The consultation lasted for over two and a half hours before it started to wind down. I could feel we had started to reach the end of the key areas to address, though I also felt we could have kept talking about the script for Dig Down even more without it feeling forced. It was such a great experience from my side, a great first interaction at this level, and I believed the judge when he said it had been a pleasure on his end as well, telling me that most scripts aren’t in the shape or at the level mine was, and that some of these consultations devolved into covering the basics of scripts and story telling.
The judge said he had to take time to prepare for another phone consultation, and I felt we had reached a really good stopping point anyway. He also reminded me that I could the notes and feedback before and during this consultation, apply it to my script, and could still re-submit my work before the deadline.
This was great…but also gave me pause.
The stories I’d published thus far are all novellas, but I still spent at least three months just outlining them. That’s not to mention the months I was brainstorming ideas for them prior, or the months I spent with drafts and re-writes, and this is all before I even brought it to my editor to do even more re-writes. While I’m no stranger to making tweaks and adding polish to my work, I also know how long it takes me to implement these edits.
Small ones, sure, no problem, I can rattle them off in no time. But with the feedback I had gotten from this consultation, as well as the other contest I’d already gotten notes back on, even with the overlap in some of the areas they addressed, I wasn’t so sure 17 days would be enough to make these changes in a way that brought the best out of the story.
I did share this concern with the judge…and I actually like that he gave me some tough love and told me I could get it done. There was only the faintest traces of sternness in his tone, like a parent whose having none of their kid’s shenanigans about trying to take the easy path.
What’s more, he ended the call in the best way possible: “I look forward to reading it again with your re-writes.”
What a vote of confidence. How can you not think you can take the world head on after that?