Isaac Sweeney: Author, editor and screenwriter in Mechanicsville, Virginia.

"Shooting" was a short screenplay quarterfinalist at the Richmond International Film Festival.

-- https://www.rvafilmfestival.com/

-- https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59fd103364b05fe5d832dd6d/t/60abf9...

I just got an email that a short I wrote was one of the best of 2018 according to a certain festival. I'll take it! https://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/2019/02/15/top-20-short-screenplays-... Mine is "Shooting" and there's a link to a reading of the script on the site.

I'm doing this thing where I'll give teachers money at the end of the month. https://writealreadycom.wordpress.com/2019/04/02/teachers-need-money-vir... . Help if you can.

I recently posted some resources on my blog that I have found to be helpful. Stage 32 is at the top of the list. Thought I'd share here too. Here's a link: https://writealreadycom.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/screenwriter-resources/

Here's part of the post

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am spending much of my creative efforts in the screenwriting genre. I have had some small successes that I would like to share here, but I really want to share a few resources that have been great.

First, check out these resources:

Stage 32

I have only been a member of Stage 32 for a few weeks now, and it has leaped to the front as the most useful resource for me. It’s a social media network and education platform. I have connected with creative people from all over the country and beyond.

Stage 32 is free, but it does have some paid services that sound promising. I don’t have the money right now, but if I did, I would like to spend it on script coverage. The site also has pitch sessions writers can pay for, as well as some other services.

If you’re like me and don’t have money to spend, the free resources are still aplenty. There’s a Lounge area for discussion for all types of creatives, from actors to directors to musicians to writers. Through the Lounge area, I have gotten many questions answered and I even got to take advantage of a working writer/director/producer willing to read 10 pages of a script just because he had some time to kill. The networking alone is worth signing up, but the discussions and camaraderie make it even better. And I haven’t even looked at the education arm of Stage 32 yet.

Film Courage

In a friendly and helpful rejection, a producer turned me on to FilmCourage.com. This site is all about making, selling, and/or distributing films. Video after video, article after article, interview after interview, the breadth of shared knowledge from credible people is astounding.

IMDBpro

This one could run you $20 a month and, if you have the money, it may be worth it. If you don’t have the money, I say life-hack it and take full advantage of the free trial.

IMDBpro is useful because it helps you get email addresses and phone numbers of agents, managers, publicists, and others. You won’t find Angelina Jolie’s cell number, but you may find her agent’s email address. It has helped me grasp the notion of where I need to send my stuff, and how people may be connected. This is especially helpful for me because I don’t live in LA.

During the free trial or maybe if you spend $20 for one month, use that time to search movies and people. Write down connections. See who is with which agency, and which agent with that agency. Look at literary management companies and jot down the staff members’ email addresses and phone numbers.:

.......... (The rest of the blog post just list some of my small successes so far. You can read more at the link above if you're interested.)

I recently posted on my blog about John Cleese on being creative. I thought folks here might enjoy it. It's an old video, from 1991, but what he says is still relevant (and funny). Here's the link: https://writealreadycom.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/john-cleese-on-how-to-be-creative-a-classic-from-1991/

Here's the post, sans the embedded video (click the link to see the video):

I discovered this video later in my teaching career. For my last couple of semesters teaching at Richard Bland College, I forced first- and second-semester college students to watch it and we would discuss creativity.

It’s the legendary funnyman John Cleese (“She turned me into a newt. …. I got better”) speaking about creativity. I would almost always have to explain to the students who John Cleese is. If you don’t know, he’s an original member of Monty Python. Here’s a link to his Amazon page. Basically, he’s smart and he knows funny.

This lecture was originally recorded in 1991.

First of all, I find this kind of British humor hilarious. The light bulb jokes are great. The fact that he starts off saying that what he’s about to say is useless further shows the genius of the lecture. Despite all that, here are some of the great highlights from the video.

“Creativity is not a talent …. It is a way of operating.”

“Creativity is not an ability that you either have or do not have. It is … absolutely unrelated to IQ.”

“The most creative had simply acquired a facility for getting themselves into a particular mood; a way of operating, which allowed their natural creativity to function.”

“An ability to play.” “Childlike.” The ability to play with ideas.

People operate in one of two modes: open and closed. Creativity is not possible in the closed mode.

Closed mode: “The mode that we are in most of the time when we are at work.” Active and slightly anxious. A little impatient. We have to get things done.

Open mode: “Relaxed, expansive, less purposeful, in which we are probably more contemplative, more inclined to humor, which always accompanies a wider perspective, and consequently, more playful.”

Hitchcock mistrusted working under pressure.

Need to be in the open mode to come up with a solution to a problem, but we need to switch to the closed mode to implement it. Then switch back to the open mode to review feedback to see if the solution was a success or not.

“We too often get stuck in the closed mode.”

There are five conditions that make it more likely to get into the open mode: Space, time, time, confidence, humor.

Space: A place where you can cut yourself off from the world around you.

Time: Be in that space for a certain amount of time.

Time: Don’t take the first “answer.” Spend time and find the best “answer” to a problem. Pondering time.

Confidence: Don’t fear making mistakes. The essence of playfulness is the freedom to do anything.

Humor: Gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.

“It’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. And it’s also easier to do little things that we know we can do than to start on big things that we’re not so sure of.”

When does this decision have to be taken? Defer the decision until then.

There’s a difference between serious and solemn. Laughter doesn’t indicate the absence of seriousness.

“It’s easier to be creative when you’ve got more people to play with.”

The joke happens when you “connect two different frameworks of reference in a new way. “

I started a blog about writing, life, and the writing life. If anyone cares, here's the site -- www.WriteAlready.com

Just sharing some of my writing success. Here's an essay I wrote about working (teaching) with common mental illness. https://folks.pillpack.com/what-my-students-dont-know-about-my-mental-he...

In a friendly and helpful rejection, I was turned on to FilmCourage.com. This site has been around longer than me, but I am still going to share it in case anyone else hasn't been to it. TONS of stuff on screenwriting and the business stuff, as well as encouragement. But it's all done in a realistic way from people who are in the biz and give it straight. I'm finding encouragement in its realistic depiction of the biz. Anyway, just sharing.

I'm Isaac Sweeney, a new member. I've been a writer forever and I'm now interested in learning about the screenwriting biz. I live in Virginia and am interested in the non-LA perspective. Anyone out there who does this from afar? Anyway, glad to be here.

Okay, so I am going through the effort of covering chapters from one of my novels into a script. In this particular moment, one of my characters has some noticeable physical changes when he is furious, but I am wondering weather or not I should be describing the changes as I did in the novel or is there another way to approach this? This is an excerpt from the scene I am speaking about from the novel:

"Aldrin's eyes turned to the guilty vampire. If one thought Aldrin was angry before, the look on his face would redefine the meaning of furious. His eyes narrowed, the crimson pigment glowing and despite being in the light of the fire, his skin appeared to darken almost to be shrouded in a dark fog. If this was not enough to worry the vampire his eyes laid on, then the unexpected calm tone that followed, did."

- Heir to the Eternal Throne

Do I just cut the extra descriptive details and describe the change in the script or can I just add a line in () saying to reference the chapter and paragraph/page it comes from? Thoughts?