Blog

With my next screenplay competition targeted, I began to look into the ways to enter Scriptapalooza. Just like with the other contests I had entered, this offered many options – from a general entry, to providing notes/feedback, and even an option offering coverage. And this was very appealing to me, because while I had just gotten comprehensive feedback on my script for Dig Down, and had placed as a finalist in two of the three competitions I had entered, with the third still pending judgment, that had been on my initial submission.

This is where I feel I started to go wrong. I had gotten great notes and advice from all three contests, but that had been on the draft I submitted. I worked really hard to apply the notes, and placed as a finalist…but it wasn’t a win. A win I thought was within reach.

While I was thrilled with my placement, I wondered what it was that I had or hadn’t done for Dig Down to not get the win. And although I had feedback on my initial submission, I didn’t have any on the revisions I’d made, other than placing as a finalist.

For this reason, even though I’d already gotten three sets of feedback, I kept thinking that there might be something my script was still missing, something that was keeping it from being the best version of itself. So, instead of going with the general entry for Scriptapalooza, I began exploring the options available that would provide notes and feedback.

More accurately, that would provide feedback on the feedback.

The coverage option was also something I was interested in. While I now had written Dig Down in two separate mediums, I still felt I was lacking in terms of having a successful way to pitch it to people.

Not all the options were for me. There was a proofreading coverage service, but I figured after all the edits from the manuscript and script itself, it was unlikely I’d get the full value from this, as I expected grammar issues to be minimal. There was also a logline service, and although this was something I felt I could use, plenty of the other options had this included with the rest of the services provided. I also wasn’t as interested in the phone consultations for the script. While I did see the benefit in continuing to talk with a professional about ways to further enhance Dig Down, these conversations were only for a half hour, and I didn’t believe this was enough time to cover what I would want addressed for the script.

Reading through the options, I got the sense they would promote a script to industry professionals if it scored high enough, although when I called them up about that option, they informed me that this rarely the case with screenplays that were submitted.

Even after the call, I was still considering this option. I had just placed as a finalist in two contests, and I was feeling it with my screenplay. I ultimately decided not to go down this path however, because if I placed high enough in the competition, I would get a lot of these services anyway (though not them actively promoting it themselves).

Once I had chosen the coverage option for my entry, all I had to do was actually enter the contest. I had done so multiple times, three times for this script alone. How could any problems arise now?

Well…

Hello.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo most of the last several years. Although there’s been some controversy on their stance regarding the use of AI, I had planned on participating again.

I’ve never actually “won” NaNoWriMo. This is due to my pace when writing, and although I always fall short, I still write approximately 40,000+ words during November. Given that my books I’ve published thus far have been novella length, this event has usually gotten me close to finishing a story in a month.

The closest I’ve gotten was my first year participating, when I was writing I’m Not My Father. I finished the first draft 2 days after the competition ended, and probably could’ve finished on the first of December.

The concept behind this event works for me.

So, I was planning on participating once again this year. Please understand, this does not mean that I agree or disagree with their stance on the use of AI. My decision was purely on the motivation it gives me to write a draft for you, the reader.

Also, this year, I wasn’t planning on writing a novel. For anyone who’s been following my blog, you’ll know that my focus the past two years has been script writing. This is going to be my focus this November, writing a new screenplay.

Despite my intentions to submit a project to work on for NaNoWriMo, I am not participating this year. I tried to sign up for this year’s competition on the first, only to continually cycle back to the same error message “Oops, something went wrong!” It was only after I Googled if there was a problem with the website that I even grasped how far reaching the problem was, which was only reinforced when I talked with other writers at my local writing group.

So, I am not officially participating in NaNoWriMo this year. But I am currently working on a project throughout the month (and hopefully finish before December).

These were new highs in my writing career.

In the span of a week, I had placed as a finalist in not one, but TWO screenplay competitions. While I believed in my writing, my initial goal upon entering was just to get feedback as this was a medium I wasn’t two familiar with.

Not only that, but these were also the only two contests I had gotten results back on. And one of them had had me convinced I wouldn’t place so well.

There was still one more contest, Finish Line Script Competition, that I was waiting on the results for, which wouldn’t occur until much later. They, like the Page Turner Screenplay Contest, allowed me to re-submit my script after I made revisions based on their notes. I had taken their feedback into consideration when I was making my edits based on the script consultation with Page Turner, so I felt the changes I had made would be suitable for re-submission for both contests.

After going through the screenplay one last time before submitting it to Finish Line (after finding the odd italics glitch, I wasn’t leaving anything to chance anymore) I started looking into more contests to enter. Placing as a finalist was great, but wins look better on a resume.

I started looking at upcoming contests with final deadlines fast approaching that would post results shortly thereafter. One in particular caught my attention, one that I had actually entered fifteen years prior. When I saw the name again, I knew I had to enter the Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition.

Riding high from placing as a Finalist in the Page Turner Screenplay Competition, I didn’t want the ride to end. I was wasting no time looking for more contests to enter. I saw that the Scriptapalooza competition had a deadline coming up, and that it too was offering analysis and coverage on submissions as one of its submission options, my head was in full analysis mode of how I was planning on entering.

So when I found an email waiting for me announcing a scoring change for both Dig Down and Lock the Doors, I was caught off guard, because I had already moved on to the next wave of submissions. I was taken even more aback when I saw the result.

I PLACED AS A FINALIST AGAIN!!!

As a reminder, this was the contest that I had disagreed with some of the assumptions they had made when they provided feedback. I had one aspect in particular had been taken so far out of context, and with the Page Turner deadline looming, had decided to abandon revisions and resubmission because I felt it was better to focus on a contest that I saw more eye to eye with. I had just expected to get the standard “we’re sorry, we had so many great entries, its hard to choose, but we didn’t pick yours” types of rejection letters.

When I saw I placed as a finalist, it did help reshape my perspective on the notes. When I read it, I believed they just assumed the worst in me (not as a writer, as a human), so the placement made me rethink that their note was more out of concern about how the diction – this was from a character who just had their jaw broken – might come across to others, and not necessarily what they believed.

What’s more, Lock the Doors placed with an honorable mention, which I felt was fair because this wasn’t a horror specific contest, and I wouldn’t expect the genre to score well in it. The fact that it did gave me a sense of validation. It no longer felt like a fluke that Lock the Doors placed as a finalist in the first contest I entered it into.

Also, with Dig Down, I was now two for two in placing as a finalist in the two contests that had concluded, with one more still to go. And in the case of the Santa Barbara contest, I felt a sense of redemption in the choices I made in telling the story.

I couldn’t wait to enter another contest.

I was sitting at the bar top of one of my local restaurants, checking my email while waiting for my food, when I saw one of the messages in my inbox was from the Page Turner Screenplay Competition. I remember straightening up in my seat and even sucking in my breath when I saw the subject line read that the scoring had changed for my entry.

Two hard weeks of revisions came down to this. I won’t say that I wasn’t a little nervous about seeing the results, though I will say I didn’t have a concern that this would have been a bad result. The nerves came from entertaining the possibility that I had won my first screenplay competition.

I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but at the same time, this competition and the feedback I got gave me the best context of where I stood. And from what I could gauge, this was a reasonable possibility.

Although there were some nerves, just like when I was deciding whether to get this level of feedback and analysis, I felt the best thing to do was believe in myself and dive headfirst into it. I opened up the email and read the result.

Dig Down placed as a finalist.

I was thrilled. Yes, it wasn’t a win, but I felt I had done everything I could to write my story the best way I could for a screenplay, and even though I didn’t win, I got the feeling I was close.

Also, with the placement as finalist, I had now shown that being placed as a finalist for Lock the Doors wasn’t a fluke, and not only had I been placed as a finalist twice, I had two different scripts that had earned a finalist placement, both of which were very different, as the stories are in two different genres.

I had gotten another taste of success, and I wanted more. And I didn’t waste too much time going out to try and get it.

After an intense two weeks of revisions on my script of Dig Down, I definitely found myself enjoying the downtime afforded to me now that I wasn’t staring down the barrel of a deadline. My phone consultation to review the screenplay had been on March 10th, and because I couldn’t submit it before midnight because of the obstacles I described in the previous blog post, I submitted my final entry in the wee hours of the 25th, the day before the final entries were due.

I enjoyed the ability to relax after pushing myself to that level of rewrites, and I had a strong sense of satisfaction. I felt I had left everything out there when making the edits. There would be no second guessing of ‘Should I have also made those revisions’ or ‘I wish I had taken the time to do…’.

Don’t get me wrong, as a writer you’ll always debate decisions you make and weigh them against the creative choices you didn’t take. But when I’m speaking to is a belief that I had addressed every area that could be improved that was covered on the call, and what I had spotted while reading and re-reading my script through the editing process. While I don’t think I or anyone ever makes all the right choices, I can at least say confidently that I worked to improve them as best I could.

What a difference the rest of this weekend was compared to the previous. There wasn’t any resemblance to the twelve hour days of writing with the constant interruptions of going down to the basement to empty out the ever filling bucket of water. The only exertion I faced was Sunday morning when I got back on the indoor track to run, the first time all week that my writing schedule had permitted it. That’s honestly all I remember from that weekend.

All I had to do now was sit back and wait for the notification of the results. And that wouldn’t be long.

The deadline for the contest was Sunday night. I would get the results Tuesday.