HOW TO WRITE A SCREENPLAY (SCRIPT) PT. 10

HOW TO FIND A SCREENWRITING MENTOR
Thanks to the World Wide Web, we have front seat access to many professional screenwriters, who, to our luck and gratefulness, are willing to share the tricks of the trade.

Before the internet, such tutelage was only available through the classes that you paid for and books that you could read. If you were lucky (and a bit crazy), you packed your bags and moved to L.A. hoping to meet meet other writers and find a way to get your first break.

Thank god times have changed!

The internet is greatly under-rated, yes, in my opinion, for all we awe over it, we do not use the resource properly. Part of this is due to a lack of discipline; readers are easily sidetracked into ads or youtube videos, ranting blogs, funny pictures, whatever keeps you from your work.

As a promising screenwriter, it should be your goal to attain as much free (good) information over the web as possible. Part of this process will be finding online mentors who will serve as your role models for the industry. Once you find them, learn everything you can about their work, read all you can from what they have posted online, ask them questions if they invite such, keep up with their blogs. Just don't pester them or be overbearing, don't smother your master.

FINDING A MENTOR
One simple way is to visit screenwriting blogs and to look at their links. There are currently two on this site, to the right. A lot of sites link JOHN AUGUST, a successfully produced screenwriter of many a movie who lives in LA and is usually up on the latest in the industry.

John first made an online presence through his IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) column, "ASK A SCREENWRITER", back in the year 2000. The articles are very much worth the read, his candor and humor shine through the information.

August always strives to be professional and encourages others to do so as well. He posted a transcript of a forty-five minute lecture that he gave on the topic at Trinity University in San Antonio. One of my favorite lines from the lecture is, "All you have is your work, so do your best work, at all times."

It's a moving read and a free front-row seat to a lecture, when was the last time you had that? It talks about keeping the bar raised, jumping over the low hurdles, and how you should be accountable for not only the way you write, but for the way that you act within this profession.

Have a good read, and enjoy your lesson from Mr. August!

CLICK HERE FOR "PROFESSIONAL WRITING AND THE RISE OF THE AMATEUR" by JOHN AUGUST