You had a premise that was interesting enough to garner the read - that is a huge hurdle to overcome and you take confidence from that. Take the comments you agreed with and adapt and ignore the ones that you don't.

Quoted from eldave1 You had a premise that was interesting enough to garner the read - that is a huge hurdle to overcome and you take confidence from that. Take the comments you agreed with and adapt and ignore the ones that you don't.

Thanks. This is what I'm trying to do.

The hardest part has been answering to readers who are hyper-critical of the script only to admit they're not a fan of slasher movies. It's like, "You came to a football field hoping to see a baseball game? Do you know where you're at?"

I'll keep absorbing the feedback I receive for RED LIGHT, but in the meantime, I'm trying to put all of my energy into my sophomore feature, which I think will appeal to a broader audience. Hopefully it will also showcase my writing abilities a little more than a tongue-in-cheek slasher movie can.

The thing about negative feedback, for me at least, is that you just have to train yourself to find what is useful negative feedback and what's just plain negative. When I get lukewarm feedback, or negative feedback, I usually lose the desire to even consider a rewrite. That's the bad part IMO, because most scripts can be vastly improved by rewrites. But, if the excitement to do so is gone, it's pretty hard. If not even impossible to want to get back to the script.

As far as Scriptshadow goes, I believe Carson can help writers, but I probably wouldn't submit a script there myself. I've seen him trash some scripts that I personally thought were pretty good and it's sometimes very obvious he just skimmed through.

I agree with Pia.  You have to look at what works for you.  I read your story and gave you a deep review.  I hope you will read it and think about it.

I've seen a lot of slashers.  My fav of all time is April Fools Day.  Very clever story.

But, only you know your characters and only you can make that determination as to what changes you should and can do.

Dan

Quoted from Sham This x1000. After my win was largely ignored and the review was posted with a negative reaction, I've never felt so out of my league in my entire life. I feel like I'm literally picking apart the (mostly negative) comments that actually pertain to my script just find something positive and keep my head above water. Because, let's face it, when you're already down and the hits keep on coming, you can't help but feel bad. Oh well, it's definitely giving me thicker skin, so I can at least be grateful for that.

This!

Scriptshadow is a brutal environment that has thickened my skin.
Three Wasn't For Me's will do that to you.
Yup. There's a lot of dreck and even some haterz, but I've made great friends too.
The reader pals I've connected with over there are invaluable.
A couple of them are even pro readers that work for small prodcos.

I hope you reached out to some new folks over there, Chris.

EDreamer

Quoted from DanC I agree with Pia.  You have to look at what works for you.  I read your story and gave you a deep review.  I hope you will read it and think about it. I've seen a lot of slashers.  My fav of all time is April Fools Day.  Very clever story. But, only you know your characters and only you can make that determination as to what changes you should and can do. Dan

Hey Dan,

I did receive your review and will reply soon. Sorry it's taking a while -- I've got a lot of responding to catch up on since Scriptshadow posted the screenplay. You gotta understand, prior to this, I could count on one hand how many people read my script, and now I can't keep count at all. So all of this has been a little overwhelming. Just taking it one review at a time.

Quoted from Sham Hey Dan, I did receive your review and will reply soon. Sorry it's taking a while -- I've got a lot of responding to catch up on since Scriptshadow posted the screenplay. You gotta understand, prior to this, I could count on one hand how many people read my script, and now I can't keep count at all. So all of this has been a little overwhelming. Just taking it one review at a time.

Oh, no problem.  I've never written such a long response and had to send it over 2 messages.  Take your time.  I had a hell of a time sending it.  I had to cut out a huge chunk (of stuff that I chose from your script) just to make it fit in 2.  

I loved slashers back in the day.   My fav was April Fools Day b/c it was so smart and kept you on the edge of your seat.

I'd say the biggest difference back then was that you could have a horror/slasher exist merely because you wanted it to, now, thanks to Scream, you have to have a reason, then a "double take" and be smart about it.  

Thanks Scream.

In a way, I am thankful for Scream b/c they were getting pretty awful, then torture porn showed up and that was exciting... er disturbing.  Yeah, disturbing is what I meant to say, really

(those who know me on this site will chuckle)

Dan