Screenwriting : Help by Bardi Osobuanomola Catherine

What’s your story about?

The beauty of writing is that it can be rewritten. It is not a tattoo.

I haven’t gotten back to you. But I will.

A producer read my one of my scripts (recently) and said it was boring and slow to start, it didn’t have enough action and left like a stage play. That is something to work with. I haven’t rewritten it yet.

Someone else read it and said. “I love it, the dialogue is great. You could produce it as a stage play it has so few locations”.

One persons medicine is another persons poison.

You are a writer. You should be motivated internally to tell the stories you want to tell. Not everyone will love your work. That is okay.

I know you are young. The one word of advice I can give you as an old dude. “Opinions are like butts, everyone has one and they should keep them to themselves”.

To Bardi and Craig: “Nothing good is ever written only rewritten.”

Hemingway: “l was a horrible writer, but a great rewriter.”

As a long-time college instructor, l can’t tell you how many students thought once was enough when writing—and 95 percent of the time, it wasn’t.”

Thank you everyone I needed that

Here's a tip - Ignore them. Write your story.

If you have an idea, do a logline for the movie, then a one page outline. Each paragraph should cover main points of an entire act. Then start writing, 3-5 pages a day using the outline as a guide, and don't stop until you finish. Don't worry about page count. Go back edit and cut it until you have between 90-110 pages. Re-edit. Then get feedback from people "qualified" to give feedback. You can even ask other writers on Stage32.

I'll read your first 10 but (I warn everyone) my reviews are brutal but honest. (I'm no harder on anyone else than I am on myself.) But you will have 10 quality pages after I'm done. My job is to help you become a better writer not to boost your ego.

But whatever you do, be your own writer!

You will always have haters. And the truth is very few people write good scripts when they're first starting out. And it takes several rewrites. If there is any positive criticism in there you can maybe consider that but if it's just all negative, toxic stuff than forget about it.

Whatever your story is about and the subject matte things I do is find movies/tv-shows and scripts that are similar/same genre/subject matter and look at those for inspiration see what work what doesn't. If it's a certain subject matter or profession involved I 'll also google like blogs from real people who work in that field, look for articles, podcasts, blogs, etc from experts or people familiar with the subject matter in the real world.

Who's the someone? Credentialed or not? I think that matters and also it's not like every single thing we all write is a winner, no screenwriter that's made it ever says that because it's just not fact. We might feel that way about it all but it's just not reality in reality.

That is only one person's opinion. I usually have three trusted readers to go through my script. People I know who will be honest, fair, and constructive. People who either love film or have written themselves. But I did not find them right away. One of my film instructors who I admired very much went on to a very successful career as a screenwriter. I asked if he would read one of my scripts. He did and simply wrote a short paragraph that said he hated, hated, hated it. So I had to steel myself and wait for other feedback. They liked it and made constructive suggestions to make it better and pointed out the plotholes. If someone is giving you feedback they also need to be able to tell you why and not just make you feel all wrong.

WL, you nailed it! Spot on indeed...

Your story is NEVER "baseless and wrong". I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt [once] - MAYBE he was saying that your story ought to be bigger in order to attract a larger audience. He either needs to work on his communication skills...or he's just a jerk.

Hey Michael Elsey, Yes, do not get demoralized by one review. As I see it, "you can please most of the people some of the time however, you can not please all of the people all of the time"! An old saying that is always true....I do the same, having trusted friends read my work!

Thanks Craig D Griffiths - “Opinions are like butts, everyone has one and they should keep them to themselves”. LOL

Yeah I see.