Screenwriting

Industry execs need clear goals and specific results to be interested.

No secrets.

Nothing implied.

No open-ended innuendo.

Secret logline formula:

Who

Dilemma

Action

Goal

Villain

Irony (if you can)

Wait. You're produced, a consultant & repped screenwriter; so why are you not trusting your own instincts & reps. Your reps are your business partners, have skin in the game- You.

If I am a pro basketball player, I would not go to my local gym for help; I would ask peers equal or more skilled.

A woman is part of a military mission to weaponise a portal to heaven and hell, fight monsters, fear and god.

Still not 100% sure what the story is. I understand the scenario and the actions being taken. But what is the story, is there anything to be taken away from the story.

Is she going to be punished in hell for blindly following orders. Are we learning to not exploit god?

My logline lacks any reason, it just seems to happen.

The AI one

Dan MaxXx 1) because I'm a firm believer in getting help from the people when help is needed. 2) Because I have an agent, not a manager. A manager helps mold material from early stages... an agent (at least mine) doesn't really want to be involved until I have a final, sellable property.

That's awesome!! You write as much as you want. Sometimes the words just flow to page and you can do plenty. I have a fulltime job so I can only write a bit at a time. I just think about scenarios and writing at my job, and then translate it to page when I get a moment.

Vincent, you're on FIRE!

Congratulations to you for firing off 50 pages in 48 hours...and here's wishing you tremendous success on your screenplay (and future works)!

Agree with everyone here - just keep writing and et it flow as it does. The key is getting to the end so you can see the whole of what you’ve created and then start rewriting and polishing. way to go!!

If I manage to do one page a year I am doing pretty good.

I actually don't write every day. I write in bursts....I'll go months without writing then I will suddenly write like 5 screenplays in a month. The most pages I wrote in one day so far was 79 pages in one day. But I write when I am inspired, do other fun things when I am not.

Congratulations and looks very promising.

Congratulations on "The Sensualist" being a Semifinalist, Suzanne Griffin!

Congratulations Suzanne Griffin great news!

absolutely nuts! Christopher Phillips

not gonna lie David Michael Kelly this is cringy

and I literally LOL’d Maurice Vaughan

Haha Fran Harris. Whenever I hear "I don’t even know who you are anymore" in a movie or show, I think, "There it goes." I try hard to avoid putting cliche dialogue in my scripts. Or I'll at least put a spin on the dialogue.

Cliche as a form of comedy rocks but as a dramatic tool it is very, very risky to use UNLESS for a comedic break in tension to prepare for a rising action.

Great post, CJ Walley. This line: "We constantly go on about the threat of AI in terms of its capability, but we don't seem to want to talk about how weak a writer must be feeling should they turn to it as a replacement rather than an assistant." is the point for me. It should never be used as a replacement for the actual writing. First off, you can see it from a mile away (same is true of article writing, btw), but as an assistant, it's simply another tool in your toolbox.

I just want to point out that the AI "learns" by dissecting whatever you feed to it and using its component pieces to feed to its own algorithm and thereby other writers. Essentially it strips your work for parts. If you feed it, you are literally helping to put yourself out of business by teaching the AI how to do your job by showing it your work. I see all these writers worrying about what it will do to the business, or even writing dystopic scripts about the singularity - while giving free food to the very entity they want to curtail.

Wow. Those comments from CJ Walley, RB and Anna Marton Henry are spot-on and show deep insight and integrity. My respect for Stage 32 as an organization has expanded greatly.

Update:

I did my first "try" at feeding the beast a chapter of my "framework" of one my books.

Being a novice and not adept at giving the "proper" prompts. I was "meza mez" about what it produced. I was surprised that it gave names to charaters that i had only listed as "best friend" or "dead wife', etc. But it's imagery was bland and what it "wrote" was not how i envisioned the scene or dialogue.

That being said. I am going to still try it some more and hopefully get the hang of giving prompts that generate results that are more in line with the story, imagery, and dialogue that currently is "trapped" in my head.

This experiment may fail. But that is ok.

Thomas Edison always took failure as a form of success. When one of his experiments blew up, he would just say..."Well, we now know THAT does not work!"

Stay tuned...

Mark

FYI...

To all those concerned about AI replacing us.

You are correct...

But...

We all drive cars now

(not too many ride horses...and i have horses)

We all use smartphones and computers.

(Other than Christmas cards it's rare to write a physical letter)

We all have indoor toilets

(not too many people have out houses)

So it won't be long before we are all using AI to serve our needs for creative endeavors.

Lastly, i believe i posted a link to my script anyone feels like helping work on it verses me using AI.

. I am not an egotistical maniac

(just a maniac...haha) So your feedback is welcome. Just a heads up, it starts a little unconventional, but that may change.

MARK

Congrats!

Bravo, Ashley! Congrats to you :) Best of luck to you.

Congratulations on winning!

Best wishes,

Bruce Sloman

Just heard the result! You won! Congratulations, Ashley Bower!

Congratulations on winning the competition, Ashley Bower! Great news for the weekend!

Welcome back. I second the call for backing up your work having lost more than a few scripts for similar reasons over the years. Glad you recovered most of it.

Welcome back! Always good to keep a copy of your fdx and pdf script files in a cloud drive like Dropbox or Gdrive, in case of emergencies. I lost one of my scripts years ago because I spilled water on my laptop lol. It just so happened to be the first script I was hired by a Producer to write. Probably the most grueling rewrite of my life, 24 hours to rewrite 108 pages I'd already written. And let me tell you... there was very little passion or enjoyment behind writing all those words a second time. Probably forgot a handful of scenes too.

Welcome back, Claude Gagne. Glad you're back on Stage 32 and you didn't lose all your files. I agree, back up your work. I make a backup file for every script. I also got into the habit of saving my work every few minutes or so as I write. That's on top of Final Draft's auto save.

Congratulations on winning, Ashley! :D

Congratulations!

The most exciting trend, #GoMakeArt

Majority of unemployed union pro's on X/twitter & Substack don't know themselves, and they got years & connections.

From what Im seeing from other show biz occupations, it's stay alive to 2025. Somehow figure a way to be still in the game in 2025-26.

Hey, Andy Yang. I keep hearing that companies are looking for procedural shows. Also, a lot of producers and directors are looking for micro-budget scripts and low-budget scripts. Mainly Contained scripts with low character counts.

To Maurice’s point, yes the next wave is definitely AVOD which is conducive to broadcast / cable-style episodic content, so specs should hit act breaks hard and be a fresh take on marketable genres.

Check out article in new Harper's Magazine "The Life and Death of Hollywood: Film and television writers face an existential threat

" by Daniel Bessner - overview of how and why Hollywood has changed over the past 20+ years... (www.Harpers.org) -- spoiler alert, it's depressing for film/TV writers...

My best tip is to network with indie producers, indie directors, and actors, Steve Mallinson. That's how I sold four short scripts to a producer on Stage 32. Most of the shorts I watch are made by indie filmmakers.

I suggest checking out these blogs on networking: www.stage32.com/blog/tags/networking-41

I also suggest keeping an eye on the Job Board: www.stage32.com/find-jobs

Sometimes film school directors that don't write look for scripts to film. Also, film students that are purely on the production track that don't write anything will sometimes buy scripts. I haven't looked in awhile, but InkTip used to be a place where short scripts are bought. Short scripts that win contests tend to get requests.

Thanks for sharing Maurice.....

You're welcome, Miquiel Banks. It's helpful for new writers. Experienced writers too.

Hey, Michael Joseph. Have you thought about getting feedback through Stage 32 (www.stage32.com/scriptservices)?

You did great with the first part of your logline ("While traveling across the country with her ailing father, a troubled young woman entrenched in a life of killing"), but I think the second part is vague ("undergoes an unexpected shift when she crosses paths with a charismatic stranger at their latest stop"). I suggest changing the second part to the story goal and the stakes.