So I upgraded to blogger pro. I'll let you know if it's worth the $35/year.
Spent the day reading a book called The Screenwriter's Survival Guide: Or, Guerrilla Meeting Tactics and Other Acts of War. I should have spent the day doing life maintenance like grocery shopping and washing socks. But I didn't. Maybe I'll get to it tonight.
Anyway, in spite of the cheesy name, this is actually a fairly good book. I bought it about a year ago and haven't really picked it up because I didn't want to read about how to ambush people with your script. That always seemed so rude... and rather dumb if you wanted to have it taken seriously. Now that I've finished the book, I think someone in the publishing company added the subtitle. Max's advice is actually to never ambush people with your script. It's rude and dumb if you want to have it taken seriously.
The book actually does a pretty good job of illustrating what the (feature, movie) screenwriting life is like. And a good job of talking you out of it. For instance, she does the math breakdown to show that when you see in the trade magazines that someone sold a movie script for $500,000 - what that really means is that the writer got to take home $17,500 after taxes and commissions to the people who helped you get the deal. You might get a little more later, but only much much later. And only if you're lucky. That's usually for about two years of work. How's that for depressing?
Oh - there really are guerilla meeting tactics, but that mostly involves how not to schedule yourself into insanity (aparently you should never plan a meeting in Burbank and the other is in Santa Monica on the same day). Also, what to keep in the car when you're doing meetings - dollar bills, quarters, chapstick, beverage of your choice, aspirin, sunglasses, a change of clothes (especially socks), business cards, two cans of Fix-a-Flat, breath stuff, deodorant, safety pins, maps, masking tape, post-its, pens, toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, lozenges, hairspray, lipstick.
So anyway, I'll stop copying from the book. If that looks interesting, go buy it. Well, I will tell you what she says to do if all the depressing news doesn't turn you away: Write like God.
I read the book to give myself a little more information as I'm pondering career directions. I can't say it's completely talked me out of the screenwriting direction. And I think that may be a sign in itself. I'm not running screaming. But I'm still not really sure where to go.
I do think I need to write some scripts next. Won't that be fun?
Spent the day reading a book called The Screenwriter's Survival Guide: Or, Guerrilla Meeting Tactics and Other Acts of War. I should have spent the day doing life maintenance like grocery shopping and washing socks. But I didn't. Maybe I'll get to it tonight.
Anyway, in spite of the cheesy name, this is actually a fairly good book. I bought it about a year ago and haven't really picked it up because I didn't want to read about how to ambush people with your script. That always seemed so rude... and rather dumb if you wanted to have it taken seriously. Now that I've finished the book, I think someone in the publishing company added the subtitle. Max's advice is actually to never ambush people with your script. It's rude and dumb if you want to have it taken seriously.
The book actually does a pretty good job of illustrating what the (feature, movie) screenwriting life is like. And a good job of talking you out of it. For instance, she does the math breakdown to show that when you see in the trade magazines that someone sold a movie script for $500,000 - what that really means is that the writer got to take home $17,500 after taxes and commissions to the people who helped you get the deal. You might get a little more later, but only much much later. And only if you're lucky. That's usually for about two years of work. How's that for depressing?
Oh - there really are guerilla meeting tactics, but that mostly involves how not to schedule yourself into insanity (aparently you should never plan a meeting in Burbank and the other is in Santa Monica on the same day). Also, what to keep in the car when you're doing meetings - dollar bills, quarters, chapstick, beverage of your choice, aspirin, sunglasses, a change of clothes (especially socks), business cards, two cans of Fix-a-Flat, breath stuff, deodorant, safety pins, maps, masking tape, post-its, pens, toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, lozenges, hairspray, lipstick.
So anyway, I'll stop copying from the book. If that looks interesting, go buy it. Well, I will tell you what she says to do if all the depressing news doesn't turn you away: Write like God.
I read the book to give myself a little more information as I'm pondering career directions. I can't say it's completely talked me out of the screenwriting direction. And I think that may be a sign in itself. I'm not running screaming. But I'm still not really sure where to go.
I do think I need to write some scripts next. Won't that be fun?
