Ipswich looked like a nice place, though I only ever drove through it. I lived in a town called Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire...as for soccer I support Liverpool FC, but thats mostly for my fathers sake really.......

Linda I dont know how your going to do it with 2 under 2...it would kill me I think...one is hard enough.......

I think my getting into screenwriting or trying to so late in life is partly due to my traveling around, yet if I didnt do what I did, then I would not be who I am today or write like I do....if that makes any sense.....

Blindside....what is San Diego like? I heard it wasnt cheap to live there.....

Hi all. I just registered this evening after having a few friends give me the drive i need to finish writing the screenplay i've been toying with. I have sifted through the board and have seen some very inspiring posts. I am from Maryland and am 29 years old (hopefully not too old to start). I look forward to visiting this board as much as possible.

Welcome seantree....29? apart from Blinside your the youngest I know here.....I'm 31 and karl is.......older ;-) so dont worry about age...how did you get the idea for your script?

The one I finished a short time ago came about by listening to Celtic music...a thought popped into my head and BANG! I was away and writing....

Heres another question for you all.....

How do you come to find your story ideas?

By chance or do you seek out particular angles?

I always find mine by chance, I am one of those weird people that looks at everything and has it roar through my head giving me a thousand ways to create a story from something like a pile of leaves and a rake......It can give me nose bleeds sometimes....sigh...

yea it is kinda, we've had this house since 1980 and it wasnt so expensive then but these days bills of all sorts are pretty high. But other than that SD is a great place, we are south of LA and pretty close to the border. Though we are right near the beach, we are not overrun with surfers, there are all sorts of people, lotsa hardcore independent thinkers like me. Great weather, and GORGEOUS women from all backrounds. i love my city, but ironically, the character in my working script (who is based on me) hates it and wants to get the hell out.

"agree with everything the studio says, then go off and do it your way anyway." - Francis Ford Coppola

My uncle went there to the comic convention last year (He write comics) and loved it.

With regards to your story, I have also written things that go against the grain of my emotions....it's what makes you a writer I think.

To be able to take something you love and shatter it, only to peice it back together without showing the cracks, thats what makes us different...I think...though I could be wrong...

You know what I am enjoying about the writing lately? variety. I have a dark suspense piece, dealing with drug addiction, child abduction and pedophilia almost done and I just started work on a buddy picture for the Middle Eastern market, looks like it has a good chance to get packaged.

Older????

Matt

seeker, i came upon my idea one day years ago(actually 13 years) and am just now getting into writing it. I live in a small town so i'm sure that others in my situation will relate, but at the same time the general public should get a kick out of it. As soon as I'm ready to show some pages i'll post a few up here. Thanks for the welcome.

My story ideas come by both chance and direct research.

Also I've written other people's ideas recently. FYI to those of you just starting out. Don't dismiss requests to write other people's stories out of hand. One of my favorite scripts was somebody else's idea. It also happens to be the script getting the most buzz from the indusrty right now. So if somebody pitches you an idea that's remotely appealing, take a stab at it. You never know what you'll end up with.

Just joking Karl...please dont beat me ;-)

Thats very true Edsas...my wife gave me several story ideas that I ran with....I wrote a poem last year, she read it and said it felt more like the start of a story, so I carried on and now I have almost 200 pages (Its a novel) I still like to play the field when it comes to my writing.

Does anyone know a good screenwriting magazine or related magazine? I got this magazine a while back called Americam Cinemtogropher, its good but not quite what I wanted.

"agree with everything the studio says, then go off and do it your way anyway." - Francis Ford Coppola

the only one's I have seen tend to focus on who sold what to who for how much, with an ocasional article about somebody's process. Sorry I cant remember the name of the mag.

A friend of mine recently gave me a copy of a mag called Scr(i)pt, its not a bad read and I think you might find it to be of some value.......

what does it mean when someone is credited with the story? does it mean they wrote a short story or gave a broad idea to a screenwriter who turned it into a screenplay? and do story creators get paid?

"agree with everything the studio says, then go off and do it your way anyway." - Francis Ford Coppola

Blindside,

"Story by" usually means that person had the idea but the script was written by someone else.

Story credits to authors of material upon which the script is based don't usually get a "story by" credit, but rather a credit that reads "Based on the (novel, short story, poem etc) by (author's name)".

If someone gets a "story by" credit, then yes, they were paid in some capacity depending on how involved they stayed with the script.

Sometimes, a Story By credit is given even if the person wrote the script. What happens is someone writes a good script and sells it to a producer, then the producer hires a known writer to do the rewrite. After that, the original author gets the story by credit and the known writer gets the Screenplay By credit.

It sucks, but that's Hollywood for you. The good thing is, you can normally negotiate credits before you sell them your script, it's just difficult for new writers.

--Troy

BTW, you can also end up with no credit. Once you sell your script it becomes the property of the producer. If its rewritten, sometimes the original writer will get nothing. It's best to have an agent negotiate for you. But, if you get screwed, chalk it up as experience and do better on the next one.

--Troy

Edsas, do you know anything about a MNGT Company called Pro and Con?


They are based in Glendale CA....(doesnt mean you know of them).....but I was interested if you did could you tell me anything about them?.....

Thanks....

Sheesh, finally a good screenwriting site. So many smart a** ones out there.

I'm 28 and lived in Orange County (30 mins. south of LA) all my life. Wife is from Scotland so we decided to move over there for awhile so her fam could see our son for a couple years. So I relate to those posts about having kids AND trying to break in. Son just turned 2 yesterday, so this weekend has been about parties and cleaning up, finding new space for toys, etc.

I've been sitting on about 10 ideas since I was 21, but for one reason or another, never took the plunge. Then, on Halloween, my supervisor suspended me because my Amercian accent came off "rude". I was so offended that my eyes opened to the fact that I'm not doing what I want to. Telephone banking? ha. Screenwriting? For so long. So I bought a book with some prodco emails in November and have been querying my brains out since.

FINALLY got two requests for two diff. scripts, which are winging their way to NY and LA just now, so at least somethings being read.

But look forward to going through the trials and hopefully eventual success with you guys, heh heh.

Seeker, I haven't heard of Pro and Con management. I will do some checking and see what I can find out about them.

It's funny, I'm always surprised to see something industry-related with a Glendale address. I know they exist here, but they tend to be very under the radar. Maybe that's because I used to live in Burbank, where the industry is the most visible anywhere in the LA area (and probably the world for that matter). My son was born in Burbank. The neighbor to the east of his birth hospital is Disney Studios and ABC Television. To the west of his hospital is NBC Studios. Bob Hope often checked in there and it's the hospital where John Ritter died.

By contrast, industry businesses in Gelndale don't tend to advertise as such and they occupy very inconspicuous-looking office buildings.

McFly,

Happy birthday to your son. My son turns 2 in about 4 months. I look forward to your son-related posts so maybe I can stay ahead of the curve on what to expect from the "terrible twos".

So you lived in Scottland for a couple years? Whereabouts? It must have given you some great writing material.

My wife and I honeymooned in the UK in 2001. We took a train to Edinburgh and absolutely loved it. The ironic thing is we never set foot in the castle. We were in the city for 3 days and we kept telling ourselves we'd save it for last after we ran out of other things to do. Well, we didn't run out of other things to do and before we knew it, we had to catch our train back to England.