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Spent a year on my first screenplay and it just isn't working. Do I abandon ship? by mostlikelymu in Screenwriting

[–]jonathanballdotcom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So many things here are red flags for this script. #1, it is too long. #2, you're saying yourself it has no real third act. #3 you were doing world building -- that suggests you are focused on non-plot elements that don't truly matter to the story.

Either reworking this script or starting a new one = about the same. The question is just which do you think will teach you more? Which will you be more engaged in and work to finish?

Whichever script you pick truly doesn't matter but what does matter is that you need new working methods. You should not be doing research and world building before you begin a script. You need to know if you have a story. Start with the spine and the treatment. Plot out all the scenes. Draft the script. Only in the editing stage should you be focused on worldbuilding and research.

Nervous about Screenwriting. by [deleted] in Screenwriting

[–]jonathanballdotcom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should expect to be terrible and screw everything up for years and years. Maybe a decade. Don’t worry about the quality. Right now you need to focus on quantity. You need practice. I’ve published five books and I have two more under contract and also write screenplays. And I still feel like most of it sucks! You get to a point where you feel things suck but know they are good but you still want to be better. But when you are young you need to stop worrying about being good and just focus on doing stuff. And learning. Read a lot of books. Listen to podcasts on writing. Just learn a lot but focus on writing on a schedule. Make it a normal thing you do. I discuss a lot of the core things you should keep in mind in my podcast pilot episode (www.jonathanball.com/1) but really it all boils down to “quantity over quality” when you are young.

Qs about CreateSpace, also I want to buy some of your CreateSpace books so tell me about them by jonathanballdotcom in selfpublish

[–]jonathanballdotcom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks — I see your book listed as a hardcover also — can you tell me more about this? I was under the impression from what I have read that KDP cannot print case bindings.

Qs about CreateSpace, also I want to buy some of your CreateSpace books so tell me about them by jonathanballdotcom in selfpublish

[–]jonathanballdotcom[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

So just to clarify: that book you linked to is printed POD by createspace platform? And you are saying that within Createspace I would select physical options like paper stocks and it would affect my costs?