Screenwriting : Goal for the Month and Help by Maurice Vaughan

I would like to make significant progress on a pitch deck for my newly finished pilot Witch In The Woods.

Congratulations on finishing your pilot, Darrell Pennington! I make pitch decks. Let me know if you want any tips. I'm rooting for you to reach your goal!

Good luck with your outline, Maurice! For February, I want to have a solid outline for my comedy feature, rewrite my animation feature, and redo my pitch deck for my TV pilot. I love giving myself a thousand things to do. If one of those happens. I will also be happy lol. For some reason, I tend to feel restless unless I have multiple fires going.

Thanks, Maria Restivo Glassner. I feel that way sometimes too. Hope you reach your goals! I'm looking forward to hearing more about your Comedy feature, Animation feature, and pilot!

Hello. I am currently working on my feature film, but only a little more than half of the script is ready so far. The film requires a lot of refinement: well-thought-out dialogues, a slow pace, a strong atmosphere, and also how the court system works.

Hi, Oleg Mullayanov. Congratulations on writing a little more than half of your script! What genre(s) is it?

Hi, Maurice Vaughan. Genre: Psychological Drama-Thriller / Existential Parable.

In short: It's not a "guilty or not guilty" detective story. It's an examination of a personality under the pressure of a public scandal. On the surface — a story of a director on trial. At its core — a drama about a man losing the boundary between his own truth and the version of him created by society.

YOU GOT THIS!! Maurice Vaughan LET´S GOOOOO!!

Hi, Maurice Vaughan.

My main goal for February is to complete a solid rewrite pass on my current feature, focusing on structure and tightening character arcs.

Biggest challenge right now is knowing when a draft is “ready” versus just endlessly tweakable, so I’m trying to be more intentional with each rewrite.

I'm doing a pitch practice tonight. It's my first pitch in over a decade, so I felt practice was needed.

Any tips and hints on things not to forget? Things to make sure I do or don't do?

That's an interesting, unique detective story, Oleg Mullayanov! Keep us posted on it.

Thanks, Mark Films. I appreciate it. What's your goal for the month?

Hi, Ayesha Simra. I know a script is ready when I've rewritten it to the point where I'm just rewriting tiny things. I also get feedback on the script. And it's a gut feeling. Hope that helps and hope you reach your goal!

Hope the pitch practice goes great, Elle Bolan! Congratulations on doing your first pitch in over a decade!

Stage 32 has a verbal feature pitch beat sheet and verbal TV pitch beat sheet. You can get them by emailing success@stage32.com.

Here's three Lounge posts with pitch advice:

www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/Pitch-Advice

www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/Pitching-44

www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/Why-Pitching-Matters-And-How-to-Mak...

And Stage 32 has a free pitch webinar (www.stage32.com/education/products/pitching-tips-from-the-pros-your-blue...).

Maurice Vaughan Ahoy mateys! My focus (AIM) for this month (in screenwriting world) is to slow down my creative left engine, and focus on: two pitches I have this weekend for my dark dramedy, remembering I have written them, love them, and now they will find their people; and begin my first draft for my first feature screenplay entirely in Spanish, set in Spain, which is actually a take on my dark dramedy, but actually closer to what really happened...based on real, true events I lived...

Hi, Juliana Philippi. I hope the pitches go great! Did you see this free webinar on pitching: www.stage32.com/education/products/pitching-tips-from-the-pros-your-blue...

Maurice Vaughan Thank you Maurice!!!! I just got my first request for "Hotel Puerto Rico" this week, so really excited to be sharing my work with future collaborators. And Yes I did! It was everything, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend EVERYONE watch it. I also watched this one: How to Avoid a Pass on your Pitch or Screenplay, it's also a free webinar.

You're welcome, Juliana Philippi. Congratulations on getting your first request for Hotel Puerto Rico! I love that title.

Is this the webinar: www.stage32.com/education/products/how-to-avoid-a-pass-on-your-pitch-or-...

This month, writing gods willing, I want to get SiR 1/3 done, Metal Garden's first draft written out, Les Goobs' Dino Nuggy Hunt written out, as well as resuming work on both Conviction and Link. Also outlining how I want to turn Paper Sunlight into a pilot script and Plastic Love into a feature, if I'm brave enough to let anyone ever read it lol

My goals this month: finish the deck for my feature A Côté, start the pilot of my series Click Here To Cry (already done), and get ready for my March trip from France to Los Angeles.

Hi, Deborah Bete. I'm rooting for you to reach your goals! I hope you have an incredible trip! Let us know how it goes.

That's a lot, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh, but you can do it! You come up with some of the most unique titles I've seen.

Thanks Maurice Vaughan, my Mum always says she loves my titles and they are the first things I come up with before starting any story. And indeed my intended slate is a lot and it's not even all the stuff I wanna get done (since trip is booked for October I decided to challenge myself to ramp my productivity up in the next ~9 months), but I want to build my portfolio up and not have my active/on hiatus projects haunting me.

You're welcome, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. A title is big for a script. I like one-word titles and catchy titles the most. I don't want to have my open projects haunting me either. One of my goals this year is finish unfinished projects. We got this!

Nice Maurice Vaughan, and thanks yes, we do! My favourite titles to cook up are for my social satires that blend adjective-noun (Metal Garden, Lunar Window, Glass Waltz, etc), but Finding Elpis's were also pretty fun incorporating different musical terms. Petal's titles, particularly the comic series', were trickier but just as satisfying being single words with multiple meanings (Conviction, Induction, Contact, etc.). It's why I know I won't take any suggestion to change titles laying down lol

You're welcome, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. I'll have to try adjective-nouns and musical terms for titles. Thanks for the idea.

You're welcome, Maurice Vaughan~