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By Charles Deemer |
"Newcomers are often put off by the fact that the list isn't just for discussing script formats, cover stock, and/or type fonts. When you're beginning and you find a list devoted to screenwriting, I think you must expect every post to be about only what you're interested in and nothing more. But the truth is writers, like lawyers, bankers, doctors, and ditch diggers, talk about other things except their business. So it is with people here."Stanley founded the Screenwriters List three years ago when the university where he teaches urged professors to become Internet literate. As Chair of the Communications Department at the University of Texas - Pan American, and with a film background that includes a Bronze-star-winning stint directing combat films in Vietnam, Stanley found a big cyberspace vacuum when it came to Internet activity of interest to filmmakers and screenwriters. The List was born.
All of which could be avoided if newbies would just remember a cardinal rule about all writing: writers like to avoid their work. There is no better place in cyberspace to avoid your work than the Screenwriters List. It is, just as owner Stanley says, exactly like an electronic pub.
You also can check out the list on the Web before subscribing at Neil Sandow's convenient daily digest of the past week's traffic.
If you decide you want to subscribe to the Screenwriters List, you send email to listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu (this link supports "mailto") with the one line message:
subscribe scrnwrit Charles Deemersubstituting your own name. You mail to the same address to unsubscribe (not to the list itself), changing the one line message to:
unsubscribe scrnwrit Charles Deemer
Navigating the high volume of traffic on the list is a learned art. In the beginning, as you get the feel of chat and people, you'll want to scan or read every message but very quickly you'll get a sense of what you are looking for and who is providing it.
For example, using a Pine newsreader (not especially high-end), which permits me to delete messages within set ranges, I can go through 200 list messages in 15 or 20 minutes. I do this by reading the "From:" line and the "Subject:" line. For my uses of the list, there are a few listers whom I always read and many whom I never read, unless the "Subject:" leads me there.
I seldom "chat" myself on the list, and I find myself reading about ten percent of the traffic. What I get from this ten percent, however, is very much worth the little time it takes me to sort through the huge volume of daily messages. I know I miss a lot because subjects change faster than subject lines do, and sometimes when I have time I do read more than my daily habit. But for the most part, the quick scan and ten percent read make up my list activity.
"The FAQ," Stanley recalls, "came out of a question (or several, I don't really remember) a new subscriber asked (i.e. did we have a FAQ and if so how would they find it?). From the beginning of my deciding to make one until it was finally done was over two years. I figured it would take about six months --- boy, was I in for a surprise."Without a doubt, the strength of the FAQ that resulted is a consequence of Stanley's making the FAQ a list group project.
"I had very little conceptualized notion of what the FAQ should or even could be when I started it," says the list owner. "Like so many other projects on this list, I threw it open to the good people here. I simply asked what subscribers thought we ought to have on a FAQ. From that I developed an outline and began collecting material for it, item by item. I also used some of the collected wisdom of the list from some of the topics we'd discussed here."The result goes beyond the scope of most FAQs. Indeed, the SCRNWRIT FAQ is a comprehensive mini-course in the writing and marketing of the modern screenplay.
The original document is available via "gopher". The advantage of accessing the gopher FAQ is that both the full document (318K) and a zipped document (118K) can be downloaded on the spot. This version is organized by chapters, each a hyperlink, and the entire page is only two screens long.
A much more useful version of the FAQ is available on the Web. This hypertext FAQ breaks the original document into chapter sections, providing a hyperlink for each (resulting in a 22-screen page). One can find particular information much quicker in this version. However, if one wants to download the entire document, it's better to use the original gopher site.
I've also linked to relevant chapters of the FAQ throughout my Screenwriters & Playwrights Home Page.
"I have over 900 messages collected for the update," he says. "I may have to reorganize the whole damn thing. The table of contents and the outlines in front of each chapter, plus the alphabetical decimal point system I've used for the original, could make the update a real pain in the ass. I truly don't know how I'm going to do it. I want the information to be laid out in an easy to use, easy to access format -- but I'm not 100% sure that the one on the original is the best way. "Much of the information on the FAQ is timeless, so updating isn't necessary. Other areas - about contests, marketing, screenwriting software - are volatile. But the FAQ remains the best place for a new screenwriter in cyberspace to get acquainted.
"Best --- help guide writers through the different steps of getting an idea, developing the concept, writing the script, rewriting the script, sending it out, finding an agent and/or a producer, and sharing the successes or the failures along the way. If someone has a real good question, particularly if it's one not dealt with in the FAQ, they'll get great answers here --- answers which prove there are no 'one and only' ways to do anything in this business. We're also very good at accepting people at face value.For all its strengths and weaknesses, there is no resource quite like the Screenwriters List in cyberspace. Check it out."Worst --- flame each other for offenses perceived but not intended. The main problem with this type of communication is that it lacks the subtle nuances of a wink, a gleam in the eye, or a tone of voice, all of which mean so much in putting the right spin on the mere written words. We're all typing out answers, or questions, in haste and often wound when what we intend is to help. And those who are wounded are too quick to strike back rather than to ask if the injury was meant. And, too, we don't tolerate fools very well."
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