Screenwriting : How can one use Feedback to help them get their script Optioned/Sold!? by Edith Woi

Find quality industry pros who've actually worked as readers at studios but are now out on their own. Let them review your scripts. They can tell you the good (and/or how to make it better) and the bad.

Seems the Nicholl Fellowship is like the Oscars of sorts! I think maybe you should have left out the number :-))) Well nothing in life is easy I know. I am doing some painstaking mundane searches...high and low on the internet. It could be worse. In the olden days, one had to go to the Library and ask for those reels (forgot the name Lol) and pop them in the gadget and scroll through things. So this is a better age for more people to succeed, if they work at it. Keep us updated if you feel winning the awards you have so far is helping you!

Edith, the general consensus is you should use everything at your disposal. Feedback is a very rocky road that can do just as much harm as it goes good, but it's how we cut our teeth. Just never look for a magic bullet and accept you're in a lottery of subjectivity. The ideal is probably an experienced mentor who's invested in you personally. And you're talking about Microfiche.

Microfiche! That's it! haha. I think mentoring is very important...but also another beast. I would love to find a mentor for sure...and I don't mind bringing them coffee or picking up their clothes from the cleaners :-))). I have to say that I am making strides in the right direction. Before discovering this site...I wasted a lot of time. Honestly, I don't remember how I stumbled across it. So that lets you know how out of the loop I was. So have learned a lot with much more to learn ahead. This year I plan on entering some smaller contest if not just to get feedback (entered ones you can pay for feedback)....so will see.

Edith, it's amazing how whole new worlds seem to open up as you learn more about screenwriting. It's great that you are willing to learn and ask questions. Being ready to look objectively at your own craft and willing to improve it is one of the most important factors in progressing. Tread carefully with small contest feedback, many just farm the submissions out to low rate readers, readers who aren't even rating the scripts in the competition. Bluecat was infamously touting for readers on Craigslist for something like $15 a read one year. If you are going to be spending anything like $150 on competitions then consider paying for coverage instead through a service which allows you pick a reader who you feel fits your audience profile.

@CJ- I agree. I am using FilmFreeway to filter the small ones...and when I say small...cost like $20 or so...and only a couple. That's because I 've the missed the deadline for some of the good ones...or am at the Late Deadline stage.... In the meantime, I am completing the next script with partner! I really like working with someone else...