Hi all, I've only just joined and as I don't particularly want to offend anyone, I was wondering what the unspoken rules of the board are? For example, I have read and commented on a couple of scripts posted here, but I have yet to post any of my own work - is this considered incredibly bad form? How long can I get away without posting my work, and thereby revealing my inepititude at screenwriting, whilst still joining in discussions?

I'm English, good manners are everything!

Reading other people's work and not posting your own is fine.  It's a lot better than the many who post work but don't read others.

You'll get more out of it if you do both.


Phil

There aren't any unspoken rules to be honest, you can basically do what you want when it comes to reading/posting screenplays. Just do the best thing for you

Oh, I beg to differ.

There are TONS of unspoken rules, so I'll type a few of them:

1.  BANANA CHAN is the best virtual series, AMERICAN ANIME is the second best, and THE LUNCHROOM is the third best.  Anything Wesley writes is the next best.  And out of all the virtual serials on the internet, the worst virtual series is STAR TREK: RENAISSANCE.  

2.  Horror screenplays almost always suck.

3.  Religious speculation is okay, but conversion attempts are not.

4.  Film Noir is rarely scripted correctly by an amateur.

5.  Write what you know, and defend what you know.

6.  I am your hero.

7.  Don is God.

8.  If you must complain about a company that screwed you over, you can't mention the company's name on these boards, because that somehow affiliates the webmaster with the complainer, even though it doesn't.  I hate this rule.

and reading the rules can't hurt.

Don

I think there should be an unspoken spoken rule because I'm about to say it that you have to read two scripts before you can cry and compalin about your own work. Now that I know more what it's like to be looked over I am done reading scripts by people who just lounge around pissing away there membership for there own selfish gain.

I'd much rather help good people like Balt, Alan, Ian, Ziggy and so on and so forth, people who actually read the scripts on the web site when they can. There are more, you know who you are.

And maybe scripts with no or a very short synopsis should be denied because a short synopsis for a full length script is if nothing else a uneeded distraction to a potential reader.

Anyways, that's my piece.

I find it strange that anyone who was serious about being a writer wouldn't want to read other peoples work? Otherwise how are you gonna learn?

That's the question that i asked myself and after a long discussion with myself I didn't go anywhere because I'm only one person, you know? But if I were talking to other people about it I'd come to the conclusion that there selfish big headed egomaniacs that want all the glory for themselves

But even if someone was convinced of their own infallible genius, wouldn't there be a certain amount of pleasure in reading other peoples scripts just to look down their noses at them! Although I suppose the illusion might be shattered if everything they read was quite obviously as good as or better than the script they thought was a masterpiece.

Maybe there just lazy, like me but i take the time to read stuff. I stayed up till 6am reading a couple scripts, I didn't have to but I did it because I promised the writer that i'd read it as quick as I could. It's mostly a thankless job giving reviews and reading screenplays even when they beg you to read it.

guess I can see both sides of the coin

I am also lazy - I'd rather be reading something someone else has written and commenting on it that actually getting round to working on my own stuff.

Here's a great unwritten rule:  Don't get pissed off if people write bad reviews of your script!  It's not their fault if they don't like it.


Phil

Really, just use common sense when it comes down to it. If you want people to read your stuff, read other peoples and post feedback (I read a lot more scripts than people think, I'm just not big on posting feedback, which is a pretty bad habit). If someone posts a line saying your script sucks, ask why. If someone posts a page with details about how it sucks, thank them. It will help you make your script better.

And always, ALWAYS bow down to the mighty Holman and Don should they bless your thread with a visit.  

*blush* Oh you.

Oh, another unwritten rule:  "Virgins shouldn't write erotica."


Phil

Nobody should write erotica unless there into porn or want to be in porn, a dirty scene here and there is okay but erotica rears toward porn

Erotica written by a virgin is really REALLY bad.

This also applies to other subject matters, too.  Unless you've been in the military, you should lay off such stories where the military is a key factor.


Phil

You can write accurately about a topic in which you are inexperienced, if you research that topic.

Some things you cannot properly research.  Sex is one of them.  Another example might be martial arts.  You can't write a good martial arts story without an understanding of it (I'm talking more than just fighting).  At the very least, you would need a good fight coordinator, but even then, you wouldn't understand the heart and soul of it.


Phil

I don't see why a virgin couldn't conceivably make a decent attempt at erotica.

I'm guessing that Ian has never been chased by a slasher killer, Wesley has never fought a chicken, Ziggy has never travelled forward in time, and Alan has never been a sixteen year old girl called Banana (if I am wrong on any of those points I do apologise). Doesnt mean they can't write it.

You can watch a lot of porn, interview people who have been in the military and learn a martial art. At the end of the day to sit down and write any character you still have to use your imagination.

That's what an editor told, although I believe it.  I'm not referring to cheap porno, btw.  I'm talking about passion and that's something you can't research in books.

Slasher films and porno merely mimick other slasher and porno films.  And there's no passion in porno movies.  Porno films are usually written by the director in a day's time just so he doesn't have to pay a writer.  No one who writes slasher films knows what it's like to be chased by a mad killer.  

I can't comment on Alan's Banana, as I haven't read it, but Ziggy didn't write about time travelling.  His character just popped up in the future.  Since time travel is only theoretical now, writers have more room to make things up in this matter.  It still has to have some level of believability.

If you talk to someone about martial arts, you'll learn a little bit about the style (what separates it from other forms) and maybe some techniques.  You won't learn about the heart of the form.

There's a big difference between 'Kickboxer 9' and 'The Karate Kid.'  Kickboxer 9 is just about fighting.  It's all visual (much like a porn movie) with little story (much like a porn movie) and little character development (much like a porn movie).  Karate Kid goes very far into the style of Karate.  Ralph Macchio learns more than just technique.  He develops the confidence, spirit, experience and philosophies that you can't get through an interview or from a book.


Phil

To be honest I know nothing about martial arts, but I am quite willing to believe that Kickboxer 9 didn't get to the heart of the subject!

I agree with you that some things you can't research, but there are also some things you can never experience i.e. life in somebody elses shoes. If you could never write anything but what you have directly experienced, films would be pretty dull. Nothing interesting ever happens to me!

I must admit I get dragged to comic fairs and there are always these hilarious erotic comics drawn by teenage boys who have quite obviously never seen a real woman naked. But bless them for trying, they are flexing their imagination muscle and that can only be a good thing. And  people actually buy this stuff, so who am I to turn my nose up.

I don't think someone needs to have had sex to have experienced passion. I also don't think someone has necessarily experienced passion just because they have had sex. But thats taking the topic off on whole different tangent...  

Some things you can write about through reading books and interviewing people.  Some things you can't; erotica is one of them.


Phil

I was talking about this thread with a friend who is a comic book artist. A couple of drinks later we decided we were going to produce our own spoof erotic comic, based on the sometimes rather messy reality rather than the fantasy portrayed in most erotica. See what you've started Phil!

It's true that I haven't been a sixteen year old girl named Banana, but ever since a very young age, I've had fond feelings towards ...

... okay, i was just holding a towel.  I dropped it.  I looked at the floor, and it's gone.  It's the weirdest thing.  Have you ever held something, dropped it, looked for it, and it was gone?  Was there a towel in the first place, or was it a towel of the mind?  It was definately a real towel.  Where the fuck did it go?

I've dropped something and couldn't find it but eventually you find those things

This particular towel was big.  Perhaps it was a continuity error, and I wasn't supposed to notice it.  Will this "draft" of the universe be re-written because I noticed a continuity error?  I don't really care to learn the answer.  What were we talking about before my paranormal event?  

Oh yeah ... muses are typically abstractions, like music or a personality, or a picture, et cetera.  The more complex the abstraction which is your muse, the more stuff you can write aabout without really knowing too much about those subjects.