Read 'Script Doctor Eric’s $3 Screenwriting Contest' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I got an email from Script Doctor Eric. He’s running a unique screenwriting contest. If you’re short on funds this is a good way to get some recognition. Here is his announcement below.

Hey it’s Eric, popping in for a quick guest post. (Thanks Ashley!)

Every holiday season, one of my New Year’s resolutions is always “finish a screenplay.” After I make that resolution, I think to myself, “Great! Done with that!” Which means, it’s not until February when I sit down and start planning the darn thing.

Instead, let’s start early. I mean, now.

Why not? When you get bored with the relatives/caroling/presents (Just kidding, we’re never bored with presents!) why not outline that new script? Or jot down some movie ideas?

To encourage screenwriters to begin next year’s screenplay this month, I’m launching a mini-screenwriting contest (also called “The $3 Screenwriting Contest” – because that’s how much it costs.)

Before January 1st, 2012, email me the title, logline, and the first couple of a pages of a screenplay. And $3.

Multiple submissions are welcome, and yes, you can submit old scripts, but hopefully you’ll take the time to work on the logline and script a bit.

In January 2012, I will choose five winners. Each winner will have until June 1st, 2012, to send me their full script, which I will read and give a free phone consultation.

I’ll also post the winners on my site.

More prizes are on the horizon, but the main goal is to get you writing (and maybe a little bit of internet fame?).

For even MORE details for the contest, please go to the post on my website subtly titled: A Mini-Screenwriting Contest

This is a bit of an experiment, so we’ll see what happens. If I only get five submissions, then it makes choosing the winners easy, but I’m not sure if the contest will have served its purpose. Hopefully this post on Ashley’s site will help get the word out.

Now, back to the screenplay!

-Eric
www.scriptdoctoreric.com

Read 'My appearance on Script Doctor Eric’s Scriptcast' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

A few weeks ago I was on Script Doctor Eric’s podcast called Scriptcast.

If you would like to listen to it you can do so by going to this link:

http://www.scriptdoctoreric.com/2011/06/subscribe-to-scriptcast-itunes.html

You can also search the iTunes store for “Scriptcast” and then download the issues for free. I’m in episode 11.

I had a really good time doing it so hopefully you’ll enjoy listening to it.

Read 'The 100% guaranteed sure fire way to get your screenplay made into a movie' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

If you follow through and do this one simple thing I guarantee that you will be able to get your screenplay turned into a movie. It doesn’t matter how good your screenplay is. It doesn’t matter how many grammatical or spelling errors are in your screenplay. It doesn’t matter if your screenplay is formatted properly or not. It doesn’t matter if your screenplay is structured correctly. It doesn’t matter how long your screenplay is. The tip I’m about to give you puts you in charge and you get to make the movie exactly the way you want to make it.

The hardest part, hands down, about making a movie is raising the money. So the one simple thing you can do that will guarantee that your screenplay gets made into a movie: raise the money yourself! If you raise the money to shoot your movie you will be able to find thousands of hungry producers eager to work with you and shoot your screenplay. You will be their boss and you will dictate everything (if you choose).

A while back Script Doctor Eric contacted me and told me a little bit about his screenplay consulting service and offered to evaluate one of my screenplays for free. He didn’t write me and ask if I could recommend his service to my readers. And he didn’t write me and ask me to recommend his service after he did the free evaluation on my script. He just started a conversation with me and offered to do something nice for me and help me with what ever current project I was working on. So I sent him a screenplay and he promptly gave me notes in return. I genuinely liked the notes he gave me and felt that they helped me with the next draft of the screenplay. Since then I’ve recommended his service several times. In addition I told him about the writer’s group that I was in and he ended up joining the group and we’ve become friends since.

Now compare that with the people who contact me (quite often) who want me to recommend their screen writing services, contests, or websites and don’t offer to do anything for me. They usually end up in my trash bin without a reply. It’s not that these services are always terrible. Some of them might be quite good. But how can I recommend something I know nothing about?

When Eric contacted me he offered to do something for me instead of simply asking me to do something for him. When a screenwriter sends out a query letter to a producer he’s contacting someone who he doesn’t know and asking for a favor; “will you read my screenplay, option it, and ultimately produce it?” A good producer has lots of people asking for the same thing so it’s not that producers are ogres or the system is stacked against you, it’s just that there are lots of people out there competing for the same precious production funds and why should anyone take you seriously?

So it occurred to me, how could I craft a query letter where instead of me asking for a favor from the producer, I was contacting them and offering them something that they actually wanted? So far the only thing I’ve come up with is raising some or all of the production budget. As mentioned, raising the money is by far the hardest part of making a movie so if you can raise the money to shoot your film you’re guaranteeing that it will get green lit and make it into production. In the current market if you were able to raise even 25% of the production budget that would be a huge help to a producer and he’d be almost certain to at least give your script a read because right off the bat you’ve done something to help him and make his life easier.

So there you have it… the secret to getting your screenplay made really is that simple; raise the money yourself and you hold all the cards.

Now if you’ve raised a reasonable amount of money to shoot your screenplay and you are still wondering what the next step is feel free to contact me as I know many producers who would be very eager to make your movie.

By the way, if you’re good at raising money please email me your address. I have a few screenplays I want to send you!

Read 'I’m appearing on Script Doctor Eric’s UCLA radio broadcast tomorrow at 11am (PST)' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

Script Doctor Eric does a weekly podcast / radio show on UCLA radio about screen writing. He’s invited me to be a guest on the show tomorrow. If you’d like to listen you can hear us live at: www.uclaradio.com. We’ll be on from 11am until noon PST.

We’ll be taking questions live on the air via Script Doctor Eric’s Twitter account, so if you want to ask a question just post it there. http://twitter.com/scriptdreric.

Please join us if you are available.

Read 'Using a script doctor to help edit my script' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I got this question recently:

“I have sent my scripts to script doctors and find in many cases their ideas hurt my story. In one case I made it to the finals in a script contest, sent it to a
script doctor and the next time around it never placed. Where can I go for help on syntax, grammar and spelling issues without having someone want to rewrite my story with their ideas?”

I recommend both Script Doctor Eric and Script Quack use coupon “sellingyourscreenplay” (without the quotes) for a $25 discount. I’ve personally gotten notes from both of these services and they offer great value.

I think the key is to be up front with them and tell them you don’t want story notes, just help on syntax, grammar, and spelling.

Now with that said, I think you’d be missing an opportunity by not at least listening to what these script doctors have to say. All screen writers must be open to changing their scripts and doing rewrites. The key is to listen to the feedback and decide for yourself if it’s worth implementing. Maybe their idea isn’t quite right but it spurs other ideas that might work well. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a novice writing her first script, you need to build up a pool of industry people who will give you notes on your script so you can make your script better. These script doctors are a great resource especially if you don’t know a lot of people in the business who will read your material. The key is to listen to the notes you’re getting and try and see if there are any common threads. Are people all telling your the same thing? But you should never blindly implement notes no matter who they come from, unless they’re paying you to do so, in which case you sometimes have to just suck it up and do what ever it is they ask ’cause they’re paying the bill.

To find out more about what I think of screenplay consultants check out this post: Script Consultants

Read 'Is it bad form to send multiple query letters to agents within the same company?' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I got this question recently:

“Is it bad form to send multiple query letters to agents within the same company?”

I posed this question to Script Doctor Eric who has worked for literary agents and this is his reply: “I’d say that if it’s weeks apart, that’s fine. I wouldn’t send more than one letter to the same company less than two weeks apart. Give it a month to be safe. Otherwise it could look desperate and/or spamy.”

I would say that’s good advice. While you can send out the same query letter to lots of different companies at the same time, I wouldn’t send the same query letter to the same agency at the same time. I would query one specific agent at an agency and then if you haven’t heard anything back in a month I would query another, different, specific agent at the same agency and wait to hear from them for a month. In general even the largest agencies aren’t that small, especially the literary departments, so it’s quite likely that someone would notice multiple letters at the same time and think, as Eric points out above, that it’s a bit spamy.

Read 'Script Doctor Eric’s log line Friday contest' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I’ve mentioned this before and I’ll probably mention it again in the future. Script Doctor Eric has a free weekly log line contest where you submit a log line and he chooses the “best” one and that person wins prizes. You can’t beat free! This week SellingYourScreenplay.com is sponsoring the prize. We’re giving a 1 month free subscription to our screen writing marketing tools.

So if you’d like to try out our screen writing tools this is an easy, free way to try and win a subscription.

Just go here to learn more:

http://www.scriptdoctoreric.com/2010/11/logline-friday-prize-pro-screenwriting-tools.html

Read 'Script Doctor Eric logline Friday contest' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

ScriptDoctorEric.com has a weekly log line contest every Friday. It’s simple to enter, free, and SellingYourScreenplay.com is sponsoring this weeks prize, a 1 year membership to our suite of profesional screenwriting tools!

All you have to do to enter is post your log line in a Tweet on Twitter.com and include the tag “@scriptdreric” so he can find it. He’ll pick the “best” one and if you chooses you, you win.

Here is the post about this weeks contest and prize:

http://www.scriptdoctoreric.com/2010/09/special-logline-friday-prize.html

To learn more about Eric’s Log line Friday contest go here:
http://www.scriptdoctoreric.com/logline-friday

Read 'Winner chosen for the free entry into Script Doctor Eric’s screenplay contest' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I’ve chosen a winner (see Free entry in to Script Doctor Eric’s screenplay contest for more info).

I had nearly a dozen loglines submitted and it was very difficult to choose a winner. I can honestly say that I didn’t get a single half-backed submission. So thank you to everyone who submitted.

The winner was Kenan S. Brack.

Title: Kung-Fu Degeneration

Logline: “After the tournament ends, several contestants find themselves in a final battle against an island of undead soldiers left behind from World War Two.”

What I liked most about his logline was that I got a good sense of what type of movie this was. It seemed very Zombieland to me. And with the success of Zombieland it seemed like a script that could generate some interest from producers.

My only suggestion would be to try and give a little more details. What tournament? Who are these people? And what’s at stake if they fail? Their own lives or all of humanity?

And maybe add a second sentence to really cap it off, something like: “Kung-Fu Degeneration is Survivor meets Zombieland with a World War II twist.”

Anyway, good luck to Kenan in Eric’s script contest.

You can still enter Script Doctor Eric’s screenplay contest by going here: http://www.scriptdoctoreric.com/2010/03/script-doctor-erics-screenwriting.html. He’s accepting entries until midnight March 31, 2010.

Read 'Free entry in to Script Doctor Eric’s screenplay contest' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

Script Doctor Eric has agreed to give one reader of SellingYourScreenplay.com a free entry into his screenplay contest. The price doesn’t get any better than this! All you have to do to win this free entry is post your logline in the comments section of this post or email it to me info@sellingyourscreenplay.com. I’m going to pick one that I like and that person will win the free entry into the contest.

I posted about the contest here: Script Doctor Eric’s screenplay contest.

All entries must be posted by noon tomorrow PST as Eric’s contest closes tomorrow at midnight. Make sure you have a complete script written and in PDF format so I can pass it along to Eric.

Good luck!

Update: I’ve chosen a winner so please don’t send in any new entries.