Screenwriting resources: scripts and competitions

There are numerous channels open for writers regarding getting your hands on actual screenplays of produced films at no cost--something every writer should be checking out on a regular basis.  One of the most helpful sources for this can be found at the New Hampshire Institute of Art library where you can find a list of links to the best places you can download scripts for free.  It's a great resource to have at your fingertips without having to plow through pages of Google entries.

And when it comes to a good and accurate list of screenplay competitions, you can quickly get buried in various lists and advice when you start to Google the topic.  There are hundreds of contests for features, shorts, tv pilots, you name it.

A cardinal sin in script writing...

For many years now there's been an issue that's come up repeatedly as I've been working with script clients and playwriting and screenwriting students.  I find myself listening to my own voice laying out the same piece of advice over and over again.  And that is a simple truth in the script writing business:  don't ever send a script out into the world before it's ready.

I can understand a writer's impatience to get their baby out there in the "marketplace of ideas."  All writers crave positive feedback and are sometimes even approaching desperation to break out of their lonely writer's life and see their work embraced by the many artist/collaborators in theatre and film and become a member of an artistic team that wants to bring a script to life. But that impatience can easily overrule good sense and, alas, scripts are continually sent out long before such a move should even be considered.  

So my advice is this:  When you think you've dotted the last "i" and crossed the last "t" on what you are convinced is your final polished and perfect draft of your play or screenplay, including fixing any and all formatting issues, having it carefully copy edited for typos, etc.--when you think you've reached that point after months and months of work--instead of immediately sending it out to those contests and festivals with their looming deadlines, and/or the agents or producers you have an even vague connection with who you are now certain will embrace your script, put it away for a month and forget all about it.  Don't worry about missing a couple submission deadlines, even with the bigger, more significant venues.  And don't pull it out and look at it at all in the interim.  Allow yourself (or force yourself) to get some honest distance from it.  Instead, start work on your next writing project and forget all about that "finished" script in the drawer. 

If you do this, nine times out of ten when you do pull it out and give it a fresh read, "things" small and sometimes large will suddenly pop out at you that you totally missed earlier.  Things that you now can see need more work.  Things that competition readers and producers will spot right away. And in the vast majority of cases, those professionals on the receiving end of your submissions will only read your script one time and one time only.  Rarely, if ever, will that later and stronger draft be picked up again by any of them.  

I'm confident that if you take this advice, the script you actually finally do send out into the world will stand a much better shot of garnering serious attention and perhaps even eventually find it's way into production.

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I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2015 and we are currently accepting applications.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.  

MFA student wins Screenplay Competition

This has been a great summer for the family of writers who make up our low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen program.  We had a highly productive residency in June with all eleven student writers and our small army of professional faculty.  And all of our students are now working on new projects with their mentors.

And to top it off, one of our current second-year students, Vicki Peterson, has just won the Best Screenplay award at the California Independent Film Festival with her feature Zoe and the Zebra that she wrote in our program during her first year.  Needless to say, Vicki, pictured below with her daughter, is making us all proud.

I take a special pleasure in this achievement because Vicki, along with all our other MFA students, are a part of a program that stresses story structure and form as well as extensive pre-writing exploratory work on backstory and the characters' emotional makeup.  I have no doubt that her screenplay quickly rose to the top of the stack of contenders for this award because of the strong forward movement of her unfolding story and the richness and depth of her characters.  Not to mention that we gave her screenplay its first read at a recent residency with professional actors--something that allows students to actually hear their scripts given voice for the first time.

Actually, the CAIFF award is the third festival where Vicki's script has received recognition.  Earlier this year Zoe and the Zebra was featured in a reading at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto and is also a finalist and official selection at the upcoming  Southern California Film Festival.  

So congrats to you, Vicki.  Can't wait to see you at our next residency in January so we can celebrate these successes!

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I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-10, 2015 and we are currently accepting applications.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.