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03 02 2015

Quick Update: I Officially Completed My First Spec Script

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This weekend I finished my first official spec script! I call it my first official script because I actually sent it out to the Nickelodeon Writing Program. It was due to be postmarked by midnight on the 28th and I arrived at the post office 45 minutes before they closed at 4pm.

That face on the bottom right says, “Ahhhh!”

Since completing it only a few days ago, I been trying to figure out how I feel. I am definitely glad I finished a script. I have two three-quarters finished scripts (for Parks and Recreation and Scandal) and a finished Castle spec that will never again see the light of day because of how bad it is (it was my first real attempt at script writing ever). So finishing feels… good. I guess. I think I am just trying to be realistic. Cautiously optimistic, maybe? Because having just one completed script isn’t enough. I need to do so much more. Thankfully, since sending my spec in, my brain has opened up a little more with ideas for some of the other (original) projects I want to work on.
But the sense of accomplishment is muted. So here I am making a post about it so it feels more real, feels more like a joyous occasion that I should celebrate. Not many people finish things. I never thought I’d finish anything. But I am finding that once you finish one thing, you start to feel more like you can finish another, and another, and another.
So here’s to finishing the next thing.

04 17 2014

Scandal Monologues Are All the Buzz Today

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Make Your Own Scandal Monologue — Vulture

Four Scandal Actors Break Down Four Memorable Shonda Rhimes Monologues

Tonight is the #Scandal season finale! I haven’t been recapping Scandal lately (busyness–I often don’t get home to watch it live, then had things to do Friday morning, no writing time–and my recap style fit more when the show was a tad bit more serial) but doesn’t mean I’m not still watching it. I’ll watch the finale as soon as I get home late tonight, but ahead of the episode, the internet is giving us loads of Scandal content to get us through the day.
These two links, both from Vulture, are different takes on Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal monologues. One is a monologue generator that I haven’t gotten to play with yet (but Shonda Rhimes has:

)
and the other is breakdowns of 4 monologues from this season, by Joe Morton, Bellamy Young, Kate Burton, and Jeff Perry. These are fun games but also very useful for me.
Earlier this year I was writing a Scandal spec script for a TV writing class I was taking. I got pretty far, but Scandal fatigue and adding other things to my writing interests put it on hold for a while. But something I was struggling with was figuring out how and where and who to give a brilliant Scandal monologue to. It’s hard work. The obvious choice would be Joe Morton’s character Eli, but he wasn’t quite giving me one. And I was so focused on trying to give him one (because he is my favorite character on the show) that I ruled out everyone else and I think I was suffering for that.
He could still get the monologue, but now I have a new idea! Use the Vulture Scandal Monologue generator! Obviously not to take whatever I get when I play, but I think the generator breaks down the monologues from the show in ways that would be beneficial to me looking at my spec and including one. It starts off with themes and goes from there. Once I break down the theme of my episode (another aspect I was struggling with–Shonda is very theme heavy in her episodes and it’s always good to know what yours is, but I haven’t broken down the theme to go with the plot of my episode), I can use this generator to get a monologue for it.
Sometimes you have to know how to use the fun of the internet to actually do work and understand things that were giving you trouble. I can’t wait to try it. If you use it, comment with your monologue!
I think another brilliant thing I just came up with could be to use all those Buzzfeed quizzes to learn more about your characters, just take them in their voice and use the end result as a way to understand your characters more. Or maybe your character wouldn’t take a Buzzfeed quiz. That’s telling too!