A new article in Nature.com discusses a study that shows scientific papers that are initially rejected ultimately have a greater impact in the long run:
Just had your paper rejected? Don’t worry — that might boost its ultimate citation tally. An excavation of scientific papers’ usually hidden prepublication trajectories from journal to journal has found that papers published after having first been rejected elsewhere receive significantly more citations on average than ones accepted on first submission.
Of course, scientific papers aren’t screenplays, but the trend holds true.
Rejection is an essential part of the writing process. Your ideas, your individual scenes, and your lines of dialogue will all be picked at and turned down countless times before your screenplay is ultimately accepted. But those mini and major rejections shouldn’t get you down — they should empower you to learn from what you’ve done so far and press forward.
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Spoiler Alert! Avoid reading this post if you haven’t seen The Avengers.
No really, look away!
O.k., let’s talk about The Avengers, the highest grossing movie so far this year, and the movie on track to potentially unseat James Cameron’s Avatar as highest grossing movie of all time. Specifically, I want to talk about the writing and Loki, the film’s key villain. More specifically, I want to explain how Joss Whedon managed to write the perfect Xanatos Gambit.
For those who don’t know or didn’t click the link above, a Xanatos Gambit (named for the villain Xanatos from Disney’s Gargoyles cartoon) is a plan that literally cannot fail because win or lose, the villain wins. This is one of those “I wanted you to beat me all along” scenarios, where defeating the villain somehow means the hero still loses. This isn’t changing your plans to compensate or getting lucky…
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Final Numbers:
Total Backers: 809
Total Pledged: $64,515
Average pledge per backer: $79
Highest pledge: $2,500
Dollars pledged from Kickstarter website (search, discover): $4,957
Total backers and the amount pledged referred from Twitter: 238 backers who contributed $11,112
Total amount pledged referred from Facebook: $17,541
I’ve never been one to say “things happen for a reason” because I don’t believe they do. People only say that when bad things happen. It’s never said about something positive. So, the Kickstarter didn’t work out, none of which had anything to do with pre-determination or fate or whatever. I’ll go into a very long post below. Seriously, it’s definitely a TLDR (Too long Didn’t read) type of post.
This post and the preceding 39 blog entries were meant as a useful guide to future Kickstarter creators. While I may have been too honest at some points which turned some people off as to my…
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The novelist has been around for a long time enduring criticism, rejection and failure, but the screenwriter is a modern vocation dating back to the 1900’s and the silent era of filmmaking. The screenplay is an ever-changing, almost “live” document that is the blueprint of a motion picture. As you journey deeper into your screenwriting adventure, you’ll learn that everything you write in the script is vulnerable to changes. This is why filmmaking is truly a collaborative art form with hundreds of craftspeople giving their input into a finished motion picture—but it all starts with your script. You must fight against the forces of procrastination because this destructive habit will sink your plans every time. It comes from your fear. I completely understand the thinking: If you put off writing it, then you’ll never be judged or criticized. Seems logical. You’ll never have to face the hard fact that it…
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“Your hero’s development depends on what beliefs he starts with, how he challenges them, and how they have changed by the end of the story. This is one of the ways you can make the story uniquely yours.”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story, p81
Did everyone catch last night’s summer finale of Suits? Man I love that show. I didn’t think that I would but it has quickly made its way up the ladder into my top 5. Honestly, this show is GREAT.
I am going to blog about Louis, Harvey and Mike on my other blog page because they are phenomenal characters who really need to be examined more closely, but over all I can say that this show delivers in every sense of the words.
Story: Strong running storyline in every episode with smaller stories also present.
Characters: Great character development and great dialogue.
This show brings it every week. If you haven’t watched it, you need to. It’s fantastic.
Here is the best review of the last episode that I have seen today. I can’t really say it any better, so here you are. Written by C. Charles.
C. Charles is a…
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Good dialogue in your screenwriting is subjective, but bad dialogue is obvious. Ouch!
Movie dialogue must capture the mood of your genre. It you’re writing a comedy, say something funny. If you’re writing a horror film, say something scary. Do this from page 1 in your screenplay. Sure there can be moments of levity in a heavy drama movie or a scary moment in a comedy, but the backbone should be determined early on.
If I’m on page 5 and your comedy hasn’t made me chuckle yet, I’m not reading page 6. If you wrote a thriller or horror and I’m not wondering what’s going to happen next or I don’t have the feeling I’m about to jump in my chair, your dialogue isn’t setting the right tone. If you are writing an emotional drama and I don’t connect with any of your characters by page 10, I’m…
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Scripts and Things 