Fragments of a Writer's Life

So these past few months I haven't gotten much writing done. Mainly because I have novels finished that need revision, and I have a novel to revise and resubmit. One of my novels is supposed to have a September release date, but nothing's finalized.

That said, I also have a cozy mystery, a thriller, and a screenplay to plot. I've got notes on plots and characters; it's just a matter of piecing them together into a cohesive narrative. I'd taken a mini course on writing the cozy mystery and another on writing thrillers recently, which led to some plot ideas.

I've been focusing on marketing, too, more than I had in the past. I took courses on Facebook Ads and Amazon ads, plus a webinar on marketing. Hope to put what I've learned into action in the next couple of months. Then there's getting ready for the upcoming Indie Gathering International Film Festival and Imaginarium. Hoping to add more cons in 2019 or 2020.

Speaking of IG, I'm excited to announce two of my screenplays won third place in their respective categories: horror short script and crime drama feature length script. The short horror script also made it to the first round at the Action on Film Festival. Next year, I'm hoping to submit a short documentary. That said, awards aren't won without continually striving to improve one's writing skills and knowledge. But that's another post.

Action on Film Screenplay Laurel

Indie Gathering Screenplay Laurel

Back from Indie Gathering

Indie Gathering 2016 went out in a spectacular fashion, with a friend winning something like 11 trophies and plaques and myself coming home with a first place trophy.

Saw some great films, including a documentary and a short crime drama by a Polish filmmaker. We briefly discussed two of my favorite film directors, Andrjez Wajda and Krzysztof Kieslowski. Met some people I'd met last year and missed those who were there last year, but not this year.

While winning first place was certainly a highlight, it was participating in a cold reading, with actors reading a scene from my script before an audience that proved to be an interesting and educational experience. During the Q&A, the actors and audience members made suggestions, asked questions, and otherwise interacted. The critiques were positive and some of the suggestions I'd consider.

Anyway, I've entered Final Curtain in another contest and am working on a couple of screenplay ideas.

Final Curtain

Award Laurel

Next month is the Indie Gathering International Film Festival. Back in May, I entered my crime drama feature screenplay Final Curtain in their screenplay contest. (I'd won honorable mentions last year with my adaptations of Death Sword and Exterminating Angel.)

To be honest, I hoped Final Curtain would at least get an honorable mention. I'd entered it pretty late, a few days shy of the final deadline. So I was surprised and delighted to get an email at the beginning of July telling me the screenplay had won first place in the Feature: Crime-Drama category. I reread that email several times, a part of me convinced I'd read it wrong. But no. I had won. And the screenplay is listed on Indie Gathering's website. It may also be a contender for another award, but I won't know til August or September. Meanwhile, I've entered Final Curtain in another contest.

Winning a screenplay contest is a great ego booster, but I'm not naive to think my screenplay writing career is about to take off, and I need to start planning my Oscar speech. I have another screenplay in a contest that I'm not expecting to win, and that's okay. Screenplay contests are subjective. A first place winner in one might only garner an honorable mention in another.

Remember that homicide detective? The one who, when I told him probably nothing would happen with this screenplay, said, "You never know."

I think I'll make that my motto. And if I ever meet him again, I'll tell him he was right.

Indie Gathering

This past weekend, I attended Indie Gathering International Film Festival in Hudson, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland. I went with two author friends, Amy and Missy, and we had a table in the vendor hall, so I took copies of the Reel Dark anthology to sell. I also had rack cards of Death Sword and Exterminating Angel, my two paranormal angel suspense stories. They were the reason I was at Indie Gathering. Both short novels had received an award each.

I'll admit, this is one of the best-run festivals I've been to. All events took place in the hotel, and there was plenty of networking as well as viewing films and attending panels. I went to the short thriller-suspense films and Missy attended the panel on crowd funding. Amy had a couple of short films also screening.

Which got me thinking, could I come up with a short film for submission for next year, plus another screenplay or two? Seeing how they show micro films, maybe it's a possibility that I can enter a project I'm currently playing around with.

Anyway, I have one more con to attend this year in Louisville, Kentucky: Imaginarium. It's a multi-genre writers' conference, with panels, a vendor hall, and a film festival, plus awards banquet.  I'll be sharing a table with Amy and Missy in the vendor hall, which is free to the public this year. Looking forward to meeting new people and seeing old friends again.

Double Duty

I set myself a pretty challenging goal yesterday. Enter Exterminating Angel in a screenplay contest. Deadline? May 31.

Yeah, pretty audacious. If nothing else, it forces me to work on a self-imposed deadline. That's the problem when you don't have any books under contract. It's easy to put revising or writing off, thinking, well, I don't have to worry about a deadline. And those days can pass into weeks, months, etc. You get the idea.

Do I expect to win this contest? No. Although the last screenplay contest I entered, I made it to the second round, but no farther. Must be doing something right.

My interest in screenplay writing started in college, when I met a fellow screenplay writer, who has gone on to option and sell several screenplays. But I didn't start writing one until a few years after graduating with a BA degree in English. Poetry and short stories dominated my writing, and while I still write short stories, I rarely write poems.

Granted, my early screenwriting endeavors suck. I have to admit I think the screenplay adaptations of Death Sword and Exterminating Angel are better than my first three efforts. Of course, I had the material available so I didn't have to come up with settings or dialogue. But one of the things about adapting a screenplay lies in understanding what should and should not be included. For example, no interior thoughts. Sure, one could use voice overs, but a general rule is if you can't see or hear it, it doesn't belong on the screen.

Meantime, I should hear about another screenplay contest I entered, although I doubt I'll move on to the next level in that one.

Riding the Contest Wave

I've recently entered four contests, with plans to enter another one before the end of the year.

Am I expecting to win? It'd be nice, but I can't expect the same success I had with EPIC. Except for two contests, the others were for screenplays. If I even semi-final in one, it'll be an achievement.

In one contest, a friend and I are competing in the same category. We've already accepted we don't stand a chance in hell of winning, and this particular contest only has one winner in each category. But it's not so much about winning as getting our names out there.

But why contests? After all, they cost money, there's no guarantee of winning, and you're competing with thousands of people around the world.

Yeah, those odds suck. And one can't enter every contest. Two I've entered are also part of film/screenwriting festivals that I hope to attend. And the other is an opportunity to get my book noticed and possibly adapted. It's a gamble, but not doing anything assures failure.

One of my goals is to turn some of my short novels and short stories into screenplays, and vice versa. Make them do double duty. If I'm lucky enough to get a work optioned, that would be awesome.

Hey, no one said I couldn't do it. :-)

So Long, Farewell...

Oh, sorry! I didn't mean I was leaving. <g> Rather, I'm saying goodbye to the whirlwind that was April. I'm always a bit sad when BIAM_Writathon ends. Happily, there's another writing challenge in October (not counting November's NaNoWriMo).

I didn't achieve my goals of finishing revisions for The Ripper's Daughter or the Zaphkiel Project. I have faced my fears and returned to Serpent Fire, the second book in my Angels of Death series. Still awaiting word on two horror short stories.

Sadly, Script Frenzy was a failure. Never came up with a screenplay idea but I might return to the one about demons in the courthouse. A screenwriter friend is looking at my ghost screenplay but I don't know the status of that. Either he's really busy or the screenplay is really awful. LOL

Oh, and I finally got around to watching the anime Black Butler. Hello! Love this series. Can't remember who introduced me to it, but thank you! Now, as long as Netflix doesn't remove it from their streaming category.

But that's that. April's over and it's time to set the writing goals for May. Hopefully, I'll have some news regarding those submissions. Keeping fingers crossed.

It's a Mad, Mad April

If you're a college basketball fan, you're probably aware of a phenomena called "March Madness". This year is particularly exciting for me because the Final Four pits two Kentucky teams against each other. From what I understand, the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville have never played a Final Four against each other.

Much as I enjoy watching the games, I also look forward to "April Madness BIAM Writathon". What is this? Only a month of dedicated writing or revising. Unlike National Novel Writing Month, where the goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, BIAM (Book in a Month) is flexible. I usually use it to work on revisions or shorter pieces. This year, I hope to revise my vampire Victorian and another draft of my angel urban fantasy. If you'd like to join in the fun, click on the link above.

April is also the Southern Kentucky Book Fest and the Kentucky Writers Conference, a free event in Bowling Green. This will be my third year attending the conference.

Am I finished? Nope! :-) For you screenplay writers, there's Script Frenzy. Challenge yourself to write a 100 page screenplay in 30 days. Am I in? Don't know what I'll write but I hate to pass up a challenge.

Good thing I have the month of May to recover. :-)  

Should You Write a Screenplay?

Years ago, a writer friend attempted to convince me to write screenplays rather than novels. One of his arguments was screenplay writers had a better chance to make money. (A screenplay can either be sold or optioned repeatedly. A novelist isn't paid unless the book is published.)

I never completely took him up on the idea. My friend now lives in California and has sold and optioned several scripts. I've written three full-length screenplays, none of which have been sold or optioned, simply because I never submitted them.A short screenplay, "Cemetery," placed second in The Writers Place Short/Teleplay screenplay competition in 2004. 

While I enjoy screenplay writing, I'll admit my actual output is relegated to this time of year, also known as Script Frenzy.

Does this mean I've eschewed writing novels? Not at all. But screenplay writing is an entirely different process, more restrictive even. And it's those limitations that actually make it more freeing.

What does this mean? Only write action, dialogue, and description on the page. The saying goes, "If it isn't on the screen, it isn't in the script." No internal thoughts. No camera directions.

Be aware if you read a script, either bought/downloaded from the Internet or purchased in a bookstore, these are usually shooting scripts. You aren't writing this kind of screenplay. Instead you would be writing what's called a spec script. This is a screenplay that isn't commissioned.

How do you write a script? Read both scripts and books about screenplay writing. You can download scripts for free from Drew's Script O'Rama. Learn the rules for formatting. If you become serious about being a screenplay writer, you might want to invest in formatting software like Final Draft or Movie Magic. (Both have free demos.)

Study books related to screenplay writing, such as Blake Snyder (Save the Cat!), Syd Field (Screenplay), or Robert McKee (Story). Other resources include Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and Chris Vogler's The Writers' Journey (based on Campbell's The Hero's Journey) as well as Script magazine and Creative Screenwriting.

By the way, these books can also help you write a better story, whether a screenplay or novel.  

Okay, I have 25 days to write a 100 page screenplay. I'd better get busy. Meantime, if you want to try screenplay writing, I say give it a go. If nothing else, it'll give you a new perspective on your writing.

March Madness Leads to April Frenzy

It’s that time of year again when NCAA basketball fans debate tournament seeds and fill out their selection brackets.

As I jokingly tell my husband, I know why they call it “March Madness.” Because people get mad. The intensity ratchets up several notches. The closer a favorite team gets to the “Final Four,” the more nail biting ensues.

March also precedes that writing mania known as Script Frenzy. Every April, aspiring playwrights, graphic novelists, and screenwriters embark on a goal of writing 100 pages in 30 days. As someone who’s done both NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy, it’s easier for me to write a screenplay in a month than a 50k –word novel. For one, the rules of screenplay writing are different from novel writing. Nothing goes on the page that doesn’t go on the screen. Yes, the format’s restrictive but in some ways it’s actually more freeing because of the constraints.

Unfortunately, this time I have no idea what my script will be about. Last year I wrote a ghost story and the year before that a crime drama. I’m thinking of writing my basketball murder mystery but that would take more research than I have time for. Not to mention the premise is still pretty weak.

I’m not worried. There’s still a little over two weeks before April 1. Meantime, I’ll continue to work on my novel-in-progress and cheer for the Kentucky Wildcats.