Contest Milestone: Update…

(Photo taken by your’s truly :))

Everyone, it’s been a crazy week all around. I received my status of the competition. I made it as far as the semi-finals! When I saw that e-mail, I fell to the floor and somehow skidded on a red crayon, permanently staining my only high-end pair of work pants. Cloud nine was my only mode of transportation for the next few days.

Sometimes, we don’t get too far though. On January 29, 2014, I received an e-mail containing the winner’s names. My heart broke when I didn’t see my name. With it being my first competition, I ended up taking it very hard. You put so much into something and want to see amazing results. Yet, it doesn’t yield the results you strongly desire more than anything in the world. That’s what really got to me and tore me up inside. Then, something happened.

Close family and friends who knew about my competition advancement reminded me of something I didn’t realize at that moment. I made it to semi-finals out of 1200 submissions. That’s a huge deal even for someone’s first script, and I should be proud. I was and still am. Although I wasn’t selected as one of the winners, I am absolutely astonished an overwhelmed I made it that far. Now, I want to be a screenwriter as much as I want to breathe. This was the fuel to the fire that I needed. Every day, I read screenwriting articles, study scripts, and write. If I want to be a master or at least a professional in my field, I need to immerse myself in the screenwriting world. They say you fear what you don’t know, so I’m going to know it all the way around and back to front. This isn’t the end. Just a turn towards  something much larger. 🙂

2 Milestones Achieved!

Hello lovely people!

It’s been crazy busy since I’ve arrived in San Francisco. Aside from the moving madness, I wanted to share something huge with you! I didn’t get a chance to introduce these milestones with you before, but I have achieved 2 of them this month. Finishing my first feature script and submitting it to a contest.

After 8 months of toughing through writer’s block and sleepless nights, I have finally finished the first draft of my script. It came out to be 91 pages, and I’m very pleased with it so far. This wasn’t supposed to finish so soon.  Originally, I was going to finish the second part of the script within a span of the next 6 months. However, a friend and fellow writer drunkenly told me about screenwriting contest and urged me to enter. At first, I wasn’t sure if I could even make the deadline. I was a half a script short! That didn’t stop her from busting my chops and motivating me with one e-email.

“Submit your script. Here’s the link.”

The sucker that I am, I decided to enter. The days up to the contest were absolutely daunting. My faith in the project was challenged on every page. I can’t even tell you how many times I rewrote every scene. It even took a toll on my appearance. I’ve never looked so unkempt.   I swear most of my days were spent painstakingly like this…See that? That’s my figurative muse sleeping on the job. I was wondering why I was feeling unmotivated.

In the end, I pulled it together…(on the last day. DON’T DO WHAT I DID! It’s a bad habit, and  I swear it hurts me every time I do it.) Now, I have a completed script and submitted it to a screenwriting contest. Two birds with one stone! That’s how I like it. I’m excited to share the results with you guys. Even if I get a “no, not this time”, I still gained exposure for my script and sometimes that’s what you need. Like someone once told me, “no’s are not forever.”

WE DID IT!