Writing A Screenplay That Will Sell To Hollywood

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Script Girrl

There are advantages to living in Hollywood…

Not the parking – everywhere you park will cost you something, whether by meter; by machines that you punch a card into; or by a parking lot attendant.

Not the friendliness of the people – nobody makes eye contact, initiates conversation, or says ‘excuse’ me when they cut in front of you in the grocery store or blockbuster.

Not the pedestrians – who cross against the traffic lights and never look left or right for coming cars, so that when you drive you have to be alert at all times or you’ll hit one of them.  That means no cell phone calls and no texting, or you’ll mow someone down like I almost did at the L.A. Farmer’s market when I looked down at my iphone GPS while I was turning off Fairfax, into the parking lot .   You should have seen those three men jump and the surprised looks on their faces.  LOL  (Not too funny if I’d have hit them).

But, if you are a screenwriter or interested in the ‘Business’ of Hollywood,  the advantages far outweigh all of the disadvantages!

Perfect weather.  Access to the Pacific Ocean and the Mountains for skiing.  And, specific for screenwriters, tons of writing conferences, classes, seminars, UCLA, writer’s groups, and the ability to network with people in the ‘Business’ who may be able to get your screenplay into the right hands to sell it.

It was with extreme pleasure, that I had the occasion to make Dustin Hoffman’s acquaintance!  It was a ‘Right Place’ / ‘Right Time’ kind of thing – except that I don’t believe in chance.  I believe in fate.

Anyway, to protect Mr. Hoffman’s personal space, I can’t tell you where the meeting took place, but I can tell you what happened…

My girlfriend elbowed me.  ”Look.  Oh my God!  It’s Dustin Hoffman!!”

Dustin Hoffman was walking toward us down a long hallway.  His head was down, giving me the impression that he was deep in thought.  His hands were stuffed into the deep pockets of a long, black overcoat.  He made an imposing figure.

I froze like a statue and stared.  Mesmorized.  He and Jack Nicholson are my favorite stars – by far.

He was about 2 feet from passing us by – unnoticed.   Speak!  My brain shouted.  Say something.  Anything!

I opened my mouth and said the first thing that popped into my mind.  ”I think we’re cousins.”

Dustin slowed his stride and gave me a quizzical look.  ”Excuse me?”

I tapped the name tag I was wearing for the conference I was attending that afternoon.

Dustin leaned into me to get a better look at my name tag and then realization crossed his face when he saw that we both had the same last name – Hoffman.   He smiled.  ”Well then, lets go dancing!”

I smiled back and he started to walk away.  I didn’t want to let him get away that easily.  I had to say something else to keep him another minute.

“I love your work!’  I blurted out.  ”You are so talented and versatile.”

He stopped and turned back to me.  ”Really?  Tell me more.”

He leaned casually against the wall while I sang his praises.  He asked me where I was from originally.  I guess I still have a bit of a Tennessee twang with some words.  I told him Tennessee.

“Tennessee?”  Dustin said.  ”Hmm.  Have you ever heard a song called Memphis?”

“No.”  I said smiling.  ”Maybe you could sing it for me.”

Dustin returned the smile.  ”Maybe I could.  Lemme see.  How’d it go now?”

He thought for a minute and then started singing the 1958 song by Donnie Brooks.  He looked into my eyes for the entire song and sang two refrains!  His face only a foot and a half from mine.  (I’d moved in on him) The song was about how much smarter, and prettier Tennessee women were than women for other states.  I was in heaven.

When he finished his song, he shook my hand and told me how nice it was meeting me.  My girlfriend never muttered a word the entire time.

He started back down the hall and I couldn’t help myself.  I was on a roll.

“You like Jack Nicholson?”  I called after him.

He turned and stopped.  ”Who doesn’t?”  He said.

“Well, I have a great idea for a screenplay for the two of you.”  A good detective, bad detective, betrayal kind of thing.  Lots of twists.  You’re the good guy.”

Dustin laughed and said to my girlfriend.  ”She’s an aggressive little thing, isn’t she?  Trying to sell me a screen play.”

He paused for a second and added, “But you know, you have to be aggressive to get anywhere in this business.”

He turned and went on his way.

Such a sweetie, and good looking too.  I could just eat him up!

Anyway, when I got home I downloaded that 1958 song from itunes, fiddled with it in ‘Garage Band’, and created a sweet little ringtone for my iphone that contains the refrain of the song.  Every time someone calls, I’m reminded of my Dustin Hoffman moment.  I laughingly refer to the song as, “Our Song.”

In Hollywood, anything is possible!

ScriptGirrl

Hang in there guys!

I have spent the last four months schmoozing in West Hollywood.  Meeting Stars, Directors, and Producers who can get my screenplay sold and produced – as soon as I finish writing it. 

As for right now, I’m taking an eight week class with Jack Grapes, and I’ll be attending a killer Screenwriter’s Summit conference this weekend.  Then, next Sunday I’ll be attending a Romantic Comedy seminar at Universal Studios, here in California, that the Los Angeles Film Meetup Group is hosting.

So, you can see that my plate is full for the next 7 weeks.

Keep on Writing!!
ScriptGirrl

Please bear with me a little while longer.  I am in the middle of home renovations and have been extremely busy.  Well, not too busy to go shopping yesterday.  I finally broke down and got a big screen TV for my office.  I know.  I should save money, but I’ve been hankering for a big screen TV for a long time – you know, so I can examine those movies I’m analyzing for technique, more closely.  ;)  God.  I do love rationalizing!!  I also got the snow leopard update for my Macbook laptop.   I can’t tell you how hard it was to leave Best Buy yesterday without buying that beautiful, Mac desktop.  But I gritted my teeth, and pulled my eyes away from that big screen beauty!

During my renovations, I took over the kids playroom and turned it into my office, leaving the little bedroom I had for an office, free for my son to move in to so he has his own bedroom.  He’s only 4, but I think it’s time for him and Lucy to have their own private spaces.  And of course, the playroom is huge with a big picture window, if front of which I put a brand new glass and chrome desk.  I’ve turned the room into my own little ‘sanctum’.  It will be a place where I can get away from everything to write.

I didn’t mean to get so wordy.  Anyway, until the end of October I will be extremely busy with my renovations, but I’ll try to post a tip or two during that time.

Thank you for your patience with me.

Script Girrl

I was laid off my nursing job of 10 years yesterday, and I found my 5 year old, Betta fish dead, floating in his aquarium this morning.  Sheesh!

At least I still have my health!

I’ve decided to turn my job loss into something positive and adventurous.  I’m going to take a couple of months off and really pound out my current screenplay, ‘Killing Jewels’.  Then, in November I’m going to pack up my kids and my mother – the baby sitter, and do some ‘Travel Nursing’ until next year when Jack & Lucy start Kindergarten.

Travel Nursing is when a nursing company assigns you to a hospital, in a state of your choice, where you work anywhere from a 4-12 week assignment.  They pay top salaries, travel expenses and your rent.  Not a bad deal!  This way, I’ll be able to see some new places, meet some new people, and get some ideas for future screenplays.  It sounds more like a vacation than work to me.

I’ll be posting another screenplay tip, hopefully by Sunday.

I’m excited about this time off!!

Script Girrl

Tip #3 – Your story must be interesting to more people than yourself.

Your life is interesting and exciting to you because you are the one living it.  You have emotional connections to the people and events you interact with, therefore those people and events strike emotional cords in you and mean something special to you.

What you want to keep in mind when writing your screenplay is that while your life may seem interesting and exciting to yourself, it will probably bore others to death.  They don’t have the same connection to your old Aunt Sally, so they won’t really care that she died in her sleep.  They didn’t live in your childhood home for 25 years, so they won’t really care that you were devastated when you had to sell it.

My point is that you should steer clear of writing a screenplay about your life.  Unless of course you do something extraordinary like work as a hired killer, or as a high class call girl who only screws well-known movie stars.  You are much too close to your own experiences to write about them objectively.

On the other hand, what you should do is take an event in your life that rocked you emotionally, and weave a fictional story around that emotion.  How you ‘feel’ is universal. Use those universal emotions in your writing.

The basic Universal Emotions are:

• Joy
• Acceptance
• Fear
• Surprise
• Sadness
• Disgust
• Anger
• Anticipation

(Click on this link for a complete list of emotions.  Just reading through the list will give you tons of  emotions and spark ideas to write about).

Write about what you know, but fictionalize it and load it with universal emotion.  Then, you’ll have something that will be interesting and exciting for other people.

You want people to feel bad about your old aunt Sally dying?  Weave some fiction around her that will make them care.  Tell how she was so crippled up with arthritis that every move caused her extreme pain.  Tell how she painfully made her way to the kitchen to cook you your favorite breakfast for your birthday and accidently caught her sleeve on fire over the gas burner.  Tell how her screaming woke you up, and how you rushed to the kitchen and saw her writhing on the floor in flames.  Tell how despite your efforts, she died in your arms before the paramedics arrived.  Talk about grief, shock, and guilt!  Oy Vey!!

What about that childhood house you had to sell?   Weave some emotions and fiction around it to make people care.  Tell how the farm house and 120 acres of land have been in your family for 0ver 100 years.  Your great grandfather homesteaded that land.  Built that house.  The old graveyard out back has 100 years of your relatives in it, including your parents who were killed by a drunk driver last year.

Your 5 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer.  There is an experimental drug available that is known to completely cure this type of cancer but it is not FDA approved so your insurance won’t cover the monumental cost of the treatment for your daughter.  Not only that, but the drug is only available in Sweden and you’ll have to stay in Sweden for 6-9 months for the weekly treatments.

For the last 5 years a big corporation has offered your family a ton of money for your land.  They want to tear down the house, re-locate your dead relatives, and build a nuclear power plant.  You are a tree-hugger and despise nuclear power.  But, they are offering more money than anyone else so selling to them is the only way you’ll be able to afford the chance at a cure for your daughter.  You have no choice if you want her to live.

A bit wordy, and off-the-cuff, but you get the idea.

Write using universal emotions if you want to create a screenplay that will be interesting and exciting to other people, besides yourself.

Script Girrl

I’m working on posting a new screenwriting tip today.

In the meantime, last week a stray female kitten showed up on my porch.  At first she wouldn’t let me within 10 feet of her.  Now, after putting out food twice a day for her to eat, she will let me reach out and touch her for a second or two, but still keeps the little fence on my porch between us.  I’m guessing I’ll be able to pick her up and take her inside in the next couple of days.

She needs a cool name.  Any ideas?

Script Girrl

I just learned on Twitter, that Blake Snyder passed away Tuesday morning from cardiac arrest.  I’m shocked.  He was only 51 years old!

For those of you who don’t know,  Snyder is probably best known to the masses as the screenwriter of  Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot and Blank Check. But much more importantly, He was the author of two best selling books on screenwriting: “Save the Cat! The Last Book You’ll Ever Need On Screenwriting” and “Save The Cat! Goes To The Movies – The Screenwriter’s Guide To Every Story Ever Told.”  And, he also created the “Save The Cat” The Last Story Structure Software You’ll Ever Need, which is a wonderful tool for putting your screenplay beats together.

I don’t know the man personally, but I learned a ton of stuff on the craft of screenwriting from his books and software.  And, I have friends who rave about his workshops and claim he’s a screenwriting genius.

Thanks for everything, Blake!  You’ll be greatly missed!!

Script Girrl

I was thinking today of something Stephen King said in his book, ‘On Writing‘.  Which, by the way, was a most excellent read on the Craft of Writing and it gave some wonderful insights into Stephen King’s life.

What he said was that the best memories he had of writing, were when he wrote sitting at a child’s table in the laundry room of his mobile home, cramped up between the dryer and stacks of folded clothes.

With that in mind, even though I have a killer office with a ‘view’ of the coast and a beautiful desk surrounded by tons of books on shelves, I prefer to sit at my kid’s wooden dinner table in my dining room, in front of the brick fireplace.

Not only does it give me a bird’s eye view of the kid’s playroom so I can make sure they’re not killing each other, surprisingly the height of the table is perfect for typing and the wooden chair helps me keep a decent posture preventing back aches and such.

Of course, being 5’2″ makes that little table work for me.  ;)

Where do you find inspiration writing?  Post a comment…

Script Girrl

The most important lesson in screenwriting is this: Contrary to what you may believe, you’re not trying to write a great story, or a blueprint for a movie.  What you are writing is ‘ACTOR BAIT’!

If your idea doesn’t excite an actor, if they don’t think that the character and dialogue is going to win them an Oscar, make them look cool, make people cry, or get them laid, then your movie won’t be made.

In order for your script to reach the actor, you must first excite the Script Reader from page one of your screenplay, all of the way to the final climax.  Otherwise they’ll stop reading and your script will never make it through the chain of command to the Actor.

An interesting book on this subject is: ‘Romancing The A-List (Writing The Script The Big Stars Want To Make), by Christopher Keane.

In the meantime, I will continue posting my 100 tips on writing a screenplay that will sell to Hollywood.  All of these tips are geared toward Romancing The A-List.

Script Girrl