Writers Group

I've asked a friend of mine who's a corporate attorney in NY to weigh in on the PJ situation, but she didn't get a chance to look over the case yet so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Today I'll talk about writers groups.

I've been in writers groups before. Once I was in a group with a guy who thought it would be a good idea for him to start a contest where he didn't have to do much work or offer a good prize but could use it to make lots of money. Everyone in the group nodded as if this was a brilliant idea and dismissed my concern about how maybe it's just a tad dishonest and scammy. That was my last meeting with that group.

In one group, a girl who'd made one independent feature - a film she financed and paid to screen - decided to form her own consulting firm charging lots of money to help people work on their craft. Thing is, this girl only skimmed scripts. She'd ask questions that were answered clearly in the script, and gave some of the worst notes I've ever heard. And in the year I worked with this group, she never brought a single script to us to read. All she ever did was talk about how she was going to make her career happen, but since she'd made a movie once the other members of the group seemed to think she was the shit. I waited too long to leave that group.

I remember one time I gave another girl a note about her character introductions - a suggestion about how to make them more interesting - and she turned to another member of the group and specifically asked him if that note was a good one or if she should ignore it.

That's not to say that every member of every writers group I've known is an idiot. Some of the people I've worked with were knowledgeable and gave pretty good notes, but in order to get to their notes I had to sit through some serious bullshit.

One time a guy's only note was "This script is just terrible. I don't know what you want me to say." So that was helpful. I think sometimes people use writers groups as a way to enhance their own egos.

Since then, I've just rotated between a few friends for notes, but the process can take a while. Still, better than getting crappy notes fast.

So it was with great trepidation that I decided to join another one. Two weeks ago I met with a few people over in Wilshire and we discussed a romantic comedy, and it was minutes before I knew I was in the right place. These people knew their shit. We didn't waste time talking about how we were going to sell ourselves or gouge screenwriters out of cash or tear each other down. We got right into it, how do we make this script better? Everybody read the script, everybody had useful notes, and when it was obvious that one note went the wrong way we all tried to figure out together how else to approach the problem.

Before I met these people I was slowly eeking out pages, but once I realized I needed to produce something for the next meeting I busted my ass to get it done. I finished the first draft of Nice Girls Don't Kill last night and sent it around to the group. Eighty-one pages is normal for me with a first draft. Usually I get a lot of notes on scenes I need to add.

I'm jazzed about the notes I'm going to get because I know they will be delivered with respect and thought. It's been a while since I trusted a group of people to give notes. I'm glad I decided to give it a shot.

Of course, I say that now. Let's see how I feel after they've shredded my latest comic masterpiece.