Writers Write!

Write Now!
I missed the final May 1st deadline and then the extended deadline (May 2nd) for the Nicholls Fellowship screenwriting competition due to persistantly dilated pupils and eye sensitivity from and an eye exam 2 days prior and to an ungoing computer glitch (shoots!). Needless to say, I was very disappointed and exhausted but I attended the National Day of Prayer-Hollywood at CBS Studios with great hope for my writing future and Hollywood in general(see National Day of Prayer post).

I rested the rest of the week then I busied myself by writing for the 100 Word Writing Challenge on the Alameda Writers' Group (AWG) website. AWG has a monthly writing exercise or 100 Word Challenge contest on its site and for this challenge you had to write something that reflects the story behind the picture or photo posted but in 100 words or less. In the first case, it was this 1950s styled drawing of a male and female character as they sit at a table sipping tea or coffee?

The following month's contest was a 1950s styled drawing of a red-headed man in a tux shooting a gun from a convertible as a blond in her bra and undies? drives them recklessly.

This month's photo is of that post-hockey game riot in Vancouver a few years back where the boyfriend was kissing his girl while she was lying on her back in the middle of the street amidst crazy rioters and battle-ready riot police.

I thought that was the craziest of things to see so writing about it was too much fun. See my various submissions for the 100 Word Challenge at http://www.alamedawritersgroup.com/

More on the AWG:
The Alameda Writers' Group meets every first Sat of the month at the Glendale Public Library on Harvard Street. They offer a monthly Speaker Series (which is FREE for non-members) along with writing contests and loads of writing resources. For $60 a year you can become a member and you can attend their SIG groups, a group for critique and feedback of your script or novel and you can attend and vote at the monthly GENERAL MEMEBERS MEETINGS  held before the seminar speaker speaks.

I'm not an actual AWG member yet but I attend about 4-5 times a year and find the meetings to be worth an early Saturday morning wake up. There are also small prizes for contest winners and also raffle tickets for other prizes. Plus, there's usually donuts, milk, coffee, tea and often times fruit, all for FREE but donations are welcomed!

All speakers and panels are hosted by AWG President, Marc Cushman (see pic above), who is a writer, director, author and producer. Cushman has written for such shows as Star Trek:NG and Diagnosis Murder and he currently teaches a class on screenwriting at the Pierce Colllege extension program. Learn more about Marc at http://www.marccushman.com/ and at http://extension.piercecollege.edu/

AWG's Emily Wright also gives extra-ordinary feedback for most of the contest entries and I follow her on her blog. 

The AWG's speaker for the month of May was Ken Rotcop (pictured below), a writer, producer and former chief executive of creative development at four Hollywood studios. His writing has varied from writing for The Super Friends Saturday morning cartoon series to writing the award winning American Playhouse TV movie: The Medgar Evers Story. Rotcop is also the author of 2 books on how to pitch. ( off topic: hey do you know that they're re-making Robocop?)

Back on topic: Ken gave great advice about writing, pitching and the biz. As the Great America Pitch Fest(GAPF) was the next week, Rotcop reminded us listeners that he holds a form of pitchfest every year. He calls his a pitchmart but his is smaller than the other pitchfests and says he has agents attend who are interested in repping writers at his pitchmart event. In fact, Rotocop claimed that at the end of every one of his mart, all the writers are repped by agents! Learn more about Ken at http://www.pitchmart.com/  and get his pitching DVDs online, too.

AWG met Sat June 2nd, 2012 at the Glendale Library and their speaker was Christine Conradt, a writer and exec. producer. She read our submitted bios and loglines to help us craft one that works best.
The speaker events usually runs from 10:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m. followed by a Q&A after but July's meeting will be dedicated to the Let's Make A Movie outline selection with 3 established Hollywood producers judging for the winner.

You can attend the AWG for FREE but not the other events like smaller sub-groups or SIGs. I suggest joining the AWG because all the great feedback you get and the speakers they invite to speak are definitely worth your money.        

Glendale Library            

222 E Harvard St.     
Glendale, CA 91205

Update:
My computer crashed and I had to reboot the entire system. I had about 95% of all my writing, artwork and photos saved on flashdrives and CDs as back up, Thank God! I have to rescan some of my most recent artwork but otherwise I am restored. My laptop is actually running better now so even the crash was a blessing. My laptop is old, too (7 years-old) so I used to have to pray over it regularly and annoint it (seriously)!
Wow! God is a restorer of things!