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A family thing happened and I wasn’t able to be there tonight.
Did anyone show up? Did anyone share some new pages? I know Mikaela is planning on sharing some soon.
J. David Stem’s survival tools for a writer’s life…thought I’d share!
J. David Stem's 10 Iron Clad Rules for a Writing Life - must read, esp for newbies The 10 Survival Tools: 1. Make me love you by page two. You're asking me to spend an hour or two of my time reading your script. Let me know I can trust you not to waste my time by writing an opening that shows you care enough about mine to craft something beautiful or moving or terrifyingly original. 2. Description matters. Don't be glib. Write with craft. Don't waste my time with anything that doesn't truly matter. Every word should either advance plot, reveal character, or create atmosphere. If it doesn't do at least one of those three things, cut it. 3. Your brilliant idea is going to suck. That thing that felt like a gossamer cloud that would write itself is going to collapse like a popped balloon very soon after you start writing it. That's okay. It's like having children. If you had any idea how hard and expensive it would be, very few people would sign up. Your job is to stay with it, even when the inspiration is gone. To see it through the slog, even on days when you produce nothing worthwhile. Especially on those days. 4. If you feel lost and alone and stupid, that's not an indication you're lost and alone and stupid. It's an indication you're a writer. 5. Hoard your secrets. With very rare exceptions, don't talk about your ideas to other people. You don't even know what they are yet. They need to germinate and cross pollinate and wither and die on the vine and be reborn again. Keep them in your hothouse. You know that place earth was hundreds of millions of years ago, moist and hot and weird creatures crawling from the sea to the muck of earth, fighting for air, eating each other, dying and transforming. That's your creative process early on. A confused beautiful mess. The last thing you need is someone peering into your mudhole saying, "Why are you growing wings? No one's ever flown before." 6. It damn well better matter. I don't care if it's animation—Woody's love for Andy is all consuming. He's panicked at the very thought of losing it. The Cowgirl Jesse is utterly destroyed when she's left in a donation box on the side of the road. I still can't talk about that scene without crying.
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First pages of Sailing On
The first 6 pages of my first and biggest project. This is a very rough draft, so let me know what you think of this beginning sequence. My biggest pain points are doing time jumps effectively and making the audience understand why the son loves his father so much when his father is notoriously hated by others. And doing it in a short amount of time. I called the main character Nathan five years ago because my parents almost named me that, not knowing I'd have a film teacher also named Nathan, so I thought that was a funny coincidence, haha.
I heard a great Film courage clip
TLDR: If you don't know your ending, you don't know your story. A great ending is both inevitable and unexpected. https://youtu.be/SpBGiZnaf90?si=ecwbVv5gZzJkjRm5
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