It's Getting Kagey In Here!

Congratulations to Thursday's #DSLC winner Kim Garland! Get ready to be cordially introduced:

Kim Garland is a freelance writer from Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. She works in literary acquisitions and development for Braven Films and spends her downtime fighting, cursing and crying her way through her first feature-length script. It’s a comedy.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University’s Writing Program and after college worked in book publishing for Houghton Mifflin and Random House. She gave up Publishing’s coveted expense accounts and “summer hours” for the glamour of a dotcom startup. Yes, that was dumb, but since it ultimately led to following her heart and pursuing her longtime dream of working in the film industry, it turned out okay in the end. Let’s hope that comedy screenplay follows suit.

Kim would like to thank the fine folks of #scriptchat for her glorious win of #DSLC, though she’s not yet convinced she wasn’t the only one who submitted this week (she wasn't) and therefore won by default (she didn't).

You can follow Kim on twitter @KageyNYC and find her lurking in Sunday night's #Scriptchat. Look for her name in lights in the very near future.

The next #DSLC will run tomorrow (that's Thursday). You will have from 8AM until 8PM pst to submit your best logline to rachlanger2@gmail.com in order to win tomorrow's prize, which is still percolating in my head.

Double Shift Logline Challenge - Thursday

The loglines from Thursday's #DSLC (posted with permission):


High Speed –Two stoner college students discover they can travel the world by transferring themselves via a high-speed internet router made with a bong and an 8-track player

A news photographer captures the shot of a lifetime, but is forced to decide between love and fortune when the scandalous nature of her photograph turns out on closer inspection to be her new boyfriend caught during the commission of a serious crime. A comedy

MITTENS: A lonely high school prodigy befriends the CIA’s latest in spy technology, a talking robotic cat, and together they must destroy the master plan of a global crime syndicate

When Jake clicked "next blog" on the blogger web site, he had no idea that next blog would cause him to fall in love.

A newlywed couple is stuck living their honeymoon over and over again and, as the years pass on this endless vacation, they uncover whether they are truly meant to be together ‘til death do them part

A struggling artist sketches series of anti-corporate portraits centering on his father's investment business and finds himself pulled into a world of corporate intrigue when his sketches uncover an ugly truth.

**WINNER**
A 50-year-old spinster accidentally becomes the leader of a biker gang and destroys America's roughest biker town in ENID BURGESS TAKES DOWN STURGIS

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Thank you to @eyamie, @KageyNYC, @RobertCarroll, @ZacSanford, @Yeah_Write, @ZaniacMedic, and @NoPantsIsland for playing along with my silly game (Mine is included in there as well).

Congrats again to @Eyamie who pulled out the win with a short, succinct, humorous logline including a great title, winning a copy of Quintessential's CD.

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Next week's #DSLC will take place on Tuesday, and Thursday (according to my current schedule) On those days, send your logline to rachlanger2@gmail.com before 6PM PST to be considered. I'll think of a new exciting prize to accompany the winner's #FF.

Inception, Loglines, and Follow Fridays

This is a buffet post, more than one item on the menu. First and foremost - INCEPTION! We saw it last night and needless to say I was not disappointed. Wow. Here is my #HaikuMovieReview

INCEPTION

Complex and driven
Intricately beautiful
Intense story art

Walking out of a movie that intentionally expects an intelligent viewer, entertains, and inspires is so refreshing. I am going again.

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Now I want to talk about the DSLC. I am giving myself a new challenge to go along with the intense hours that I'm working. I'm also inviting you to play along! Thus begins the "Double Shift Logline Challenge" (DSLC). Everytime I work a double shift - I have a possible 3 in a row next week - I am challenging myself to write a logline on my break, and challenging you to write one as well! Submit them to me via DM on Twitter or email them to me. Every time I get more than five on a given day, I will choose a winner, give them a #FollowFriday on Twitter, and post their logline on my blog, if they so choose.

We had a blast with it on Thursday. Its the best way I can think of to keep myself being creative on a short timeline. I've decided to embrace the crazy hours, and to force myself to keep my head in the writing game, even on my longest days. Watch for the hashtags on Twitter under #QuickWriting and #DSLC. Looking forward to playing!

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I owe a Follow Friday to @robertcarroll and @zaniacmedic for their participation in the DSLC on Thursday - Thanks for playing along! A couple other people you should check out on Twitter:

The Scriptchat Treefort Crew (Sunday night work has limited my involvement - but these guys are awesome!)

@jeannevb
@zacsanford
@KageyNYC
@dreamsgrafter
@yeah_write

Sell Me Out!

More on selling scripts and selling out...

I've been thinking further on this topic ever since we got to discussing this at Scriptchat and I posted THIS. Since then I have been working double time trying to kick things into high gear. I currently have four projects on the go. None of them are paying. All of them could lead to something paying in the future. I currently work five days a week at the bill paying job.

At this point, when lunch consists of rice-maker rice with mushroom soup poured on top, and I have to drink six cups of coffee to stay awake through a family or friendly outing (not bored, just tired) I would put myself whole-heartedly in the SELL OUT IF NECESSARY category. If I write it with a slender blue eyed blonde haired girl and you tell me it will sell with a purple giraffe, then give me the lavender crayon and I will tear through that sucker!

I'm losing my mind a little bit, and I'm giving into it whole-heartedly because that's what it takes to pay my bills and start a career (hopefully) as a writer. I realize that dues must be paid, but it will be a huge help when something pays off. Anything. I also feel that the majority of what I've written is not made up of personal stories that I want to tell. More so of subject matter that I find interesting and am interested in exploring further. So far, most of the suggestions for change that I've received have been positive and have made my stories not only more sale-able, but more interesting.

If I survive December and meet all my deadlines, perhaps the Bling-Bling will be my reward. Perhaps not. Hopefully my willingness to compromise will yield. Perhaps we will see what happens when someone tries to ask for more than I'm willing to give. Who knows? The beautiful thing is that its all up in the air, and there is nothing but possibility ahead. The awful thing is that its all up in the air, and there is NOTHING but possibility ahead. But here I am rambling while there are dues to be paid.

Post Scriptchat Chat.

I'm sitting here, post #scriptchat thinking about my career as a writer, getting ready for my job as a waitress. After the unique and exciting experience that was #scriptchat, I feel better and worse. Better because I was always told that writers were a competitive community who weren't in the game to help each other out. That's clearly not true of all writers, as I've seen time and time again since joining Twitter. Worse because I know what I'm up against. There are SO MANY other talented writers out there. Who am I to think I have an equal talent level to these folks? I'm still a total beginner. And while I am one of the few who still believes in beginners luck, I can't help feeling that I'm going to be holding my breath for a long time (or sneaking in an oxygen tank when no one else is looking)

Also, things like THIS don't make me feel any better (Since, clearly the internet is there to make me feel better about myself). I'm not saying he's wrong, in fact its probably in your best interest to live in the right geographic in order to work your career, though I know of more than a few exceptions. But I don't want to move to Toronto. I just don't. Nothing against the city, but its not in the cards for us right now. So I'm holding on to the hope that I can be the exception. (Peter is a smart guy and a great writer, so his words are harder to pass of than random e-chatter)

I've never been a quitter, though sometimes my follow-through is weak. This is one area where I'm not willing to give up. I will continue to be hopeful, and push myself, exorcising all career avenues available to me. Hope is hope, even if its a fool's hope.