Geoff LaTulippe, Mediocre Screenwriter

Bless you, friend.

There are people on the other app who think themselves experts in box office, budgets and production just because they have learned a narrow aspect of it to win arguments about superhero films and I cannot tell you how important it is to clown on all of them

No, I don't think you have anything to apologize for. I can understand some things about where you're coming from.

You know that person is still in there, clearly. I think your real question to yourself is: are they worth finding? And if so, what then?

So I'm not really a delusion builder or deconstructor. I'm just here to offer advice that's worked for me and help you think differently about your work and trajectory if need be.

I mean, I agree with a lot of this. I'd also argue that a lot of people like to CLAIM to be published authors to various degrees of honesty.

For my part, I don't talk about "how" to write, nor can I help you get published. Best I can do is offer advice within my limited niche and hope it helps.

Can you explain that a little better? Are you saying you want to be convinced to compromise your vision for your stories so they're more marketable?

In other words: make sure your audience knows your character knows even though they'll never understand HOW he knows. If that needs to be finessed later, no big deal.

You can either fake it and make it sound good until a technical advisor calls you out on it, or you can do your best to craft an analogy that simply explains the process without needing to know the finest details. Get the audience from A to B first and foremost.

If it was at all helpful I'm thrilled.

Any time!

It really is worth a shot.

And lemme offer you a more practical option

Sit down with a pen and paper and write out what problems you're struggling to overcome and why. It opens up a different part of your mind. So many times I've done this and figured out my issue in minutes. Might work for you too!

We gotta let ourselves off the hook every once in a while, man. As long as you always get back in that chair and start typing you'll always figure it out.

But sometimes just taking a break rewires your brain enough.

If you're not on deadline: give yourself permission to admit you either suck that day or the juice isn't flowing, walk away, and come back later.

We can't just force it. And sometimes we just don't got it. And that's totally OK. You're allowed to hit walls. Just make sure you eventually climb over.

Aw, thank you for saying so :)

Still am bud!

WELL HELLO BACK TO YOU

OK so this is apparently where the writers are. I'm here for the interaction. Hit me up if you think there might be something I can do to help you with YOUR writing based on my 21 years or working in this industry, during which I've learned nothing.

(Also you guys are very nice over here and I appreciate you a great deal.)

The text of the email said only the following:

"EW gave you a B+. From Owen, that's an A. Give people a chance to find that they love things the same way you do."

Anyway. Thanks for listening :)

Going the Distance Going the Distance

One last thing: when we talked at the premiere, I was nervous that our movie, that I loved so much, was going to get trashed and wreck my career, and told Dave as much.

A couple days later he emailed me this link to EW's review by @OwenGleiberman:

ew.com/article/2010...

And I hope some day we, collectively, can go back to being more like Dave.

Things change. We all know that.

But for those of you who've been in the game for maybe only the last 5-10 years, I need you to know that entertainment journalism, while far from perfect, was so much better and more considered than it is now.

And I thought of Dave. And how much that publication has changed since he made it even better than it was.

And I just have to believe he'd have been so disappointed in what the trades have become. And fuck, I wish he was still here to push back, ever kindly and gently.

I will never forget that kindness as long as I live. I wish I'd kept more in touch with him than I did before he died. He left a big hole in the world.

Why am I telling you this story? Because today VARIETY took a thinly-veiled, wholly unnecessary potshot at SINNERS.

We were very friendly, and I admired him a great deal, and was very, very fond of him, but never to the point where I'd say we were close. It was just a really nice little relationship.

So he didn't have to do ANY of that. But he did. Because he cared. And he felt it was right.

Turns out they didn't send him. He asked some people if he could come, because he really wanted to see the movie, and apologize to me personally, and tell me how proud of me he was.

Now I don't want any misunderstanding: I would NEVER be so bold as to assume Dave was my friend.

Mind you, he wasn't talking shit about his employer. He respected the outlet immensely. Just one of those things. And hey, that's the business.

But I was curious: why'd they send him to cover the premiere? The movie was, uh, not tracking well, and didn't seem like it'd catch on.

I was so happy to see him - we'd exchanged a bunch of friendly emails and he'd offered so much safe advice in the interim. And the first thing he did was apologize to me.

He couldn't get VARIETY to sign off on the story. It really upset him. I'd barely thought about it.

He was just wonderfully curious, one of the best qualities a human van possess, and he never once talked to me like I was the green newb plebian I was.

He talked to me like I was a writer.

The next time I talked to him at any length was at the GOING THE DISTANCE premiere.