ScreenplaysCovered.com

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“If you want to be a screenwriter, you’ve got to live in LA.”

That is what you're going to hear from lots of so-called 'Hollywood people.'

When I was starting out, I can’t tell you how many times I heard, “You live in Washington, DC? You've gotta be kidding me! You aren’t serious enough about your craft if you haven’t turned your life upside down and moved to the town where it all happens. You must a be hobby writer.”

Sometimes these folks said that I might have a chance to at least get my scripts read —if I 'knew someone.'  If I had a friend, uncle, lover, or godfather who was a producer, well-known actor, or director, who, out of personal loyalty, would feel compelled to read (or at least pretend to read!) my scripts and offer an honest, skillful evaluation, if not agree to market them around the industry.

Here's my assessment of all that advice: Bullshit!

When I started writing screenplays I didn’t even now a single person who lived in L. A., much less had a cousin who was an Assistant Assistant Producer or even a friend of a friend who worked part-time in the mailroom at Paramount.

Before I optioned my first screenplay I was living in Washington, D.C., just about as far from LA and Hollywood as I could have been. I was also the brand new first time mother of infant triplets—three boys who had more demands to make on me than any hard-driving team of Hollywood executives.

After the boys were born, I wrote my first screenplay. I had started a second screenplay. But I had no idea if the first script I had written was any good! Who could I turn to for an honest and accurate assessment of my scripts? I didn’t even know a makeup artist, let alone a film director or screenwriter!

And maybe you have also made the same mistake  I made back then (althought I call it "experience" now): I paid several hundred dollars to an “agency” that promised to read my work and give me all sorts of amazing insights and ideas and techniques for improving my script. What they did was give my script to a novice who then inserted pre-formatted answers and criticisms and Screenwriting 101 lessons—as they scanned through my script!

I was furious. It really brought out the Jersey Girl in me. Such bullshit. How dare they charge me all that money and not even read, absorb, and offer an honest, detailed, informative critique of my hard work.

I promised myself that I would do better for myself, and I did. And now, many years later, after being a University professor of writing and a successful screenwriter, I'm in a position to help other screenwriters. I am passioante about giving new and veteran screenwriters what I know they are desperately seeking and needing —the same honest evaluation, insightful analysis, and thoughtful encouraging criticism I was once so desperate for!

So let me ask you, do you think that an unknown mother of infant triplets living 3,000 miles away from LA with NO screenwriting training or experience, and with NO Hollywood connections— could write—and then option for 5 Figures—an award-winning screenplay?

Because that’s exactly what I did. In fact, I optioned my first two screenplays that way.

I had nothing going for me except one damn good spec script. And the nerve, the determination, to send it out, to phone people I sent it out to, and to keep on doing both.

Sure, it would make a sexier story to tell you I just handed my killer spec script to my old pal Matthew McConaughey, but I’m living proof that a truly excellent script will float, not sink. Great scripts will find homes!

A great story that is well written, and stays in the reader’s mind long after they turn the last page.

Did you notice I said “reader” as opposed to “audience"?

Before any movie can be made, before any audience can fork over $10.00 to see it, ONE person has to READ it—and that person has got to LOVE it!

It's your Primary Job to make that One Person who reads your script fall in love with it. Nothing will happen unless you first accomplish that.

That’s why there’s a difference between a “spec” script and a “shooting script.” They use different formatting because they are essentially different animals.

The shoot script is designed to help the director, the prop and sound professionals, etc., know what and how they are going to film the story.

A Spec Script is written to be READ. It does NOT include shooting angles, camera directions, etc., because it’s all visual narration and dialogue.

That’s it: Visual narration and dialogue.

When I work with you I will teach you that your first job is this: Focus all your creative energy on writing a damn good spec script!

Everything good will flow from that first achievement.

And I will also tell you this, because it's probably the LAST thing you'd ever hear from your spouse or mom or best friend:

If you feel a deep down desire to write screenplays—that is all the evidence, all the proof, all the justification you need that you CAN do it and succeed at doing it.

The rest of the formula is that you must hold on to your inspired desire— and Never Never Never Give Up!

I will show you how. The answers aren't in me. The answers are all inside of you—right now. My art is showing you how to dig down and find those answers and write the stories that you, and only you, were meant to write.

Arrange a FREE 20-minute consultation to discuss your script with screenwriter Vera Caccioppoli
760.815.4341 (California Time)

What happens during this consultation?

This consultation is all about you. Your background as a writer, your goals, your needs, the types of projects you are working on or want to be working on. This information will help me to determine the best of the options we have to support and enhance you in attaining your screenwriting goals. I encourage you to ask any questions you may have.