I have a good story roughly outlined and I'm ready to sit down and start working on a rough first draft.

I'm looking for someone who's extremely passionate, articulate, creative and has plenty of free time. You don't need any writing credits under your belt but you have to be past the 'first script/realizing it sucks' stage.

Here are the pro's and con's of working with me on this:

CONS:
--------
1) I've only written 2 scripts so far and they both sucked. And I mean SUCKED. That said, I did learn a lot from them and received a good dose of humility from a studio exec who reviewed them. The reason they sucked was overwriting, lack of coherent story, too many characters, on the nose dialogue -- you name it, I'm guilty of it all :).

2) I'm an American living overseas so this would all be done via e-mail and maybe a few phone calls.

3) There's somewhat of a deadline I need to adhere to. I'm hoping for a nice polished first draft in under 3-4 months.

4) English must be your first language.

5) I have no writing credits and will probably not email you anything I've previously written because it truly does suck.

PROS:
--------
1) I have a credible industry exec from an awesome studio who is ready to give it a read.. needless to say, we only get one chance with this guy. We've been writing back and forth for a few years now and he's given me a boatload of good advice. The deal we have is that I can mail him one more script. I'll have to knock his socks off.

2) It's a really good story.

3) I've read McKee's "Story" cover to cover consecutively 10 times, read about twenty scripts, took notes on a few of them and read various other books on the subject. I've listened to every CreativeScreenwriting podcast, as well as many other podcasts and writer interviews. Now I know that by no means does any of this guarantee that I'll write a good spec -- but at least I won't make the same mistakes I made in my first two scripts.

4) I'm a decent guy. If you're co-writing this with me it'll be 50%/50% throughout the entire process. I'm not stubborn and open to opinions and critique. I'll work my arse off and expect you to do the same.

So think it over. The most attractive things I have to offer you is that someone fairly high up the executive ladder will give us ONE chance, and that the story I have in mind is good.

Other than that it will be an adventure for both of us and hopefully we'll learn a lot in the process.

My email is: whimsicg@yahoo.com

Thanks for your time,
Jonathan

This topic really should be a sticky thread; it seems to pop up monthly now.

Jonathan, good luck in getting a co-writer.  Unfortunately, you're going to have trouble getting one because how how you sold yourself here.


Phil

Thanks, Phil. Could you elaborate?

I was just trying to be honest...

Quoted Text 1) I've only written 2 scripts so far and they both sucked. And I mean SUCKED. That said, I did learn a lot from them and received a good dose of humility from a studio exec who reviewed them. The reason they sucked was overwriting, lack of coherent story, too many characters, on the nose dialogue -- you name it, I'm guilty of it all.

Why would someone want to work with someone who describes himself this way?  I'm speaking very general when I say all this, mind you.  Don't take it personally...

Why would I want to work with you when I know nothing about you...except for the above passage?  I'm under the impression that I'll be doing all the work of making your story salable?  You may have an idea, but everyone here has ideas.  I can only hope that I live long enough to get half my ideas down on paper.

If you get someone who's willing to work with you, chances are it'll be someone with the same level of experience and skills you have. The more experienced people here, generally, are happy working on their own. Add to the fact that we don't know who you are, will only make your collaboration that much harder.  I've been on this site for years and there are only two or three people here (also for years) that I would even consider a collaboration.

Sorry to be this blunt, but it's better that you learn now if you have a deadline coming up.  I can only suggest that you read some scripts, here, and learn from them.


Phil

Oh goodie, I always wanted to work with a sucky writer!

j/k - but that's what Phil was driving at...

And I'm definitely the first three things you describe, but alas, I do not have much free time - and I wonder how many extremely passionate, articulate, creative people do nowadays?  (0:

You seem like a sincere guy so I hope you find the person you're looking for. I guess I'll ask the question on everyone's mind, which is, if you're as bad a writer as you describe, how did you get this high-level person interested in your work?

AJR

Quoted from ajr I guess I'll ask the question on everyone's mind, which is, if you're as bad a writer as you describe, how did you get this high-level person interested in your work? AJR

I gotta butt in and say even a sucky writer can come up with a million dollar idea.  Properly executing it is a whole nother ballgame.  AJR, you think you're so smart, but how many tries did it take Thomas Einstein to invent the light bulb?  Huh!?   8)

PS - you know I'm kiddin' around, so don't even bother.

I do hate saying other peeps are write.

But SR is. In this case. So there.

Any budding screenwriters short on ideas should make further enquiries to JS. IMH.

Ah shure. Yknot?

Where is my shoes?

R

Just a helpful hint:  in the future, you might want to not start off with the Cons.  Maybe bring those in later, or go Pro/Con/Pro/Con.  But right off the bat you're hitting us with all the reasons we wouldn't want to work with you.

Cool. Fair enough. Thanks for clarifying.

Quoted from screenrider   AJR, you think you're so smart, but how many tries did it take Thomas Einstein to invent the light bulb?

Thomas Edison.

Everyone can jump on the bandwagon here for a good bash. If you're serious, I'd like to know what you think your strengths and weaknesses are as a writer. We all have them. You'll wanna partner up with someone who can compliment what you do best, no? Also, tell us at least what genre your story is in. If it's not horror, I'd gather 80 percent of the people would jump ship right off.  Don't get upset over the responses. May first 3, 4, 5 scripts sucked ass. But if you think that about yourself to date, I don't think you're ready to tackle a feature that will knock someone's socks off.

Quoted from jwent6688 Everyone can jump on the bandwagon here for a good bash.

I was attempting to offer up some constructive criticism, and I believe the others were as well.

One big thing I've learned is that when it comes to film, a lot of it is how you sell yourself.  And if the way this guy sells himself is "I suck BUT...", people are going to stop listening after "suck".  Hmm, that sounds weird.

I didn't respond to his search for a co-writer because I'm not interested in teaming up, however I thought throwing in my two cents in regards to how he was representing himself, and offering up a suggestion, wasn't a bad idea.

Quoted from mcornetto Thomas Edison.

C'mon, Michael.

Dressel, wasn't calling you out at all sir, lord knows I give my share of bashings. I was just interested in what this chap was up to. Your words were kind. Mine? most of the time not so much.

And Screen...

Quoted from screenrider C'mon, Michael.

That's the best part about this thread IMO. Laughed my ass off...

@jwent6688,

My strengths as a writer would probably have to be in character development; the ability to get inside a character's skin and find their core, writing dialogue true to characters and making each character unique with his/her own voice. I'm also good at designing antagonists, have a sense of humor, irony. I'm also a good problem solver.

I participated in the AAA contest last year run by Creative Screenwriting Magazine (the one where you have to turn a scene in 3 days, then in 24 hours, then overnight) and scored just one point below advancing to the next round, either a 91 or a 92 (I forget). The person who judged my submission said I got high marks creating a tense atmosphere, a great job with dialogue and character and that I wrote vividly and economically. The reason I didn't make it to the next level was that he/she said I put more of an emphasis on the secondary character and not the main character of the assignment. Initially what I did was switch the roles of the antagonist and protagonist but didn't really set it up well enough to payoff in the end. It was a hard thing to accomplish in a three page scene but I did learn a lot from doing it, especially from the score card and feedback I received.

My greatest weakness would have to be getting lost in my own ideas -- which is why I really need a partner. Sometimes clarity is an issue, not necessarily on a technical level but in the story aspect. I'd also like to have another person I can bounce ideas and dialogue off of and vice versa.

I didn't really mean to sell myself short in the first post. Without tooting my own horn I'd say that yes, I am a talented guy with the potential to be a great writer and I'm getting better every day. I just thought that since most of us here are unproduced spec writers y'all would see the self-deprecating comments as a general assessment of where I stand today and take it with a grain of salt. I read it over again a few times and maybe it was too negative.

I have to admit though, if I saw a post like mine I'd first email the guy/gal and see what the story's all about -- then carve an opinion about the person.

The offer's still on the table :)

Quoted from jwent6688 Dressel, wasn't calling you out at all sir, lord knows I give my share of bashings. I was just interested in what this chap was up to. Your words were kind. Mine? most of the time not so much. And Screen... That's the best part about this thread IMO. Laughed my ass off...

What, I'm the only one who googled Thomas Einstein?

Sadly not. I was gonna Bing it. But then again, I'm on Vista so I'd rather chew on me own underpants.

Didn't he invent the pacifier? Or dummy, as we call it round here.

I was drinking my pacifier last night. Now all I have to do is find my Nurofen and all will be well.

Hope you find what you're looking for, JS. From your posts I can see you're handy with words. And that fella is half the battle. Good morning. And good luck.

R