An Artist is What an Artist Does With a Blank Slate

(Glorious Treats - Pina Colada Cupcakes)

(Glorious Treats - Cars Birthday Cupcakes)

Gaze upon these masterpieces... a sweet feast for the eyes by this master artist, sculptor... and yes, she also goes by Mommy and baker.  This is the artistic work of Glory Albin, a 30-year-old, stay-at-home-mother of two, who loves cooking, baking, gardening and scrapbooking.  She's an artist and an Average Joan who transforms the ordinary into extraordinary delectables.

Now that I've made you snatch that Snickers bar from your secret stash, I guess you're wondering what does this impressive cake artist have to do with writing?  Is she writing a cookbook?  I don't know, I haven't met her personally.  From what I saw in her Flickr photostream, she could easily create a coffee table art book with recipes.  There you go!

Artists come in many forms, you don't have to own a paint brush and canvas to be an artist.   You can wear an apron, hold a camera, stage a house for sale... etc. 

Writing is like baking and painting... but I'll use the baking analogy since breakfast and lunch consisted of one piece of Bit O' Honey hard candy.  

Scribes start with a white computer screen -- and for the baker -- it's the flour.  Without adding more ingredients, all you have is a white screen and something inedible.  So, to make those delectable creations above, you need to add your sugar, some salt, butter... but in my case... I add the characters, both sweet and salty... the plot, butter it up with foreshadowing and so forth. 

(cupcake cups - Glorious Treats - I don't need diamonds)
(Uh, yes... you do.)

If I'm writing sales copy for a client, I adjust the recipe to include benefits for the consumer and attention-grabbing words that keep the reader devouring the sweet copy.

Just like my cake artist who admitted to seeing herself as an artist in her Flickr post -- us Average Joan scribes have to own ourselves as artists, even if the masterpiece is an instructional manual for a flat screen television. 

I stumbled on Glory's chocolate cupcakes on Flickr.com when I was looking for sweet artwork to entice cyber-surfers into iCafe Woman Moderne, an intergenerational women's virtual cafe, for its Cyber-Monday deals.  Yes, I linked the cupcakes to her photostream.

(Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes - Glorious Treats)


Maybe I'm taking the analogy a bit too far, but why can't a technical writer be an artist?  If you're skillful at using words to get a buyer not to throw that television manual down in disgust and actually read it from start to finish... then you're an artist. 

(Amazon.com)

Even if the pleasure comes from you, the buyer, enjoying a problem-free television without ever referring to the manual again... then that technical writer in Boise, Idaho is an artist. 

Did you just raised your eyebrows?  Okay, look at it like this.  Didn't our technical writer bring enjoyment to the buyer?   In my book, that's what an artist does, whether it's through words, photographs, entertainment, a leg of lamb or flour. 

You can also find the artist in you in areas never explored.

Case in point, the weekend before last, I coordinated a destination black & white-themed wedding in Atlantic City for the niece of one of my best friends.  

But, it didn't stop there.  On Sunday afternoon, I co-coordinated her aunt's red, white and blue-themed wedding.

 

For the Atlantic City wedding, I was working with a tight decorating budget, so I alternated the above Dollar Tree store favor boxes at each place setting, added red, pink and white rose petals, tea  candles, a large martini glass with crystals (the bride's vision) and rose petals in lieu of a formal centerpiece.  It was simple elegance.  

(Bride and Groom Wedding Strawberries)

I am not a professional wedding coordinator/event planner, but I play one on TV.  (Okay, I couldn't resist.) I guess it has something to do with my husband being a mobile DJ and Karoake professional.  I'm his roadie.  I often find myself lending a hand at weddings and events.

To my amazement, I discovered skills I never knew existed, like floral designing.  I created all of the bouquets and boutonnieres, including the bride's and groom's to glowing reviews.   

I also produced the wedding program.  No surprise there... I've designed plenty of booklets and brochures for work, so I tapped into those skills. 

It didn't take long for someone to thrust a microphone in my hand and I began introducing the wedding party like an entertainer in a Vegas lounge. (pardon me, Atlantic City lounge) 

Little, old moi... the one who breaks into a sweat when speaking in front of a crowd bigger than three.  I must say, this was good practice for when I do my author tour.  

Besides almost tripping on a speaker's wire, my husband and friends said I looked like a pro.  I guess I can add actress to my growing list of newfound skills.  

Have you recently discovered the artist in you?  If so, Joan B. Average, Scriptwriter wants to hear from you.   If not, Joan B Average, Scriptwriter still wants to hear from you.  

And finally, you can purchase this last feast for the eyes by clicking on the image below.  You'll find other delicious fruit and holiday gift baskets at Golden State Fruit.com.

To make your cakes and cupcakes look like masterpieces, purchase Glorious Treats' Cake toppers at Etsy.com.



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Step Right Up... to the Writing Contests' Game

Pick a writing contest... any writing contest... and try your chance... maybe you'll be a finalist... maybe not.  And around the screenwriting competition wheel it goes... when and where it stops... nobody knows.  Are you a winner?


Entering writing contests remind me of the carnival games I played as a child on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.  You throw that hoop with all your might around the six-pack of Coca Colas.  You aim the plastic water gun toward the clown's mouth, hoping that red ball will get to the rim first.   And you enter the Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Competition hoping your movie script has the right aim and hits the target.


The prize... a huge stuffed bear in the form of a $10,000 prize, agent representation and your script making the rounds of top production companies and studios.   This stuffed bear will change your life.


I'm setting my screenwriting contest sights on Scriptapalooza's Feature and Television writing Contests.  The Blue Cat Screenwriting Competition also tickles my competition bug, offering all entrants helpful notes to improve their scripts. 

Like Scriptapalooza, the Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Competition and The Austin Film Festival Heart of Film Screenplay Competition are the most sought-after.  They also remind me of the slot machines gamblers have been feeding all morning without any winnings.  But at any moment it's about to pay out big.  Neophyte scriptwriters send out scripts in the course of weeks, hoping that theirs will stand out among the thousands of other hopefuls.   

Undeterred by not making the semi-finals in Nicholl, Scriptapalooza and Blue Cat, this Average Joan is giving all three another whirl.  I've refined my previously submitted script and will tweak the new ones before the contest doors fly open at the end of December.  For the 2010 competitions, I'll enter two or thee features and for the first time, a pilot for the Scriptapalooza Television Writing Contest.

UGLY BETTY BEFORE

UGLY BETTY AFTER

My budget will determine how many more I can enter, but adding Austin to the list is a definite possibility.

This time I'm more armed.  Reading Tom Lazarus 's Rewriting Secrets for Screenwriters: Seven Strategies to Improve and Sell Your Work, helped me see rewriting with new eyes and polish my scripts, so I can come out the gate strong. 

But, before you start rewiting, step away from the script a few days. Clean your refrigerator.. organize your closet... watch an old movie... make a marathon out of it.  Do anything that will take your script out of your head for a few days.  Only then are you ready to rewrite.

Lena Horne

Audrey Hepburn in the movie "Sabrina"

Here are seven rewriting strategies from Rewriting Secrets for Screenwriters that may help you get on that semi-finalist list and beyond. 

1.   CREATE A SCENE LIST - Create a simple list of scenes you've actually written.   This will separate what you planned to write, what you think you wrote, and what you actually wrote and give you a fresh angle on the basics of your screenplay. You can move scenes around, delete irrelevant scenes and then, make the changes to your screenplay.

 2.  PRIORITIZE YOUR BIG SCENES - Usually they're key dialogue scenes that turn the story or explain the characters.    See how they relate toeach other. What you're looking for is an arc, where scenes start small and get bigger and bigger. There should be a build called rising action.  This keepst he reader/viewer glued to the story.

3.  TRACK YOUR TRANSITIONS - Transitions are one of the keys to writing smooth-reading screnplays.  Rewriting transitions will evolve your sceenplay.  Good transitions are a major factor hearing these comments about your screenpay:  "It was a page-turner" --"I couldn't put down."

4.  PLOT CORRECTIONS - List all proposed rewrites for our script.  Categorize them by the type and kind of rewrite.  You'll begin to see a pattern.  Once you become aware of your most comon mistakes and address them off the top, you'll have a shortcut to the rewriting process. 

5.  NEW INFORMATION - Analyze each scene independently and figure out what new information is carried in the scene.  Make a list. This way, you're forced to examine if a scene moves the story forward.

A ny scene that gives the reader/viewer new information, a new story beat, an evolution of a relationship, a playing of a story thread -- moves the story forward.  If a scene doesn't move a story forward, cut it or rewrite it so it moves it forward. 

6.  THE DIALOGUE PASS - Read your dialogue out loud.  Your ear will tell you which dialogue needs rewriting.

7.  ON-THE-NOSE REWRITE - Every time you read your script, rewrite it and make it better.   For the On-the-Nose-Draft, don't read for flow or grammar or action, but for how much your characters are saying what they mean.

Find out about upcoming screenwriting competitions at: moviebytes.com 

These books will help you polish your prized work:  (also, come in Kindle editions at:  iCafe Woman Moderne Store.








 

Back Away from the Chaos!

Wear your favorite pink dress for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  You have a few more days.











LET THEM SEE YOUR SWEAT?

...If it seems slow, do not despair, for those things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day! Habakkuk 2:3 - The Old Testament




A producer friend told me that once you make a networking contact don't let too much time pass before you follow up.  This was sage advice, of course I didn't initially follow it.  Believe me, I've learned my lesson.   Now that I see a flicker of light at the end of my tunnel, no longer a rabbit hole... I won't make that mistake again.   (running woman)

If I'm going to write for a television show and have my book in production in a year, I have to make it so.  

Let it never be said that Joan B. Average doesn't learn from her mistakes.  Okay, I still wear plaid with stripes, but most mistakes I'm a quick learner.


You're probably still wondering what I meant by let them see your sweat.  I'm not suggesting you forego baths and Lady Speedstick. (please don't)  I'm talking about the fruits of your labor.  Producers, agents and all other gatekeepers want to see your efforts in quadruple form.  One or two scripts simply won't cut it. 

(ABC - Ugly Betty)

(Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls)

As I toil in three different... no, four different areas, I'm a little overwhelmed... scratch that... a lot overwhelmed. 

I wish I can concentrate on one project at a time, but like so many writers who work nine-to-five while writing that novel or script -- I must also toil at freelance gigs with fierce discipline.  I like to call them  independent writing gigs rather than freelance, because nobody's giving their work away for free, so why should writers be any different.  I'll spare you my rant and save that topic for a future post. 

(Three women at computer)

As a writer, you often feel like your feet are stuck in mud and you move this way and that way, but you're still in the same place, a year later.  Not a good feeling.  So, what's a girl to do?  Pray.  Always.  And...?  Keep writing.  Keep Reading.  Keep talking up what you do, whether you get the "glazed-over look or not."   And write a plan.  No, not a business plan... well maybe that's the way we should look at it... as a business plan, because writing is a crazy, competitive business.

(NYC)
My producer friend told me about a friend of a frend she referred to a TV exec  halfway up the entertainment food chain.  He contacted her not once, not twice... but three times with the same one script. 

Sorry to say, she read him the riot act and told him she needed to see that he had penned no less than five television spec scripts more than three spec features, a pilot treatment and one or two scripts for that pilot before she'd think about talking to him again.   Ouch!  In other words, she wanted to see his sweat.  Ah, you liked how I worked that into my story?   I do what I can.

(I Love Lucy)

In the frantic world of book publishing, it makes since to start writing your second book as soon as you write "The End" on the first.  I didn't know it at that writing stage, but three books immediately unfolded in my novel I turned into a family saga.  When I was done writing, I had a whopping 1,100 pages of manuscript.  I am not kidding  Whoa! 

I realized as I read the engaging monstrosity, that the story fell neatly into three books.  As I see it, I'm already ahead of the game.  Hopefully, my dream publisher will see that too and whip out a contract with a Mont Blanc pen poised in the coming months.  I'm in the final editing stages as I take a break to talk to all of you.

I didn't have a plan when I decided to write a novel, but my sweat led to a plan that I hope will become profitable.  This family saga sprouted from the seed of a novel, and now there are shoots growing into a young adult series and a television pilot.  Who knew?  

Of course, the  decision to do a YA series' spin came after a visit to my local Barnes and Noble almost sent me screaming out the door with nightmares. 
(Books)

Will you enlighten me... when did young adult fiction take a walk on the dark side?  Did somebody forget to hug the writers or what?  What happened to Sweet Valley, 18 Pine Street, The Cheetah Girls, Sunset Beach and my girl... Nancy Drew solving her whodunits.  I'm sure The Cheetah Girls are still around, but I couldn't find them with my eyes half-closed.  Don't Generation Y like a mystery that doesn't involve a serial slasher? 

I guess not, because that day... vampire teens, children of serial killers... and other gruesome covers stared back at me.  I'm getting queasy just thinking about them. 

Look, I know times have changed, but can we still take a trip to happy land now and then?

(Dancing with the Stars)

I do love my visits to Happy Land, but I always return back home to the real world.  I know that order, not chaos will give my dreams of a book jacket and movie credit a fighting chance. 

So again... we start with a plan.  Call me prophetic, but I know what you're thinking, us creative folks don't need no stinking business plan.  Uh, yes we do, if we don't want to stink as a writer. 

Come on... there's a seat for you at the grownups table.  Now let's see abut that creative business plan.  Does that sound better?  I thought so.

Now that we're at the grownups table, let's look at wikipedia's definition of a business plan for inspiration.  You know how we love to begin with inspiration, even Average Joans and Joes.

(Busiiness Plans)

Wikipedia
A business plan is a formal statement of a set of buisness goals, the reason why they are believed attainable and the plan for reaching those goals.  It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach these goals.

Wake up... there's more...

Business Plan Content
1. Background Information
What do you bring to the literary, broadcast, cinematic or dramatic table?

2. Marketing Plan
How will you market yourself as a professional writer?  How will you get your creative project to the decision-makers?  No, a singing telegram is not what we have in mind.

3. Operational Plan
Devise a writing and research schedule and stick to it... like the mail person and that rain or shine mantra.

4. Financial Plan
Write down funding plan, funding needs, cash flow statement.
How will you upgrade your equipment?  Find the cash flow to enter contests, attend writing conferences, join organizations...?

With that said, back away from the chaos, embrace order and productivity.  And have a plan and make it plain.  Happy hunting!

Miracles and Blessings!

P.S. -- Check out iCafe Woman Moderne's,
The Little Pink Dress Designed for a Cure

Lifetime Television, Not Your Mama's Television

Lifetime Television... not Your Mama's Television Network... It's Drop Dead Better!

What... too kitchy?  Well call me Kitchy Kia... how could I resist giving you a teaser? 

Drop Dead Diva, Army Wives, the return of Rita Rocks! and a new original sitcom, Sherri -- sent me back to the "strong women's"  network during primetime television-watching hours.

But first, a brief word not from our sponsor... "Got Mammogram?  Make sure you get your mammogram and do monthly self-exams.  Early detection saves lives. 

After four benign breast biopsies before my diagnosis of fibrocystic breasts... every day became breast cancer awareness and a blessing... so stay informed.  And never stop praying for a cure.

Now, back to Joan B. Average, Scriptwriter... an Average Joan's adventures into the creative world of possibilities.

Well, I guess you've figured it out... my Spec Script Do It Now! list include My Lifetime faves topping it.  Okay, if we're being truthful here, Lifetime was my weekend network with some early evening reality show viewing on a few Mondays through Fridays. 

I love Lifetime movies, but sitcoms and episodics were never a thought.  Can you say syndication... re-run city?  That is... until, Army Wives tore off our safe knee socks and helped us step into daring fishnets.  Louise Jefferson and Carol Brady would be so proud. 

I would love to see Samantha Who? wake up from the sleep-induced coma ABC must have administered, because it's not in the Fall line-up and it should be. 

There's nothing about the show that puts me to sleep.  And this from an Average Joan who initially vowed not to watch it.  (I still squint and focus on the left side of the show's title.)

I would love to see Samantha Who? wake up on Lifetime right after Sherri and Rita Rocks!  How many more Reba reruns can we stomach without an ache?

Getting back to drop dead diva... I'm digging the concept of a Price is Right model wannabe slash diva
-- transforming into an Average Joan who catapulted herself back to diva status. Her-rah!
(left - Kate Spade - Loupe)

Yes, there's a but.  I would've preferred she never died.  I'm pretty sure she could've changed her life without dying and her spirit taking a nose-dive back to earth.  Spiritually, I do not compute.  But, there's nothing God can't do.  It's so up to Him. 

I love drop dead diva.  What's great is that there are so many messages about society's fixation on youth and beauty that speaks volumes on the show.  So, renewed minds can't help but happen... right?  I'm all over that!

But you won't find my Diva definition in any Merriam Webster's.   For me, Diva is a strong woman... a survivor.  She takes life's lemonades, add some Kiwis and sweet cream... whirl it into a frappuccino with extra whipped cream and a blackberry on top.  Yes, a weird combination that still goes down sweet.  Yum!

Now I understand the reason for the sudden crop of hospital shows from the nurse's perspective rather than the usual doctor's.  

Jada Pinkett-Smith's HawthoRNe raised the bar and kept me glued to TNT on Tuesday nights from 9 to 10 p.m.  Unfortunately, I ditch the network after next week's preview ends and head for my computer.  Those spec scripts don't write themselves.

And what is there for a Seinfeld fan to say about The Adventures of Old Christine?  Other than, can Elaine Benes come back out to play? 

But the bigger question is... who nominated Old Christine for an Emmy?  I must need a new prescription for my glasses.  The acting talent is there... the writing... not so much. 

Dear Network TV,

I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but Cable television has leveled the playing field.  They now have the ball and maybe even the court. 

Oh yeah, you still make those amazing three-pointer shots, but at least now you know there's room on the court for anyone creating innnovative television shows with an ethnic compass and a conscious.

Watch out agents and producers, get plenty of rest and take your vitamins because this Average Joan scribe and others have jumped on the spec script bandwagon and we're taking it up a notch. Bam!  (Thanks Emeril)  World... get ready to reap the happy rewards.   

Of course, I can't close without giving a big thanks to yesterday's trailblazing scribes.  Without your fearlessness, today's innovative shows may have stayed inside the minds of dreamers.  Thanks for daring to dream and dreaming it into reality.

(Below - Cosby Show) (The Dick Van Dyke Show)

What are your thoughts about the 2009 Fall line-up?  Are you loving the new Cougar network show starring Courtney Cox? Are you hanging out in Cable-land a little more?

Give me your 411 on this season's sitcoms and episodics. 

Miracles and Blessing!

P.S. - You'll also find Joan B. Average, Scriptwriter hanging out at iCafe Woman Moderne or shopping untill she drops at iCafe Woman Moderne store.