"Notes, I want notes. Honest, straightforward reactions to my script!"
Yeah. Right.
I have had to give many many notes in my career. With as many scripts as I have had to read and as many writers as I have had to deal with, I have gotten pretty darn familiar to the artform of giving and receiving notes. Recently, I've been reading some scripts, catching up on a stack I've had for years. As a result, I've had to give even more notes. It reminded me of how important the notes giving/taking process is to a career.
So what I am going to write here isn't about whether my notes are any good, I want to talk about the room. I want to talk about the attitude. I want to tell you how every one of you can shoot yourselves in the foot in the most innocent of ways.
Now, I'm not just talking about the notes we give each other, I'm targeting the notes you will get when you sell your script or get an assignment. But it starts here, with the friends who read your scripts and give input. So you might as well start now and get used to the process.
It's one thing to write a wonderful script. But no matter how wonderful it is, you are going to get notes. How you deal with getting your notes is a major factor in whether you get your next assignment. Especially in Television, but also in features. In fact, I get worried if I DON'T get notes. I'd like to think that my script was important enough to have an opinion on, good or bad. So you not only need to take notes, you should seek them out. And once you do, you want to be known as being good in a room.
First of all, understand that notes are NOT meant to be an interactive procedure. It's a one way street. You TAKE notes in a notes session. The hardest thing for a writer to accept is that this is NOT a discussion. Your baby is about to be dissected and you have to sit there and watch it. You don't defend, you don't argue, you don't explain, you don't rationalize. Anything that you say that falls into those categories, no matter how well intentioned, comes across as resistance. And it makes the notes session into a discussion. It is NOT a discussion. Let it go.
But wait, you say, isn't this a collaboration? No, not really. But it also depends on who is giving the notes. And, perhaps just as important, what your opinion of that person is. If a note is given that you agree with and you see a solution immediately, you might suggest an alternative. But ONLY if the person you are dealing with is looking to hash out a solution. Most of the time they aren't and you might just get yourself in deeper water with a quick reaction solution. And if you are dealing with someone you have no respect for, then it doesn't matter what you say. So don't say it. Log it for future reference and let the notes continue.
A notes session is NO PLACE for pride and ego. Now, you may end up with someone who wants to turn it into that. Fine, that's their problem. But you are there to get input, that's all there is to it. You aren't there to measure yourself against anyone else. Don't play their game; stay focused.
The first thing you should do when you get a note is to ask yourself what YOU did to prompt that reaction. Don't automatically assume the other person is just an idiot and doesn't see the obvious. You may come to that conclusion, but it won't be an honest one until you examine your complicity in it first.
So what are the pitfalls? Without realizing it, you can become:
REACTIONARY - Don't be amazed an appalled that someone has notes. And expect to hear some things that will outrage you. Or, at the least, make you feel the person you are dealing with is an utter idiot. Don't react to it. Don't get baited by it. Stone face.
DEFENSIVE - A notes session is NOT an attack. It is not a chance for someone to tell you that you aren't any good at what you do. It isn't meant to make you feel inferior and it isn't meant to imply that your script is substandard. There is NO point to taking offense unless the person takes a personal shot at you. And, even then, you had better be damn sure it had nothing to do with your script before you react.
DISMISSIVE - Every comment and note is worth attention. I have gotten notes from a few people I considered to be, let's say, less than capable of giving notes. But when they give me their notes, I take every one as seriously as if William Goldman gave me the note. Even idiots have observations and even if they are wrong, they can make you think. But ONLY if you allow them to. At the very least, if someone gives you a note that makes you think they just didn't get it, stop and ask yourself WHY they didn't get it. Was it your fault or theirs?
ARGUMENTATIVE - You'd think this would be obvious. But there is a very thin line between discussion and argument. The same thin line exists between explanation and argument. Same for rationalization and argument. Arguments have no place in a notes session. Don't start one, don't even start to start one. You won't win. You may make your point, but you've lost the session.
EXPLANATORY - One of the things I don't want to hear when I give notes are explanations on why certain things were done. I don't need to hear it. I don't want to hear your inner workings or grand design. If it isn't there in front of me, I don't care. And it is very true, if you have to explain it, then you didn't do it right.
Here are the phrases you need to memorize during your notes session:
"Interesting."
"Good point."
"I'll have to look at that."
"I'm not sure I agree, but let me look at it again."
"Wow! Lots of stuff to think about! Thanks!"
And you have to say those things convincingly.
Now let me address what you are thinking right now. In effect, you are thinking "Well, doesn't this just make me the obedient puppy dog, rolling over and showing my belly? Am I just supposed to take all this and give the impression that I don't count?"
Not just that, but with that feeling, you have to bite your tongue and grit your teeth while you smile, too. And you know what the reaction from the other side is going to be? Respect. Not what you are feeling at all. The other person is going to respect you for being able to take notes objectively and professionally.
And if you don't take the notes professionally? Well, then it gets even worse. It's a human-interaction thing. Here's what I mean:
If you take the notes professionally and gracefully as I have described, you put the other person at ease. You give them the feeling that you are sincerely going to address their concerns. You may not be able to implement all of them, but they know you will give them a fair hearing. The result of that is that they leave the implementation and discretion in YOUR hands. They trust you to do what's right.
However. if you are resistant, in any fashion, they begin to doubt that you are taking their notes seriously. They see you as set in your ways and not about to make any changes at all. And when that happens, they become much more firmly set in the changes you are going to make. They won't trust you to be fair, so they will start to DEMAND changes their changes get done. They won't leave it up to you. And when they get the script, they will go over it with a fine tooth comb making sure you did what they told you.
Now, I will tell you right up front, I follow these rules for the most part. I will also say that I have gotten into some pretty good knock-down-drag-outs with studio heads and showrunners over notes. You pick and choose what you argue. But those fights came well after the initial notes sessions and were usually a result of greater problems than just one script. I have also walked out of a notes session. But putting modesty aside, I am at a level in my career where I could do that. And I was also prepared to keep walking, it wasn't a bluff. Which is my final comment. Never throw down the gauntlet over notes. Not unless you are ready to walk away. And keep in mind that you don't just walk away from one project, you walk away from all the projects that one was going to generate.
I expect no notes on this post.
ZODITCH
Yeah. Right.
I have had to give many many notes in my career. With as many scripts as I have had to read and as many writers as I have had to deal with, I have gotten pretty darn familiar to the artform of giving and receiving notes. Recently, I've been reading some scripts, catching up on a stack I've had for years. As a result, I've had to give even more notes. It reminded me of how important the notes giving/taking process is to a career.
So what I am going to write here isn't about whether my notes are any good, I want to talk about the room. I want to talk about the attitude. I want to tell you how every one of you can shoot yourselves in the foot in the most innocent of ways.
Now, I'm not just talking about the notes we give each other, I'm targeting the notes you will get when you sell your script or get an assignment. But it starts here, with the friends who read your scripts and give input. So you might as well start now and get used to the process.
It's one thing to write a wonderful script. But no matter how wonderful it is, you are going to get notes. How you deal with getting your notes is a major factor in whether you get your next assignment. Especially in Television, but also in features. In fact, I get worried if I DON'T get notes. I'd like to think that my script was important enough to have an opinion on, good or bad. So you not only need to take notes, you should seek them out. And once you do, you want to be known as being good in a room.
First of all, understand that notes are NOT meant to be an interactive procedure. It's a one way street. You TAKE notes in a notes session. The hardest thing for a writer to accept is that this is NOT a discussion. Your baby is about to be dissected and you have to sit there and watch it. You don't defend, you don't argue, you don't explain, you don't rationalize. Anything that you say that falls into those categories, no matter how well intentioned, comes across as resistance. And it makes the notes session into a discussion. It is NOT a discussion. Let it go.
But wait, you say, isn't this a collaboration? No, not really. But it also depends on who is giving the notes. And, perhaps just as important, what your opinion of that person is. If a note is given that you agree with and you see a solution immediately, you might suggest an alternative. But ONLY if the person you are dealing with is looking to hash out a solution. Most of the time they aren't and you might just get yourself in deeper water with a quick reaction solution. And if you are dealing with someone you have no respect for, then it doesn't matter what you say. So don't say it. Log it for future reference and let the notes continue.
A notes session is NO PLACE for pride and ego. Now, you may end up with someone who wants to turn it into that. Fine, that's their problem. But you are there to get input, that's all there is to it. You aren't there to measure yourself against anyone else. Don't play their game; stay focused.
The first thing you should do when you get a note is to ask yourself what YOU did to prompt that reaction. Don't automatically assume the other person is just an idiot and doesn't see the obvious. You may come to that conclusion, but it won't be an honest one until you examine your complicity in it first.
So what are the pitfalls? Without realizing it, you can become:
REACTIONARY - Don't be amazed an appalled that someone has notes. And expect to hear some things that will outrage you. Or, at the least, make you feel the person you are dealing with is an utter idiot. Don't react to it. Don't get baited by it. Stone face.
DEFENSIVE - A notes session is NOT an attack. It is not a chance for someone to tell you that you aren't any good at what you do. It isn't meant to make you feel inferior and it isn't meant to imply that your script is substandard. There is NO point to taking offense unless the person takes a personal shot at you. And, even then, you had better be damn sure it had nothing to do with your script before you react.
DISMISSIVE - Every comment and note is worth attention. I have gotten notes from a few people I considered to be, let's say, less than capable of giving notes. But when they give me their notes, I take every one as seriously as if William Goldman gave me the note. Even idiots have observations and even if they are wrong, they can make you think. But ONLY if you allow them to. At the very least, if someone gives you a note that makes you think they just didn't get it, stop and ask yourself WHY they didn't get it. Was it your fault or theirs?
ARGUMENTATIVE - You'd think this would be obvious. But there is a very thin line between discussion and argument. The same thin line exists between explanation and argument. Same for rationalization and argument. Arguments have no place in a notes session. Don't start one, don't even start to start one. You won't win. You may make your point, but you've lost the session.
EXPLANATORY - One of the things I don't want to hear when I give notes are explanations on why certain things were done. I don't need to hear it. I don't want to hear your inner workings or grand design. If it isn't there in front of me, I don't care. And it is very true, if you have to explain it, then you didn't do it right.
Here are the phrases you need to memorize during your notes session:
"Interesting."
"Good point."
"I'll have to look at that."
"I'm not sure I agree, but let me look at it again."
"Wow! Lots of stuff to think about! Thanks!"
And you have to say those things convincingly.
Now let me address what you are thinking right now. In effect, you are thinking "Well, doesn't this just make me the obedient puppy dog, rolling over and showing my belly? Am I just supposed to take all this and give the impression that I don't count?"
Not just that, but with that feeling, you have to bite your tongue and grit your teeth while you smile, too. And you know what the reaction from the other side is going to be? Respect. Not what you are feeling at all. The other person is going to respect you for being able to take notes objectively and professionally.
And if you don't take the notes professionally? Well, then it gets even worse. It's a human-interaction thing. Here's what I mean:
If you take the notes professionally and gracefully as I have described, you put the other person at ease. You give them the feeling that you are sincerely going to address their concerns. You may not be able to implement all of them, but they know you will give them a fair hearing. The result of that is that they leave the implementation and discretion in YOUR hands. They trust you to do what's right.
However. if you are resistant, in any fashion, they begin to doubt that you are taking their notes seriously. They see you as set in your ways and not about to make any changes at all. And when that happens, they become much more firmly set in the changes you are going to make. They won't trust you to be fair, so they will start to DEMAND changes their changes get done. They won't leave it up to you. And when they get the script, they will go over it with a fine tooth comb making sure you did what they told you.
Now, I will tell you right up front, I follow these rules for the most part. I will also say that I have gotten into some pretty good knock-down-drag-outs with studio heads and showrunners over notes. You pick and choose what you argue. But those fights came well after the initial notes sessions and were usually a result of greater problems than just one script. I have also walked out of a notes session. But putting modesty aside, I am at a level in my career where I could do that. And I was also prepared to keep walking, it wasn't a bluff. Which is my final comment. Never throw down the gauntlet over notes. Not unless you are ready to walk away. And keep in mind that you don't just walk away from one project, you walk away from all the projects that one was going to generate.
I expect no notes on this post.
ZODITCH
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