That meant the world to me. Meanwhile, Steve and Eric responded to my email in a very positive way. I was excited and relieved, but once again, the pressure was on.
The next day, Steve emailed with news that he had scheduled a meeting for the following week with a friend who has ties to Netflix. Steve's plan was to give his friend the script and see if he could pass it along to the appropriate decision-makers at Netflix. Knowing what I knew about the draft Steve had, I immediately decided my goal was to get the newest version of the script finished and delivered a few days before Steve's meeting so the team could review it, and I could implement any notes, correct any typos, etc.
Justin, my husband, and I were taking a work break in the kitchen, waiting for water to boil so we could pour ourselves a cup of tea. I told him about Steve's meeting and my goal to finish the script before the meeting. I told him how nervous and excited I was to get started and that ideas were flowing like a river. He was excited for me.
But then, not two minutes later, as I was pouring hot water over my tea bag, prepping to head to my office to write, the phone rang. It was the health aide at my daughter's school.
"Hi. This is So And So. Your daughter has a pretty bad headache," she said. "We've tried rest, and I gave her some water, but she says it's getting worse."
"Okay," I sighed, "I'll be there as soon as I can, which is in about 30 minutes."
As soon as I hung up, I told Justin what had happened.
"See? I'm telling you I'm jinxed. I set a goal and less than two minutes later...It never fails!" I cried. "This is why I NEVER set goals."
He laughed and offered to pick our daughter up from school so I could have a moment to write down the thoughts in my head before spending the rest of the day and probably the following day tending to a sick child. I am so, incredibly grateful for him!
On his way out the door, I handed him the liquid Tylenol and a dosing cup and some fresh water. I kissed him goodbye, strapped on my headphones, listened to various RAMBO soundtracks on my Thriller playlist, and set fire to my keyboard for the hour and fifteen minutes he was gone.
"John and Gabrielle," Produced by Bryan Tyler, is just one of the many RAMBO songs I listened to while writing and rewriting THE ONLY WAY OUT.
As soon as Justin got home with my daughter, I came back to reality, shut off my computer and lovingly curled up in bed beside her, snuggling her, rubbing menthol on her neck and massaging her aching head until she fell asleep. Then, with my husband working from home, I took off to pick our son up from school and cart him to his evening activities.
In all the books I'd read on increasing productivity, this wasn't a scenario any of the authors had ever faced. Then again, the authors, I reminded myself, had always been men and those with kids primarily relied on their wives or nannies to care for them. Being a writer and mom who doesn't have any type of childcare... Let's just say it's a constant juggling act that's often anything but graceful; a juggling act during which, at times, many of the balls get dropped.
Hey great mug! I loved this. So ambitious to take on a rewrite with a short turnaround time. And so true about the productivity books and moms who do it all.