The Nicholl Fellowship is Coming. You ready?

What are the deadlines for the 2017 Nicholl Fellowship competition?

• Early deadline: March 7th ($45 entry fee)
• Normal deadline: April 10th ($60 entry fee)
• Late/Final deadline: May 1st ($85 entry fee)

* Be sure to complete the online application and send a PDF version of your screenplay by 11:59 PDT on May 1st. Special student pricing will apply this year. (Hooray!)

What is the Nicholl Fellowship?

Most aspiring screenwriters know about the Nicholl Fellowship competition—a contest allowing underrepresented screenwriters the chance to be read, discovered, and paid. Up to five people can win $35,000 fellowships for their feature-length films.

What you need to know*

So, what’s important? How do you prepare? Reel Authors has put together a wonderful compilation of details, entitled “How to Win a Nicholl Fellowship.” According to this, the typical rules do not apply. And when I say “typical rules,” I mean the unwritten rules.

So, for instance, you may think your office comedy is brilliant while others give it the brush-off, because it’s “overdone.” You may have a found-footage rom-com or a horror about wolves in space. Who cares if no one has done it, everyone has done it, or it sounds crazy? This is an opportunity to write what you actually care about, not what “the industry” supposedly wants.

Yeah, there’s gonna be a lot of competition. Your script is gonna be swimming in a sea of other screenplays—thousands, most likely. Don’t let this deter you. Think about all the dumb stuff you’ve seen—all the bad writing you’ve endured, when you know you can do better. What’s more, people like different styles. Trust me, someone out there wants your space wolves.

*For the really important “what you need to know”s, you’ll want to read the requirements, qualifications, and rules on the Nicholl website.

Mistakes I’ve made in the past

While I don’t want to deter you from writing what you love, I also don’t want to sugarcoat the process. You see, writing a feature script takes a long time. For me personally, it’s really stressful, and I doubt myself a lot.

I wrote my first feature in an 8 week course, and those 8 weeks involved late nights, early mornings, sacrificing time with my friends and family, and a lot of rewriting. I made mistakes, and I learned from them, too.

Here are just a few mistakes I made:

• I thought I had more time
• I forgot screenwriting is fundamentally different from writing prose
• I made my lead character an idyllic version of myself

I thought I had more time

In the past, I’ve tried to whip up a screenplay in a few days, but it really doesn’t work like that. (Unless maybe you’re Stephen King, and you can write a book in the amount of time it takes someone to sneeze.) For us regular folk, though, just getting those words on the page can be a huge challenge.

The truth is, I can be “inspired” and crank out a short story or even a short film script in a night or two (which is not to say it will be good, only that I can finish one). A feature is very different, however, because a short story or a short film tells a brief story—like a vignette.

A full-length movie is not a vignette. A full-length movie is a tale; it’s someone’s journey, and they need to learn something along the way. (I talk more about this here.) Yes, revision takes a long time. Yes, dialogue is really hard to write. Yes, I have spent multiple hours on a single scene. But if you love your idea, it’s worth it.

I forgot screenwriting is fundamentally different from writing prose

How could I forget this? Of course screenwriting is different from writing prose. It’s all about dialogue, right?
Well, yes and no.

For a long time, I thought I could “prose it up” in the description section and have dialogue that reflected my descriptions. Here’s an example of a prose-y description:

INT. JULIE’S ROOM – DAY

We are in Julie’s sun-filled room, which is a beautiful extension of her personality, with little polaroids on the walls and handmade paper-chains lining the ceiling. Everywhere we look, the feeling is warm.

As you can see,  the description reads like a story (and not a good one). But the truth is, I wrote like this all the time—that is, until an instructor told me scene descriptions should be poetry. Yep. Poetry. My world was shattered.

His reason was this; in a feature, you only have about 90 pages to work with, which means your descriptions and dialogue need to be concise. Yes, we are in Julie’s room. There is sun. We can put that together because of the “INT. JULIE’S ROOM – DAY” direction. So much of the original description is superfluous, and the same was true for my own work.

Here is an example of a corrected description:

INT. JULIE’S ROOM – Polaroids on walls. Paper-chains hanging from ceiling. Warm light.

Maybe the corrected description doesn’t make you feel fuzzy inside, but that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be good poetry; it just has to read like poetry. Virtually no one in your audience will read your screenplay. Even if someone does, it’s not for pleasure. A script is a map for a film, not a book for fun.

I made my lead character an idyllic version of myself

While embarrassing to admit, I think this is important. I get along with most people and lead a relatively uneventful life. My characters were often the same, but far more sweet and demure, like Jane from Pride and Prejudice. But no one cares about Jane from Pride and Prejudice. She’s perfect. A side character without conflict. No conflict = no one likes your script.

When No Film School interviewed Sam Baron, a Nicholl Fellowship winner, he claimed to have had a similar experience. “When I was first starting to write screenplays,” he said, “I would often just vomit my life onto the page. …I’m quite a passive character which is not what you want in a film.” It’s a rookie mistake, but it doesn’t have to be. Remember to ask yourself, “Is my character driving this story?” If the answer is no, it’s time to reassess.

Conclusion

I am by no means a happenin’ screenwriter, but I feel like most of us have a story to tell, and many of us want to do that through film. Above are just a few details I’ve been considering as I prepare for this year’s contest, but I know everyone is different. What information stands out to you? Any lessons you’ve learned? Tell us in the comments below, and remember, happy writing. 🙂

Start Your Movie Script in 6 Steps

How do I write a movie script?

Writing screenplays can be difficult, but there are simple steps you can follow to begin the process. Below we will go over 6 ways to write your own script:

• Read scripts for reference
• “Meet” and understand your characters
• Develop a logline
• Develop a want vs. need
• Write a treatment
• Find the right software for formatting

If you’ve tried to write a screenplay, I know your pain. Trust me, that struggle is real.

When I decided I wanted to be a screenwriter at the ripe old age of 17 or 18, I can remember Googling “How to write a screenplay” and “Tips for writing scripts.” What I found was too much information and not nearly enough substance.

I learned virtually nothing until I got into my later years of college. By then, I felt I had already wasted time. Time I could’ve spent writing, if I’d only known how.

But what if you’re not going to college? What if you’re already out? What if your school doesn’t offer a screenwriting class? The point is, not everyone has the opportunity to practice screenwriting in the classroom, and it’s nearly impossible to hone a skill if you don’t know where to begin.

That’s why I’ve listed 6 tips on how to begin a screenplay below.

Read scripts

With any kind of writing, reading is so important. You may have read my post on how to improve your writing. In the post, I mention reading 5 pages a day—a goal that even lazy me can achieve. I know, I know—books cost money; going to the library takes time.

Screenplays, however, are largely free and online. Imdb has a screenplay database with like, a bajillion screenplays that are free to read. This is an amazing tool, because you can study screenplays you admire while also becoming familiar with the formatting.

Meet your characters

In writing workshops and drama classes, we often hear questions like, “What does your character eat for breakfast?” Or maybe, “What is your character’s intention?” While one of those questions is perhaps easier to answer than the other (cold pizza), these questions matter.

But why? Well, it all comes down to goals and round characters. In my post about character-writing, I outline these five criteria for writing characters: physical strengths, positive traits, physical weaknesses, flaws, and backstory. Giving your characters these defining qualities will allow you to give them intention.

Develop a logline

You’ve probably heard the term, “elevator pitch,” or the 1-2 sentence reason your movie should be made.

The idea is this; you’re a regular joe schmoe, and you happen to get into the elevator with a Hollywood bigwig (or an Atlanta, LA, Albuquerque, or Austin bigwig). You have the next minute to pitch your idea for a movie. The idea must be fully formed, concise, and enticing.

Scriptfirm has a post about writing effective loglines. To create an effective logline, you must think about your story’s character, goal, and antagonistic force. In the post, the logline for It’s a Wonderful Life is written like this:

“A suicidal family man is given the opportunity to see what the world would be like if had never been born.”

This is, in a nutshell, the plot of It’s a Wonderful Life. We know there’s a lot more to the actual script, but the logline isn’t the script. It’s simply the initial hook your story needs to become successful.

 

Develop your character’s want vs. need

To put it simply, what your character wants is not often what your character needs. Your character may even believe a lie associated with his/her goal (want). Additionally, your character may actively avoid learning the truth (need).

So, if you’ve ever seen Happy Gilmore, Happy wants to make money and get his grandma’s house back, but he needs to find his calling and learn to cope with his rage. He believes he’s a hockey player, when he’s really a golfer. What he believes is the lie, and by the end of the movie, he realizes the truth. (For a great in-depth article on want vs. need, check out this post.)

The truth is, these things aren’t always easy to pin down. Some people even believe want vs. need is unimportant to a storyline’s success.

Personally, I believe it’s good to over-prepare. Be ready to educate anyone who asks about your protagonist—his/her want, need, lie, breakfast, backstory—everything. You want to show anyone and everyone you know your stuff.

Write a treatment

I’ll tell you a secret. I hate writing treatments. Seriously. I start copping an attitude whenever I have to write one. “You think you can force me to waste my time on organization? Ha! I don’t need a treatment; I already know my script.”

I can’t speak for all screenwriters, but for most of us, the script we think we know is actually a stranger until it’s written. Even then, it continues to change. You may know your script now, but it will go places you probably aren’t expecting, which is why treatments are so necessary.

Thankfully, the treatment is just an outline. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and no one needs to see it but you.

Outlining your story forces you to cut, add, and face anything not working. The treatment helps you know your scenes even before you write them.

Find yourself some screenwriting software

If you’ve ever tried to format a screenplay on your own, it’s horrible. Luckily, the internet has recognized how awful it is and capitalized on ways to make it… well, not so awful. There are a variety of softwares, apps, and sites that allow you to write, while they do the formatting for you.

Personally, I use Celtx, because it’s free and fairly easy to navigate. Additionally, it has a mobile app, so you can write from your tablet, should you desire to do so. Celtx can be a little glitchy at times, but on the whole, it’s been a great tool for me. (For a full list of softwares, sites, and apps, go here.)

Are you ready to write? If so, I have a little homework for you. (I know. I know. No worries, there’s no deadline.) Okay, so your homework. Pick your favorite movie, then find the script online. Ask yourself about the characters. Can you dissect them? What makes them great or not great? Does your protagonist have a want? A need? What about a lie? Start digging. You may find your favorite movie is not so out of your reach anymore.

Once you begin understanding the formula, you can emulate it. So good luck, and good writing. 🙂