here's a list of all the scripts i have in my portfolio
✷ in process ✷
NEREIDES
Feature | Sci-Fi Adventure
Currently: Outlining
Logline: After a series of wrecks in the Kuiper Belt, a retired astrobiologist is sent to investigate the rumors about mermaid-like beings causing the disasters before another wreck occurs.
THE ABSOLUTION PROTOCOL
Feature | Sci-Fi Thriller
Currently: Rewriting
Logline: Instead of being executed, a murderer and a group of criminals awaken in deep space only to find that they must work together to prevent an ominous alien presence from reaching Earth
PIECES & PARTS
One-Hour TV Pilot | Drama
Currently: Rewriting from feature version
Logline: A reluctant funeral director tries to save her father's funeral home by selling body parts to make ends meet.
✷ finished ✷
WET FOOD
Feature | Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Adventure
Logline: When her beloved cat falls ill and refuses to eat, a reclusive former engineer must leave the safety of her secure bunker and venture into the post-apocalyptic world for help.
*Planning future rewrite
SEEDS
Feature | Sci-Fi
Logline: When a blight ruins yet another harvest on the exoplanet Earth Colony 7, a hard-headed, fifth-generation farmer must find a cure to bring the colony back from the brink of extinction.
SNAKE OIL
One-Hour TV Pilot | Feminist Western Drama
Logline: After the death of her abusive husband, a young widow takes his patent medicine business on the road to carve out a new life for herself in the American West. When her brother-in-law discovers his brother’s death, he pressures the local sheriff to go after her for murder.
*Planning future rewrite
LA MOCHILA EXPRESS
One-Hour TV Pilot | Post-Apocalyptic Drama
Logline: An all-woman motorcycle club runs mail between survivors' camps after the world ends. When a group of roamers threaten the women's way of life, one of the members must save the club.
*Planning future rewrite
you get a laurel, you get a laurel, everyone gets a laurel!!!
there's a guy on bsky who is always posting his laurels for writing contest wins which, at first glance, is very impressive that he's getting so many wins
but if you know anything about screenwriting contests, you know that very few (if any, at this point) of them are well respected in the industry
so i dug into it a little bit because im a petty bitch~
background:
filmfreeway is Thee platform for applying to a lot of contests and festivals. there's been a spate of scam festivals on FF lately, and people fall for them all the time. and FF doesn't do anything to verify that the festivals are legit or anything, really
so a lot of the festivals listed on FF are pure cash grabs. again: very few festivals/contests are well respected by the industry at large. the ones that matter aren't really accepting submissions on FF, you know?
there's a general rule of thumb that anything with "awards" in the title is not legitimate/worth anything in terms of cache. there aren't any real prizes associated with these "festivals" and they are all suspiciously similar, despite advertising from different geographic locations
for example:
london: https://londonmovieawards.com/home-1
florence: https://florencefilmawards.com/
milan: https://milangoldawards.com/
notice that there is not a mention of a prize anywhere on these webbed sites. there is a list of winners -- with winners announced monthly (another red flag) -- and a tab for trophies. Aha! you might think. They give trophies!
alas, no: this is the option to PURCHASE a trophy (if you have "won") for $250-300 euros.
the other thing to know about these contests is that you have to PAY to enter. and they are not cheap!!
early bird deadlines for a script for these sort of contests start around $30 a pop
the entries for the three contests (london, florence, milan) earlier cost ~$175 total, on the low end.
that's the "early bird" fee. you might have a FF gold membership, which saves you a couple bucks. but, at each deadline, the cost goes up. so the regular deadline costs more, the late deadline even more, and an extended or last minute deadline costs even More.
so: you can spend a lot of money entering contests/festivals. there's usually a line item in film budgets for festival runs because the costs add up fast
so this guy paid At Least $175 for three contests, for one script.
y'all, this man is entering multiple scripts into these contests
this guy is spending HUNDREDS of dollars for little jpeg laurels that mean absolutely NOTHING to real industry folks
it's like. low key embarrassing. (there is a more embarrassing thing but i'll get to that in a minute)
look, i get it: having someone tell you that your script "won" is a great shot of dopamine. i have fallen into this trap in my earlier screenwriting days. writing is hard and lonely and it's nice to get outside validation
but if you want to be taken seriously as a screenwriter, this is Not The Way
if you were to query and lead with any of these awards, there is little to no chance that the person you are querying will be impressed. they probably won't even write back
ok so: the other embarrassing thing that i mentioned earlier is that this guy keeps posting notes from his "dev team"
development notes are sometimes offered by producers for a fee. they tend to be very expensive ($300++) and not really worth it, imo. the producers are looking to earn a buck and there's no likelihood that they're going to pass your script up the chain (a lot of the producers who offer these notes are underemployed)
but that isn't what this guy is doing. it's Ai
this guy is Constantly putting his scripts into the plagiarism machine and getting incredibly generic praise and posting these snippets to bsky
it's so obvious and it's so embarrassing!! my dude, my guy: the plagiarism machine is designed to stroke your ego. these are not real development notes in much the same way that the contests he's entering are not real contests
what are you doing!!!!
anyway. screenwriting is hard and it sucks out there especially right now, so seeing people post a bunch of laurels can feel very dispiriting when it feels like you're fighting uphill to get a modicum of recognition
but it's definitely a situation where he's over-insisting that his work is good. it's a very "protest too much" situation
folks who are actually winning important things are typically a lot quieter about it all
not me, though. if i win something, you're GONNA hear about it.
writing is so easy. you just open your doc. dissociate. write one sentence. have a mental breakdown. close the doc. wash rinse repeat this over a week and eventually you'll get somewhere!!
When I was in college, my Creative Nonfiction professor would regularly have us do something she called "hotspotting" (she didn't know that this was already a term tbc) with our rough drafts. Basically, hotspotting is when you look at your draft and pick out your favorite sentence, or one of your favorite sentences--one that you're really proud of--and write it down in a blank sheet in a notebook. Not a new document, a physical notebook. (You are not allowed to use technology for hotspotting.) And then you set a timer for however long--like maybe ten to twenty minutes--and you elaborate. You treat that one sentence as if it's the opening sentence to a new draft, and you write from there, until the timer is up.
It sounds like a gimmick, but honestly, some of my best writing in that class came from hotspotting. Usually, the sentence you consider the "best" is the one that really gets to the heart of something you're trying to convey. In a rough draft, it tends to be that you're fumbling around a bit before you really hit on the heart of things. So with hotspotting, you're starting from a less fumbly place, which means you're able to dig into your subject in a much deeper and more precise way. It makes you feel like a surgeon, a little bit.
So I do recommend trying it, even just for fun, even if you think the rough draft you have is already good. You might surprise yourself with what you come up with! :)
when writing a script, it either goes one of two ways for me:
it takes Forever to write
it takes Three Days to write
there is no in between
so, i finished a draft of PIECES & PARTS yesterday. it took three days, spread across three-hourish sections each day. it's 50 pages.
idk how this happens? i get possessed by some sort of demon and then i have a script.
for comparison, it took Months for the first draft of THE ABSOLUTION PROTOCOL to get done.
i know that having a Good Outline is absolutely vital to my ability to write the script quickly. and i Do spend a lot of time hammering that outline to make sure it works before i move on to pages.
i have a multi-step outlining process:
Story Dump/Snowplow Phase: this is where i write out the story in prose. i usually write it out act by act (3 acts for feature, teaser+5 for a pilot), figuring out the major story beats as i go. i'll also usually stick some character descriptions in there, so i kind of know who my characters are as i go into it.
Beat Sheet Phase: this is where i map the story against the typical beats like inciting incident and midpoint, etc. i'll make adjustments here to ensure that there is cause and effect happening and that the story logic holds.
Scene-by-Scene Outline: this is where i actually open final draft (my beloathed) and start writing out scenes and what needs to happen in each scene. sometimes i have to go back to the beat sheet or the story dump to figure out what isn't working. a lot of times, i'll make more changes to help with flow
by the time i have a scene-by-scene outline that's specific enough, writing pages is... easy? mostly? i've done all the hard work of figuring out the story, so it's just putting nice words around it.
so, yeah. i finished a draft of PIECES & PARTS and threw it up on StoryPeer to get some quick impressions and --
huh. unexpected! im a little [squints suspiciously], but i also like the validation. i've sent it to my writing group, so let's see what they say on sunday
I find the concept of the bay leaf very helpful when I'm redrafting.
The bay leaf is something you have in your work - a scene, or a description, or a character that you're attached to - but eventually you realise you have to take it out. You think, 'I really love this scene, and I don't want to remove it, but I don't need it any more. It's not working.' That's fine. It served its purpose - it helped you get to this point, and now you can let it go. It's the bay leaf.
woke up in a cold sweat last night realizing that i didn't send my script to a mentor on friday like i was supposed to, so i will probably not be getting feedback on it today lmfaofkdjshfajg
i am not much of a new years resolution person but i AM an overachieving planning type person so i have been thinking a lot about what i would like to accomplish this year in terms of writing.
Get a manager
this has been on the list for a few years now, but this year i'm really buckling down on it, i think. i'm taking steps to polish my portfolio and working with a mentor this month to identify managers who might be a fit for me. i know that getting a manager means next to nothing in the long run - i could always sell a script without one - but i would feel Validated if i was signed by a manager. and i need some validation these days.
Write at least four scripts
my pace last year was basically a script a quarter, which is pretty damn good. i'd like the maintain that pace with four new scripts this year, either features or pilots. NEREIDES is in progress and so is the pilot version of PIECES & PARTS, so it's really just figuring out what the other two scripts want to be this year. i have a lot of interesting story concepts that i want to explore, so i'm not lacking ideas, just maybe the wherewithal to actually write them.
Finish PIGEON
i filmed PIGEON last summer and i really need to get off my ass and finish the editing process. i've been kind of avoiding it for unnecessary and stupid reasons. ultimately, i'd like to finish PIGEON and get it submitted to a few festivals sometime this year.
Attend (at least) one writing retreat
this very much depends on whether or not i am accepted to a writing retreat, but i had such good experiences on my retreats last year that it would be a real shame if i wasn't able to participate this year. i did find out yesterday that i advanced to the quarterfinals for a retreat, so maybe it will happen!
Apply for fellowships
fellowships include: WB, disney, WIFV, almanack, sundance, hedgebrook, paramount, the black list, film independent, and others. these are big names and i really need solid scripts to expect to make it anywhere, but i need to at least try.
Submit to five reputable contests
contests are like, very hit or miss. mostly it's an ego/validation thing, as even winning a contest these days isn't very impressive to managers or other people in the industry. but i like laurels. and i like validation. so. we're gonna try to get some scripts recognized this year.
Watch more movies
for someone who wants to make movies, i feel like i don't want a lot of movies. i want to be more thoughtful about that this year. i have a 10-ticket online pass to sundance this year (and only three days to watch), so i'm hopefully off to a strong start. i also have a bunch of screeners to watch for film independent. i just feel like my writing is better when i'm exposed to more stuff.
Launch @wikispiralpod
this podcast has been bubbling in the back of my head for a while now, and i've got the episode structure all figured out - it's just a matter of writing out the episodes. i need to carve out time to work on these. ideally i'd like to launch the first episode in spring (april?).
Engage on social media more
this is a double-edged sword, of course, as social media is Evil. however, i do like engaging with the writing and filmmaking communities around me. having people to bounce ideas off of and people to swap scripts with is so important. it will also maybe help me feel less lonely. but also, a strong social media presence is maybe important for Exposure~ and marketing so i should be more regular about posting.
Have fun and be myself :)
i need to remember that i like writing, that i chose this career, and that, though it's definitely a slog/long game, i am where i want to be. do what i love and everything else will follow.
i wrote The Absolution Protocol (feature | sci-fi thriller) back over the summer, and i had really struggled with breaking the story in the outline stage. i spent like, weeks struggling through act two and it was incredibly dispiriting. i went on a writing retreat in the woods and wrote Nothing, lmao. it was awful.
i eventually got something resembling an actual outline and a decent story out of it. writing the actual script wasn't hard, it was just trying to figure out the story up front that made it miserable. this is why we outline, folks.
anyway i ended up with a decent script that got a bit of interest, some good feedback, a few read requests, etc. i let that roll and started to work on Wet Food (which was a whole different experience) and essentially forgot about TAP.
then i got really depressed in october through the end of the year and i didn't write anything at all for weeks. it really felt like i was never going to write anything again and i was doubting that the scripts that i had written in 2025 were all garbage.
i forced myself to be Normal while my mom was here for the holidays, and it sort of worked, so i signed up for two different rewrite classes in january. i'm focusing on TAP for both of them, so, of course, i had to re-read it before i sent it to the instructors for their initial review.
i danced around it for a while before i actually read it. i printed out the script. let it sit on my desk. i spilled soup on it. i finally cracked it open. i read through it one morning and jotted notes on the cover page in pencil, then i let it sit for another day or two.
i decided that i wanted to re-outline the script, maybe even finish a rewrite before i send it off to the instructors (due by jan 14th. lol, lmao even). so i started off with note cards. immediately got frustrated by how slow that was going to be. switched to a fresh beat board in final draft. FD was, of course, slow and crashy. so i invented a template in canva. i played around with setting up the template Just Right before i finally started re-outlining.
all this to say i'm on day? two? of re-outlining and it's going surprisingly well. i am distractible as hell so it's going slow but it's going. i'm making some pretty big changes to the plot and structure and characters of the story, but i feel like it's working. i'm already into act two.
i do not think that i'm going to be able to get a full rewrite done by wednesday (lol, lmao what was i thinking), but i think i will have a very good outline to guide my rewrites once i get feedback from the two instructors next saturday and sunday.
tbh, i haven't really done Real Serious rewrites on a script like this. mm, that maybe isn't true. i did some revisions with La Mochila Express that were pretty major (and i am working my way back to that script mentally, also), but this feels different somehow. rewriting is hard bc it's so tempting to declare a script Finished and then move on to the next new shiny thing if people don't immediately respond to it. i think i should be a better writer and actually do some serious polishing on scripts if i want to get anything made. and it's annoying.
