Finished!

Last night we reviewed Act 3 of my second script for the UCLA Professional Screenwriting Program. Then afterward a bunch of us went out for beers.

It was nice to be done with the program and done with both scripts. We will be getting our certificates on June 14th.

Here are some initial reflections on the program.

Even though the program is only a year program. I still learned a great deal. I can honestly say that I am a much better writer having gone through it. Before I started, I had completed about 3 scripts. Although I had started probably about 20 scripts that I never finished. It was nice to have that time constraint that forces you to sit down and write every week. Probably the best thing I gained was the daily routine and habit of constantly writing. It has become so ingrained into my system that it feels weird not to write.

In terms of the program itself, a lot of the basics were review, stuff we already knew. But it was nice to go over it again, since these are important building blocks that can take years, perhaps even decades, to master.

The students in the program varied in skill level. In my workshop of six students there were people who were fresh out of college, writing their first or second script. And then there were people like me who have been writing for a good 10-15 years and have several scripts under their belt. It was beneficial to have a varied level of experience, especially in getting feedback. Since everyone has different levels of opinions. I'm also personally biased towards the younger members, simply since they are closer to the average movie goer. People under 25 are much more likely to watch movies and television. And they are much bigger consumers of entertainment.

The structure itself was interesting. We had two classes a week. The first class would be a lecture covering one aspect of writing. Then the second class would be a workshop of 6-8 people. Each week we would bring in pages and get reactions from the members of the class. Of course, you always have to take notes with a grain of salt. First drafts are usually pretty bad and unfocused. I know for myself, during first draft I'm usually trying to break the story and figure out what it is really about.

The first two quarters are spent writing a script. This averages out to about 10 pages a week. The third quarter you write another script. It's a race to get the script completed in time. Of course everyone complains about having to write a script in such a short time frame. The studios might give you ten weeks to a first draft. But if you work in the independent world or for TV, you will have to write a first draft in a few weeks. So this is good discipline to learn for your writing career, depending on where you work.

Of course, both of the scripts that I finished are nowhere near ready to send out. It will take probably 5-6 rewrites before I'm ready to send to anyone in the industry. But the key is to have a network of people that you can show your scripts that will give you valuable feedback. There's nothing worse than showing a draft to someone too early.You have to figure out where in the chain you can show it to someone. There's this idea that on your first draft, you want to send it to the people who are least critical. And with each subsequent draft, you send it to people who are more and more critical. It also seems best to only get notes from 2-3 people before doing another draft. More than that and you are wasting resources.

Those are my thoughts for now. I can easily go on. But I don't want to bore people.

Good luck and keep writing!