Beyond STW and your writing...

I have so much going on in my life re: transition that it's hard to focus. I still get occasional interest for my ast 2 scripts - both Black List high-rankers - but Ive not completed anything since 2014. 3 somewhat written. My goal is to write one page a day and finish my tranny script.

MsJackieO -

Hey, that's great that you have a couple of scripts at the Black List that got rated highly. I've got a script online there -- my main spec script that I feel is 100% ready for the market. It didn't get rated as highly as I wanted it to. I think there's someone working for them who tweets under the name "Bitter Script Reader" lol. I wonder what that's about.

I have written three, very good short stories that I think I can publish somewhere. I have notes for about a dozen more. With a little luck, I can find someone to publish them. If not, I'll self publish. Either way, I'll have made a very small dent in the literary world to possibly be remembered by.


"We all have it comin', Kid." Unforgiven (1992)

As I just posted, I recently got a spec script online at The Black List that I'm quite proud of...it's rather developed. Now that it's done, I intend to finish an outline for a script that I've rewritten a few times. It's for a film that I intend to direct...it'd be my first feature. And then, I'm going to get back to a short story that I finished 2-3 years back. It's time to revise that baby and try to make it super. I do feel that a lot of the greatness in writing can come from rewriting.

Hey, that's great that you have a couple of scripts at the Black List that got rated highly. I've got a script online there -- my main spec script that I feel is 100% ready for the market. It didn't get rated as highly as I wanted it to. I think there's someone working for them who tweets under the name "Bitter Script Reader" lol. I wonder what that's about.
Thanks for the compliments. I won't lie, scoring an 8+ is extremely handy for visibility but isn't the be-all and end-all. Quite a few rated 5 and 6 have been made into films.

If you think it's as good as can be then put it aside and write a new one. Too many people try and chase the '8' - either by buying more evaluations or by tinkering incessantly with the script - and up chasing their tail in the process. Put some distance between you and the script for a while (or maybe forever) and start a new story.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to give you false hope - a score of 6 means your script is practically invisible and probably not good enough - but it can still be a winner. You have to have faith. Screw this cliche of the insecure, nervous, insular writer - be it a script or a novel - the industry is tough and you've got to be hard enough and confident enough to plough on in the face of rejection and oversight. Of course, the difficulty is that tenacity and denial look and feel very much the same.

The best way I can put it is when you read the first page of a pro script (Alien, the Matrix) or an amateur script that got snapped up be it filmed (Lethal Weapon) or unfiled (Medieval) you can tell it's class even if it's not to your taste. If you can objectively look at yours and believe it's in the same league then fight for it.

The Bitter Script Reader - a blast from the past. I remember him from Done Deal, a very knowledgeable, balanced and far-from-bitter individual. Good insight into story and the business but I never read any of his work so can't comment on it.

Unrelated to writing, but congratulations on the transition. It's terrific to face the world as yourself.

SPEED
P.S. This is how part of the alphabet would look if you eliminated Q and R

Thank you, Speed xxx

Thanks for the compliments. I won't lie, scoring an 8+ is extremely handy for visibility but isn't the be-all and end-all. Quite a few rated 5 and 6 have been made into films.

If you think it's as good as can be then put it aside and write a new one. Too many people try and chase the '8' - either by buying more evaluations or by tinkering incessantly with the script - and up chasing their tail in the process. Put some distance between you and the script for a while (or maybe forever) and start a new story.
Thanks for your advice. I won't lie -- for awhile, I guess I was chasing the 8. However, I did reread my evaluator's comments and make some revisions to my spec script, and it's better for it now. I'm always open to criticism, if the criticism is valid.

I suppose, in a short while, I'll be putting my spec script ONE GOOD JOB, a mystery-thriller, back on the Black List site for hosting. And I do feel it's about as good as can be now, so I'll probably just leave it there for a long time. 