WARNING: Hide your eyes

Don't read too close for the faint of heart.



This is about notes.

I've saved that memo for awhile now - and where do you begin?

Notes are tricky. Notes can be really hard. Notes are usually not fun.

While I think we all need notes, want notes, desire notes... Really and truthfully - we would much rather have people tell us how much they love us and the genius of the things we write.

Getting anyone - even a friend - to sit down and read a script can be a monumental task in and of itself. People just don't like to read. And then you need to find someone who not only can read your script- but offer up some sort of intelligent criticism other than I liked it, or it really sucked.

And then when we find the people that can really help - we realize the draft we thought was so close - is really so far away...

It is never an easy or exciting process.

This is why I go on and on about writing groups here.

Get together with like minded individuals who have half a brain and help each other out. Your writers group is the first line of defense against sending out total crap into the world.

But here is the rub.

Notes are opinions. They are subjective. They are not the end all be all.

For every one company that really likes my script and wants to meet with me or talk about optioning it - there are two to three to ten that think it sucks. For everyone that tells me I'm a genius - there are plenty that think I'm a very disturbed hack.

I see it as a little from column A, a little from column B.

Find those you trust.
Then listen to what they say.
Throw out what you don't like.
Repeat.
Until everyone is telling you the same thing.
Then change that thing - or ignore it at your own peril.
Then send it out and move on.

While every group is supposed to be working together- writing - I gave Ryan the double whammy yesterday - without doing anything myself.

I started to write on my new script - but lost the page. I could have done more - but instead I decided to read the script Ryan wrote during the summer that I never had time to get to.

Last night I gave him notes.

Then - he had already outlined another script. Prolific bastard.

And I gave him notes on that one.

He took them well - but I might have been a bit too energetically blunt.

He is a good writer and he works hard.
And I might have taken a proverbial dump on his creativity.

Sorry Ryan.

I promise you can return the favor when I get my script longer than the one page I've been struggling with for the past week.

And what the heck do I know anyways?

But trust me when I say that removing Sadam's penis and replacing it with a dildo was a good move.
It just plays funnier....