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Feb. 8th, 2003 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oakenguyWell, bleah.
Recap: last Summer I wrote a 'Simpsons' spec script which (I thought) came out fairly well, so I sent it off to a couple competitions.
Results from the first contest arrived last night.
I suck.
Here are the comments from the judges, helpfully broken down for me into two categories:
Strengths: Strong concept, active plot, some original scenes, description shows that writer has command of the language.
Weaknesses: Poor balance between plot and subplot, secondary story needs more cohesion & impact, humor is too on the nose, script could be more subtle in its delivery.
My translation, part 1: It was a nice idea, but all those bits where you tried to do 'humor'? Failed, failed, failed.
My translation, part 2: I'm going to be a half-assed secretary for the rest of my life because, as marginally talented as I am at that, at least I suck less at it than at any of the *other* things I want to do.
(Yes, I'm failing to mention that I was ranked in the upper 25%. Big whoop. It's self-pity time. They're probably lying about that, anyhow.)
Recap: last Summer I wrote a 'Simpsons' spec script which (I thought) came out fairly well, so I sent it off to a couple competitions.
Results from the first contest arrived last night.
I suck.
Here are the comments from the judges, helpfully broken down for me into two categories:
Strengths: Strong concept, active plot, some original scenes, description shows that writer has command of the language.
Weaknesses: Poor balance between plot and subplot, secondary story needs more cohesion & impact, humor is too on the nose, script could be more subtle in its delivery.
My translation, part 1: It was a nice idea, but all those bits where you tried to do 'humor'? Failed, failed, failed.
My translation, part 2: I'm going to be a half-assed secretary for the rest of my life because, as marginally talented as I am at that, at least I suck less at it than at any of the *other* things I want to do.
(Yes, I'm failing to mention that I was ranked in the upper 25%. Big whoop. It's self-pity time. They're probably lying about that, anyhow.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2003-02-08 05:53 am (UTC)and Well Done on being in the upper 25%. It's obviously better than 75% of people do.
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Date: 2003-02-08 08:08 am (UTC)don't have that pity party. they like it enough to be in top 25%, and that's crazy cool. you da man.
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Date: 2003-02-09 06:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-09 02:37 pm (UTC)but my school loans came in saturday, so once the check clears at the bank (should take 2 days, will probably take 5 just to spite me), we'll see what i can do. ;)
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Date: 2003-02-08 08:30 am (UTC)What the heck do they mean by this?
Don't despair, Oaken. Look at it this way, the actual scripts for The Simpsons are put together by a team of maybe a half-dozen individuals. If the contest is comparing scripts by individuals to the finished, aired product, that's just not fair.
I know you may not be feeling like showing it off, but I'd like to read what you wrote.
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Date: 2003-02-08 10:14 am (UTC)i hope you're kidding
Date: 2003-02-08 08:48 am (UTC)lots of talented people get "rejected" all the time. you just have to find the receptive audience, or at least someone who's not got their head stuck up their ass, seeing "good" as coming of only one specific mess of protocols they've dreamed up themselves anyway.
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Date: 2003-02-08 10:23 am (UTC)Yeah! What Freyja said! You know, the judges could've read your script on a day when, like, the ceiling was leaking, they'd been in a dark room for ten hours, they were on their thirtieth cup of coffee each, they really needed to go to the bathroom, and a pug had piddled on their feet -- yes, all of them.
Hell, remember the contest I lost last year, where I'm utterly convinced that the reason I didn't even place was because my story title was a) longer than three words and b) used proper capitalization. Judges are, like editors, ghouls and cannibals. They could easily just decide that your stuff sucks because it's the third Thursday of January and even Terry Pratchett wouldn't pass their standards that day.
You do not suck. You will, with sufficient patience and cussedness, easily outshadow Joss Whedon (and you won't have an ego that keeps rain off L.A. and will actually have a brain about fans, literary conventions, and whatnot) and we'll all be able to go, "Hey! I knew him back when he was a secretary! I wonder if he could loan me a couple hundred bucks for this project I'm thinking of..."
‚
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Date: 2003-02-08 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-09 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-08 03:47 pm (UTC)And humor is hard, even in the best of circumstances. Doing humor in someone else's style (which is what writing a script for an established show is always going to be) is damn near impossible. I think you did well.
Don't let the comments get you down like that. I react the same way to criticism of my work, and it just doesn't help-- especially when it comes from people whom you might not have any reason to respect. I mean, how do we know these judges know how to find their rear ends in the dark? We don't. (Actually, I suspect they don't, since their comments are so... unhelpful. Humor "too on the nose?" They would rather have humor be "off the mark?")
Remember that every professional writer has a MASSIVE collection of rejection notices! You're just getting started on yours! Be of good cheer and remember that when you're a famous scriptwriter you can paper the downstairs front hall half-bath with them!
Other Rose
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Date: 2003-02-09 11:12 am (UTC)So I'm sorry that it happened like that and I'll gladly take you out for a 'drown your sorrows in ice cream or beer but not both' evening, even though as rejections go, that's one to feel pretty proud of. I mean, most people have to collect a good dozen-or-twenty "Thank you for your script. We regret that it does not meet our needs at the current time" rejections before they even /get/ comments, let alone ones where they go so far as to acknowledge that you might have strengths.
My recomendation? get a dartboard, tack the letter up and let fly. Put a big red circle around the "25%" and call that the bullseye. After all, if it was good enough to get that far, then why didn't it just go on and win? They probably picked a script you wouldn't even enjoy over yours.
(Think I'm joking? Think I don't understand? The only novel /I/ ever finished - written, I may say, in a great deal more than a month but certainly worse than many written in less - I wrote the summer I turned sixteen and proudly sent off to a contest. They were so kind as to not just send me a rejection letter, but to give me a *free* *copy* of the winning contribution. I do not have words to describe the way it sucked. Mine was bad and deserved to be saved in Volkswriter on 5.25" disks which can't even be located any more, which is, in fact, what happened to it, but at least I knew the difference between an adjective and a noun. And I'm /not/ joking.)
But make sure it's a big, sturdy dartboard, because you are good at writing and humor - anyone who reads your LJ knows that, for heaven's sake, let alone something you actually /work/ on - and you are going to keep writing and sending your work off, and that means that, because people suck, you will get more rejection letters, in amongst the fame and fortune and the ability to stop working secretarial jobs.
Let me know about the ice cream or beer. The ice cream would probably taste better, but the beer would offer you the entertainment of watching me pretending not to be bewildered and appalled by my surroundings, and waffling over whether to order a drink I know I'd only half finish or not. :)
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Date: 2003-02-10 08:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-10 02:08 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-02-11 08:14 am (UTC)