This I Believe

So I was listening to NPR the other day, as I am wont to do, and I heard the very last installment of their This I Believe series. It was Muhammad Ali talking about what he believes about life. It was fascinating. And I thought - how interesting, making a statement about what you believe is like writing a mission statement, isn't it? And a mission statement is a bit like a great logline isn't it? It's a very core, fundamental statement about your script.

Long time Wavers know I tend to harp on the fact that screenwriting is only one kind of writing and that you should develop the muscles and the skills to write for other mediums. Short fiction, poetry, non-fiction, first person essays - well, how about we get a two-fer today?

How about Wavers write a 100-word This I Believe Statement and submit it to the comments section here? It's a way to think about and focus on your core values and beliefs but with a strict word limit. The word limit - just like in writing a great logline - forces you to distill your thoughts into the most powerful expression possible. And here's the two-fer part - as you do this, you'll revisit and reinforce what your core values and beliefs are. In a busy, busy world we don't check in with ourselves often enough and ground ourselves in what we really believe to be true of ourselves and this life. There's just so much noise and distraction. But if we don't check in with why we're here on this planet, then we're chucking the guidebook out the window.

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ, but as a metaphor, it celebrates the possibilities of rebirth and new paradigms. Passover celebrates freedom from adversity and new beginnings. So it seems appropriate on this Easter and Passover holiday to take a moment to do an uplifting writing exercise that reinforces who we really are and what we hold dear.

So here's my This I Believe:

I believe that happiness is not about stuff or achievements, but a feeling of well-being. I believe that knowing the universe is fundamentally good is the only thing you need to know for sure. I believe there are no mistakes, accidents or wrongs that won’t unfold into grace down the road. I believe that grace is where courage, wisdom and laughter meet. I believe in being nice to people. I believe in playing more and worrying less. I believe we are the writers, directors and producers of our lives and that we tell the story we want to be in.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

@ Home Pitch Fest

So the Wave-inatrix is at the Fade In Pitch Fest all this weekend and getting to know some wonderful, motivated and interesting writers. Hundreds are there, pitching their scripts to some pretty big companies. I have been offering pitch practice sessions and I am surprised at the number of writers who really have trouble encapsulating their script within a five minute time limit. So as an exercise, I think it would be wonderful if any motivated Wavers reading this today - regardless of where you are in your script - would politely but firmly corral a friend or significant other and pitch that script.

Practice, in other words. Not the part where you feel nervous and you're tired and you've stood in line forever, but the part where you tell the story of your script in a pithy, articulate, exciting way. A pitch is not a monologue where you simply read from a cue card or take a deep breath, look into the middle distance and drone on like a kid who memorized the Gettysburg Address. Your pitch should be alive, it should be like a conversation with the person listening. It is organic and it is entertaining. If your story is scary, make your pitch scary. If it's funny, be funny. Start by introducing yourself and naming the genre and title of your script. Then go straight to the one or two sentence logline. Then go into a little bit more detail but always leave room for the pitchee to ask questions or make comments so they don't get overwhelmed or lost.

Here's the thing, if you can't articulate the main thrust of your script in five minutes, Houston, you have a problem. So many writers at the Fade In event have said to me - but I can't do that! There's SO MUCH more going on in the story! Yes, you can do it. Those details do not belong in the pitch. The pitch should encapsulate the genre, the tone, the hook and the main PLOT of your script. Look, if you're inexperienced, it isn't easy. Even experienced types get nervous in the moment and can stumble all over the place. But practice makes perfect, no?

So today take a few minutes, stare at your script and write down a logline. Then lure someone in your family to the dining table, prime them with a beer or some Ritz crackers, look at the clock and BAM - go - give yourself five minutes to pitch your script. Even if your loved one is in a gravy stained tee shirt and has no pants on, even if your loved one is your cat, just GO. Do this thing. Pitch your script in five minutes. Then do it again. Start over. Do it again. Switch family members. Lure a friend over with the promise of chicken kabobs. Try it, Wavers.

Can you pitch your script in five minutes? Practice until you can. Then watch your pages respond to this newfound sureness about what your script is about. Check page 13 against your pitch. Does page 13 carry the DNA of the pitch? How about page 27? Still there? Page 48. Is the tone, the genre, the meaning of the title and the logline in some way evident on every page?

Pitch fests are opportunities to get your script read. But pitch practice is an opportunity to compress and condense the main idea of your script in a way that is easy to grasp. That's okay if your pitch sucks right now. Practice. This exercise is very powerful and if your family thought you were weird before, this will cement that feeling forever. But pay no mind - they don't get it. But at the Rouge Wave, we do get it.

I will be booking five free phone appointments this week for any Rouge Waver living in the continental US (or where it doesn't cost me money to call you, unless you want to call me and we can work out the time zone) to hear timed five minute pitches. Email me and let's set something up. Don't expect the conversation to last much more than ten minutes. But give me a try. I'll listen.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Have You Lost the Plot?

You know that feeling when you're reading a novel and it doesn't feel like it's going anywhere? When it's all sorts of pretty things and reflections but you can't seem to find the plot? A reader friend and I were chatting over the 4th and she said "Reading scripts has ruined me for reading novels. I keep skimming along, faster and faster looking for the PLOT". Believe me, this serves a reader well when they are asked to "cover" a novel - the Wave-inatrix does that a fair bit for a couple of production companies I work for. Being a reader forces one to zero in on plot and quickly. We have to synopsize the story and we have to do it fast. It's a job requirement that begets a certain ADHD which trickles down to you, the writer.

Here is an excerpt from the very first blog entry on the Rouge Wave:

Action lines are not just paragraphs which describe the building, or the car or the dusty street the character is walking down. They aren't just to tell us the character is wearing "khaki pants, a white shirt and dress shoes". Action lines are like paintings. They should be kinetic, pithy and evocative. What do I mean by that? If a writer is describing a mid-19th century street in Nevada and the day is hot and the bad guy is about to gallop up on his horse, then focus on using that action line to really convey all of that. Let us hear a carriage creaking by. Let us feel the hot sun. Let us choke on the dust and hear the sound of the boots over the wooden walkways. Choose words, in other words, that match the mood of the scene and the tone of the script overall. Read produced scripts and notice the way a horror script uses dark, scary words in the action lines. Notice the way a romantic comedy employs lighter, funnier, bouncier words in the action lines. Make the scene come alive. Don't be afraid to sound like you, not some pedantic machine who's read a how-to screenwriting book one too many times.

Here's a little secret: most readers, and by extension, executives and producers, skim over action lines quickly. Particularly if they are dense. We are only looking for key words so we can orient ourselves. The dialogue is the primary place where the plot is going to play out.

To read the post in its entirety, click HERE.

Oh dear, I've lost the plot. Where were we? Ah yes - the yin and yang, the fine balance between writing evocative, cinematic action lines and also moving the plot forward. We are writers, let's face it. And we love words. We love images and moments. We love the feelings that are happening in a particular scene. But sometimes we over-indulge and forget that we must move along into the next moment and keep the story moving. Like a shark. Elegant, mysterious - but always moving or it will drown.

So how do you know if you've done that or if you've gotten lost in moments? How do you know if you've lost the plot? If you have outlined your story ahead of writing the script, you should be in pretty good shape. As long as your outline contained definitive plot beats every step of the way. That's the point of an outline - to beat out the story. Then when you get to pages, that's when you write the moments and visuals and feelings into the pages.

But what if you never outlined your script in the first place? First of all, bad Rouge Waver, bad! Unless you are one of those savants capable of keeping that outline in your head - and they exist, I've met them, but they are a rare breed - you should have outlined. But too late now, right? Well, have you lost the plot?

What about reverse-outlining your already written script? Take a look at your script in ten page increments. Can you pithily describe every ten pages with a set up, complication and resolution? Can you boil it down, in other words, to the plot and only the plot? Give it a try. If your description winds up sounding like: The woman meets a guy she would like to date and they go out on a date - if that describes ten pages - you gotta problem, my friend. Because it begs the question - yeah? So what? What's the problem? What's the complication? Why do I care what happens in the next ten pages? That description would work better as: the main character swears she'll never date then she meets a great guy, they go out on a date but it turns out he is married. Ah - complication. Not a great one, but a complication. I don't get a sense of the genre from that description, that's missing. So make sure you describe each sequence relative to the genre.

Go ahead. Try it. Reverse-engineer your script. Write a description of every ten pages, using bullet points. Now you can check for two things - plot development and escalation. Does the description of your third sequence sound BIGGER and even more entertaining than the description of the first sequence? It better. Every sequence should build on the last. Things should get more complicated with every sequence. There should be setbacks, surprises and twists. The obstacles keep getting worse and more complicated. Just when your main character has achieved something - SMASH it in the next sequence.

Once you have outlined in reverse, imagine that this is a story you are telling at a cocktail party. This happened. THEN this happened! But then that happened! And you wouldn't believe what happens next!

So if you are in doubt, give it a try. Does your script pass the test? Or have you lost the plot?

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Thrill Ride

So lately, the Wave-inatrix has been helping out a friend with a really fun, action-packed action-adventure script. He had the first act done, actually, but was needing help beating out the second act (because he knew, from having set up the first act, about what his third act had to be already). So we've been having a lot of fun with it - this is going to be a rollicking good time and because I am sworn not to discuss it, all I can say is it has a huge, perfect, never-been-done hook. When my friend gets this off the ground, he's totally taking me out for some surf n turf. Dammit.

Recently I had the pleasure of having a young pianist and USC student of film composition over to the ol' place to play my 150 year-old piano which is, beyond my books, my most treasured possession upon which I can play slightly imperfect versions of the Canon in D and my all time fave, Hoagy Carmichael's Heart and Soul. Hey, it's music to me. And my neighbors.

The pianist - we'll call him Julio - asked about the story I was helping with. I described it and he grinned from ear to ear and said - like this? And began to score the story idea. It was an amazing experience to see how a composer plays with the story to arrive at a theme for the score. The main theme. The scary parts. The romantic part - all based on the established theme. Julio asked what the set would look like. He asked what the theme of the story was. He asked about the rating the movie would likely get.

But the best was yet to come. Sitting on the creaky old piano bench, Julio turned to me and said - tell me the scariest part. I made a pretty good scary set piece up on the spot and Julio played fast, frightening, action-y music. He turned to me again. Like - would this be a ride at Universal? It only took me a second to respond to that one. Why yes - yes it would!

I had what our beloved PJ would call a "ding dong" moment. Or, in my own parlance, an ohhhhhhhhh moment. Yes, yes this script could totally be a thrill ride! But the pianist wasn't done. What would you ride in? What would be the first thing the ride does?

And right then and there I began to simply make stuff up. For one, the actual author of this story wasn't there so I had to take some liberties but suddenly, set pieces began to inspire me.You'd be riding in this rickety canoe! The pianist began to play. And - you'd go over this waterfall that's on fire!

And suddenly, set pieces for the 2nd act began to appear to me as set pieces that would just have to be on that thrill ride. I wonder what screenwriters get paid if their movie becomes a thrill ride? A nickel for every passenger? Hey, that could add up to a lot of cupcakes.

Later, I told my friend about the experience and he was delighted and inspired by some of the set pieces I had imagined on the thrill ride based on his script. Together, we began to build on the set pieces so that they really capture the essence of the story and escalate the narrative in fun, dangerous ways.

To be perfectly honest, I had heard somewhere once before that imagining your action-adventure as a thrill ride is a great way to come up with set pieces - I'd just never done it since this is not the genre I write. If you're writing an action-adventure, I highly recommend imagining the ride that would go with it.

Now, I know a lot of Wavers are reading this thinking - fat lot of good that does me, I'm writing a period drama! 1) please, god, say that's not true but 2) so you're writing a different genre. You can still make use of this idea by imagining the trailer moments for your script. That is an oldie but how many of you have tried it?

Trailers are generally set pieces with pivotally funny/scary/dramatic moments of dialogue punctuating them. Try it today Wavers - write a trailer for your script so far. In prose - I'm not recommending you abuse Final Draft by literally writing a trailer. But what would that trailer look like? It would start with what, be punctuated by and wind up with what?

Can you distill the most exciting, pivotal moments in your script? No matter where you are in the process of writing your script, from the imagining/panicking stage to the final touches, this is a fun exercise.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Movie Posters

I was so green with jealousy I looked like I was at the casting call for Wicked. And all because the other day the Wave-inatrix was in the office of an executive who had a giant framed poster of Blue Velvet behind his desk. I mean, it was huge. I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

Much like I couldn't take my eyes off of Sydney Pollack, dining at Canter's the other day. Oh, how I wanted to worship at his feet. But decency and respect demanded that I be satisfied with a secret, awe-struck stare.

By far the best poster I have seen in an executive's office was a vintage poster of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. The exec explained to me that he'd peeled it off the metro wall in Paris during the 80s. Now that was a cool poster.

Again with the digressing. Managers, agents and execs have great movie posters in their offices - from vintage movies to cult classics. So what? Well, movie posters sport the all-important tagline. Which is, at long last, today's topic. The tagline is that very pithy, evocative, catchy phrase which encapsulates the core entertainment of the movie.

Some examples:

Imagine your life hangs by a thread. Imagine your body hangs by a wire. Imagine you're not imagining. - Coma

Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free. - The Shawshank Redemption

What if this guy got you pregnant? - Knocked Up

It takes a real man to become a maid of honor. - Made of Honor

On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody. - Taxi Driver

How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight? - Fight Club

So, Wavers - what would the poster for your movie say? Can you come up with a short, memorable and descriptive tagline for your poster? This isn't just a fun, what-if flight of fancy, by the way. The ability to think up the tagline is a necessary part of coalescing and articulating the essence of your script.

When you practice articulating that essence as a premise line, pitch and poster - you are also practicing making sure that the core entertainment of your story will be on every single page of your script.

So go for it - what would the poster for your movie look like and say?

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Tackling the Logline

Rouge Waver Mike Scherer comments: The biggest bugg-a-boo I have is creating an effective logline. Very hard. Harder than writing the actual script.

Heeeelllllllp!

Mike, you aren't alone. Many writers find loglines very challenging. I've gotten pretty good at it not only from having to write them daily for clients (not my own work, so easier, but good training) but from having attended the Writer's Boot Camp where, for the first several weeks, there was a strong focus on pithy reductions. And by that I do not mean lemon curd.

A cornerstone of my take on screenwriting - doing it, teaching it and living it - is that a writer has to use both the micro and macro view of the material at all times. Zoom in. Zoom out. Picture a person working on a vast quilt - peering closely at the stitches in their hands, glancing over three squares to the left to see how the flow of the pattern is doing, and then standing up, stepping back and, hands on hips, looking at the whole quilt. That's what writers need to be doing all the time. Zoom in. Zoom out. Micro and macro.

For many writers, the logline is something to work on after the script is already written. Cardinal sin in my book. The logline should have been the compass rose all along. But I get ahead of myself. What commonly happens is that writers get way too enmeshed in the micro page-work and write a logline like this:

A civil war vet has a failing ranch and someone threatens to cut off the water and he doesn't know what to do and then they burn down his barn and he's really upset and then he gets a proposition, to help escort a dangerous criminal to the train station on time and they'll pay him $200 but on the very first night out the criminal kills someone and he realizes he's in pretty deep and then......

Please kill me now. Just. Kill me.

How about the freaking upshot already??

A desperate man with a failing ranch gets in too deep when he accepts $200 to escort a murderous outlaw with a devoted gang to the train station on time to stand trial.

Ohhhhhh now we've boiled YUMA down to it's most entertaining essence. Few details embellish this logline, just the upshot.

And that's what readers are asked to do when they write loglines: UPSHOT PLEASE.

But a logline you are writing needs to be a little sexier than the upshot only. Not longer, just sexier. Here's the logline a reader would mostly likely jot out for YUMA:

A failing rancher escorts a dangerous criminal to the train station.

Upshot and upshot only. But the one I used as an example earlier is closer to what you the writer would write as you represent your script when submitting.

A desperate man with a failing ranch gets in too deep when he accepts $200 to escort a murderous outlaw with a devoted gang to the train station on time to stand trial.

So let's look at that logline again. Is the genre clear - yeah, rancher, outlaw, got it. Who is the antagonist? Murderous outlaw, devoted gang, got it. Ticking clock? Train station on time. Main character and flaw? Desperate man with failing ranch. Crux of the conflict? Accepts $200 to escort murderous outlaw.

So like a dragonfly in the garden, we flew over the meadow of the script and alighted only on the key moments, the brightest flowers, the UPSHOT.

In my opinion, many writers struggle with their logline for two reasons - they don't practice doing it enough (exercise to follow) and they are writing the logline AFTER they wrote the script and, the biggest, worst culprit of all - the script they are trying to logline is too dense, confusing and meandering to really have a big upshot. And that is the worst thing of all.

I recommend working on a logline (or premise, actually, in this usage, I'll 'splain momentarily) before you outline your script. Then continue to amend the logline or outline as needed. You really shouldn't write your logline AFTER the script is done. Again, the logline should have been your compass rose all along.

It's kinda like a pyramid:

Logline
Premise
Outline
Script

So yeah, it's pretty damn tough to write a logline when boiling down the essence of the script has never entered your mind until page 86.

The difference between a premise and a logline is this: A premise is simply a longer version of the logline, maybe a paragraph, that is for YOUR use, YOU the writer, as you work on your outline. The premise can and will change often as you are shaping your story. And yes, there's room for spontaneity, if you change something on your pages post outline, yes, tweak the premise and loglines to reflect that change.

So what are the components of a good logline, whether you are being a Rouge Wave ROCK STAR and writing the log and premise before writing the script or being a goofball and attempting to write them to describe a script you've already written?

A good logline should include:

The main character and his or her flaw-weakness-downfall
(Desperate man, failing ranch)

The antagonist and his or her general m.o.
(Dangerous outlaw, devoted gang, trial a no-go)

Set up
(Failing ranch, wounded pride, needs $$$ for winter)

Complication/Crux of the conflict
Gets in too deep
train on time
devoted gang

So here is a fun exercise to practice writing loglines. This is something we used to do at the Writer's Boot Camp, I forget what they called the exercise.

By the way, these can be and are, obviously, silly, guys, but this exercise has real value because you might just find a good story doing a silly exercise, but you also will be building and toning the muscles of cobbling a story together from the macro view.

Make a list of main characters and flaws/problems:

Desperate rancher
Broke, alcoholic divorcee
Greedy, lying store manager
Self-centered, washed up rock star

Now make a list of antagonists:

Cruel and shrewd divorce lawyer
Dangerous outlaw
Demonic spirit
Mentally unstable fan

Now a list of ticking clocks:

Crossing the state line before the wedding
Making it to Burning Man on time for the concert
Making it to the train on time to stand trial
Sealing the crack in the time-space continuum before Satan finds out

Now a list of set ups:

Gets drunk and sleeps with her soon-to-be brother-in law
Is too high to show up for an audition and gets kicked out of the band
Can't make payments on the ranch, water gets cut off
Escapes from hell after throwing a demonic party and rupturing the time/space continuum

And a list of the crux of conflict:

Okay, I've officially run out of steam over my coffee here - you guys can take over from here. But are you getting the point? Like those flip books when we were kids, where your animal could have the head of an ostrich and the body of a bear and the feet of an alligator? Mix and match. Mess around with jotting down these loglines components and then taking the components and writing a logline. Just do it - have fun.

In fact - the Rouge Waver who can come up with the pithiest, most entertaining, I might actually see that movie logline, using the components above wins a lifetime supply of cupcakes. Any takers?

And Mike, if you still have questions, send them to me and we'll do loglines part II, III and IV if we have to. But the upshot is this: it ain't easy, so don't beat yourself up. It takes practice and lots of it.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Can You Pitch in 5 Words?

That is a fun challenge I see very often on the Done Deal Message Board. Of course, some nutter submitted: girl on girl action which is worth a laugh but four syllables, not five words. Nice try, wiseacre.

Can you pitch or describe the script you're working on in five words? It's a fun challenge but it is useful? A WGA friend of mine pointed out that describing your script in 150 words - 3 concise paragraphs - is the more useful exercise. And I weigh in that actually, zooming in and out from the micro to the macro when describing your story is more than a fantastic way to get to know your story - it is a crucial way to get to know your story. Not only because when you pitch, you'll have to pitch in a number of ways (the elevator pitch, the meet -n- greet pitch, the treatment, the development meeting) but because when you force yourself to zoom in and out of your story, you begin to tattoo the essence of it on your brain. In other words if your five words are: Baker hides body for revenge - then you need to be damn sure that on every single page of your script - that essence is there. THAT is the entertainment value and you need to make sure that the very boiled down basics of your script are evident in every interaction on every page. Does that make sense?

A friend just gave me a disappointed review of DISTURBIA saying the first half was very strong; did he or didn't he? But in the second half, yup, he did and now he's gonna getcha. Wow, Wave-inatrix, that added up to two neat five-word descriptions for the first and second half of the movie, how DO you do it and what is your beauty secret? Well, plenty of sleep and steamed cauliflower, since you asked but bear with me:

DISTURBIA:
page one through fifty: Did he or didn't he?
page fifty one through one hundred: ...and now he's gonna getcha.

So you can see that the entertainment value of "did he or didn't he" is pretty high and varied. But "now he's gonna getcha" takes us down to a lot of pop out moments and narrow escapes.

Full disclosure - I didn't see DISTURBIA, probably should. But the mini-W's droll review made me think twice about my nine bucks.

So I'm talking about two things here - about describing your story in as few words as possible, from five words to three paragraphs to a one page synopsis. Can everybody try that? How did you do?

The other thing that I'm talking about is identifying and paying off the core, the essence, the bottom-line description of the entertainment value of your story.

Put yourself in the head of an executive. You sit at your expensive desk after having parked your BMW and sipped your five dollar coffee, but you know what? You have no job security whatsoever and you know that as does your assistant. You're only as secure as your last project and that one didn't do so well. You've GOT to find the next big thing, you've got to. And some knock-kneed writer sits across the desk from you sweating and all you can think of is that you've got to refinance the house to put the pool in, another creative exec, the backstabbing one you hate, got the corner office and thank god today is a therapy day.

So here's this writer. And they start to babble about their story. And you're thinking to yourself - what is the UPSHOT? What is the upshot of this entertainment? Yeah, yeah, theme, character development but when I take this to my boss and neatly lay my head on a platter and hand him a knife, what am I asking my boss to gamble on, here? A lot of scenes that show some guy who's gonna getcha? A lot of scenes that show a marriage slowly crumbling? Ayyyyeeeee don't really want my head on that platter, no thanks. You glance at your watch, phew, time for your next meeting. You shake the sweaty hand of the writer and mumble see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya. Then yell at your assistant as a way to show him or her exactly what his or her place is in this world, this week, dammit. Thank god it's therapy day.

So when you think of your five words, imagine those five words describing the bulk of the entertainment, writ large. Forget about the nuances, the mystery, that one great piece of dialogue down in the coal mine - basically, the audience is gonna sit through a lot of scenes that show....what?

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

500 Word Essay Contest

I got my start writing first person essays for local rags in the Bay Area. For you die hard screenwriters under the age of 30, a rag is a printed daily or weekly publication of negligible importance. But that's where you had to start back in the day. Before there were blogs and everybody was a writer in the time it takes to click "publish". Back then you had to work your way up from local to regional to national publications. Now you can go international in seconds. But - and there's a big but - nobody reads you or comes back for more if you can't write compellingly and entertainingly. So it's still a test of your writing mettle; bad bloggers don't have many visitors and die on the vine. It doesn't matter how great your blog design is, how flashy your graphics are - if ya cain't write, ya cain't write.

From time to time I ask Wavers to write haikus and short scenes. You know you love it, Wavers, you love writing exercises that test and stretch your writing skills. Now I'm going to challenge anyone who'd like to participate, to write a 500 word short essay about overcoming a difficult time in your life. 500 words. That's short. That's almost a flash-essay. But when you write for an editor, you have requirements and that's my requirement. A good essay must have a beginning, a middle, an end - a narrative arc and a point. It needs to wind up provocatively, pointedly or evocatively. It needs to, as we say, "land". Go out on a high note. Make 'em laugh. Make 'em cry. Make them see your point, in your voice.

The Wave-inatrix will be the sole judge and decider of the best 500 word essay and the prize shall be in the general area of a $25 gift certificate or equivalent free screenwriting book, etc. Not much. But it's something.

500 words. Overcoming a difficulty. Make it funny, make it sad, make it great. You have until Monday at 5pm pacific time to SUBMIT.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

You Know How I Know You're a Writer?

Last evening, the Wave-inatrix sat by a crackling chiminea (translation for non-Angelenos: cheap little pot belly outdoor fireplace thing) with my dear friend Margaux, sipped white wine and discussed the events of late that have made life challenging. Then our conversation, as it is wont to do, segued into writing. We talked about the television arm of things (Margaux's specialty) and the feature arm of things. We discussed that Margaux, as part of the Warner Brother's Television Fellowship, heard Aaron Sorkin speak the other day. We discussed which television shows are not great to spec right now. And after awhile, a silence returned to the patio because the shadow of recent events hangs over everything. The sound of crickets became apparent. No, really, we have a lot of crickets in the Fairfax area and on a warm evening, they join the chorus of urban life outside my window.

Back to the crackling chiminea on the patio. Breaking the silence, in a tiny voice, I said to Margaux - this might be weird and wrong but - and I shared with her an idea for a thriller that popped into my mind during and related to the trials and travails of late. Margaux loved the idea. We tested it for originality, we played with the antagonist. We beat out the story up to the midpoint and decided a killer midpoint must be brainstormed. Margaux, so very often the Wave-inatrix's go-to person for idea testing, is excited about this idea. And Wavers, it might be weird and it might be just ever so slightly wrong, but that's how you know you're a writer - even in the throes of things, your writer's mind is looking at it all from a slight, narrative distance. You might be too upset to write in the moment, but your writer's brain never rests. And that, dear Wavers, is my salvation right now. I'm already beginning an outline.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

A True Story In One Sentence

Good weekend, Wavers - I know you're always up for a good writing challenge - we had describing your life in six words the other day, to which we had some quite entertaining responses. Of course, we had Wenonah plucked from relative obscurity and launched into the short film stratosphere by our short scene competition - and now, with absolutely no results guaranteed, I'm asking Wavers to write One Sentence- there's the link for your inspiration - one sentence that is a true story from your life. Submit on the linked site if you like, but if you would be so kind, share here as well:

I'll go first: I met him online and sixteen years of marriage unraveled like so much string.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Watching Over the Voting

Yeah. I'm here. Watching those votes roll in. I want to keep the focus on this competition so that we can really give these writers their due. To pass the time, I have a challenge - something I heard on NPR: describe your life in six words. I'll go first:

My Life in Six Words by Julie Gray

girl wonder insatiable pretender wrote bloomed

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

New Year Reflections - in Haiku

Cold windy night out
Christmas tree a skeleton
Uncertainty reigns

Any Rouge Wavers want to give it a whirl?

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Possible Winner

...and the Wave-inatrix is not prejudiced but the sheer wit, beauty and elegance of D. Montoya's haiku puts definite pressure on other Rouge Wavers:

Sweet Wave-inatrix
Threatens to go all Irish
Make mine a double

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Post Holiday Haiku Challenge

The Wave-inatrix is admittedly weird. (see red flag post below; hear them snapping in the wind?) And so, by extension, are my friends. We sometimes do haiku challenges, usually by text message and we do it at odd times. On the drive to Thanksgiving, my close friend Peter texted me this:

Arid roasted bird
Dreams of halcyon glory
Gravy gives no joy.

The mini-Wave-inatrix texted back, in all her emo-teen glory:

Poor little turkey
Bound in humiliation
Roasted in anguish.

Yes, the Mini-W is a vegetarian, in case you wondered.

I find haiku a particularly great writing exercise. Sometimes in screenwriting we get so bound up in character arcs and plot points that sometimes we forget the sheer glory and elasticity of the language we use.

If anyone feels compelled, inspired or otherwise moved to submit a post-Thanksgiving haiku to the Rouge Wave, please do so in the comments section for all to enjoy. Impress other Wavers, use writing muscles you rarely use - haiku today.

A few submissions = cupcake promises with the possibility of follow-through.

Quite a few submissions = Wave-inatrix has a cool prize. So let's just see.

Shake off the turkey-induced, overeating coma and spring back to life, Wavers. Fire in the belly, people! Don't make the Wave-inatrix go all Irish on your asses.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Magnanimous Feet Winner!!

Rouge Wavers, the votes are in and the people have spoken. The winner of the Magnanimous Feet Competition, with twenty four votes is Lee, with Magma Mouse.

SUBMISSION NUMBER ELEVEN by Lee - 24 votes!!
The children dive toward their special hideaway refuges. Hitomi and Megumi run from the demonic mouse as its tiny feet begin to glow bright orange and ooze magma, leaving burned footprints as he gives chase. Megumi: How miserable are we, fleeing the evil Magma Mouse. Hitomi: I am emotionally unstable but I must escape this fire demon in the shape of a household rodent. The creature, terrorizing the children, jumps off an embankment and lands on his Magma Mouse feet. The flower garden beneath his feetbursts into flames.

Here are the other finalists:

SUBMISSION NUMBER SEVEN by Robin: twenty votes
She loved him. Always had. Worshipped the voice, smooth and deep like a silky trombone. Dreamt of his four armed embrace under the purple moons. How long? Since the days they terrorized children in the sea. Inky waters now dead.That was then. Right now, she had never felt so alive.Sex was in the air.His beauty made her fur moist. Other creatures cooed about what his magnanimous feet meant. Soon she would know.

SUBMISSION NUMBER SEVENTEEN by Steverino - eighteen votes
EXT. ALLEY - NIGHTFOOT and WATSON stand on either side of KAREN's naked body, which glows like alabaster from blood loss and the full moon shining on it. FOOT: I'd say she had a night of it. WATSON: I'd say...

SUBMISSION NUMBER EIGHTEEN by Hanji - sixteen votes
Creature gives chase with
His willing, generous hands,
Magnanimous feet

SUBMISSION NUMBER ONE by Geena - eight votes.
The creature waits for vulnerable prey. Body aches to the bone, legs weary of this hunt. Insatiable pathological lust for children consumes the creatures mind.Two children chase one another into the meadow. Primal hunger overtakes body, the creature leaps from the embankment.An ankle jarring thud startles the children. Prey within grasp the creature rises with magnanimous feet.

SUBMISSION NUMBER THREE by Sam - eight votes
...a creature, terrorizing some children, jumps off an embankment and lands on his magnanimous feet. POP. POP. POP. Rapid shots from a sniper rifle echo. The children stop and look up, past the fallen creature, and spy in the distance ---- a towering oak tree. A gunmetal FLASH in the leafy branches catches the sunlight. The creature, leaking a viscous, purplish blood, gives his final groan. Bulbous yellow eyes freeze in a ghastly stare.

CUT TO:
INT. AUTOPSY ROOM -- NIGHT
Under a crisp white sheet, the hulking form of the dead creature stretches the length of a gurney. Exposed, a pair of enormous, gnarled FEET...

SUBMISSION NUMBER FIFTEEN by Eric - six votes
The creature walked up the stairs,with a magnanimous glare. He opened his door, with a magnanimous roar. Oh what a feat, to brush those magnanimous teeth. And with much flair,he did comb his magnanimous hair. The creature was beat, dragging around those magnanimous feet. He crawled into bed, to rest his magnanimous head. Pulled the covers, up over his magnanimous blubber. Then set his alarm clock, with his magnanimous…. Oh damn, can’t think of a word that rhythms with clock.

Thank you everybody for contributing some really clever riffs on a completely absurd word pairing and somehow making it work. Lee can contact the Wave-inatrix to collect his prize.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.