| Continued from Just last year, I read a book by Stephen King called "On Writing". If you're a writer, you need to read this book, and God bless Stephen King for writing it. I checked it out of the library, so I can't reference lines here, but the gist of what King has to say about agents is information I wish I would have had way back when. He says agents are not a sure thing; just like bad writers, there are also bad agents who will do virtually nothing for you. At any rate, after coming to the conclusion of my year with my agent, my girlfriend Jen found the name of an editor working freelance out of North Carolina, who claimed to have connections that she would gladly forward to her writer clients. We decided to give her a try. This was in '98. Working with her, I again set about editing "Fixing Truth" and spent about three more years working on it, though by this time, I was also writing screenplay versions of the novel, a lot of short stories, and another novel, altogether. The problem with the novel was that it was too ambitious. I have about twenty characters that all have importance to the story, and about five different story lines running in tandem to each other. "Fixing Truth", as we speak, is currently being read by St. Martin's Press. They've had the manuscript for almost five months, which, as writer's know, is not a lot of time in Publisher Country. If it's rejected again, I'm going to publish it myself, and offer it on Amazon.com. The reason it was written in the first place was to entertain people, and, at this point, I think it's time to tell you a little something about publishers. In '99, I attended a series of seminars on screenwriting and the art of selling stories to the congested Hollywood studio system. I learned something there that forever changed the way I saw the selling process. It's not enough to write a good book; there's supposedly a lot of good books out there that haven't found publishers. It's not necessarily a reflection of the work if it doesn't sell. Publishers have vicarious jobs, and they have to pick "hits" that sell millions of copies, otherwise their bosses tend to look at them funny. It helps if you're already famous .... or if you know someone. Which brings us to the early Summer of 2002. I'm waiting to see if my connections are as solid as I think they are. Because I don't want to name names anywhere in this newsletter, I can't say exactly who's reading it, but I believe this connection is solid. In closing, I have attended what I would loosely refer to as "Film School", although I would put the word "back-alley" in front of it. I wouldn't recommend film school to anybody. You don't need it if you want to make films. All through my life, I didn't think of simply buying a camera and a how-to book; I wouldn't have known what camera to buy and nobody can really tell you unless they know exactly what you want to do, and only then if you can articulate exactly what that is. I couldn't. The fact is, you can learn what to do in a couple of days. I paid for the better part of a year's education, and I figure they could have just as easily explained it in about forty-eight hours. At this time, I still haven't heard of an institution that will do that. Film schools are still few and far between, you still have to have a darn good GPA to get in, and it even helps if you've already shot something ... which, to me, is beyond ridiculous. If you knew how to shoot, why would you even go to film school? For this reason, I am starting Haven Films sometime this Winter, the year 2002. I can teach you what you need to know in two days. I can't teach you editing, because that's a whole other science. I can't teach you how to write, at least not in two days, but, as far as I know, no one else can teach you to write, period. I can teach you, but that's a seperate deal. It takes longer than learning how to make films, believe it or not. Writing is about subtleties and life experiences, the latter of which everyone has. The key is knowing how to draw on it and reflect it back in a different way, and to choose the best way, as well. There will be a lot more information about Haven Films and it's weekend courses coming up, along with brochures, and course dates. Right now, I'm in the process of laying hands on a 35mm camera. MORE... |
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