Nobody Knows Anything....

And I've come to the conclusion that this is true. After dealing with 2 rejections today, which had some great feedback, it's amazing how people read things differently.

A month or so ago I had an agent say she really enjoyed the script I sent her. Another came back telling me it wasn't for them. Today, I also had a had producer tell me to do one thing and another do something else.

Anyway, I guess this thread was more of a way to complain and get things off my chest and how writing is very frustrating.

P.S. A positive: "Feel free to send us more of your writing in the future."

Rejection is a part of the writing career but that doesn't make it any easier to take. I got a few rejections for my novel and then another for my sitcom. However, my drama script got a good response and a contract was being negotiated but they wanted £1250 up front...
After the first few blows you get used to it. I heard someone say a writer should expect rejection to start with and it's how well you cope with that rejection that lets you know whether or not you're cut out to be a writer and remember just because somebody doesn't like something doesn't mean no-one will.

Quote: Zuhaib @ October 31 2008, 2:40 PM BST

However, my drama script got a good response and a contract was being negotiated but they wanted £1250 up front...

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Zuhaib, again, this is a rip off. I'm sorry to say so, but they aren't interested in your script - they're interested in your money. Don't give this a second thought, just move on.

Producers and so on are the same as any other group of people, they all have different tastes and opinions. As for telling you to do different things, I'd imagine they have different briefs on what they want and therefore different things that would need doing to your script to fit in with their brief better.

Might as well get used to the rejections. Just do what I do - if the writing gets me anywhere then great. If it doesn't, it doesn't really matter because I enjoy the writing.

Quote: David Bussell @ October 31 2008, 2:43 PM BST

Zuhaib, again, this is a rip off. I'm sorry to say so, but they aren't interested in your script - they're interested in your money. Don't give this a second thought, just move on.

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Yeah I know, that happened in August, I was just giving an example of my experience.

Quote: Afinkawan @ October 31 2008, 2:45 PM BST

if the writing gets me anywhere then great. If it doesn't, it doesn't really matter because I enjoy the writing.

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Yeah I completly agree.

Quote: Afinkawan @ October 31 2008, 2:45 PM BST

Might as well get used to the rejections. Just do what I do - if the writing gets me anywhere then great. If it doesn't, it doesn't really matter because I enjoy the writing.

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Really?

If I get nowhere and have to have a proper job, then f**k me I might just kill myself.

If you bang your head up against a wall long enough, either the wall gives or you do.

The clever money is always on the wall.

I've just noticed my t-shirt matches my avatar. Do I win the Mini Metro?

Quote: Seefacts @ October 31 2008, 2:57 PM BST

Really?

If I get nowhere and have to have a proper job, then f**k me I might just kill myself.

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Yep really.

I have a proper job. Writing is something that just sort of happened to me and I have no real plans to ever make a living from it. If one day I manage to write a multi-award winning sitcom then so be it, I shall accept my BAFTA gracefully. If I never sell another sketch, meh. I like writing and will do so whether other people like it or not. At the moment it is mostly something to do on the train home and the occasional opportunity to bung material at things like RFTP, Play & Record, Greenbelt, NR & TS etc. is just an interesting hobby with no real stress or pressure.

I had a rejection yesterday from writersroom.

That's two now from there.

Okay, my first submission, (a sitcom) when I got it back, I realised it wasn't polished enough and had too much stage direction shit.

...BUT.....

My latest script was very polished. (a drama)
But still never got past the 10 page read. (bloody same reader as last time)
I know they only looked at the first 10 as they're the only pages with fold marks in the left top corner.

I'd studied the "read scripts" section at writersroom, saw how they were written, gave my script a "unique voice" and everything.
Plus it's a corker of a story.
Original.
No one else has done anything like it before.
Deals with a controversial subject with a new angle.
But no.

I'm sure my theory of "writersroom eyes" is correct.

What's writersroom eyes?
Simple! All day, the reader has had to read through loads of badly formatted unpolished scripts with naff storylines, bad punctuation etc, and he or she is totally pissed off.
Near the end of the day, he/she simply skims through the rest, not caring, not concentrating, missing out on potentially great work.

Now, here's the thing that pisses me off the most....

..it's NOT the rejection. It happens. I move on and get over it.

It's the fact that a load crap DOES get produced.
Poor storylines. Plots that send you to sleep. How?

And, why don't they put up scripts from new writers?
Holby n stuff like that are written by teams of established writers.

You have to remember that the majority of us on here are amateurs. We're going to get a lot more rejections than commissions for the foreseeable future. It's just part of the climb upwards.

One rejection doesn't mean the script is dead. Different producers / companies have different tastes which explains the contradicting feedback. It's Aesop's tale about the man and the donkey. Whatever the writer does, it will divide opinion. Some of the Slaggs' more succesful scripts have attracted some of the worst vitriol.

Rejection is something a writer should get used to. Even professional writers suffer setback after setback. It won't be a case of rejection being a thing of the past. It will always harry you or loom in the background. If it sounds unbearable then maybe reconsider writing.

I admire writers that see writing success as a bonus to their 'real' life. I'm partly in Seefacts camp. Writing is my one ambition. I have no life apart from it. I know who's life is the richer. And they have my envy.

Quote: SlagA @ October 31 2008, 5:53 PM BST

Rejection is something a writer should get used to, period. Even professional writers suffer setback after setback. It won't be a case of rejection being a thing of the past. It will always harry you or loom in the background. If it sounds unbearable then maybe reconsider writing.

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That's a very good point too.

I did word it far more harshly than I intended it to sound though.

Quote: SlagA @ October 31 2008, 5:53 PM BST

I admire writers that see writing success as a bonus to their 'real' life.

Writing is my one ambition. I have no life apart from it.

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Although I would like to become a full time writer at some point, at the moment writing is a bonus to my 'real' life. My salary allows me to do a lot of things I like. Mrs Def earns more than I do (ggrrr!) so you could say that we are relatively secure money wise. So although cash from writing would be well recieved, it is not vital to my well being.

But, I have this total compulsion to write, to make up stories, and to get them down on paper or keyboard. I cannot control this. My mind is like a 'waterloo station' of ideas busily criss-crossing and interupting my every waking moment. I fully understand SlagA's comment "I have no life apart from it", because I feel like that's true for me too. I go to bed thinking about ideas, characters, jokes, writing in progress, writing plans to come. I have no escape. For me this is a great addiction, but for others I appear like some form of outcast who's thoughts are stuck in some other dimension.

Please tell me I'm not alone in this writers madness?

Def.

Quote: Deferenz @ October 31 2008, 6:34 PM BST

Please tell me I'm not alone in this writers madness?

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You are not alone.