Between a new baby and international crises, posting has not been much of a priority. But a writer’s gotta keep his page fresh…

I will always write fiction. But I’m seeing more and more that the kind of storytelling that excites me just as much is screenwriting.

Movies are inherently collaborative. No one person makes a movie. The same could be said for novels, and it’s true. Editors, proofreaders, beta readers––all of them contribute to a novel.

But at the end of the day, the person who does the most work on a novel is the writer.

A screenplay, though, is pure potential that buzzes with energy until it’s actually produced as a film. Before it’s written, that potential is fluid, soupy. After it’s written, it may no longer be soupy, but it’s still just potential––though clearer and more supercharged, it hasn’t reached its true form.

The story is there, complete and ready to play out in the minds of readers. But a whole team is required to bring the story to full form on screen.

There is something deeply exciting and humbling about that whole process. The original story idea will always belong to the original screenwriter, but the finished film belongs to the actors, editors, directors, cinematographers, composers, and anyone else involved.

Anyway, I have a few screenplays ready for that process. What do I need now? Representation. Manager/agent. And it’s looking like one of the best ways to secure representation is to place in a script competition.

So, this year…it’s still writing and submitting fiction, letting those sweet rejections pile up. (I’ve gotten one ‘yes,’ but since the anthology hasn’t been announced yet, I can’t post any details.) But I’m also entering my scripts in as many competitions as I can without totally bleeding out my wallet.

Will my scripts place? Hard to say, but they will be read by people in the industry. Or people who know people in the industry.

Ah, the potential.