Issue #6 - Thoughts From Recent Zoom Pitches and Tulpas
Welcome to Issue #6!
Thoughts From Recent Zoom Pitches (5 min read)
Tulpas (9 min read)
Relevant Links and Yodas of the Week
There's also a link to an article by Cory Doctorow about the benefits of blogging for writers. It's a good explanation of why I started this newsletter (which is essentially a blog that gets delivered to your email inbox) and it made me think about potential benefits to me that I wasn't even aware of.
As always, this is a "how I'm currently," not a "how to."
There is no one path.
Have a great weekend!
Zoom Pitches (5 min read)
So we’re a little over a year into Zoom pitches.
I just finished a round of four for a new project last week, which makes that the third project I’ve taken out over Zoom. The one I sold last year with a co-creator, FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER, we only pitched to one place. I counted it up and I’ve done a total of fourteen. I imagine most of the execs I pitched to last week have heard well over a hundred by now.
I tried to be mindful of that going into this round. We did a practice session with the producers and our reps, after which we pared down the pitch a little bit. I shortened my “personal way in” to three or four sentences, touched briefly on a couple of the themes, gave a couple of quick tonal comps, then the logline, then got right into the pilot. I timed myself while practicing and made sure it didn’t go a second over twenty minutes.
Before I started I asked if they'd rather I just go for it and let them jump in if they had questions or take a break now and then to check in. Four out of four said to just go for it and they’d break in if they had any questions. Only one did, the rest went on mute and it was basically just a twenty-minute monologue. (I missed having a partner to take over now and then!)
When I was cutting the pitch down I tried to leave out things I thought they might ask questions about later anyway. For instance, there was a section about one of the characters launching an investigation and instead of talking about any of the specific procedural beats I talked character and tone, hoping they’d ask, “So what kind of things is he doing?” In all four pitches I found a way to get to that during the Q&A.
One thing about pitching that can be a little anxiety-inducing is getting questions that you don’t really have an answer to. It took me a little time to get comfortable with saying, “That’s a great question, I don’t have a specific answer for that,” and finding a way to turn that into a conversation. I don’t think anybody expects you to have all the answers, especially when it comes to plot mechanics. I learned the hard way by trying to riff an answer once when I didn't actually have a great idea and it was an uncomfortable bomb.
The one thing you should have air tight is character point of view and emotional arc and to be able to explain those in a clear and simple way.
I find that explicitly talking about “external goals and internal obstacles” makes it easy to pitch and easy to takeaway. From an older pitch: “Her external goal is that she has to stop Antagonist from X in order to save Earth and clear her name. But her desire to get justice for her friend keeps tripping her up, especially in the presence of Antagonist. She has to learn to harness her emotions so they work for her, not against her.”
We didn’t use any visuals for this one. Last year I would have told you I thought they were helpful because it lets them focus on the images and not your face the whole time, and it makes it easier for you to look at your notes. Now that things are back in production and they’re getting an avalanche of emails, things are getting ordered up and canceled, some show has a Covid fire to put out, whatever, I think the more engaged we can keep them in the story the better. My gut feeling is that your face looking into the camera and speaking directly to them is better suited for that than a series of images that takes over the screen the whole time.
The one caveat is if you're selling a very specific world and you really need those images to help them understand the look and style.
Again, just one person’s opinion, take it with a grain of salt.
Tulpas (9 min read)
I went down a wiki-rabbit hole recently and landed on the concept of the “tulpa” which is “a concept in mysticism and the paranormal of a being or object which is created through spiritual or mental powers.”
It got me thinking about the first time I went to Dragon Con in Atlanta in 2010. I remember walking into the atrium of one of the hotels and seeing hundreds and hundreds of people in various forms of cosplay. There were characters from all of the major franchises mingling side by side with obscure characters from books and games and a few original creations.
I was in awe of the fact that so many of those characters started as an idea in one person’s imagination which was then communicated to other people who designed the look, then handed over to the actors who breathed life into the characters with the directors and DP’s, then editors who shaped the final form. There I was, looking at all of these creations, manifest in flesh and blood in the atrium of a Holiday Inn or whatever in Atlanta.
Sometimes when I’m coming around Forest Lawn toward Barham and Hogwarts Castle comes into view over the Universal Lot I think about how J.K. Rowling was a single mom writing Harry Potter at her kitchen table and now that castle exists here in our physical realm for families to walk around and make memories inside.
The one that made the biggest impact on me was walking into Galaxy's Edge and seeing the Millennium Falcon. That was truly like running into a friend I've known my entire life. I immediately teared up seeing it there.
I don’t know if these things qualify as a tulpa or not but either way that is some powerful magic working across time and space.
It also occurs to me that more important than the cosplay or castles we inspire are the ideas we put into the world.
Lately I’ve been forcing myself to dig deeper and ask, “What are the things I believe in my heart of hearts? In my deepest core, what do I know to be true?” I write a lot about empathy and the importance of connection in a time when technology is making us more interconnected but also more isolated. Tennessee Williams believed it took artists ten years to work through a major movement or set of ideas, so maybe I have a couple more left to grapple with those. But am I still naturally drawn to them or am I just stuck on a loop? Do I gravitate toward them because they're comfortable?
What else is down there? What are the beliefs I’m willing to stand by and accept the consequences for later? Who is sitting at the tables I want to write my way toward? Am I pouring all of that into my work?
I think a lot about the kids in my home town of Ironton, Ohio, and how I want them to understand that the future is theirs to create. I want them to know that action is character and character is destiny. I want them to know that kindness isn’t weakness, that forgiveness is an act of courage. I want them to know that despite the obstacles in their path they can accomplish great things. They’re just as smart, capable, and creative as anybody else.
The shows I’ve been writing over the past eight years have been set in my adopted home here in California. I started wondering what Ironton might look like in a grounded, near-future sci-fi world, which in turn got me thinking about the kids who are living there.
That’s a different path for me in terms of coming up with a new idea. I usually find my way in through a concept then get put on the trail of a character. Occasionally I’ll start with a character who I follow into a new world but that doesn’t happen very often. This idea started by thinking about what is important to me and an “ideal audience” I wanted to communicate those things to. Not in a preachy, didactic way but communicating through characters living in a world they’ll recognize, dealing with themes that are also important to them.
Now comes the hard part of really fleshing out these characters and figuring out how to dramatize these ideas. I can start by thinking about, “What is the false belief the character holds about themselves or the world?” If that’s where they start then the story is the journey of leading them toward the truth and it ends with them overcoming the lie by finding and accepting that truth.
In The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri he talks about “the premise” of the play. For ROMEO AND JULIET the premise is “Great love defies even death.” That reminds me of an interview I read with Richard Matheson, who talked about SOMEWHERE IN TIME as being about how “love transcends time” and WHAT DREAMS MAY COME as “love is stronger than death.”
Those are powerful ideas to put out in the world, AND they give you a beginning and end to your story.
Like I said, this is a little bit of a different process for me. Normally a “theme” emerges as I’m writing or I discover it after the fact. My hope is that by being a bit more intentional in the beginning helps light the path a little more clearly. But it also gives me some comfort that if I’m lucky enough for this story to reach my intended audience I’ll be able to stand by what it has to say. I can sleep at night knowing that I used my “spiritual and mental powers” to put something out into the world that might have a positive impact.
While I'm talking about the power of stories...
In an earlier newsletter I said, "The most important story is the one we tell ourselves." Maybe the second most important is the one we tell the people around us, especially the things we tell them about themselves. It may also be where we see the most immediate impact. Nothing makes me feel worse than when I'm in an argument with someone and I realize I've said something that cuts too deep. On the other hand, nothing makes me feel better than knowing I've been someone's champion in a moment when they needed it most, or built them up in a meaningful way.
"You have an amazing brain." "You are the most generous person I've ever met." "You made me a better person." "You're an asset to every show you work on." "You've got this." Seeing the physical manifestation of those stories on the faces of that ideal audience is as cool as any castle. And I have to think that communicating these ideas to an audience of one will have a ripple effect on the stories I tell to much larger audiences later.
If you're still reading this, here's what I want you to know: the world needs your creations. Keep going. You have the power to transform the world with your art and creativity, no matter what that is, be it script, poem, novel, dance, performance, recipe, lesson plan, the way you parent, a problem you solve at work, any thing you do that you show up and bring your authentic self and unique point of view to. Keep going. But also enjoy your weekend because you're only human and we need the rest.
Relevant Links and Yodas of the Week
The Memex Method. When your commonplace book is a public… | by Cory Doctorow | May, 2021 | Medium — doctorow.medium.com I’ve been a blogger for a little more than 20 years and in that time I’ve written a little more than 20 books: novels for adults; novels for teens; short story collections; essay collections; graphic…
Simone Biles lands Yurchenko double pike vault at U.S. Classic | NBC Sports — www.youtube.com Simone Biles pulls off a Yurchenko double pike at the U.S. Classic, marking the first time a woman has completed that skill on vault #NBCSports #SimoneBiles ...
How Bon Iver Wrote ‘iMi’: 5 Years, 28 People and a Piece of Cardboard | Diary of a Song — www.youtube.com In our latest episode of “Diary of a Song,” Justin Vernon, the Grammy-winning Kanye West collaborator, recounts the emotional toll of his yearslong effort to...
This piece on Bon Iver is one of my go-to sources of inspiration. The title tells you everything you need to know but there's so much more.