From The Comments Section

Regarding my post How to Succeed at Failing the Quik n Easy Way, a Rouge Waver wrote this:

Hi Julie,

I have read for major contests. Yes it takes 1 to 3 pages to eliminate a script. But most of these scripts are from first timers.

They are learning how to write a script. Give them a break.

So maybe you should judge them on whether they have the potential to become good writer one day.
Some writers should quit right now while others should continue and they will make it.

It's like "amateur sports", some will make it into the big league while others will pack up and go home.

Do I have a point?

Forget about finding the next Tarantino or August or Steven Zaillian for now.

If that writer shows some strong potential, he or she should advance.

Bluecat advanced scripts that were flawed by brimming with potential.

Anonymous, I concur that many entries are written by first-timers or those who would appear to be quite inexperienced. I have read for other competitions as well. I am bound and determined to make winning The Silver Screenwriting competition a meaningful accomplishment. I have heard from others who run or have run screenwriting competitions in the past that I have to lower the bar somewhat; that it's just too hard to find a really great writer in what amounts to a haystack of submissions. There are many who think that they are way better than they are, way earlier in the game and that winning a competition is a quick and easy way to kick the door down in Hollywood.

I may be old-fashioned, stubborn or deluded, but I refuse to lower the bar to include brimming with potential and a pat on the head. I have seen too many great writers in my time to do that. I know they are out there.

Of course I am looking for potential, but more than that, I am looking for an undiscovered writer, a diamond that's not all that rough. I am looking for a grand prize winner whom I can send out to 3 meetings with 3 managers with pride. It's my reputation on the line when I award the top winners of this competition. I want those who place in the Silver Screenwriting Competition to know that it is a meaningful accomplishment. You weren't the best of the worst, you were the best of the best. The worst get weeded out right away. And so do the lazy and the mediocre.

Because we do not yet have the manpower to return notes for every script, something I'd like to shoot for next year, the writers who did not advance in the first round really have no idea why. So my post, tongue-in-cheek though it may be, contains some hints as to why you may not have advanced. I can't email every entrant who didn't use sluglines and say hey, dude, use sluglines.

I am looking for the next Steve Zaillian or John August - I'm looking for a writer who did the work to deserve winning this competition. I'm looking for voice, originality, talent and discipline. And therein lies my point: if you cannot use sluglines, if you cannot write a decent action line, if you have a lot of typos or formatting issues - you are not yet ready to come off the porch and play with the big dogs. Period. Making these kinds of silly mistakes in my list of examples is inexcusable in a world where books and blogs on screenwriting are everywhere you look. A complete and total beginner should not, in my opinion, enter a competition so early on. Give it a minute. Read other scripts. Do the work. Your super neato idea may not be as neato as you think and your experience level, potential or not, will get in the way of really rocking a script.

At The Script Department, we take writers from all walks of life and from all ability levels and without personal judgment, help them improve. That you tried is good enough. What you do with your notes is your prerogative. We reward effort with honesty and encouragement.

But at The Silver Screenwriting Competition, I want the best of the best. I will not reward mediocrity. It's not fair to the good writers who also entered the competition. If I reward potential rather than someone who has nailed it, then what does winning or even placing mean?

What I have not mentioned, and it's clear I should have, are the scripts entered in the competition that I am loving. LOVING some of these entries. It's been tough to weed the great out from the truly great. I am impressed by the level of some of these submissions. Bad writing can be entertainingly funny and easy to poke fun at. Good writing blows my socks off. It's just that in this context, I can't yet speak of this or that writer or script. It ain't over til the fat lady sings.

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