And thus we come to the end of another Get Repped Now. We’re super stoked about our four considers thus far:
- MERCHANDISE by Jovan Luna
- OLYMPIA, WA, by Aidan West
- NOWHERE MEN by Sean Farley
- SICK CITY by Greg Goodness
And we can’t wait to send them along to our manager panel with our recommendations. But we know there are more great scripts out there. So make sure you get ’em in before the deadline! There will be no other extensions or exceptions.
No Consider? No Worries.
There’s no avoiding a certain amount of disappointment and hurt feelings when you don’t make the cut. It’s hard not to take a “pass” personally. We all are working hard on our stories, and then to have someone tell us, “Not there yet,” well, it’s frustrating.
I get it. I’m a writer, too. And believe me, even after 30-plus years in this biz, rejection still stings.
Here’s what I can tell you, which I did not understand at all my first two freaking decades as a writer:
You will be a better writer tomorrow than you are today.
Your next draft will generally be better than the last. And your next script will be better than the one before it, and demonstrably better than the one before that. Because we’re always learning and improving. I look back at dialogue I wrote only a year or two ago and grimace, because I’m so much better about subtext and being less on-the-nose now.
And that’s why we do coverage. Every “pass” is a building block, every note a lesson learned. And as we spackle over each divot in our script, as painful as that process sometimes can be, we learn. Our wordsmithery becomes tighter, sharper. Our sense of pacing better. Our story skills more facile. Of course, growth doesn’t come as quickly as we’d hope. This is hard. This stuff takes years to truly absorb, and requires lots of practice to get right.
Like any other well-paid, highly skilled profession.
So just remember, even if you don’t get a “consider” from us this time out, that’s OK. There are a million contests, festivals, and opportunities to get your stuff out there. Once your material rocks the house, people will see it. Try not to stress too much about WHEN it will happen. Just know that eventually it will, if you do the work.
As our good friend and former reader Sal Cardoni told me last month after he sold a pitch to Paramount, “Yeah, ‘m an overnight success… 15 years in the making.”
–Jim C.
