Robert Hestand

Last year, Robert Hestand sent ScriptDoctor a note with a glowing recommendation of our services:

I just wanted to say that I was extremely thankful for the quality of your service, as well as the quick turnaround, and I won’t hesitant to recommend you (and your company) to friends and colleagues.

I appreciated the fact that you encourage writers to “own” their rewrite, rather than telling the writer what is “right or wrong” with the story. Personally, it allowed me to approach my next pass with a sense of discovery rather than a sense of correction.

He had significant plans for the script he sent to ScriptDoctor Howard Allen:

With THE N WORD, I utilized your review and synthesized it with additional coverage, in turn combining that with critiques from friends (and we all know how “honest” those are…), and executed a much stronger draft. My primary goal with this spec is to showcase my talent by (hopefully) placing in several contests and securing representation.

We've received word from Robert that his screenplay, The N Word, has placed in several competitions:

- 2nd Place, 2011 MoviePoet annual contest
- Finalist, 2011 WriteMovies contest
- Semi-Finalist, 2011 StoryPros contest
- 2nd Place, 2011 ScriptVamp "Attention Grabber" contest
- Scriptshark Scouting Qualifier

Congratulations, Robert!

John August on First Sale Doctrine

John August has a post on First Sale Doctrine and what it means for screenwriters. There's some excellent information there, especially about how digital rentals are better for the film industry (and everyone who works in it, including screenwriters) than analogue rentals (DVDs, etc.) because digital rentals and streaming generate revenue.

Please read the whole post here.

Announcement

December 18

Society of Southwestern Authors Forum
The Tucson Sheraton Four Points on Speedway and Campbell in the conference center (south of the hotel). Program begins at 10 am.

Howard Allen will do his Presentation on the Storytelling Secrets of the Christmas Classic: It's A Wonderful Life

Two-time Contest of Contest Winners Finalist to Be Published!

Timothy Jay Smith, who has been a finalist twice in ScriptDoctor's Contest of Contest Winners screenplay competition, has turned one of those screenplays into a novel, Cooper's Promise, which will be published early in 2012. To learn more about the novel and/or pre-order a copy, please visit the author's kickstarter page.

ScriptDoctor's Contest of Contest Winners

ScriptDoctor's Contest of Contest Winners is still accepting entries through December 15. Do you have a screenplay that has won a contest? Visit ScriptDoctor.com to see if your screenplay qualifies and enter today!

Writing Advice

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and The Atlantic has a slideshow of several prolific authors and their advice to writers. The piece is here.. From Stephen King's admonition to read voraciously and indiscriminately to Christopher Hitchens' advice to "write the way you talk," inspiration abounds for writers of all kinds. (Although, Muriel Spark's advice to get a cat may not be practical or sensible for all writers.)

William Monahan Interview (Collider)

William Monahan, who wrote the screenplays for Kingdom of Heaven and The Departed, was interviewed by Steve "Frosty" Weintraub for Collider. Monahan discusses the status of several recent and upcoming projects, but the interview holds interest for screenwriters in particular because of some of the lessons he's learned along the way, including that a writer can't be a "precious author" because changes, sometimes significant ones, will be made. (Monahan says that The Departed is the only film he's written that is essentially the script on film.)

Be sure to go to Collider to read the whole interview.