221 | Strategies To Focus Better While Writing (And Other Mailbag Questions)

Another mailbag! We answer your brilliant questions, and talk a bit about Austin. Buckle up!

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Meg: Hey everyone, welcome back to The Screenwriting Life. I'm Meg LeFauve. 

Lorien: And I'm Lorien McKenna. And we are just back from Austin Film Festival, where we were lucky to meet and get to know so many of you in person. And as always, you had such amazing questions, so we thought this would be a great time to do another mailbag episode.

Meg: The other thing that came up at AFF a lot was that you guys would approach us to ask for more help. How you can get in contact with Lorien and I directly for direct feedback on your stories, how to make your craft better, and the answer to all of those questions was the TSL Workshops. 

You know, honestly, so many of you didn't know about our workshops that we're going to take two minutes and talk about what they are, just so we make sure that you know it's out there and as a resource for you. Because honestly, we created it for you. So we're just going to talk about it for a second here, and then we'll jump into the show. 

Lorien: You can just go to our website, the screenwritinglife.com and there's a little tab there that says “Workshops”, and you can click there and get more information. For the people who are a part of TSL workshops, what they have been telling me that they really love is having that access to us twice a month, because we do like a live questions and answers, and then The Story Workshop, which is the same thing we do at AFF that is recorded live for one of our podcasts, where we sort of dig in more deeply into your story.

And I know that I get a lot out of those. Because that's cheating, right? How do I get something out of what we're doing for you? 

Meg: The other thing that people are telling us is that they're learning a lot, that even just from one or two workshops, because we also have recorded workshops on the site, not just from myself and Lorien. The workshop I did for many years at AFF that I'm not doing anymore about creating emotional characters is there. Lorien has some workshops. 

We also have workshops from Pat Verducci and Sheila Hanahan Taylor, which is a producer, so she's looking at things from her side. Like for example, she has one called 10 Rookie Mistakes, and they're really, we're trying to give you all different sides, from the producer side, from the writer side, from the consultant side, but it's all about helping you increase your skill set.

Because the other question I got a lot was, well, when do I know, you know, how to get an agent or how to move forward and the answer is you've got to have a great script because eventually that wheel is going to turn and somebody at the bar at AFF is going to turn to you and go, I have a lot of money and I'm looking for a movie.Do you have one? Pitch it to me. And you can't be like, I have to rewrite it. 

So, we really want you and that did happen to me at the bar at AFF because this, who knew, there was a lady there with money walking around looking for horror movies. You gotta be ready. And you got, your script has to be ready and that's what we can help you with.

Honestly, we're doing this for you. Sometimes I also love going to AFF because, and this is getting into our weeks a bit, but I get to find out, oh yeah, we should still do this, because people are getting something out of it. Because, you know, it's a lot of time and effort on Lorien and my part and Jeff and Jonathan. But these workshops, I really feel like are really helping people.

Lorien: Yeah, it was really cool. I mean, I guess we're talking about our weeks now. What was really cool for me is connecting with people who have pitched to us in the story workshop, telling me, oh, the thing I pitched and workshop with you guys is the thing that got me in as a second rounder at AFF. 

Meg: Yeah, yeah, that we actually helped.

Lorien: Yes, and I, and, you know, who knows where it went, but like, just that we sparked someone into a rewrite and into discovery and digging deeper, digging in a different way, got them to move their script. And it's so inspiring. 

Meg: And Jeff, remind us some of the topics of the workshops we already have up there and some that are coming.

Jeff: Just echoing everything Meg and Lauren have said. It's also very fun. I would love just to meet more people, but in terms of the pre-taped workshops, Meg mentioned her emotional characters workshop, which has fundamentally shifted the way I think about my work. And when I structure, it feels like I'm cheating, that like I have a new key that lets me into a feature. It's amazing. And it, it's just like, it's TSL in a one and a half hour nutshell. It's amazing.

Lorien has this incredible character want workshop that will challenge you as a person as much as it challenges your work. Both of them-

Lorien: You’re welcome!

Jeff: Sort of, it's amazing. And I gotta say. I'm obsessed with Pat's. She has a three-part workshop that is kind of about the building blocks of story. And we always ask on the show, is this an idea or is this a movie? Pat gives you some like barometers to kind of start asking those questions early. And she gives you like really fast tools to take what feel like maybe just ideas and start pushing them towards being a movie very quickly.

Again, like it feels like these workshops are sort of like you're cheating and accelerating the time it takes to get a good feature on the page. So I'm just really proud of them. I will just say as someone who's like was directing on set and like cut them and is really proud of who Meg and Lorien vet in terms of who's allowed sort of to be in this ecosystem, I think it is like really top tier. So we’d just love to share it with you. 

Meg: Jeff, do we have any workshops that are coming that haven’t been dropped yet? 

Jeff: Yeah. So–

Meg: What are the titles of some of the ones that haven’t even dropped yet? 

Jeff: I think one I'm really excited about that we're dropping soon is Sheila Hanahan Taylor did a general meetings workshop where she has three volunteers. Kind of she walks through the five steps of a general meeting from like how to elegantly make small talk. How to transition your small talk into your pitch. And like how to concretely think about your pitch. What the executive is thinking as you're pitching and have more ideas in your back pocket.

Like it really is like a hack into sort of like the five stages of what a general meeting is. People are always asking about that on the Facebook page and this is like a fly on the wall fishbowl of what they actually look like. It's amazing. So that's what I'm really excited about in addition to a bunch of others.

Meg: And we know we're, it's not just like, oh, here's a video, watch it. We're trying to build a community there to help you, which is why Lorien and I come on and talk to you directly. And you know, you could tell us, here's some other workshops I'd love to see. And you know, it's for you. It's your community. So come over and check it out. 

All right, so Lorien, before we jump into the mailbag, how was your week? 

Lorien: Well, the beginning of my last week was spent on my daughter's seventh grade field trip, which I was dreading, but I actually loved, because now I know how to talk like a seventh grader. Because I just spent four days with them.

And it was amazing. And they have so much energy and so many emotions, and it is a very intense experience. I was lucky I got to go. I'm glad I got to go because my daughter has complex medical needs and I needed to go in order to help her so that she could go. And then I came home from that. 

I did see a bison on Catalina, which was very cool. Apparently in the 50s they were shooting a western there, and they brought in all these bison, and then the film ran out of money, and they just left the bison now there. And now they're endemic to Catalina, which I think is hilarious. 

And then I flew to Texas on Friday morning to go to AFF, and I had a panel on Friday afternoon, and three panels on Saturday, and our TSL party, and then I flew home on Sunday morning. And I can't do that again.

Last year I flew in from Rome and I thought I'll never do this again and then this year I did something kind of similar. So next year, people, please don't let me schedule anything the week before or the week after Austin Film Festival because I am no longer 28 years old. And I can't do that. 

But it was great. I had a great time. It was really fun to see everybody for the three seconds I got to talk to people one at a time. Emotionally, it was very exciting, very validating, very strange. And I got a cereal, I got a chip bowl that says Lorien's Chips on it from someone who gives me a present every year for our birthday and it was very cool.

Meg: Very nice. I know. Yes, I got origami cranes, which is amazing. Okay, I love going to AFF because I get to talk to you guys directly and honestly, because you let us know that it's helping you and that you don't feel alone and that's why we need to keep doing it. Our lives are very busy. There's a lot of people pulling on our attention. We are not becoming millionaires off of our podcast. Kind of opposite, but, so it's good to know. Honestly, it's very important for me every year to go and hear, is this still helping? How is it, you know, what is the impact of this? 

And the impact for me was that listening to everybody be so brave and come up and pitch their stories, I really realized, Joe and I were like, Boy, we gotta write. Because, you know, you're giving all this advice, like, you need to be writing. You need to have your butt in the chair. This is something you have to be disciplined about. I'm like, oh my gosh, we better go write. 

So what we did was, we gave ourselves a deadline. We texted our manager and said on Tuesday at 10am, please come over to our office. We're going to pitch you where we are on this pitch we need to take into a studio. And then of course that fired me up because I was like, oh my god, we're not ready. We are totally not ready. So we ended up going out and spending the whole morning on Sunday working at a coffee shop and it was really invigorating.

And so I really appreciate and account that to being at AFF and watching everybody there doing all of their work and being brave and the advice that everybody's giving about writing. I took it. I took that. And yeah, then we pitched yesterday, you know, of course I pushed it off to 1:30 because I'm like, we're not ready. We're not ready. And it went well. 

So, I really felt inspired from Austin and I always just love meeting you guys. And seeing you again, that's also my favorite part is me seeing you guys again year after year and checking in on you and what are you doing? And oh, I did give homework this year. If somebody walked up to me and they were a fan and I'd already seen them last year, I was like, okay, this time next year, what do you say to me?

What is your goal? When they, this time next year? And they would say, I'm going to have my script done or I'm going to do that. I'm like, okay, you have to walk up and tell me. If you didn't, don't not come or don't walk up to me, but just come and say, I couldn't do it because. But I just thought, you know, sometimes like myself, homework is not a bad thing. A deadline is not a bad thing. So I thought that was fun. 

Lorien: Yeah. 

Meg: Okay. Let's get to our questions. 

Jeff: All right. So Shandya, who I actually did see at AFF, hi Sandhya, she asks: at AFF I heard a lot about voice, a bit about brand, and even less about the intersection between the two. As an emerging writer, can you suggest some helpful exercises or other ways to hone in on my unique voice and how to showcase that as a part of my brand?

Lorien: My really reductive answer is: do some exercises where you're just writing like you talk. Like you're telling a story to somebody, instead of overworking every word and that it's in the right place, as just a way to get in touch with yourself. How would you tell this as a story? How would you set up the scene? How would you describe this character without overthinking too much the, you know, how many lines or words can I have in an action line or–

Meg: Should I have this scene in my script at all and all that over worrying that kills voice. 

Lorien: Yeah.

Meg: I think that's a great, I think that's a great idea. You know, it's such a shitty answer, but it's really about repetition and writing a lot of scripts and the voice emerges. I don't necessarily have something, but now I wish I did because it's a good question.

How voice intersects with brand it's funny, to me, and again, I'm not a brand manager, but I think it's the voice becomes the brand, and it's kind of what you're really good at, and that brand can also go to genre. I think they can be interchangeable sometimes, brand and voice. They're all about you personally and what you're bringing to it and what you love. Here's the thing, it's what you love, it's what you love to write, it's what you lean into.

And I feel like I need to, we need to go get another exercise. So we will do that and put it on the Facebook page in terms of here's a voice exercise. Or maybe we'll do a workshop. Do a TSL workshop. 

Jeff: I took a writing class and I think like often writing monologues, it's different than your voice, but sometimes separating ourselves a bit and like finding a character or even putting yourself in a situation where you didn't say something that you wish you said, whether that's you were angry or upset or even excited or happy about something and letting either that version of you or a character monologue can at least point you in towards like what you're interested in.

Dialogue is different from voice, but I think it can be helpful to sort of push you towards something that sounds a little bit like you, iIf that makes sense.

Lorien: The way I think about voice is if somebody reads it and meets me, they go, oh, I got it. I mean, for me, that's what works. Or if I'm pitching something, it's so clear that you're actually talking to me, that I'm telling you a story. That it's not just, I'm roboting that, I'm not checking things off a list. It's actually–

Meg: Yeah, that's really important. Voice isn't just how you describe something on the page. It's very much what you're choosing to tell. It's not just how you're telling it, it's what you're telling, right? That is also so much of the voice of the creator. 

You know, everybody else is telling this full painting, but I'm only going to go over here into the right corner and tell you about this blue tone that you're going to think there's no, that's not enough of a story, but just wait till I take you in to show you. You know, it's really what you're choosing as a storyteller to tell. And then how you tell it. 

Lorien: Yeah. I think for pitches, for me, when I'm pitching a TV show, I want you to be listening to my pitch, and it's as if you're watching the show. It's that feeling, that entertainment value. I'm like, I don't know how it is with features, I imagine it's the same thing. I'm about to pitch a feature, so I'll go offline, I'll pick your brain, but I want you to feel like you're in it with the main character and with me, and you're confident that I can tell that story. But like, you watch the movie.

Meg: You know, another way to learn this is watch friends at a dinner party and who tells a story well and who doesn't. And just because you can verbally tell a story well doesn't mean you're a good writer, by the way, because sometimes it's inverse. 

But really, watch the fireside version of a story and how, which, you know, which friend of yours tells stories really well and everybody's leaning in, right? And how they tell it and when they put the joke in and when they leave a silence and when they lean back and say, and then. 

All that stuff, that's all voice that and it becomes a brand, right? Like, I can't wait for him to tell a story at the dinner party. And sometimes I'm like, oh, my god, I can't wait for that other person to not tell a story because they go on and on and I'm not gonna know what's happening. And it's all so interior.

Lorien: Is that why I don't get invited to your dinner parties, Meg? Because I'm that person. 

Meg: All right, next question. 

Jeff: So Gill asked in general about stage directions and action in our scripts. He's kind of asking one, how do we set up the right atmosphere for whatever our story is? And I guess, I like this question of what we're allowed to and not allowed to include in our action. 

Especially I think he's getting at like directing on the page versus giving the director space to do their job. I feel like that's an argument that comes up a lot on, like, screenwriting Twitter. So I'd be curious to hear what the two of you think.

Meg: I think every writer's gonna make their own choice about that and everyone's gonna tell you about the rules and what you can do. Listen, the only rule that I follow is you can't say literally close up. You can't say wide shot. You can't literally put the shots. But if you read scripts, here's my advice, read some of the very best scripts. Take all the Academy Award winning scripts and adapted and original and best picture and read them. And remember that also, you're gonna hear a voice. 

But also, watch how they are directing on the page. They just are. They're saying, we move in. You know, on her, we see her shock, right? Close up, you see her eye twitch, whatever, like you, they are, you know, we're going down a street and we're seeing all the houses.

Well, what are you telling me? You're telling me a tracking shot, you're telling me. So, I do it because that's how I see the movie. I want you to see the movie. What, but I'm not telling you a shot. I'm telling you in the description where I want your attention focused as a storyteller. That's how I do it.

Lorien: Yeah, I think it's that exactly. And if you're going to do something, be consistent with it. You know, I, you're going to have a lot of people say, don't say we see, we hear, we go. Oh–

Meg: I do. 

Lorien: I do. Yeah. And people get very mad about that and then we're going to get a lot of hate mail because of this. 

Meg: Then don’t do it. I don't, like, nothing's prescriptive. But here's the thing. I think if you're getting notes about that, that means your story doesn't work. Because if your story was so good, they wouldn't even notice. It, those are the kind of notes that are telling you, you don't have a story. It's not firing. They don't care.

And they're trying to look for something to talk to you about. And so they're going to kind of that top, you know, format stuff. Oh boy. Really, your story should be so good, they don't care what format it's in. Because they just were swept away by it. 

Lorien: But there is one interesting thing about this question. It says the balance between getting across what a character is thinking, feeling, and their motivation without telling the director or actor how to do his or her job, but that whole thinking, feeling, their motivation, that's an action. 

That shouldn't be an internal description in a stage direction. Because how do I act that? How do I direct that? What am I seeing on screen? 

Meg: It goes to behavior. Actors want to do things. They don't want to just sit there and have the camera rest on their face. They want to actually go do something to show how they're feeling. And if I have a beat where I really want you to know how that character is taking what just happened, I might say, you know,, vulnerability flashes across her face. And then she does this action, you know, in response to it.

So I will sometimes go in and tell you if I think it's super important to know what that character's feeling, but I do it rarely and I pick when I'm doing it, right? Because it's something that's very much happening in the script that you need to know, she's taking it in a very different way. 

Jeff: When you described it visually, too, you didn't say she feels vulnerable. You said a flash of vulnerability sweeps across her face, which is a cinematic way to kind of secretly infuse that in the script. 

Meg: Yeah, so that's what I would do. And creating atmosphere, you know, that's world building. And the answer to that is to take your favorite five movies that create amazing atmosphere and go read the scripts and watch how those experts on the page created it. I'm telling you, reading scripts, you're going to learn all this stuff. 

Jeff: Jenalyn asks, do you have any recommendations for writing a pilot episode? 

Lorien: The pilot must be an episode. It has to be an episode. If your show takes place in a giant superstore, the pilot has to take place in a giant superstore. I'm not watching a pilot of someone decide to, and then apply to, and interview, and then at the end of the episode get a job at the superstore. Nope, I want to see you at superstore. The pilot is the show.

Meg: The pilot is the setting. The pilot is also, the story engine is moving. It's starting to create the show out of the pilot. And, you know, we should probably just do a whole workshop on the pilot, because it's such a big question, and we can get some of the experts in on TV pilots in terms of, you know, it's a giant question. I don't even know if we can answer it. It's a whole episode. 

Lorien: Here is actually my real recommendation for writing a pilot. Write a pilot. Just write a pilot, right? Just write anything. We've all written terrible scripts and terrible pilots. It's the overthinking that'll get in your way. Am I doing the right thing? Am I approaching this the right way? Just try writing something and see what happens first. 

Meg: Yeah. And her other question is how do you know if it's a feature or a pilot? I mean, there's some external ways. One is this something that needs eight episodes and you've got a TV engine? And if you don't know what that is, go listen, we have a whole episode on TV engines. 

Or is it kind of something that, you know, I would consider it like building the Empire State Building. It's got a beginning. We're going to build it up. We're going to end at a point. Like it's a thing that's going to end and it's encapsulated. 

And then the other thing is, try both ways. Guess what? Writing is writing a lot. Write it as a pilot. What happens? Write it as the feature. See what happens. 

Jeff: David F. M. Vaughn always says, and I think you say it too, Lorien, but like what's episode six. Like if you can't necessarily answer that, it might be a feature, you know. And you have to write it to figure this out, but that's a great litmus test.

Izzy asks, I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for sparking ideas or tactics to use when your screenplay isn't long enough. 80 pages for me, it's a historical drama and romance, but you can't think of additional plot points that feel authentic to the story. 

Meg: Well, you probably don't have a full three act idea yet, I'm being honest with you, Izzy.

You have to go back to act one. If you don't have an idea, a concept for this movie that is driving a big three act structure, there's probably something going off in the actual concept of the idea. Because we could give you some surface ideas like, you know, Act 2A is the fun and games. So maybe you're not having enough fun. 

In Act 2B, you're making it hard on the main character. Maybe you're really not making it hard enough on them. There's relationship things you can do, you know, and every sequence it's like transformative, right? So if your character's moving from, you know, here to here, you should have them, that transformation so far apart that it takes a lot to change them, right?

So I would go look at your character arc, and maybe they're not changing enough, so you don't have a lot to do because it's happening too quickly. But all of those things are just symptoms of the first thing I said, which is your core concept doesn't sound like, if you're at 80 pages, it hasn't created a three act idea.

So I personally would go back and look at the engine of your concept. I think we have a whole episode on engine and then I would re outline it again because something's, you do have something core off there. 

Lorien: Look at stakes. I'm reading quite a few scripts right now where the stakes aren't big enough, externally or internally. So the plot will kind of go plop. 

Meg: Or maybe it's the want and the drive and we're going to have a whole workshop on that. Lorraine has one up right now and we did a one that I participated in it at Austin that we're going to record. So maybe the driving want and the conflict to it isn't enough. So it's petering out, you know, what's in conflict to the want. And like Lorien said, what are the stakes if they don't get it, that should be as big as you can make it as a writing exercise to see what it is you're missing. 

Jeff: It's great advice. Meg has a worksheet on TSL workshops about how to properly set up your feature film engine in act one. And it's like a checklist of things that maybe you're missing Izzy that can help inform why you're kind of puttering out in act two. 

Meg: Yeah. Good. That's good. I forgot I had that. 

Jeff: It's great. It's, I've used it before. It's very helpful. Okay, Danielle asks, how do you go about writing scenes that require very specific knowledge, such as a surgical operation? When consulting with an expert in the field, what's the best way to get their help so they're giving you good information but not writing the scene for you?

Lorien: Is this in a TV show? Or, I mean, I think a lot of writers just write in things like medical, and if you're getting advice from a consultant, you're like, here's the situation, here's the character moment I need to get through, and then, how do I get to that using like, medical specific. 

So like I was suggested to be by my rep that I need to work on my writing action sequences. So I wrote out like what I wanted it to look like from what I wanted it to be for character, like what they go through and so that I could show the character. And then I brought it to my daughter's karate instructor and I was like, what would you do with this in action so that I could actually document the action but still keep it character focused and how that character is making a choice.

Meg: Yeah, that's all great information. I mean, you know, you're, experts will go into story. They just will. Right? Very early in the movie for Inside Out 2, we were thinking of maybe not using hockey, but literally, it was just like a moment. And somehow in talking to one of the experts, that came up and he was like, it has to be hockey. 

And he just went off on this riff about it. And you just wait them out. You know what I mean? Because you want them engaged and then you just slowly steer it back to that's great. Not sure we're gonna do that. That's not where we are. But again, talk to us about shame or whatever. Like, you know, I, asking about their life experience.

Like if you're talking to a surgeon, I would so want to know what's the worst surgery? What's the best? What are the, what's the thing you were surprised about? Like I do like to get into the character stuff in terms of psychology of that profession. And if it's literally like, which scalpel would you use? I literally, like, Lorien would just write medical. Like, I don't know. It doesn't, so.

In terms of historical though, you know, I want to know the correct history as it relates, like Lorien said, to character. Right? Like, she doesn't have access to this. She wouldn't have that, but she'd have this, which is very strange, and yet she would. You know, that's the fun, fun detail stuff that goes back to your character and what you're picking. 

Jeff: Awesome. Great. As a related question, Abigail asks, Any tips on striking the balance between research and writing on historical fiction? I can spend weeks deep in the social history of my world before I can even write a scene or find a new character.

I find myself getting stuck on scenes because I haven't quite fully grasped the depth of the historical context. It's obviously a critical part of the process, but if anyone has any hacks to jumping ahead to writing scenes in a nonlinear way so I can just write, I'd love to hear them. 

Meg: Well, that's what we did. We, my husband and I took a bit off a giant historical event and time period. I mean, it was so big that honestly, I was like, I don't even know if we can sell this. Why are we doing all this work? 

But we just started to, we got so lost in the historical context that we just said, okay, let's just skip all the characters and what is this TV show? And what are the episodes, you know, based on the big historical events. What are the episodes? Just to get it going, because I don't know what historically I need until I know the characters and their arcs and the episodes. So that's how I would do it. 

I would do some research of the historical time period so that you at least know the movement of that, if it's an event or something that actually happened. But then I would just always go back to character. It's probably the same answer, Jeff. I don't know. I don't know.

Lorien: My advice is if you are questioning if you're spending too much time researching, maybe take a break from researching and go write some scenes that are focused on character. Research is delightful and delicious and is this amazing way to fill our brains. Set a limit on how much time you're going to spend researching.

Meg: And if you just write the scene as an exercise, it doesn't matter if it's historically accurate or not. You're not trying, you're trying to get to something deeper than that.

Jeff: Well said. Okay we're going to move on to some questions about sort of writing and focus. Lorien, this, I think, one is probably specifically for you.

Maryah asks, I have ADHD, how can I find a writing process that works with my brain? 

Lorien: Well, this is such a great question. And I feel like we should have a big symposium about this. It really depends on what you're good at and what has worked for you in the past. And trying to replicate that. And, keeping momentum going.

One thing with ADHD is like I'll find a breakfast I like and I'll eat that same breakfast over and over. And then one day it tastes like garbage and ash and I won't do it anymore. So I have to find something else. The same thing is true of a writing process. So, I will get up and I'll like work out and I'll start writing at 10 and I have to do something silly like describe that mug on my desk as if it were a talking mug in order to trick myself into I'm writing now.

For me it's a lot about tricking myself to start, because that's the hardest part. The other hard thing is, My ADHD isn't one of those where I have lots of crafts and fun projects like an old truck in my driveway or like a bunch of yarn where I was going to learn how to crochet. Mine is I come up with new projects to do so I have to figure out a way to like keep track of those.

I've been using Trello. I have boards all over the place that helped me keep track of all my projects where I am. And then I move them in the, what am I working on today? And I have to keep it open on my desktop and work on it. For me, the hardest part is starting and then stopping. So timers, I think work for a lot of people too.

This was the most ADHD random rambly answer that I could come up with, 

Jeff: No it’s great, it’s great.

Meg: It’s perfect.

Lorien: But it is what works for you right now, and do more of that. And when it stops working, find a new process of something that you think you can do that's realistic and attainable. We, a lot of times with ADHD, we think we're broken. We have to fix ourselves. What is it that works for someone else? When, I have to cure this. And it's like, no, just lean into what it is and figure out what works for you and do that until it doesn't.

Jeff: That's great. Does Trello, like a time management app, Lorien? 

Lorien: Yeah I don't even know how to describe it, but it is a, it's like boards. You put project boards up. So it's, here's all my writing stuff, my personal stuff, and you can move it into like, do today, done. I like the, I create boards that say like, to do today, to do this week, and then done.

And you can actually like, grab the task and drag it across and put it in the done. So I can feel like, oh, a sense of accomplishment. I got these five things done. 

Okay, so I need to pop off for a meeting. So Meg and Jeff, you have it from here. Goodbye everybody! 

Jeff: A lot of you kind of asked about this inevitable thing with writing where it's, you know, you're kind of in the hole writing amazing work and you finally have a script you love.

What do you actually do? How do you get it seen? You know, are you supposed to use contests, The Black List? A lot of people asked about Roadmap. But Meg, what do you think about the step from I have an Oscar winning screenplay to now how do I get people to read it? 

Meg: Well, I hope you have more than one. And you know, have you been getting feedback on that, and that's the feedback you're starting to get from your writer's group or your friends that are reading it, which is, this is amazing. This is amazing. If you have anybody, circumference wise, six degrees of separation, who's actually a working professional in the industry, And they've read it and liked it, that's good. 

I know, I can hear you all. But how do I get to that person? I mean, it's a bit crazy how you get to that person. Like, you know, your dentist’s cousin works in LA on an agent desk. You know, those are the roads sometimes to get in.

But I do think contests are good for multiple reasons. They have to be the right contest. And I think we even did a show on, you got to be sure about what contest you're entering. But for the right contest, I think, I wouldn't worry myself about entering contests too soon. 

Get the feedback, man. I mean, you got to get ready, cause you don't know who's going to give you that feedback, but it's, get the muscle out there of sending something out. And getting rejected, i.e. not placing, and getting some feedback. It's never too soon to do that, in my opinion. Because it's a muscle you have to grow and learn to use well. 

So I wouldn't hesitate to start sending things to contests. I don't think it's like your name's gonna come up and they're gonna be like, this person sent in five times and they never made it. They're not tracking that stuff. There's too many. There's too many scripts. And the contests are good. When you do start placing, I do think there's a level in the industry who are watching certain festivals, I'm sorry, certain contests, so I don't think it's a bad thing. So I really like contests.

I do think if you really, truly are at a certain level and maybe you're having a problem that you can't place above third round. Then you really do need to go get a consultant. You need to go sit down with somebody one on one and do a deep dive and a deep dig dive into specifically what is your blind spot.

Cause if you're placing in contests and you can't get above a certain level, there might be a blind spot in your writing. So I do recommend instead of now spending money on contests, take that lump of money and get a consultant and get some one on one deep dive cold water. We all have to do it, guys. 

In terms of to up your craft or your voice or whatever it is that is a bit off, I do like Roadmap a lot because they do actually get you managers and agents. They really do all the time. I think you have to be ready for it. You know, it is a service that you're buying. And in order to take full advantage of that service, I want you to be ready with your scripts, that they can actually do something with those scripts. They are at a level of craft and voice and specificity of your brand, which is what they're going to help you define in order to go out to those managers.

That just, you got, you have to, I personally wouldn't jump to a roadmap too soon. I'd make sure I've got a lot of scripts and I've written a lot. And I, you know, I've written three scripts five times each and I've really gotten there.

Assuming that you've done that, other than Roadmap, it just becomes word of mouth and sharing your script. A lot of people are like, but I haven't given it to anybody. And I'm like, well, how's anybody going to find you? It's literally like friends of friends that we find you. And it has to be very distinct, you know, it does. It can't just be a good script. That's like the price of admission. The price of admission is a good script. It's the great script, the unique script, the script with the voice, the script with a crazy, amazing concept, that's a movie, you know. And that's just stuff that we write all the good ones and then the great ones come to us.

So those are the ways, you know, I do understand that some people say there's a lot of great scripts and nobody's looking for emerging writers, but that really just isn't true in terms of if it's good enough and unique enough, and you feel like you've arrived on the scene. Then you become a chip to play to pass your script around. So, you just have to find that concept and that craft level, but it all comes together. 

Jeff: Meg, you can tell me if you agree or disagree with this, but I think if you're writing smaller movies or that slot into a very specific genre, and this script has been vetted and won a lot of contests, and it has ground to stand on, you can always email producers of the very small production companies that help finance these movies, because they're often looking for this type of work. 

And you know, if someone specializes in female driven, limited location, horror movies, find some of your favorite comps. Find the small non-studio, production companies that are making them. Email them and say, hey my script won XXX and X. Would you ever want to grab a Zoom coffee? I'd be happy to send you a Starbucks gift card or whatever. Remember those producers who are hustling for studios or have overall deals, they're looking for this type of work. So they might say yes. 

Meg: Yeah, I always say go for the producer, not the agent or the manager, because the producer, number one, is looking for you. And number two, they're going to be with the script long after you're gone.

They're going to go all the way through to distribution and marketing, so they're the great people to have on your side as a writer. Yeah, absolutely look for producers, and yes, I agree, you can't just go for the giant producers on the lot. They're just going to funnel it to an assistant who's going to funnel it to an intern.

You know, look for the more boutique producers who have made things and are still out there hustling and looking for something to sell. 

Jeff: This is interesting. Tove asks, how can I demonstrate my skills in writing without oversharing my writing? Some novel writers talk about posting their short stories and synopses on social media to gain traffic and exposure. But should screenwriters do the same? Is it dangerous to share your ideas that easily online? 

Meg: Yeah. I mean. You know, if you have pros like me or Lorien, you can share your ideas with us. We're gonna, you know, protect ourselves, we'll protect you, we'll protect you and the group. But I wouldn't just randomly post things online because now it's out in the ether and there it goes.

I mean, everybody in Hollywood still knows that even if you have a super high concept, it's all about execution. But there are ideas that are so high concept that really they could just lift it, right, and give it to another writer. So you do have to be a little bit careful. I wouldn't just be posting randomly online my ideas.

And it's interesting, Jeff, what do you think she means by demonstrate my skills in writing without oversharing my writing? I kind of don't even understand. Because if you're, you have to show people your scripts. You have to show, you have to have people reading your pilots or your features and getting feedback.

Jeff: Right. I wonder Tove, this is not my place to speculate, but I wonder if maybe 5 percent of you is using this as a defense mechanism or an excuse to not put yourself out there. I do meet writers a lot, and I'm guilty of this, of, you know, if you're afraid to share your work because you don't want it to get stolen, maybe there's a subconscious thing of either: I know my work isn't ready, and I'm not ready to do the hard work on it. Or I'm just too, I haven't found that bravery to put myself out there yet. So I'm not saying this is this, but I'll speak for myself. I can use that as an excuse sometimes. 

This is a great question, I love the specificity of it. Brian asks, I sent my script to someone to read. How long should I wait until I follow up with them?

Meg: That's such a good, I mean, listen, if it's a friend, I'd say two weeks, three weeks, then you should call them. If it's, you know, a manager to be or an exec, I'd give them at least three weeks because you're, you've just been put on a pile somewhere. 

And you could follow up with their assistant, not necessarily them, and say, just checking in, She's gonna go, oh yeah, he's getting to it. And then you wait another two weeks and then you call again. Oh yeah, no, he's getting to it. I have this situation going on right now, by the way. I asked for someone to come to a, speak, as a speaker to come to an event and they are just not responding. So, you know what, I'm gonna have to go on to somebody else. 

You know, at some point them not responding is a pass, hate to say it. And I would say after the third call in, after two or three weeks each round, I'd be like, okay, I'm taking this as a pass. And I would just move on, which I know is heartbreaking. But that is just the reality for all of us, not just you, of unfortunately how people pass in Hollywood, which is they just never respond at all.

Now sometimes they're not responding because they forgot, they lost the script, it got to the bottom, and they forgot all about it, so you do have to follow up. Because sometimes not an answer is literally, truly just, you know. Like me, airhead, forgot you sent it, and I put it over here on the left and got overwhelmed. So squeaky wheel gets the grease, but just give them a little bit of time between each phone call. I'd say two weeks. 

Jeff: One thing I'll do is like when I'm sending that first email, if someone asks to read me, I'll say like, thanks so much, attaching the script below. I'd be happy to give you a courtesy check in a month if I haven't heard back. Let me know if that's good. 

And then usually they'll say like, yes, because they're actually grateful to know that they have someone holding them accountable to reading it. But sometimes they'll say like, no, I'll get back to you. But then it gives you some understanding and direction as to how this reader works and what they like. 

Meg: Love that. That’s great.

Jeff: So that's something you can do in advance. 

Jacqui asks, how do I network meaningfully and authentically? Sending an email with an opening line about the weather is so cringe. 

Meg: I agree. Well, if you're networking in person, I always try to get to the person, the human person. So, if I'm sitting in an office and I see a very interesting, truly, I believe, interesting painting that they've chosen to put on their wall, I will be like, what is that? That's amazing. 

I want to get to know them, not just what they can do for me, right? So, if I'm in person, I will talk to them, or sometimes I'll open up about myself, like, oh my gosh, I just did this crazy thing and that's why I'm late. And I'm so sorry. And I have another big oh, that happened to me. Like you want to get down to the human person, if you're in person especially.

In terms of networking by email, I hope there's some sort of personal connection that you can open with. Like I met you at my son's gymnastics event. Wasn't that funny when so and so tipped over the water bucket? But like just something, do they feel like you're a human being versus a bot, right, coming in and talking to them. 

It's funny too. Like when I was at AFF. This is a long stupid story but I bought a piece of art at the company shop and I was like, oh my god I don't know how to get this on the plane. And I was going down the street and I just saw a writer that I've seen a couple times at AFF. And he's like, how are you doing? And I was like, I don't know how to get this home. And he was like, let's go find out, you and me, let's go. 

And it was very, it wasn't like predatory. It was very much like, I care about you and you give so much and let me help you find it. I didn't let him do that because he was eating his lunch and I was like, you're fine. But you know, we're just, people out here that you're trying to network are just human beings just doing the same struggle and overwhelm as everybody else.

So I always default to the humanity. That's where I default. I don't know, Jeff, do you think I answered the question? Because when she says email, what do you think email means? How are you networking by email? 

Jeff: That's the whole thing. I totally agree with your answer. I think, let's say earlier I talked about, you know, cold reaching out to a producer, a boutique producer who might be interested in your work. Tell them what you love about their work. Like your job as someone who's interested in this business is to be up on what you're watching and to adore the business. 

So one thing I often find is helpful for me, and Laura always jokes that it's my superpower is like, I will not only know the big blockbuster that some writer or actor’s in but I’ll know like the super weird niche indie thing that I love that's theirs.

And they're always like so excited about that. Because it's a very specific way to see someone for what their work is that I think a lot of people often miss. Super quick story. 

Meg: And that–

Jeff: Oh, sorry. 

Meg: No that's really great. Keep going. That's such a great thing. 

Jeff: I was going to say, this is like a name drop-y story, but I only share it because I think it's a great example of what I'm talking about, where I was at an after party that my wife got into for a show that she works on. And a very famous person came in, like super A list. And a lot of people were kind of like gross, name dropping with this person and mentioning like the one huge movie he's in. 

But I was lucky enough that he's in this very small kind of weird offbeat comedy that's like my favorite movie. And when I mentioned that, he was so excited. And we shared a beer for like an hour and a half just talking about that movie. And I wasn't looking for anything. I just love that movie and would, really wanted to tell him, like, listen, this is like one of my favorite things. 

Meg: No, that's really smart. It's really smart. Like talk to them about the very first movie that they made that has a giant fan base, but no fans that will come up and talk to them about it. It's just really, you see them as a person and you care about their not just their fame and what you can get from them, but what they've contributed to storytelling. 

Jeff: Right. Jonathan, you popped in. I don't know if you had a thought.

Jonathan: I did. Well, a lot of people at AFF when the panels end, right, you get in a big line to talk to the people on the panel. And I just, I loved sort of eavesdropping on that because everybody sort of had a different way of doing it. And it was interesting to just sort of take note of if you were looking at the people on the panel, you could tell how they were responding to the people who were coming up to them and I witnessed, I would say, good examples of how to network. And I also saw one–

Meg: All right. What were they? What were the good examples? 

Jonathan: The first, well, the first one that's coming to mind was somebody who, this is an example of one that maybe you shouldn't–

Meg: Wasn't as successful. 

Jonathan: Yeah. That wasn't as successful, was this person took out their phone and pulled out Instagram and pulled up that person's profile and was saying, oh, you and I have mutuals on Instagram and just sort of paused there. And I watched the panelist sort of struggle with, to figure out how to respond or 

Meg: Block her. 

Jonathan: Right, right. When I can understand the, their intention was to say we have people in common, right. But it was I think it was the approach that ended up maybe backfiring. 

Meg: And getting more specific might have worked, right? Like, oh, my gosh, on Instagram, you follow this person. I do, too. Do you remember that time they did this? And, you know, if you do more specific, then the person can have something to answer to. 

Jonathan: Yeah, exactly. 

Meg: What was a good one?

Jonathan: I mean, I'm sort of thinking about how I wanted to approach the writers of Matilda after the panel. And I decided, I was waiting in line. I had like four people ahead of me. And the only thing I could think of to open was just coming from a personal place. And I started telling them about watching the movie for the first time with my mom and dad, and just was sort of telling them about that first movie going experience.

And they just were sort of smiling and it was a really easy way into the conversation. So I think so long as you're coming from an authentic, you know, personal place you can't go wrong. 

Meg: Yeah, because everybody else is just humans looking for some sort of human connection. 

Jeff: Yeah, they want to know you're not weird. They want to see you like a peer. So if you're talking about something you love and something you connect over with their art, suddenly, you're proving to that person that you have taste, you can play ball with them and you're not grasping desperately at, you know, something else. 

Meg: All right, you guys, thanks so much for tuning into The Screenwriting Life. I hope you got some of your questions answered. If not, come over to the workshop and we'll answer them there. 

Lorien: And remember, you are not alone and keep writing.