Screenwriting Goldmine – Extra Features and Competition Update

I’m posting this to answer some questions that have been coming up on the blog and in email.Firstly, I’m not giving much away when I say the competition for the most comments has still got a very even field – there are a couple of leaders at the moment, but they’re by no means unassailable – and remember there is a prize for quality not quantity.

But the important thing is there’s a real sense of community building – I love what’s going on in some of the threads with people helping each other, and there’s some great advice being given and some real critical thinking going on.

I’ve not been so present in the blog comments recently – sorry about that, (but I am reading every comment that goes up there). There are a couple of reasons – I’ve been working on a rewrite job which has just come in out of left field – but more interestingly for you I’ve also been working on formatting some exciting new features for the site. Over the next month or so I’m going to be announcing:

• A Proper Forum. You lot need somewhere proper to talk. Blogs are good, but there are better ways. And this time I’m going to make it happen. Soon. I promise.
• Occasional guest bloggers, pro TV writers all. I’ve got some great, highly successful people lined up who are all experienced in the ways of the commissioning process. It’s going to be really interesting to hear how they approach the writing job.
• Quarterly Wisdom of Crowds Script Competition. You upload up your screenplays, and you all vote. The winner gets… well… I haven’t decided yet. More software? (Maybe a Dramatica licence.) Other screenwriting books? (Hmm!) Maybe a read and notes from me? What about a read and notes from a pro producer of my acquaintance? Or the winning script uploaded and stored in a Hall of Fame on the site with acompanying premium quality PRWEB press release announcing this to the world? Or something else, even more useful, that you actually DO want? You tell me and I’ll see if I can make it happen. (I love this Wisdom of Crowds thing!)
• Full Script to Mp3 Feature. You choose how you want to hear your script. From one pro actor reading it, stage directions and all, through different permutations and price points, all the way up to a Showcase Feature Reading, with full cast of established actors and director. You’ll upload your script, we’ll record it, you download the Mp3 file, you hear whether you’ve written a clinker or a Roller. If you want, you can get it included in an online library of Goldminer Screenwriters. (Yes, I DO think I’ve fixed those downloading issues some of you had!)
• Finally, controversially, notwithstanding what I’ve written in the past, I’m going to offer a limited, and very pricy, critiquing service for the serious writer.It’s going to be pricy because I’m going to do a proper job. No quick read and a page for $80. No three pages of uninterested notes for $300.I’m going to be using my five years of pro script editing experience. I’m going to offer a premium service wherein I take your script to pieces, work out what’s going on, work out what’s not going on, and then compose a proper detailed assessment. I’ll be offering extensive written notes – plus phone calls to talk through those notes.

  As you can imagine, this takes possibly two and a half days for me, which is a significant chunk out of my own writing time, so I won’t be taking many of these jobs on, and I’m still actually not convinced it’s the right thing to do. The thing is I’ve been sent so many passionate arguments from people who know the limitations of these types of critiques but would still find an experienced eye useful, plus so many horror stories of the critique cowboys out there, that really I can’t sit by any longer.

So when do all these new things arrive? Well, as and when I get the time to make it happen. I could just throw up a quick web page or two, but as this site is going to grow and grow I want to get certain site architecture questions as right as I can before I just charge headlong into creating a tangled mess of a confusion inside a locked box puzzle.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Is there anything else you think the site is missing? Let me know…