What a Difference a Contest Can Make

by Lisa Gold

Two years ago, I was fortunate enough to win CineStory. One of my prizes was an invitation to the CineStory Retreat. I looked forward to meeting the mentors and getting one-on-one feedback on my script, but the actual Retreat offered so much more. The night we arrived, two mentors talked about how, as writers, we need to go to the uncomfortable places. "If you’re not sitting and vibrating as you write," working mentors Meg LeFauve and Joe Forte said, "If you don’t have to get up and walk away from your computer because of the butterflies in your gut…you’re not going far enough." At first I didn’t know what they were talking about, but damned if I didn’t start feeling those butterflies as I sat listening: I thought about the ending of my script, and realized I hadn’t gone far enough in my story.

As I met with various smart industry mentors for intense hour and a half sessions, I kept going back to that epiphany I had on the first night. I floated a trial balloon with my mentors: what if I changed the ending of my script so that my main character realizes he’s done something unforgivable, would we hate the character? Maybe yes, maybe no, was the answer. But I had to try it, the mentors urged. I felt challenged to go further, deeper. Depth! Now there was a word I was hungering for: the mentors asked me, and in turn I asked myself: what was my theme, who were my characters, what fresh insights was I delivering? Not just at a knee-jerk level, but way down, at the core of what drove me to write my story. I left Idyllwild full of inspiration, rewrote my script, and changed the ending. The year I went to the Retreat my script "The Poker Wars" made the Nicholl Quarterfinals. This year, the rewrite of the script, inspired by my CineStory mentors, made the Nicholl Finals, reaching the top 10 out of 5,050 scripts.

After my first Retreat experience, I was hooked on CineStory. I’ve since attended a second Retreat, and two CineStory-mentored Screenwriting Camps. In addition to urging me to go to a deeper place in my writing, the mentors have educated me on the marketing/business side of being a writer, so that now when I think of new ideas, I consider their commercial appeal while remaining true to what’s bubbling up inside me. For a writer trying to break in, there is huge disconnect between sitting alone at the computer and wondering whether you’re on the right track, versus the actual give-and-take that goes on between working writers, reps and producers. CineStory helps bridge that gap, letting you feel connected to the real world of filmmaking, as opposed to the imaginary world of writing.

Where else can you find industry mentors who will take their time to educate you on the market and give in-depth feedback on your writing? Only at CineStory, the best kept secret in the screenwriting competition world. CINESTORY will be at this year's Great American PitchFest if you would like to meet them and learn more.

Lisa Gold is the 2005 CineStory Screenwriting Award winner, and a 2007 Nicholl Fellowship Finalist.