October 2024
It's crazy how much of being a screenwriter involves waiting. Waiting for screenplay notes, feedback, waiting for agents, managers, producers, etc. to read your script, waiting for contest results. The waiting drives me crazy. You'd think that by now I'd be used to it, but I'm not.
While I wait, I always work on my website, create and market new shirts, hats, and coffee mugs, and shoot MAMA FIX IT™ episodes. I also attempt to work on new scripts, attempt being the key word because my OCD brain makes it nearly impossible to focus on a new script until I get notes on the existing script.
I also find myself continually searching for ways to market THE ONLY WAY OUT. While waiting for Marty Katz, Steve Schklair, Eric Schwab and Stephanie Rogers to get back with me, I read about The Athena List competition which is a competition designed for scripts with female-leads. It's free to enter and limited to scripts with producers, a director, or talent attached.
The submission deadline was September 30th, and I was hoping to hear back from the team in time to address any issues with the script before I submitted, but that didn't happen. I debated not submitting, but then I heard Marty's encouraging voice in my head asking, "What do you have to lose?"
And so, I submitted. And now I wait.
In any event, a week went by, then two, then three. Crickets. Honestly, I was getting pretty upset. Why hadn't I heard back? Everyone usually reads the drafts so fast and gets back to me within a week. Ugh!
I was venting to a close friend who told me that when she's upset, she stomps her foot on the ground and screams, "Universe, I've done everything you've told me to do, everything in my power to make things work out, now it's your turn!"
And so, I took her advice. I stomped my foot hard and loud and screamed at the universe. I swear to you, not two minutes later, the phone rang. It was Stephanie, my manager, calling with notes on the script. She'd spoken with Marty and said they both loved the rewrite, but they both agreed it was too verbose.
Okay, I admit I'd spent a lot of time indulging in writing some "absolutely beautiful prose," (according to Stephanie) which would be great if this were a book, but not so great for a script. Not a problem, I could go back through and get rid of some of the excess. Marty and Stephanie said everything else looked good and Stephanie said she emailed me a draft identifying a few typos. Thank you, Stephanie! What would I do without you?
Crazy as it sounds, as soon as I hung up with Stephanie, I received an email from our director, Eric, who told me to give him a call to talk about the script, so I promptly gave him a call.
We had a great talk about the script and yes, he, too reminded me that I had overwritten the action and some of the dialogue. We talked about a few new approaches to the opening and certain scenes, and he told me to give him a call anytime to chat about the script. He more than happy to help!
And so, I went back to reworking the script. I spent two weeks trimming the fat. I cut out an entire character, focused more on the main characters and bad guys, shrunk the page count, etc. I was just about done with this draft when Steve, the film's other producer, emailed me to set up a time to chat.
On the day and time, we agreed upon, I gave Steve a call. It was fantastic talking to him and getting caught up on the super incredible projects he's working on. Anyway, he loved the script, but also called out on my over-indulgent descriptions.
Steve gave me some amazing page-by-page feedback. At one point while he was flipping through the script, he laughed and said he flipped through a huge chunk in which he had no notes because he'd been completely lost in the narrative.
That was quite the compliment! Awesome! Steve had some really great feedback and some fabulous ideas. He also caught a few things that didn't make 100% sense.
He's big on character motivation and identified a couple of scenes where the main character's motivation wasn't strong enough. It was exactly what I needed!
He also said to give him a couple of weeks because he wanted to do a page-by-page comparison of this version and the previous version to make sure I didn't take out anything he loved from the original. That sounded amazing!
We also discussed what Eric and Stephanie (and Marty via Stephanie) had thought of the script and the feedback that they gave and the ideas I was exploring, their ideas, in this rewrite. He thought some of those ideas were great and others just didn't work.
Fortunately, I'd had enough time with the draft to see why the ideas he nixed didn't work. He was also able to explain it from a storytelling standpoint. We were on the same wavelength, speaking the same language. It was awesome!
Whenever there's a team working on a project, there are a lot of different, and often opposing, ideas in play and it's up to you as a writer to figure out what works best. The best way to deal with these ideas is to talk them out with everyone. Person A wants the opening to be calmer and quieter. Person B wants it to stay the way it is. What do you do?
I know what my gut says, but I like to have more feedback, so I talk to Person C and Person D, get their opinions and hope they line up with either Person A's idea or Person B's idea. Whichever idea has the most "votes" is the idea I proceed with. Nobody's ever going to agree on everything, but it's important everyone feels heard and you have a legit character-driven reason for everything that's in the script.
After Steve and I spoke, I went back to work, implementing his notes, revamping the script, adding back in certain elements, cutting down certain elements, doing my best to make this the best script ever.
The day after Steve and I spoke, Marty messaged me that he was sending the script to a friend at Netflix, someone high up who could get the script to the right creative people if he thought it was a fit.
Although excited that the script's finally out there again, I'm a bit bummed that it's the previous version. I wish I'd had time to finish this rewrite before the script went out the door again, but this is how it goes.
And so, as I rewrite the script, once again, I find myself waiting for news from The Athena List and Netflix and waiting for Steve to get back with me with his notes on the script comparison.
While you wait to see what happens next, zoom on over to my store and check out the fun items I've created for your enjoyment!
You know what Tom Petty sang, "Waiting is the hardest part..." That's so true. Keep the faith. Good things are coming soon, I feel it! Thanks for sharing your story! It's so inspiring!