Introduce Yourself : The Not-So-Lazy-Crazy-Hazy-Days of Summer (or at least they aren't when you're working on scripts). by Christopher Neal Fisher

Hey there! Christopher Neal Fisher here, back after one of my periodic hiatuses from posting during IYW. So who am I, what have I done, and what am I doing, you ask? To answer the first, I’m 63 1/2 years old, married for almost 37 years to my wife Judy, retired (not by choice) from a 32 year career with the State of Wisconsin civil service. No kids of my own, by via my wife two stepdaughters, six step-grandchildren, and three step-great-grandchildren. Ever since 2017 I’ve been actively pursuing a post-retirement career doing the one thing I’ve wanted to do since I was six years old: write for movies and television. When I’m not writing, I’m taking care of basic everyday life stuff around the apartment, acting as caregiver for my wife (she is six weeks shy of 15 years my senior, and now having some mobility and cognition issues), and right now tending to a very nice crop of sweet corn growing in the planter garden on our patio (I’ll be harvesting it this weekend). All that life stuff, along with the writing, keeps me plenty busy.

Now, as to what I’ve done, well, I have some things that are at the “notes” stage, including a series idea set in the then American frontier of S. Western IL at the beginning of the 19th century, and some short film scripts that are based on Illinois Country French folktales. However, for the past 7 years I have devoted the vast majority of my time and my passion to one thing in particular: a soapy drama in the southern gothic genre with the working title of Bayou Noir (named after the fictional Louisiana town the show takes place in and around). I’ve written a two page pitch for it, a 12 page pitch bible (which I haven’t revised since 2020 — I really should update it, not that there’s all that much that’s changed in it since then), and a pilot episode script, “Made in Louisiana” (the title a nod to the episode title of The Sopranos’ series finale, “Made in America”), which was a finalist in Stage 32’s Sixth Annual TV Writers Contest back in 2021 (I have revised it since then).

Here is the current logline: “The saga of a wealthy and powerful Louisiana French family, as they struggle with familial dysfunction and conflicting agendas, and against enemies human and supernatural — any of which could end them and their ‘bayou empire’.”

And here is a brief series synopsis: “The Delacroix family: they’re rich, powerful, influential, and nothing happens — legal or illegal — in the Cajun Country town of Bayou Noir without the “say-so” of the family’s current patriarch, Jean-Baptiste (aka “JB”). But when you’re all those things, you’re bound to have acquired a lot of enemies. And when you live in one of the most supernaturally charged areas not only of Louisiana, but of the entire United States, some of those enemies might not be entirely human — or even human at all!”

So as to what I’m doing….

Well, in mid-June I had a great hour long consultation with Preston Fassel. Unlike some script reviewers, who seem to read scripts through a set of preconceived “lenses”, Preston lets your work speak for itself, then goes from there. Lemme tell ya, if you get a chance to book a session with him, by all means do it! You won’t be disappointed.

$$ is a bit tight these days, so I’ve only entered three contests this year. I found out last month that unfortunately Bayou Noir once again didn’t make the cut in the Stage 32 TV Drama Series contest. Supposedly script coverage (which I ordered) was supposed to be sent out after the Quarter-Finals, but so far I’ve seen nothing in my inbox. Is it because they’re going to wait until after the winner is announced after all?

I’ve had a few people who did my coverage for some of the other contests I’ve entered criticize the pilot script because they felt it didn’t have a strong enough opening “hook”. It does have a hook, two of them in fact; the introduction to the members of my protagonist family during the first five pages and at the end of the scene a rather cryptic and ominous phone conversation. But perhaps what David Chase has said in recent interviews is right, and producers are looking for programing these days that’s a bit more “conventional”, so I’ve done a new draft of the pilot. For the most part it’s the same, but the opening hook is a dream sequence (or is it?) that was previously on pp. 10-12. It feels a bit more like a traditional teaser, though it does mess up the episode’s timeline a bit, so I’m having to rewrite some scenes and deleted one (I always hate when I have to do that!). Hopefully it might help in the future. We’ll see what happens.

Well, I guess that’s it. Hope everyone has a good rest of August, and a relaxing Labor Day. Until later…

Ciao!