hey all-
I recently finished a new spec. I sent it out to a few trusted colleagues and got some very positive feedback- but I felt like spinning the coverage roulette so I submitted it to three different services: the screenplay mechanic, shore scripts, and an unnamed third one.
the mechanic gave me a fantastic review and some genuinely smart feedback. so did shore scripts- to the extent that I began a dialogue with the reader, who loved the script.
the unnamed third one, however, RIPPED it apart. I am talking scorched earth, angry, resentful stuff. the reader attacked everything from the dialogue to the formatting. he hated the premise, the plotting, took issue with the point-of-view, felt that it was unoriginal.
now, I have read a post from a previous member on here who had the exact same experience with the same reader at the same place.
virtually none of the issues this reader brought forward were shared with the others. and yet, in his profoundly ineloquent way, the reader poked holes at things that I thought were completely fine, assuming that one "goes with it" since it is indeed a somewhat heightened crime/sci-fi story with some crazy **** in it. But what I thought was a super fun, wacky, unique screenplay was torn to absolute pieces for exactly the reasons that others loved it.
I guess a good analogy would be... you write a scene in which a man throws a diving cylinder into a shark's mouth. people love it, because it's a little far-fetched in the way that only movie situations can be. but one out of a myriad of readers/watchers stands up and says "that's ridiculous, the shark would spit it out immediately!".
What to do? You could satisfy that person, but then you would probably kill the instinct of what made you write it that way in the first place.
frankly I hope this coverage is an isolated incident but it couldn't have come at a worse time, considering that I was ready to blast it out into my agents' hands and am now all sorts of worried...
any thoughts? should I just shred it and ignore it?
I recently finished a new spec. I sent it out to a few trusted colleagues and got some very positive feedback- but I felt like spinning the coverage roulette so I submitted it to three different services: the screenplay mechanic, shore scripts, and an unnamed third one.
the mechanic gave me a fantastic review and some genuinely smart feedback. so did shore scripts- to the extent that I began a dialogue with the reader, who loved the script.
the unnamed third one, however, RIPPED it apart. I am talking scorched earth, angry, resentful stuff. the reader attacked everything from the dialogue to the formatting. he hated the premise, the plotting, took issue with the point-of-view, felt that it was unoriginal.
now, I have read a post from a previous member on here who had the exact same experience with the same reader at the same place.
virtually none of the issues this reader brought forward were shared with the others. and yet, in his profoundly ineloquent way, the reader poked holes at things that I thought were completely fine, assuming that one "goes with it" since it is indeed a somewhat heightened crime/sci-fi story with some crazy **** in it. But what I thought was a super fun, wacky, unique screenplay was torn to absolute pieces for exactly the reasons that others loved it.
I guess a good analogy would be... you write a scene in which a man throws a diving cylinder into a shark's mouth. people love it, because it's a little far-fetched in the way that only movie situations can be. but one out of a myriad of readers/watchers stands up and says "that's ridiculous, the shark would spit it out immediately!".
What to do? You could satisfy that person, but then you would probably kill the instinct of what made you write it that way in the first place.
frankly I hope this coverage is an isolated incident but it couldn't have come at a worse time, considering that I was ready to blast it out into my agents' hands and am now all sorts of worried...
any thoughts? should I just shred it and ignore it?
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