The Good Wife “Hitting The Fan”

Tags

Alicia, Hitting the Fan, Season Five, The Good Wife, Will

Wow is all I can say about last night’s episode of The Good Wife. I thought it was raw, emotional, exciting and a great ride. I felt for both Alicia and Will. You could see the hurt in Will’s eyes when Diane told him what was happening. You could FEEL it in his reaction. The dialogue was perfect. “What?” He said simply, “WHAT?” he was confused, hurt, angry, confused, confused, confused, then his raw emotions came out. It was one of the best episodes this show has ever put on. 

The scene when Alicia is home with her new firm and her husband comes home and they have a quicky was amazing as well. It perfectly showed us her high from her adrenaline running through her system. We saw he strong and powerful.

Yet we got to see a softer side of her in the lift after Will told her to get out where she broke down and cried because she knew that her actions crushed him.

This show is so good that if you are not watching it , you are missing some of the best network television out there. 

Getting Past a Reader-Screenwriting Errors Will Get You Tossed

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character, Getting past readers, Hollywood Readers, screenwriting, Screenwriting errors, Story

I just finished helping judge a screenwriting contest and the two biggest issues were:

Character-you must know your character and write in “their” voice not in yours. Yes you have to have a voice. Many great screenwriters have a voice, but every character is unique. Dialogue is such a huge part of character. I used to teach a class on it, I haven’t done it again, but can always go over dialogue with you for a discounted rate. It’s important, really important. 

Also in character, writers weren’t describing their characters. You NEED to describe them-what they are wearing, what they look like. Don’t tell us who they are, describe them or show us. 

Story-you must know what story you are telling. I read so many scripts with great premise but no story. Other issues were; bad first 10 pages-in reality a reader won’t go past page 5 if they don’t have to. Make those first pages count. Voice overs and flashbacks-get rid of them until you are established. Pacing-if you don’t know how to pace a story use Save the Cat or Contour to help you-I know it sounds weird, but when reading a lot of scripts, it is easy to get bored and want to move on-which will be a “pass”. Just thought I would share this insight, hope it helps. We all have these issues for sure.

Sadly you have to get past the reader. Readers are bored easily and since they have tons and tons of scripts to read, it is really easy to not get through a script that probably would make a great film. 

My advice is if you have the means, get your scripts covered. Join screenwriting groups and get your scripts reviewed by your peers, take classes and don’t be afraid to get rid of that genius scene if you need to. 

Don’t submit your first draft to contests. I am sad to say that even I did that in the past. It’s not a good idea.

Don’t ever write on the cover page or last page “million dollar award winning screenplay”. That’s like bragging about your I.Q. If it was true, you wouldn’t need to.

Use common sense people and you will get read, make these mistakes and I can pretty much promise that you will end up in the deleted emails, or waste basket by page 5.

Good luck and happy writing!

 

Good Sales Pitch, but Novelists Do NOT Make That Much

Tags

author, contest, Novels, screenwriting

Haha just received this email about a screenwriting contest..”This is a life-changing opportunity to become a published author, enjoying an income stream from your book’s royalties!”… I am a published author and this sounds much better than the get rich slow reality that is novel writing. Trust me writing screenplays is much more lucrative..even the unsuccessful ones make some money, with novels even the successful ones don’t always bring in a lot of dough. 

I love writing novels and would love to be the next J.K. Rowling, but she is the exception. I have several friends who are successful novelists and they still have day jobs on the side. Publishing is a tough business and while some do great, it’s not the norm so you don’t enter a screenwriting contest in the hopes of becoming a published novelist, you enter for screenwriting. You write novels because it’s a calling not to make money. 

If you make money, great, but you do it for the love of it.