A Script Worth Celebrating

When I have accomplishments to celebrate, I want to talk about them, but I feel a little too much like I am bragging. I don’t want to be a bragger. That’s why I often mention my failures as well, I think. To be more humbled and to be more realistic. Then again, we all deal with our failures when they come up, and when our successes come up, we should celebrate them. Absolutely. There’s no need to highlight failures first.

I happen to have another accomplishment. So, with all that being said, I am STILL going to highlight some failures first. Because that’s who I am.

And that’s how it’s all gone down.

My first script I wrote was horrible. The idea was great and I want to rewrite it someday. I think the bones of it are solid. But I didn’t know what I was doing. I got screenwriting software and just started going to town. I wrote the action like a novel. (Tip: You do NOT write screenplay action like a novel.) I wrote WAY TOO MUCH detail. In screenwriting, they say every page is about a minute. So, if you are aiming for a 90-minute comedy, it should be 90 pages. If you are writing a two-hour action-drama, it should be 120 pages. I learned this tidbit once I hit 179 pages… and was about halfway through my comedy script. For reference, that would make a 3-hour movie. So, imagine sitting down and watching a comedy that was as long as The Lord of the Rings, and when you ask, “How much left to go?” you are told, "We’re about halfway through." I fixed it up, but still, after many edits and finishing it up, it was 130 pages, and it had way too many scenes that had nothing to do with the plot and stuff that I just thought was funny. There was a scene where some stoners were changing channels on the TV and fighting over the hierarchy of the channel-changer and also speculating on how to appease multiple people with different interests and preferences by finding the perfect show that could suit all… it lasted 10 minutes and didn’t advance the plot at all… it was funny… but it was unnecessary. I entered it into a contest. It went nowhere. Even the title made no sense.

The next script I wrote followed a lot of the same path. Too long for a comedy script written by a nobody. Entered into a contest, went nowhere. I still like parts of it and may rewrite it someday, but the ending was stupid and worked out way too well for the character without him even doing much.

I wrote another script, another idea I want to revisit, but the execution was terrible. I tried to make the character way too cool and thought my idea was so cool that everyone would think I was cool for writing it. I even wrote in what songs would play during certain scenes. I entered that into a contest. I am sure the reader laughed their ass off at my assumption that I could just choose the song that would play. (To be fair, I saw that in a finished script and thought that was totally normal.)

I wrote the first 20 pages of a script, per the rules of a contest, and followed the guidelines for their plot idea and swore I made an excellent opening to a script. I entered it into that contest. Nothing. I went back and read it and realized it was nearly all dialogue and basically all one scene. There were some good jokes in there, but there were also too many jokes in there, and I clearly just thought I was much funnier than I was.

When I flew home to visit family and friends one year, I came up with an idea for a script at the airport. I saw the whole thing instantly. In my downtime on my vacation, I cranked out the entire script. In a week. I entered it into a contest and it moved on to the second round! But then nothing after that. And then I did nothing with the script after that. I kind of failed myself there. I probably should’ve tried polishing it.

I wrote and wrote and wrote for years, but I took a lot of time off. I didn’t work as hard as I should have. I always had this feeling like something would just come to me. Like I’d keep working on ideas casually, and someday I’d run into someone and they’d be interested in my ideas for no reason other than that would be a nice thing to happen to me. I daydreamed about cool things that could happen. Maybe someday I’d be lucky and I’d be discovered, even though I wasn’t trying so hard. I had this strange idea that something would just happen and I didn’t put in as much hard work as I should have. One day, something clicked, and I realized I needed to work harder. Much, much harder.

Nowadays, I am determined. I want a career in writing, I want my stories to get out there. I find every opportunity I can to write. I write when I am in a long line at the store if there is an idea lingering. I write while I am outside walking my tortoise. (Not a euphemism.) I write on my lunch break. I take 10-minute breaks at work and write during those breaks. I write at night, in the morning, in the afternoon, in between projects, right after I have woken up, after I have finished work, sometimes right before bed. I want it. It will not fall into my lap, so I have to earn it.

I entered a script into the TSL Free Screenplay Contest earlier this year. Over 15,000 submissions along with mine. In early April, I found out I moved on to the Quarterfinalist round. Down to 1,000 people. Today, I found out I moved on to the Semifinalist round. Down to 250 people. Down to the top 1.7% of scripts entered into the contest as rated by the judges. (I did the math, because I am proud, and I am proud I can do the math too.) It is a magnificent feeling, I am still in a state of euphoria and I read the news hours and hours ago.

My project is ranked highly on Coverfly as well. It is discoverable and my accolades appear next to it, so people can see it, agents, managers, producers, whoever.

I am celebrating my accomplishment because I worked hard. I wouldn’t have the accomplishment if I didn’t work hard. I wouldn’t have this amazing feeling without first trekking through all the subpar feelings on the way. It’s OK for me to talk about this and celebrate it and even boast a little bit, because these moments do not come around every day. In fact, they’re not guaranteed to come around at all. Who knows if and when another one will come by. In the moment... now... in the present, I have accomplished something.

That is worth celebrating.