First a quarter-finalist, then a semi-finalist and now my screenplay LET IT SHINE is a finalist in the 15th Annual StoryPros International Screenplay Contest.   Next week, the TOP 5 winners will be announced with the Grand Prize Winner receiving $2000.00 (and lots of other goodies), but more importantly, lots of exposure.

LET IT SHINE lands in the TOP 5% of all entries – approximately 1000 screenplays were submitted.   The complete finalist list (of approximately 60 screenplays) can be found HERE.  I’ve been in this position before where I wait to see if I land in the top spots.  It’s a little nerve-ranking to be competing with so many other writers.

When you make it this far in a competition, you come to realize any one of these scripts could win.  It’s not really about talent at this point, but whether the stars align for you.   Who is the reader that gets to decide your fate on whether your script advances?  What subject matter strikes a reader in just the right way?  And yes, luck plays a part.  Luck doesn’t just happen (okay, for some people, maybe it does), but I’m a firm believer you have to make your own luck.  You have to work for it…and sometimes suffer for it.  Saying a little prayer doesn’t hurt either.  I’ll  enjoy and bask in this placement while I wait.

Sometimes it is the waiting game.  We must wait…be patient…embrace the unknown…and no matter what, carry on regardless of outcomes. If I don’t make the TOP 5 in StoryPros, of course I’ll be disappointed and it’ll linger, but I’ll turn the page.

My mom is playing “the waiting game” right now as she has started a new med to see if it will help her depression/mood. It takes days if not weeks to see if it has a positive effect on her.   This is a hard game to play for a woman in her 80’s who has struggled for years with mental illness.  But she is willing to try and hope for better outcomes.

Hope the stairs align for you.  And while you’re waiting, get to work.  We must all try.  Focus on the good.  Don’t let the bad drag you down.  Don’t give into impatience.  Embrace this journey of life.  It’s yours to live, no one else can do it for you.  While I wait, I’ll do some writing on my new screenplay A PROMISE I MADE TO MR. BAGELS.   

In the meantime, I want to pass on this awesome note I got from the Austin Film Festival regarding my play ANIMAL (which landed in the TOP 20% of stage plays submitted).  When I read the reader’s comments, it made my day:

Since the protagonist is “Bipolar. Schizophrenic. OCD impulses. And dash of depression for fun,” the concept offers a unique perspective. The play almost feels like a mix between The Sixth Sense and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The plot contains a mix of proper and confusing exposition, but the confusion fits with the fact that the audience sees the story through an unreliable protagonist’s point of view. The story reaches an engaging climax when it reveals that Cliff and Mercedes are figments of Raina’s imagination, and giving Griffin the final line is a smart choice.

While not much action happens in the plot, but the structure presents a (deliberately repetitive) pacing and rhythm that contributes to the flow of the story. The script also has a clean and readable layout.

The characters were definitely complex, and it was interesting to watch the dysfunctional familial relationships play out inside the confines of one location.

The dialogue is certainly unique, especially with so many conversations happening “through” the ceramic animals. There is a quick-wittiness to the dialogue as well, and the characters have distinct voices.