Hello? Yeah, today I don’t have a review as such, although I am going to mention a book. I’m just going to read from the journal entry I made yesterday, which is Sunday, which is my “offline” day, so to speak, in the sense that really, I don’t do any business online. I do nothing more than, say, watch a movie or a TV show, or in one case answer a trivia quiz. I do that for Paul, just to say hello. Just to let him know I’m still out there. Anyway, Paul is a blogger, great guy, really nice guy. Even met him. He’s in England. I’m not at the moment. Anyway, okay, here I am.
I’m trying to stay offline, but have been deleting emails like mad.
Yeah, that’s how I’ve been staying offline. 🙂
I think I’ve read enough of Wide for the Win to know I’m not just another indie author. Apparently no one else thinks about other media? Really? Really?
I think you may be underestimating some of us. So should I teach a class on IP? What it is, why you should hang onto your rights, and all the so-called “sub” rights, they used to call them subsidiary rights. Now they’re just rights. They were always just rights. They were always part of copyright. Anyway, they are no longer as “sub” as they used to be. They’re part of the norm, because authors are part of a large ecosystem that feeds the Hollywood content machine, or did to a great extent, except for studios in New York City and Chicago and wherever other studios exist anywhere in the world.
Now, do you get the picture? Okay, so here’s the question. Are you prepared to approach a producer and simply say hello at an IRL event? And at that point, don’t even think about pitching your book or other project at all. Don’t think about that at all. Just say hello and be yourself. Ask about them. How are they? What do they do? What’s their role in all this? What’s their latest big project, if you know what they do?
Do I have to explain how to make conversation? Because texting and Twitter and Facebook—none of these things amount to conversation, which I think we need more of, frankly. So yes, you need to show up somewhere. Sometimes it can happen on Zoom. I have met people by Zoom who have changed my life basically.
For a year, I took part voluntarily in a mock writer’s room created by members of a local Meetup group, the Casual Actors and Screenwriters Meetup–the CAASM. I have learned so much from that experience.
I also participated in one 48 Hour Film Project.
I was PA (production assistant) early on in a small production, filmed close to where I live. I even drove there, which is very unusual for me.
Wasn’t even thinking about book marketing most of the time. Just ‘how the hell will I pay for hosting a podcast or two plus organizational dues, plus transcripts of interviews, plus every stinking cost associated with creating my next novel.’
That’s most, oh, there’s actually more. I dunno if I want to use all of this.
But oh …
I need help, clearly. Whether that’s outsourcing, eliminating or adapting (learning a new skill) remains to be seen.
I keep wanting to learn WordPress.org and web design. I could be much better at that and people will pay for things like that.
Or I could start accepting scripts for review because I’ve done that numerous times for free.
So, which is the better call? Which would make me happier and get me closer to my own goal? Would I be better off making short films? Period. Forever?
I’ve almost finished one movie and I’m getting ready to start another, so who knows? Maybe I’ll end up becoming a professional 1st AD. That’s a possibility. Or a script supervisor.
I’m getting to know all of these jobs better when I do this filmmaking stuff, and I feel much more comfortable with the whole process. So as a screenwriter, I’d highly recommend getting involved in [being] on-set, doing things, whether it’s directing … well, I took a series of classes that helped me, and I have these wonderful people at Charm City Filmmakers who are wonderful advisors. So I feel very, very fortunate to have that resource as well as Women in Film & Video in DC, without whom really none of this would be happening. Honestly, it was really the first visit to Women in Film & Video, to one of their conferences where I heard my stuff read and it really sucked. But when it worked, it felt so good. It just felt so good listening to my lines being read, an electrifying feeling really. It’s never quite been recreated until the moment I started hearing my lines being read again.
And it’s like, yes! And then when you’re directing a movie, it’s like, ooh, oh wow. All the stuff we can do. It’s magic. It’s a fantastic feeling. Okay, that’s all I had to say. I hope you’re having a good day. It’s President’s Day today. I’m not taking the day off. I just came back from physical therapy and I’m feeling pretty good, all things considered. I’ll be at NIH tomorrow getting Botox injected wherever they put it to try to help relieve this whole tightness situation on the left side. I keep trying to adjust it.
Anyway, that’s it for now, and like I said, I have to start thinking like a producer. That’s what it comes down to because I’m producing two podcasts, so hey, I can be producing other stuff. I can also be doing more publishing, actually. I’m thinking about doing anthologies. We could do written anthologies, we could do audio anthologies. That would be really cool, wouldn’t it? Have everybody do a reading of their work and make it a series, a series of episodes. Does that make sense to anybody? I hope so. It seems like a plan to me. Okay. We’ll see what happens. Anyway, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching, and I’ll be seeing you.
*****
PS: I do recommend Wide for the Win to everyone who self-publishes their work. It’s an excellent book, it’s just that I already know all this and tried to warn you, but whatever, right? 🙂
