Woke up to Something Cool on my Coverfly Dashboard…

I am a little compulsive about visiting my Coverfly page even when I’m not awaiting the results of the next round of a competition. (I’ll find out about the semis for the ScreenCraft Fellowship next week, though. Eeeee!) When I went there today, I found a whole new homepage for No Rest for the Wicked. And it had some very exciting stat updates!

I knew I was on the Red List, but I had no idea my quarterfinalist placement had already bumped to me to the top 10 in two categories for the month. Woohoo!!!

If you aren’t familiar with Coverfly, it’s a platform that many competitions use to manage their entries. I really like that I can upload my projects and easily apply in a few keystrokes, though they don’t cover all of the competitions. Both the Nicholl and the Austin Film Festival require separate entries, though there is a mechanism on Coverfly to add additional competition placements even if they aren’t run through their site.

In addition to being an easy way to submit things, they also keep their own data about placements and scores scripts receive in each competition and scores based on coverage the writer purchases. The Red List showcases the projects with the highest scores in various categories in order make them easier for possible producers, agents, etc. to request. I haven’t received any requests, but it still seems like a great way to have things accessible in case someone is looking for the kind of things I write.

There’s another avenue on there that I haven’t tried yet, but could also be a great asset for new writers. There is a peer-to-peer feedback message board where you can exchange scripts and feedback with your fellow writers.

Of course, I know that placing well in competitions and scoring high on Coverfly isn’t nearly as important as getting my work into the right hands at the right time, but I’m gonna ride this high for a while anyway. It’s wild to think that I only started screenwriting ~10 months ago as an outlet to get over my Covid Blues and my first pilot is being received so well.

How are your projects going? Have you ever been ranked high on Coverfly and it helped you somehow? I’d love to hear from you in the comments 🙂

I’m a Quarterfinalist for the 2021 ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship

After No Rest for the Wicked did so well in the 2021 ScreenCraft Pilot Competition, I decided to submit it to a few other contests as well. Most of them will have their first round results posted in June/July, but this big, juicy fellowship just announced the quarterfinalist list… and I’m on it! You can check out the full list on the ScreenCraft website. There were around 4300 total submissions of pilots and features, and this list is the top 1000ish entries.

Winners for this one are actually flown out to LA and have meetings with managers and execs (Covid-willing, of course). The semi-finalists will be announced Apr 28, so I’ll be due for another round of nail-biting in a month.

LitCon 2021 – Adapting Your Novel for TV and Film Panel Discussion

During the first weekend of March, I was the host for two panels about screenwriting for LitCon 2021. The first was a Q&A session, and for the afternoon we focused specifically on the process of adapting a novel or short story for the screen. A big thank you to Joe Compton, L. Marie Wood, and Jon Meyers for joining me and sharing your insights!

My Feature “Grimmer” is a Semifinalist in the Filmmatic Horror Competition!

Logline: Roz’s directorial debut hinges on making amends with her estranged sister, but things on set turn deadly when she accidentally releases fairy tale monsters from their enchanted prison.

Grimmer was my first attempt at writing a screenplay from scratch rather than adapting things I had already written in another form. I got the idea years ago from living in Germany, and it feels pretty prescient of me considering I am now screenwriting myself. It started as a mad dash after an Impact x Netflix prompt, followed by some refining over the next few months.

Taking a deep dive into German folklore, then marrying that with suspense was a fantastic experience. The main character also suffers from chronic pain like me, so it was also a great feeling to get her out into the world.

As my first stab at horror (pun intended), I didn’t expect to win, but I am so grateful to have been selected for the coveted semifinalist list. Many thanks to the folks at Filmmatic, and to the people who gave me feedback along the way.

You can check out the full list of semifinalists, finalists, and the grand prize winner here. 

LitCon 2021 – Screenwriting Q&A

During the first weekend in March, I hosted a pair of screenwriting panels for LitCon 2021. For our first one, authors participating in the online book convention were given the opportunity to send in their questions to the panel in advance, and I got to pick their brains myself. A big thank you to Joe Compton, L. Marie Wood, and Jon Meyers for joining me!

Writing my First (and hopefully not last!) TV Series Bible

Another screenwriting post I am migrating to my new site 🙂

Phoebe Darqueling

With all the other stuff going on and interviews to post, I totally forgot to post about my progress in the pilot competition. On Dec 9, I found out that I was one of just 50 finalists overall in the competition, which started with about 4800 entries. Woohoo!!! So now I am biting my nails until the winners around announced on Jan 13. Even if I don’t win my category, I am hoping I can still parles this into a strong fellowship application to help me get things rolling for real in 2021.

As a finalist, I had to submit a “series bible.” This is one of the many (many!) new things I’ve learned about in the past couple of months. Unlike screenplays/teleplays, this document is far looser. Basically, it is the overview of the season for a show, but its uses have evolved over time. In the beginning, this…

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Creating My Own Screenwriting Boot Camp: MasterClass Courses

I wrote this post for my author website, but I’m moving all my screenwriting posts over to my new site.

Phoebe Darqueling

There are a few online degrees and intensive workshops for aspiring screenwriters out there. But, frankly, I’ve been a self-directed and motivated student of storytelling already for six years. It just doesn’t seem like it is worth the cost wade through the basics again.
However, there is certainly more to learn, especially the specifics of telling a visual story. So I am creating a screenwriting boot camp of sorts for myself. As an early Xmas present in November, I received a MasterClass membership for a year. And I am certainly getting my money’s worth! I’ve completed 169 lessons in about 6 weeks, most of them related to writing and filmmaking.
One important caveat to mention when it comes to MasterClass is that much of the time when I had the lessons on, I was not looking at the screen. There were certainly lessons where I needed to, but oftentimes it…

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