54 days in LA (4): A guide to selling your script.

Mark Needham
Sep 6, 2018 · 5 min read

The walls are closing in.

There’s a dog down the hall that is basically left alone most of the day and night. It only stops barking to breath, in order to bark more. It’s louder than the air conditioner we use as white noise at night. The same air conditioner that’s constantly switching gears (or something), which is so loud it sounds like someone’s breaking our door open. So we both wake up every time it happens, to hear the dog barking again.

I’m strained, not sleeping well, working two jobs, plus the hours of writing, editing and more. The water never boils on the stove, so making tea is an adventure and making a meal is an all day process. So we just eat dinner. I have this crazy back pain and tightness that feels like its trying to close in on my lungs and I would give anything for it to just loosen up. Stretching, meditation, trigger points, nothing seems to work.

We’re having minor complications.

Regardless of that, we’ve registered our scripts and started making moves with submissions. And guess what.

It’s just as hard as they say.

Going through the WGA list of approved agencies has taught me one thing. You need a manager to get an agent to get a recommendation to get an agent to find a show-runner to get an agent in the first place because “no matter how great your idea is, without a show-runner, nothing will happen.”

Promising.

75% of agencies that tell you they aren’t accepting unsolicited material additionally tell you they can’t give you any advice about what you should do to get representation or recommendations.

The other 25% were gracious enough to tell me that I need to “network” and get on “projects.”

Excellent.

So we network; at coffee shops, on linkedin, scheduling meetups and eventbrite events.

It’s all about who you know. And I know Crackle.

It’s about asking 100 people and getting 1 “…maybe.”

It’s about typing “Assiststant Staff Writer.” and trying to search through a 1000 submissions that have nothing to do with what you are looking for.

Do I have like a fourth cousin in marketing somewhere?

The excitement of registering my first script was short lived…

Remember where you are. The big times baby.

I’ve had second thoughts a hundred times, one of which at 12 o’ clock at night between the dog, air conditioner and a stressful day in a cluttered room.

Another at 11am this morning, after two hours of Uber paid me half as much as it did back home. The traffic kills your earnings because the same time it takes to drive twice as far in San Fransisco and three times as far in Sac, yields you little earnings in LA because they don’t pay you very well to sit in traffic.

I’m confused and trying to find solid ground with where to go next. I’ve been pointed in the direction of finding a “writer’s assistant” job and talking to some show-runners. I know I’m not quite on track. Something doesn’t feel right…

So yes, it’s just as hard as they say it is, in fact, harder. I laid in bed last night with muscle pains in my back and chest, realizing I had let years of stress accumulate in my heart and mind only to try and push a bunch of shit out of the way to add some more baggage from LA.

“Is this how heart attacks happen?”

I was on Santa Monica Beach the other day and overheard a street perfomer say he had recently suffered a heart attack. He has a six pack, a calm yet funny disposition. Excellent health. How the hell did he have a heart attack? Crazy ex girlfriend? Juuuust enough poly unsaturated fats to clog the arteries but not show in cellulite?

I’m confused.

And things keep knocking at my mind’s door. Old things. Anger from past relationships, confusion from the way the world is, the hopeless feeling of not understanding how to fit in as a child.

Daily Networking: 40 or so connection requests on LinkedIn. 15 Agencies and five more in person conversations. I’m not sure what is working and what isn’t at this point. Still trying to figure it all out.

Pro Survival Tip: Take a trip to Santa Monica beach for stress relief. It’ll help to set things straight.

Pro Writing Tip: Start your story knowing where it’s going, what the beats are, what it means and who the characters are before you start writing. That framework will make everything flow better. Charts and diagrams, long descriptions and more help you understand the science and math of the story which is just as important as the heart of it.

Something about the Show (Character Bio)

Frank: Big Five Profile

Openness to experience: consistent/cautious: Frank is extremely stubborn while being highly aware of it. He likes things his way and only his way. It helps him maintain control over his life and his world. Something he was not able to do as a child, seeing friends and family die consistently during the war. This lack of stability in his country and his life influenced Frank’s desire to claw for control.

Conscientiousness: efficient/organized & easy-going/careless: Frank falls somewhere in the middle here. He can be extremely organized and efficient, noting his experience as a drug dealer and “muscle” for organized crime. But Frank’s hubris often blinds him from important details of people, circumstances and cultural norms. This makes him an effective disruptor but a problematic leader.

Extraversion: outgoing/energetic: Frank is historically outgoing, never having any trouble engaging in intimacy with women or making new friends and becoming the leader of his social groups. He has a fearlessness that is unmatched and lives all his life’s moments to what he sees as “the fullest.” Recently, he has become less outgoing as the situation in the Kingdom has deteriorated. With Jacob on the run and in hiding, Frank struggles with the desire to protect himself from a potential threat, and the growing guilt of betraying his best friend.

Agreeableness: challenging/detached: Frank lacks any indication of being compassionate and kind with one exception. Jacob. Frank’s early years with an abusive father and a morally bankrupt mother built up a wall within that has never been taken down. He shows many indicators of being on the spectrum for sociopathy.

Neuroticism: secure/confident: Frank’s confidence is almost absolute, with subtle social insecurities that he masks with deception, aggression and manipulation of other’s insecurities. He lacks an ability to become fearful in harrowing situations due to his levels of aggression that overpower any consideration for self-preservation in intense circumstances.

End of Profile

People: Pretty much looking out for their own interest most of the time.

People in LA: Pretty much looking out for their own interest most of the time.

Note on People* I don’t know if this is something I will believe forever. I wanted this thing to be honest, and transparent. This is how it feels today.

I Am: Part of the infinite process. All that I am will at once be separated, dispersed and integrated into nature. What is a person more than a rock? My trouble today is just dust in the wind.

Thanks: To my grandparents, who were integral to me coming out to California and pursuing my dreams in the first place. After all the crazy mess that split up a lot of the family, they maintained the bridge.

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