First, Let's Kill All Of The Consultants!

Over on The Artful Writer, Craig Mazin came home from the Austin Festival with a bug up his butt and wrote a pretty strong piece against Script Consultants and People Who Write Screenwriting Books. John August came back from Austin with a similar though more level headed) blog entry.

I came back from Santa Fe and wrote this:
Act 2: Conflict!(Mentor Panel)

And have a Script Tip in circulation with this advice:
Should I Pay For Notes?

But I think we are all adults, here - except for that danged 12 year old girl working on her screenplay - and we can make our own decisions. I understand wanting to protect writers from scams and scammers, but over reactions always make me wonder if there are other motivations involved. When the reaction seems *personal* instead of informative, I wonder what those motivations are. Also, when someone hits too hard, I feel like hitting back - even if I don't have a dog in the race. You just want to *react!* even if you more-or-less agree with the comments.

I think most of you people are going to think twice before spending $2,500 on some consultant who has never sold a screenplay and isn't currently part of the film biz. That's a lot of money! I think $20 for a book is fine, I buy and read screenwriting books every once in a while to see if there's some technique I can use. But, I also expect you to be smart enough to compare whatever a book says to the actual screenplays you have read - and not just do whatever the book says to do. Especially if it seems weird.

There is a difference between helping people and punishing people - let's try not to give in to the dark side of the force.

* And Speaking Of The Dark Side Of The Force...

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is election day, so go out and vote. I'm not going to tell you who or what to vote for, that is not my place. But if you don't vote, you will not be heard. It always seems like the extremists on either side get all charged up and vote, and those regular folks in the middle just aren't angry enough to stop by the polls and cast their votes. Hey, vote even if you are not angry. The regular people in the middle are usually the majority, so make sure your voice is heard. We have to live in this country, so we might as well see if we can make it the kind of place where we are comfortable. So - VOTE TOMORROW!

* Comments Section?

Any comments on the whole Script Consultant & Book thing are welcome in the comments section, any political stuff will be deleted.

** BIG PS: So, why are there folks who are so anti Screenwriting Book and Script Consultant and Screenwriting Teacher? What causes that knee-jerk reaction? What causes that in a character?

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Theme & Emotional Conflict - and why even silly summer popcorn films need to be well written.
Dinner: Salad.
Pages: Finished an online interview, but not the big 2 day project I had planned to do.
Bicycle: Saturday - no, rain. Sunday - yes, but not far.