Confidence boosters.

Anyone who reads my blog may remember that I've been receiving rejection after rejection for my short film, Without / Within, as well as for my short stories. I just keep submitting (there will be a new round of submissions for Without / Within once I figure out what's wrong with my DVD burner...) and trying because, well, it'd be silly not to. In fact, today I submitted a spec script for CSI (don't judge me) to the WILDsound spec script competition and tomorrow I'll be mailing off a feature film script called Chancetown to the New York City Horror Film Festival.

 

Yesterday, I received a letter from my good friend and mentor, Steve Marshall, who had only just gotten a chance to watch Without / Within. I've known Steve since I was 13. The way I remember it, Rich Reinhardt gave me his Prodigy email (it was fifteen years ago, for Pete's sakes) and we've kept in touch ever since. Of course, I didn't know who Rich Reinhardt was then or else I would have bugged him, too. Anyway, Steve's advice and support have been invaluable to me so when I got his letter, wherein he told me that he loved my movie and was very proud of me, I felt like I was soaring.

 

Tonight, I received a phone call from another friend, one with whom I don't speak nearly enough and see even less, and she kept complimenting me, my creativity, and bullheadedness...just because. She put it much more politely than that because she's nicer than I am, but that's what it boils down to and I was soaring again.

 

Right now, after submitting two projects to contests and festivals, finishing another short story, and receiving such support and encouragement from those two and the rest of my friends and family, I think I could take on another year's worth of rejections. Maybe even two!

Finally, a bit of good-ish news!

I received a rejection notice today from WILDsound, which was running a TV spec script contest. The good news about it is that I'd made it to the finals and that the only thing that prevented me from winning was that the script got a little muddled at the end according to the (omigod for real) feedback in the rejection.

The spec script was for Masters of Horror and called "Your Own Personal Hell." Of course, Masters of Horror doesn't exist any longer (it's been shifted from Showtime to NBC under the moniker Fear Itself), but it did when I sent it out.

I guess I need to take a little longer between completion and editing to give me more distance to be objective. Resurrection Man was pretty much the same except that it only made it to the semi-finals (of Slamdance's horror script competition) whereas this one made it all the way to the finals.

You know what, though...even though I know there's a problem with the ending of a story, I get so caught up in it when I rereading for editing that I think, "That ending's not so bad after all!" Then I think about it later and say to myself, "Uh, yeah it is..." But then I go back and reread it and it's the same thing all over again.

So, while a rejection notice, this one has certainly lifted my spirits! I think I'll keep that one on top of the pile of rejections pinned to my wall for a while...just to remind me, y'know?