annathepiper | Writer's Weekend 2007, Day 1 (Reply)

Writer's Weekend is a somewhat leaner and meaner conference this year, taking place only today and tomorrow at the Roosevelt in downtown Seattle. This is kind of cool for me personally, since I walk past this place every single day on my way home from work; in fact, it's a very short walk away from my usual bus stop. So I was able to zip downtown on the 522 this morning and come back the same way, in comfortable time for dinner. I saw a few familiar faces and some new ones as well.

Many of the items on the schedule this year were familiar to me, and so I volunteered to help

awritersweekend out as I could; she put me on timekeeping duty, to be the person who pops in, taps her watch, and goes "ten minutes!" to the folks giving the panels. This was very, very easy, given that we only had four rooms to work with and Karen asked me to keep tabs on only two of them. And since the schedule was reduced anyway, I only had to do this six times.

So I had some time leftover in between all of these little timekeeping jaunts. I wrote a couple hundred words on Queen of Souls finally, and got in on pitch sessions to Mary Louise Schwartz, and sat in on a few of the panels I was timekeeping for anyway.

The panel on pitching for film and TV, done by Mary Louise Schwartz, was all about what you need to know if you're going to try to break into Hollywood as a writer. She is in a very good position to know, since she's got family connections to the biz; she and and her husband had their own studio at one point, and she's done producing and directing and writing all, tackling it from several angles. Her son, too, has a production company. So she knows whereof she speaks.

First and foremost, she was absolutely up front about warning that you will run the risk of having a screenplay stolen out from under you--it's almost a rite of passage, to hear her take on the matter. Since Hollywood is very hierarchal, those who are on the lower rungs of this hierarchy are more vulnerable to this than those on the higher rungs. The way you get to the higher rungs? Know people. Make connections. It is vital that you have an agent, and absolutely critical that you have an agent who knows what they're doing. Be polite and nice to the contacts you make, because Hollywood is so small a society that slams will be remembered. Be especially nice to people who are engaged to read the scripts for studios, because they're the ones with leverage on getting them accepted onto the road to production. You have to pretty much think of Hollywood as the Mother of All Slushpiles.

Secondly, there are a few other things you can do to guard against your screenplay getting stolen out from under you (aside, that is, from making those vital connections):

Don't have just one screenplay--have several
Being an author with the screenplay already in published book form is good, bestseller is better
If you happen to have a stage play, this won't necessarily help--unless you're on Broadway and it's been a decent hit
Register your work with WGA; it's free if you're a member, $20 if you're not
If your script goes through extensive rewrites, register with WGA again
Mailing your script to yourself is not useful
Putting your work out on the web isn't necessarily useful either, in terms of proving that it's actually yours, though Hollywood is eying the web, YouTube, MySpace, etc. as tools through which to generate buzz--and if there's existing buzz about you and your work, that can maybe be helpful; it's better, however, to have your work already sold
Don't expect the system to work justly or in your favor. There are higher-level execs that will be ethical in dealing with you, but it'll be easier to get to them if you cultivate those contacts
If you get to work with a producer, ask lots of questions: what are their plans? Where are they going with the project? How can you be assured that they will actually be able to make a movie or TV show from your work?
Be smart in how you sell your options--zero-money options might be necessary if you have no other option on the table, or if someone has your work solidly on the road to production; also, don't set too short a time frame for the option to run out

Long story short, do your homework, cultivate those contacts, and be smart. You may well just get lucky.

Previous Writer's Weekends have covered the topic of writing across genres, so I'll just quickly note various things out of Louise Marley and Kate Austin's panel on "Breaking Boundaries: The Pitfalls & Pleasures of Writing Cross-Genre Fiction":

SF is hyperaware of books that can be published as general fiction or as romance, though that runs the risk of losing the pure SF market
People can be sensitive about labels on their work
Jumping genres runs the risk of perceptions coming out of your previous genre
Pseudonyms are useful when jumping genres
When do you make the shift? Can be easier early on--though it's an artistic decision; you ultimately should write what you love, even if you can't sell it yet
Cross-genre is really hot right now, but you risk burning yourself out looking for a niche--if you don't love writing the "hot thing", you shouldn't try that
You don't have control over where your book will ultimately get filed in a bookstore, even if you think it should be in one genre or another; ultimately it is the last of your concerns, but it is among the first of the publisher's, so be aware of the concerns of the marketing department and how they feel they can sell it
You risk failing in one genre or the other if you don't understand both of the genres you're aiming for--if you're trying to write an SF thriller and you don't understand both SF and thrillers, your work will wind up being a mishmash rather than a coherent blend of both
Romance does blend well with a whole lot of things (e.g., Linnea Sinclair)
Blurry genres may make it harder to match the reader to the book; indie bookstores are better at it than chains (though Barnes and Noble is better at being sensitive to local interests, at least in the PNW)
When querying a cross-genre novel, tailor your query to the skills of the agent or editor; if an agent reps thrillers but not SF, you might describe your book as "a thriller with SF elements", but if the other way around, "science fiction with thriller elements"

"Criminals & the Law" was another of those interesting and informative panels about a topic that I may never actually write about, given that I'm aiming for SF/F, but which nevertheless may be useful someday--one never knows. This time around it was Kevin Trombold, a local attorney, giving a talk about criminals and the law and how this may relate to writing. He told us briefly about his background (started off as a public defender and then moved into private practice, and is currently interested in cases involving DUIs and breath and blood testing, especially in regards to the advances in devices that do that), and then went straight into a Q&A:

He told us he only wished his career were more like the crime shows, CSI and the like; ER reminds him way more of his experiences being a public defender, what with the whole feel of "processing bodies" so quickly, and with the urgency and importance of every single thing they were doing
One big thing that TV and novels often get wrong is apparently that you do not have to be read your Miranda rights unless a) you are in custody and b) you are being interrogated by an officer of the law. By interrogation, one specifically means "being asked questions that can lead to an incriminating response", too. TV apparently often gets this wrong partly due to wanting the emotional payoff for the viewer
Serving papers varies depending on the severity of the case. If you're dealing with a driving infraction that might suspend your license, you only get mailed your served papers. However, for a big civil case or a criminal one, they'll hire someone to serve the notice. A lawyer can't do it because of a need to maintain witness objectivity
Remember that consent is required if you're going to record an interview
Mentioned that he finds it easier to represent people who actually did commit the crimes, because then he and his clients are much more on the same page--but if the client actually didn't do it, and winds up getting convicted anyway, that's a case he'll lose sleep over
Public prosecutors don't have time to do in-depth investigations, they have so many cases and police reports that they have to file
Lawyers most often get sent to the bar over issues of money, conflict of interest issues are harder

And that's that for Day 1. More tomorrow! I'm on tap to timekeep for more panels, but hopefully I'll get to attend at least some of several more.

Oh, and for the benefit of locals: the Daily Grill, recently opened on 7th downtown, has a damned tasty tuna melt sandwich and excellent key lime pie. Highly recommended. Yum. :9