The Writing Week (Vol. 2) part 87 - Ahead of Schedule for the Competitve September Spec Market

When last I spoke to my producer and manager, we agreed that I would get them what is hopefully the last rewrite by September 1st. That's tomorrow.

The more I focused on the job ahead of me, the less daunting the task seemed. The larger rewrites shrunk as things clicked more and more. Before I knew it, I was targeting August 26th for my final rewrites and giving myself the 27th and 28th to re-read everything before sending. On Friday the 28th, I shot the "final" major rewrite for this stage of the script off to the producer and the manager.

This process has taught me a few things, and reminded me of others. For one, it's great to have a deadline. I usually approach rewrites by starting with a very cursory grammar and spelling check. That gets the ball rolling on prepping myself for making some actual changes. With a tight deadline, though, the comfort of doing those superficial (and sometimes meaningless, once scenes are cut) changes is gone. Only having time to focus on the actual rewrites with one proofing round at the end forces attention. I usually try to avoid the meat of a rewrite as long as possible, but this week, it was all business all the time.

Another thing I've been thinking about a lot is deadlines. September 1st was a nice round deadline. Many production companies end their year in August, so I'm told, and have little to no cash left for acquiring material then. Come September, though, their bank accounts are open again (so-to-speak) and the buying begins. Add to that the fact that most execs and VPs take their vacation in August, and September becomes a highly competitive time in the spec market. It's our goal to be a part of the competition this year. It was my goal to make that as much of a reality as possible, so I pushed myself to beat the deadline and give the producer and manager more time to read and, therefore, give myself more time for any final tweaks they feel necessary.

That brings me to the last point. Though this will hopefully sound intuitive to most of you, re-reading your material is essential. And I'm not just talking about for typos and grammar - if you don't reread for editing purposes, though, you should probably re-think your career choice. It's important to go through for other reasons, too. Did you make every single change you meant to? If you cut a character, did you cut him/her everywhere, or does their name pop up somewhere. Same with changing a character or location name. Make sure the old is fully flushed away. Also, depending on your method of sending - do you email your contacts scripts in Movie Magic, Final Draft, or pdf format - check the final version. I once sent Onyx a pdf created from Movie Magic, which I use, only to discover that 5 pages had been corrupted. I now scan every single page before sending anything out.

These things might seem small and very "Screenwriting 101," but at a certain point, they become just as important as the content on the page. Make sure the presentation is as flawless as can be, and take the extra hour or so to do so.

The Writing Week (Vol. 2) part 78 - Make (and Meet) Deadlines

Even though I'm not a "professional" writer yet - though I did get to deposit the first check I've received for my writing since a competition in high school this week - I treat my writing as though it is a job. As with any job, there are deadlines that I have to meet. Only, in this case, most of the deadlines are made by me.

Treating your writing, from the outline you've just started to the re-write of draft number five, as a project that you're getting paid for (even if you're not) can actually be a great motivator. I've found that since I adopted the "every script is a job" mentality, I've become more focused in my writing, sharper and more professional. The writing is of a higher caliber, from a more experienced writer. All too often, I fell, when there isn't a concrete drive to deliver a high quality product, quality can inadvertently fall by the wayside. That's not to say that I want to write an inferior script, but by treating the work as something that someone is waiting for and expecting a high quality result from, it helps me focus on delivering.

Deadlines are, so far, mostly up to me still. The producer and manager I'm working with on the post-Apocalyptic spec are pretty loose on when they want the rewrite done by; we're hoping to go out in September. That said, if I claim to be able to get a new intro to them by the end of the weekend (which I did last week), then I'll be damned if I don't do that. Even though the deadline didn't come from them, it's been planted. And at this stage in my "career," the last thing I want to do is come off as someone who makes claims and never follows through. As a young writer with no production history, it's crucial that I deliver on time.

If you don't work with self-imposed or other deadlines, consider giving it a try. The key is to acknowledge that no deadline can be broken. Hopefully, not only will the crunch keep you writing, but it will help you deliver high quality pages, since you know you might not have time to go back and rework them as much. It's an exercise that might help. And, down the road, when you are writing for that major studio, it'll be practice that paid off.