When!

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  • When!

    This is probably a stupid question but since I don't know the answer I'm hoping someone call clarify it for me. There is a thread:

    http://scriptsales.com/boards/showthread.php?t=9998

    It talks about getting the nerve to show your work to someone else. My question is WHEN should it be shown. I've been working on my project for 3 months and no one but me has read word one. Now I'm 90 pages deep and questioning whether anyone but me will find it funny. I'd love to show it around but should the first draft be done and registered with the WGA and US Copyright office or should I make sure its any good before I worry about protecting it?

    Thanks

  • #2
    Re: When!

    I would finish it, register it then show it around.
    Faster would be better! ~ Capt. Malcolm Reynolds

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    • #3
      Re: When!

      Me, I register the sh!t out of my screenplays before I show 'em to anyone, but that's just my paranoia talking. I'm not so paranoid when they're still at the work-in-progress stage because they're still subject to big changes... tho' I regard posting pages here or elsewhere on the Net as a temporary form of date-stamped copyright claim. Sure, that won't stand up in court but I can at least embarrass the hell out of anyone who pilfers my work.

      Unless you have an entirely original Huge Idea to protect (and be honest, what are the chances?), then pause for a moment, take a few deep breaths, and tell yourself it's going to be OK. Consider posting a few pages here in the Script Pages forum, and/or a logline in the Logline Forum, or whatever. Open up a little bit at a time until you feel more comfortable. What's the worst that can happen? You get feedback! Your screenplay becomes stronger! You become nonchalant, even blase about showing your work to others. Be brave, mon ami.

      -Derek
      My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies.

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      • #4
        Re: When!

        Register with the LOC now. It doesn't have to be your final draft. The LOC allows you to make a filing for revisions.

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        • #5
          Re: When!

          I often find that the people who are most worried about protecting their work are the ones with the least reason to worry.

          That's not a comment about your writing. Merely an observation.
          "The only reason most scripts are bad is because most people can't write." Leslie Dixon

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          • #6
            Re: When!

            Originally posted by pconsidine
            I often find that the people who are most worried about protecting their work are the ones with the least reason to worry.
            I certainly hope that's the case

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            • #7
              Re: When!

              sometime after the first draft. Maybe towards of the begining of the second but very early on.


              I don't regsister a dang thing. Locks only keep honest people honest. If thy're going to steal your work, a serial number isn't going to stop them.

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              • #8
                Re: When!

                it's never about stopping them, cause the first word after is compensation, and that's in reverse.

                i think copywritten is a nice term for saving people murder raps. in a fit of passion who know what one will do when you take their ideas, their words and profit from them of your back and don't compensate them.... i mean what is this, the record industry.

                that was stupid funny, right?

                vig

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                • #9
                  Re: When!

                  My question is WHEN should it be shown.
                  The very minute you need to get feedback. Might be after the first act or first draft or first page. Everyone is different. I belong to a writer's workshop where where every week we present 25-30 pages of whatever project we're working on. It's our choice but no matter what shape it's in (1st draft, 2nd draft.. etc) it always helps.

                  Sounds like you're overthinking this process a little. Showing your work to trusted friends should be as natural as flipping on the TV. "Here it is... get back to me."

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                  • #10
                    Re: When!

                    This is what I do. Doesn't mean ****e all that it's right.

                    I write a draft. Then I rewrite that draft, based on my own thoughts. Then I might do it again.

                    Then I register it.

                    then I show it to someone, or a couple someones.

                    I never, NEVER show a first "first" draft anymore. What I show to people as a first draft is usually a third draft, and by that time, I need another set of eyes on it, or two, or three, or four.

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                    • #11
                      Re: When!

                      Register a first draft, then if the "final" draft of what you want to call a final is drastically different RE-register it. Other then that you're fine. Let me know when you post it for readers!!
                      Last edited by rockridesva; 05-27-2005, 08:39 PM.

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                      • #12
                        Re: When!

                        I would finish it before I sent it out, mostly because I prefer to have critique on the entire structure of story and character.
                        "So I guess big parts of our youth are supposed to suck. Otherwise we'd get too attached and wake up one day trapped on a hamster wheel that used to look like a merri-go-round." - Hal Sparks

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                        • #13
                          Re: When!

                          This is why I'm in two writing groups. I workshop my script from the idea stage, through the outline, through pages. It's how we did it at UCLA, it's how I do it today, and I hope that's how I'll always continue.

                          kullervo

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                          • #14
                            Re: When!

                            Here it is:

                            http://www.scriptsales.com/boards/sh...5052#post95052

                            I tried the code markers and it didn't work so it's just copy and pasted. I think it's really funny but thats cause I'm living the main characters life. Any comments are welcome ... I've never done this before.

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