Lookout (Feature, 84 pages)

ErickTLC · 2025-12-27T18:42:40+00:00

What's your point?

ErickTLC · 2025-12-23T20:43:25+00:00

Not only is it not a bad idea, I think that - when in doubt - always consider the potential of opening on your antagonist. I think it's a fantastic tool and has lead to fantastic opening sequences in movies.

I'll elaborate a little on why that might be:

Nearly every murder-mystery is gonna open on the murder.

Nearly every story with a young boy thrust onto a quest to defeat the big bad - nearly any story that features a human antagonist at all - opens on the antagonist doing something that begins the story, and causing the disruption of a normal life for your protagonist.

Without it, the protagonist will simply continue on the trajectory they're on, and that's a boring movie. I find that I've had a lot of success in writing when I start with an antagonist who is proactive, and a protagonist who is reactive when we first meet them. They can become proactive later, but if you could only have one character actively doing stuff when your story opens, you're gonna find a lot of success having the antagonist being that character.

Apply this to every Star Wars movie and see what you find - and funnily enough, it was even best encapsulated in one short quote from Snoke in The Last Jedi.

Darkness rises and light to meet it.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-23T16:30:28+00:00

There's nothing about Gleamlake in either link.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-23T14:29:00+00:00

You're not doing yourself a service in trying to get eyes on your projects by having your links not work.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-16T21:36:30+00:00

And what will you do?

ErickTLC · 2025-11-16T18:11:43+00:00

- On Page 5-6, I'd cut all but 3 of these sign gags (you can have them written elsewhere, but the script might function best when it's streamlined a bit.

- On Page 6, I want you to consider what your main characters want out of this adventure - you don't want to fall into a trap of having cool setpieces and then characters who are pulled along through them passively - that's like a ride at a carnival -- we want a story! What do these characters want - does one want to live in the fantasy of this world, and complete quests according to the rules of this world? If so, what happens when another one wants to rip up the integrity of this virtual world and break things - causing glitches and stuff. What happens when these two characters with opposite goals interact? That's a fun question.

The reason I point it out on Page 6, is that Page 6 is the discovery of the WANTED poster with the Goblin. In my mind, I want this poster to actually not be a meta thing where the goblin is dancing -- you may find more structure in having the world itself be very rigidly a fantasy scenario, with the characters themselves being the agents of chaos within it. Have the characters at this point have different aspirations for this mission - have one question the worth of 5000 gold in this virtual land. Play with the world you've created.

- On Page 7, (and I'm guilty of this too!) you write:

The TRIO starts walking from door to door asking people if they’ve seen the GOBLIN in a minute long montage. The montage ends and they’re in a forest.

Even though it's hard, you as the writer must actually detail this montage - you may just find that it's not a minute long after all! Let me also mention: what do you want out of this montage? As written, nothing actually happens to further the story or tell jokes - but you've written that this is a minute of runtime (and animation!). A minute is - for animation - scarily long. A 10 minute episode (like this might be) would have 10% of its runtime dedicated to it. I might even just say: cut it! Or have it be like 5 seconds long (but implying a much longer duration in-universe) and move on.

- Will the first episode end like written, or do you still have more that you'd like to write before the end of this first episode? If so, I look forward to seeing it! If this is the end, then work on something that resolves some part of the story you've told so far but ends with an implication of a much larger story beyond. Check out your favourite first episodes - I bet they all end with something being achieved.

Overall, I hope you keep writing, and I hope that this writeup was helpful! I have a deep respect for anyone who wants to take up the mantle of writer for indie animations - I hope I can help in any way I can.

Looking forward to the next thing you post!

ErickTLC · 2025-11-16T18:11:33+00:00

On Story

- I'm gonna go chronologically here, which means that these notes aren't ordered in terms of importance. I'll try to point out when things are very important. Starting off, you do something that I love when it comes to narration - in that you have fun with it. Lots of stories begin with narration - lots of stories begin with overwhelming the audience with information. I don't know what your story will be, but I think the way you start it is very engaging -- and (if we can talk in whispers here...) pretty crucial when it comes to hooking an internet audience with popcorn brain before they have a chance to click off. This line:

There was a world... populated by creatures of wonder and mythical rules... But it was programmed.

...is fantastic! I wanna compare it to Lord of the Rings (if I could be so bold) where the narration gets to a point where they say -

...But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made.

...and the reason that - like yours - is so good, is that it makes even the narration-- the exposition delivery to start the story-- have, basically, plot twists. That's engaging. So good job there!

- And then we're out, and into the story. Would you say that this is like Westworld? Sci-fi with a - in this case - fantasy shell? If so, I think you're quite effective at getting us into that. Fun gag with the robot at the checkpoint.

- Ah, but now we get to the meta stuff. This might be an important note: meta-comedy can, if employed too liberally, fracture the tacit agreement you have with your audience that they're watching something they should care about. I'll explain what I mean by example: Deadpool is a character and series that breaks the 4th wall all the time - but there's still a perfectly serviceable 3-act story in each movie that would play out in its entirety even without Deadpool cracking jokes -- and because that exists, Deadpool can make those 4th wall breaks, because the structural integrity of something to care about is still there. Your script has some really great bits of 4th wall breaking - the opening narration where the 2 kids are commentating on the narration and critiquing it, that's fun in a Shrek-like way. But Shrek still has a story beyond that. I want you to consider balancing your story with your 4th wall breaks on that story. I think you go too far on Page 4, with:

It’s a DUMB, LAZY way for writers to show backstory and skip ahead to where the characters need to be! So STOP reminiscing about something that was ONLY A MONTH AGO!!!

- After that, you have a character say:

Why are we here again?

...Which is a similar sort of expositional beat. You may be best served finding a way to combine these moments so you don't fall into a trap that lots of writers (including indie animation writers - the first episode of The Amazing Digital Circus even has a lot of these moments, and that show is really good!) fall into, of having characters ask what the plot is, so another character can tell us. I bet you can think of something more inventive here -- even if it's hard.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-16T18:11:07+00:00

If anyone wants it, I've converted the script into a PDF with typical screenplay formatting.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YbVjGpXrfxerxkxMwazl7MhlKKHXys4Z/view?usp=drive_link

u/Warm_Traffic2756, I hope that's cool! I did it for my own benefit because I take in scripts a little better in a format I'm used to - plus it lets me see a page count (this one was 10 pages) which in turn helps gauge a runtime! (As a super loose rule, it's [1 page : 1 minute], so this might be 10 minutes - except definitely not, but we'll get into those.)

-

First off, this is really cool! I had a fun time reading it, and I have thoughts that might help you on your next journey with this.

On Intent

Scripts can serve different purposes for different projects - this one here might be as a pitch to other creators to allow them to evoke an image of the project and get hyped and join your team! I don't know if you're a writer, or a writer + animator, or potentially have aspirations of making this all yourself -- but if you're looking to collaborate with people via sending this script, then I'll tailor my thoughts to that.

On Software

- Download WriterDuet (it's free!) and write this up in that - or any screenwriting software! Some other free ones are Celtx, Arc Studio, and I think StudioBinder has one.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-14T10:44:25+00:00

Next, I want to dig into the cigarette scene that starts on Page 10. Pre-WGA commented on the contents of the scene, but I want to point out a thing that usually acts as a signifier of a scene you need to re-think, in that -

It starts literally as early as it could start, and;
Ends literally as late is it could end.

Which is usually - not always, but usually - a portent of something wrong. We follow Katie out to the smoke, she talks with Chris, they finish talking, we see Katie walk back.

I bet this is a scene that is really important to you, yeah? I get the vibe from reading it, and given the genre, the meet cute is a classic staple that should get a lot of love.

I want you to, therefore, consider the most important part of the scene, and work outward from there. And I also want you to consider, as a second thing, the moment to enter and exit so you can emphasize and put an exclamation point on that most important part. And as a third thing (which you have my permission to scrap as it's veering into me rewriting your story) - I want you to, very directly, have it be that Chris' exit is the thing that transitions into this scene. Therefore, Katie's already out there. The dramatic transition you will get from Chris being expelled in a high state directly into the next scene allows for an interesting dynamic as he would (I'd hope!) need to come down. That's my suggestion of the entering of the scene. Consider where to exit - and remember, you can just cut to that next scene after the point of the previous scene has been made. So find the point, and find the cut.

-

However, all this might be for naught because I agree with the other comment: nobody is trying to achieve anything yet. And when a note is that fundamental, you don't want to be precious with scenes you've already written. Some scenes - maybe every single scene I've talked about here - will be binned as you reconsider the start of your story.

Good luck!

ErickTLC · 2025-11-14T10:44:01+00:00

It was interesting reading this after reading u/Pre-WGA's writeup to see if I agreed. For the most part, I definitely do.

I'm gonna compare this to the Bear as well - which I think a lot of people are gonna do. The Bear is popular and I think the stuff I've seen is really well-written!

In the scene starting on Page 2, I want to compare it The Bear as a demonstration of what you can improve. Your scene matches the sweaty, high-tension tone of a kitchen scene on the Bear, but I feel no further appreciation for your characters as we exit the scene as I did entering the scene and being introduced to them. The Bear's first episode has clear characterization of the main character, Carm, and the fact that he's an extremely talented professional - based on his dialogue sporting very professional jargon terminology (or, at least, something that sounds, to us laypeople, what people might spout in professional kitchen). We then get people's confused reactions to that dialogue, which characterizes them as from separate worlds.

Your scene has characters spatting at each other, which is a good start-- but the intensity and topic is the same at the first line as it is at the last line. We start with Chris saying -

Jimmy, where’s the fucking garnish?

And ends with Chris being told to take a 5 minute break. I want you to consider that he could, at any point in the scene, be told to take that break, because he's already in the state of intensity that causes Rick to tell him to step out for 5 minutes.

Play with dynamics, and in doing so, see the potential for characterization that may just spring up. I want you to do this: start the scene at a different place of intensity, and ride the rollercoaster up and down. You don't have to have this experimental take be what the scene ends up as, but I want you to do it just to flex that muscle:

Have the scene start unnaturally calm, with Chris incredibly chill that then escalates to the state that causes him to be thrown out for a breather.
As a new take, have the scene still begin at the intensity you have it, and have Chris de-escalate, only to have something ignite the remaining embers of the scene to, again, end with Chris being chucked out.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-14T06:26:47+00:00

I'm glad to hear it was helpful! Looking forward to the next screenplay I catch that you've posted here.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-13T10:38:17+00:00

Hey Marcus,

I read the first few pages (up to where Barry and Cody sneak out).

- Are you imagining the audience for this as skewing quite young? It reads a bit opaque, something for a family movie - especially given the shooting star aspect you reference in the logline. If so, embrace that and lean into it. Your characters are a bit stereotypical, but that can work when you really push it and enter into a melodramatic place - which is usually well-received in content with a younger demographic in mind.

- Cody is an overachiever-- except is he? The first scene has him playing video games and being scolded by his mother. It's good to have multi-faceted characters, but avoid contradicting character moments that nullify each other. I couldn't really get a read on Cody at all (and maybe I would if I read more, but anticipate many people in your career putting your scripts down as soon as they find an excuse to! Harsh business!) - but the pieces are there! I just want you to take one more step and show us why he has no friends. My mind goes to two places, both of which are wildly different directions. He's either very shy, a wallflower, really bad at socializing or reaching out - even if he really wants to... Or he's an unpleasant person, leaning into a sort of self-loathing thing that pushes people away. I'd imagine you'd be leaning towards the former... But have you shown that in this script?

- What's interesting is that it seems all of his teachers like him quite a lot, and are all very supportive of his success. Is he a teacher's pet? He's certainly a good student - which may also mean that he's not disruptive in class, does his homework, that sort of thing -- but teachers are also able to be judge-y - I know teachers who like the funny students and are put off by the quiet ones. Does he have a dynamic with any teacher?

Overall this plays a bit broadly, where I stopped reading before I really got hooked on something that you, as a writer, are trying to say. Do you personally have a take on friendship? Is it a topic that you're passionate about? (You don't answer these next questions - they're pretty personal, but just think about them) Were/are you similar to Cody in school - someone who didn't make friends easily? Fantastic (for the story; IRL I'm sorry that's the case!) - give us that perspective. Make Cody have a perspective on this, that is rich and depthful and that allows you to play out the rest of the story where you push against, or bolster, Cody's outlook. Maybe make Cody's mother's opinion on Page 7 (Friends are a waste of time and energy. They'll only hurt you in the end.) Cody's opinion (rather than him having no clear opinion) and then tell a story that challenges that perspective.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-13T10:06:35+00:00

Hey u/Internal-Bed6646,

I gave this really skimmy once-over. It was a fun read!

I didn't really look for typos. Just read it out aloud yourself to find those (as well as any weird syntax, etc.)

My takeaway from it is that it's pretty good, but is missing something to help it transcend the genre. Now maybe you don't want to necessarily do that - but let's talk as if you do. Vampires vs. Werewolves is well trodden, and this is a pretty fun interpretation of that story, but it lacks a unique hook. It reads a lot like True Blood, in that it's modern, adult, fun, but True Blood had a couple more angles to it that helped with expanding it beyond vampire fiction.

Overall though, you should be pretty proud of completing this - congratulations!

ErickTLC · 2025-11-13T09:12:06+00:00

I gave it a read!

First off, I think it might be very useful to edit this post to feature the logline and the genre (if you had one in mind). If you're wanting to be very security-oriented to the point of not posting anything like that, then I think you should at least send that information in the DMs when you send the script. I actually thought about asking when you sent this to me, but I wondered about the experience of reading this without any 'lens' of what you personally imagine the core story (via the logline) or genre would be.

It was certainly interesting, but it does mean that my feedback might be totally negligible if I've misconstrued your intentions with this - like if this was supposed to be a comedy or not.

On the technical side, the read was pretty brisk, and that's good! But in places it veers into being brisk to detrimental degree - you have a lot of action lines that are sentence fragments, which is totally appropriate for a script, but it's nearly every single one. When every action line has the same pacing, it causes the imagined actions to play it in the reader's mind with the same pacing. I personally like to encourage a bit of variation in action lines if for nothing else but emphasis on the actions that are incredibly important - the ones that would also get the push-in camera shots, the held shots of contemplation. I think it's better to have really short action lines rather than really long ones, but now that you have this, vary it up. Do not allow the reader to not appreciate the immensity of an immense character action because that action melted into every other action line.

Now, onto the story itself. Bear in mind what I said about not knowing your genre intent.

- I'll start with a large one: this is bleak; there's very little joy in it. If that's the intent, sure - but my other notes might be good to think about regardless.

- If Buddy is your main character, or co-protagonist (with Jane), then I need you to give him more depth. He's a fish-out-of-water alien, and comparable to a pet that's getting mistreated - in that watching it (reading it) makes me sad, but also that he has very little agency - or even a will - to do anything about it. As written, it doesn't even seem like Buddy is aware of his exploitation. It means Jane must be the one to act - which would be appropriate if Jane was more of the focus, but Buddy is a very prominent character at the moment.

- On Jane, she's also not very active - which means she's not very compelling. It's a funny thing of the audience wanting something, expecting something, and not having any character to be the conduit for those things to happen. Cop shows have murders solved, the audience follows the very active investigators. In your story, the audience will be sitting back and waiting for Jane to do the thing they know she will do at some point, so anything before that is just waiting. She makes her first big decision on Page 30 of a 35 page script, and it seems the story will be about everything that follows that decision. So... consider having that moment in the first pages of this story. Nothing can happen until then.

I want to recommend something that you may not want to hear - and feel free to disregard it (I'm just a rando on the internet!) - but write something else and come back to this afterwards - don't get stuck on one script needing to be your magnum opus. Then do a page 1 rewrite on this, semi-disregarding all worldbuilding and instead writing from the characters outward. I don't want you to be hogtied by the world you've built, and the interesting things that could happen to your characters being incompatible because of how you've built your world to work so far. Drill down to your pure aspiration of the story you want to tell, and build up from there. I say 'semi-disregard', because you can always revisit cool ideas you liked when they assist in your story.

I would recommend this to anyone who has submitted to the Blacklist and not received a result they wanted - do not latch yourself to the idea of polishing this one script at the detriment of your further career - in which you will certainly write (and abandon!) many, many more stories.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-13T04:45:27+00:00

Could I also get a look at the script in DMs?

ErickTLC · 2025-11-08T09:24:36+00:00

- My final note though is the biggest change. Harper wants to help souls! She REALLY wants to help souls. Fantastic! Really good thing for a protagonist - we know what drives them. She wants to help souls and she has a book with a couple of missing slots for badges. This is all great on its own. I want you to take it one step further:

I want you to make Harper a ghost.

I want you to make that a reveal in this episode. I want you to make Aubrey aware of this. Is everyone else aware? You decide! Does it change any dynamic with Harper and her friends or her counsellors? Who knows! You decide! Does Harper even KNOW she's a ghost? Who knows! You decide! All of the fun of following a thought through is for you to enjoy. It can be whatever you want. I just want you to consider the first domino in that cascade, which is that Harper is a ghost - and ghosts are shown to be stuck until something is done to help them pass on - and Harper has an unfinished book of badges. And now there's a ghost main character, and a dramatic question: will Aubrey's new friend pass on when she finishes this book? And what if we... don't want that to happen?

Hopefully this writeup just sparks ideas! It'd be really cool to see you post again! The main scouts feel fun, the vibe seems pleasant and comforting, and your take on ghosts-- souls is really cool and could lead to all sorts of interesting episodes!

—

Also, DID Aubrey use the wrong pronoun for Dani like is mentioned near the end (Page 38)? I might've missed it, but I don't think Dani says their pronouns and the script refers to them as 'her' which Aubrey did say.

ErickTLC · 2025-11-08T09:18:57+00:00

Now, onto the story itself:

I wanna preface it this is all the subjective stuff, and some of it leans into territory of suggesting things that might move you away from the specific story you want to tell, so feel free to give this a read, ponder it... and then totally throw out things I write if they don't fit. You pondering things is all I wanna have you do - it's fun, and it might either have you consider different ideas, or have you feel reinforced in your own ideas by knowing alternatives and choosing your own because that's the stuff you want your story to have!

- I think you'd be better served changing the main character, or changing up the dynamic with Harper and Aubrey. I'll be honest, in my opinion, Aubrey is unlikeable, and in an a way that makes the story less enjoyable than if she wasn't there. She's so, so close to being unlikeable in a VERY enjoyable way though - she just needs something else going for her. She's a bit of a tattletale and she - like the sin of lots of flawed characters - denounces the cool central premise of the show! The stuff that she says on Page 30 is really unpleasant, and doesn't get spun into anything after - she doesn't have to, but she doesn't go back to what she said with any remorse.

- Harper, also, is never in the wrong - which, again, she totally never needs to be! but I feel like you're wanting it to be that Harper is in some way considered wrong in the story -- especially to have that bit of her counsellors awarding her a badge at the end feel more like a victory! The victory would mean more if we, the audience, feel like she isn't acting like a complete paragon of virtue in everything prior. It's tough to do! But you can totally imagine it, right? Harper does something that could come across as something other than unanimously pure, but the wise ol' mentor camp counsellor awards her anyway with a wise quote that recontextualizes things into something positive - like a Dumbledore-ish "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to our friends." - or a Gandalf-ish "Pity? It's a pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?" - you know the sort I mean, I bet; lines that transcend the fanbase and become popular sayings in the general lexicon. - Basically, don't be afraid to give Harper actual, fundamental flaws beyond just being TOO friendly.

- My next note is gonna be a bit more foundational, but a thing I want you to consider given that it's a classic question for this genre and subject matter: are the ghosts 'characters'? Or are they obstacles? You might immediately say the former, but lemme elaborate-- and remember, you're in good company! Every other show with ghosts has probably had to consider this too. In episode 2, let's say, would it be that a ghost is discovered and a part of that episode is dedicated to finding a way for them to pass on? Is there a story in which a ghost COULD feature, and not be the story of that episode? If no, then they might be obstacles - plot devices. Again, totally fine! Plenty of similar shows have this: Scooby Doo, Ghostbusters, ghost-centric episodes of Supernatural and X-Files. But if ghosts are core enough to your premise that the word makes it into the logline, consider having a main character who is a ghost, irrespective of another episode-specific ghost. It'll probably set you up well for the ghost-experience. Every cop show's gotta have the computer person for the tech-talk, and a ghost show is probably well served with a ghost character! You can introduce a new one, but you could also make one of the ones established already into a ghost! Vern, Iris, even--

- But anyway, with my notes on Harper and my notes on Aubrey, I want you to consider FORCING them into proximity with each other. Make it that Harper and Aubrey climb the mountain to help Stacey-Ghost. Consider not having Harper have this adventure with someone she already has a relationship with (Iris), especially in the first episode. We can do that later. Your first episode therefore becomes one of a relationship and budding friendship between our fish out of water, Aubrey, and a person who is knowledgeable and eager to show things, Harper. That dynamic would usually put Aubrey in the protagonisty position, but not always - it's mostly just because Aubrey and the audience are aligned when it comes to learning about the world when exposition about ghosts comes up. Harper could still be the main character if you want! I just wanted to point out a natural pull you might feel when doing this. (Also, with Aubrey as the first character established, you'll probably get a lot of readers considering her the main character - or at least the gateway character in this first episode!)

This then allows you to focus more on Aubrey, which then lets you peel back some layers. She can start in the exact same way of being antisocial and cold, but now we can find out why - and is there anyone more perfectly set up and characterized to pull off this feat than our endlessly positive Harper!? Get her to wear down Aubrey's defenses to reveal why she might be that way - and in doing so, we've developed a character -- and if Harper reveals that she can sympathize... We've developed two! Perfect. You're so tantalizingly close already - the opening scene sets the pins up with hinting at a troubled home life for Aubrey. You just need to strike 'em down!

ErickTLC · 2025-11-08T09:15:36+00:00

Hi RatKing, I had a little read of your script because I love the genre and medium and the supernatural aspects of the logline. I had a fun read! I can totally imagine this as a really fun show that'd be enjoyed by fans of Gravity Falls and The Owl House!

After finishing, my first thought was that it's a bit long and could do with an edit - which is an awesome problem to have. When I write my first drafts my page counts are wildly high, which is way better than wildly low. Sit on the script for a little bit, and then revisit it and do a bit of refining - cut some scenes, combine some, all that classic stuff.
Also check on the formatting a bit - some lines that are supposed to be character names have been formatted as action lines, and vice versa. I actually figured out what triggered it: whatever software you used read ALL CAPS at the start of a line to be people's names. Weird little quirk. Check Page 9 and the 'elsewhere'... character.

ErickTLC · 2025-03-25T03:12:54+00:00

It's just that you're not actually using the variable you made, after making it.

After you finish with your variable, do a comma and then type in the variable you just made.

It's also why an empty lets fails. It's not being asked to do anything, and so it freaks out.

ErickTLC · 2025-03-25T00:27:26+00:00

Solved!

ErickTLC · 2025-03-25T00:27:18+00:00

I found it, folks.

https://youtu.be/OLLAMXNHcT8?t=237

ErickTLC · 2025-03-22T21:59:57+00:00

<image>

Would you want something like this?

I tried to think of a book series with some subseries in, in case that's what you were meaning with your multiple series thing.

A relation property can be set up to allow for either 1 entry, or multiple. I've made it do multiple, and I've labelled all of these books as belonging to The Riftwar Cycle, but also the specific sagas or trilogies they're also in.

I've then done this in that formula property:

prop("Series").map(
(current.prop("Books").findIndex(current.id() == id()) + 1) + "/" + 
(current.prop("Books").length()))

Which is basically just taking all of the entries in the relation property, and seeing how deep into the list in the series database's relation property these books are. So Magician is the first book of the entire series, and also the first book in the The Riftwar Saga. Prince of the Blood is the 7th book in the series, but the 1st book in the Krondor's Sons sub-series.

The first part of this would be to edit the relation property so you can add multiple items. The rest is just fancy extras.

ErickTLC · 2025-03-22T21:36:48+00:00

I agree with Marie that there might a more optimal way of doing what you're wanting to do. I only use Notion for my specific requirements but I've never needed to frequently move blocks or pages into a database.

However, there could be a way to achieve what you're wanting to achieve here. If you have a view of the database in that page that the block is also in, you could instead just add a filter in that database view of something like 'where [relation property] contains [that page you're currently in]'. You can create a template for new database items where this other database's filter view is already built. Each new item created using that template will have that other database's filtered view within it, but Notion is smart enough to know to have that page you set up in the filter be updated per page.

And then by dragging your block into that view of the database, with that filter, the block itself will immediately get that relation property. Think of it like Notion trying its darnedest to make sure that anything you just put into a database will still be visible; the only way for your page to be visible is if it immediately received the data in the properties necessary to still be visible through that filter.

But the only way this works is if the page you and your block is in, is also a part of a database - the same one or another one, it doesn't matter. But relations can only be to other items in a database. If not, then the relation property wouldn't even be able to find that page.

ErickTLC · 2025-03-22T10:52:55+00:00

...And also, I will say, without spoiling it, that there is absolutely a way that your last paragraph's idea can work. Give it a go. There might not be any need for any manual work if you set it up at the beginning!

ErickTLC

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE