[…] One script that received a lot of attention in the 2013 Black List is “Shovel Buddies” by Jason Mark Hellerman (it garnered 22 votes). I was quite struck by the story — “Over 24 hours, four teenage friends try to complete the “Shovel List” (a will/bucket list) left for them by their best friend before he died of Leukemia” — and reached out to talk with Jason about it. We ended up talking for 90 minutes, an excellent conversation covering a lot of territory. I think aspiring screenwriters will find Jason’s insights particularly relevant as we got into quite a …read more […]

I'm just catching up on these now. This has been a great series, thanks a lot Jason and Scott for taking the time to do this. The writer interviews quite honestly are probably my favorite segment on GITS.

I agree. This was a fantastic interview series. The 65 drafts thing just has me intrigued---how patient were the managers and agents with that many revisions. That's what I always wondered. Maybe it depends on the manager? I would think that getting it perfect makes it a lot easier to move the needle than writing quick with a half-ass draft.

Btw, Scott, is there anyway, you have some sort of quick link to the blogs you do within the last 2 weeks in chronological order. There are so many blogs that I often have to scroll through many pages to find one I just read a few days ago. Sometimes I don't even realized I missed a blog.

I'm so happy you guys are enjoying this interview. 65 drafts - 40 of them came before I had reps. No rep wants to read anything 65 times. none of them. One hard lesson I've learned is patience. I don't show anything to my reps until I have gone through 10 drafts and had it vetted by a diverse cast of friends. Reps you only get two or three reads until they lose interest - they are there to make you money. you can bounce ideas off of them and managers love giving notes but you want them out there showing your script around, not reading it over and over. With Shovel the new drafts I'd bounce off the director and when we'd settle on one we'd show it to the producers - my agents didn't read it until we were sending it out. With my new specs I sent it to them when I thought it was ready, they sent me notes, I did those notes, then we sent it to producers, one attached, I got his notes, I did a draft - now we're going to go out with it to Studios. None of that is paid - it's all on you until you someone buys it. Basically, reps are there to sell your stuff. Make some creative friends and get them to help you, buy them dinners, coffees, read their stuff. Managers will help but don't send them a mess, no one wants to read slop.

The 65 drafts thing is very inspiring... it's similar to Kurt Warner getting cut, bagging groceries and keep working on his game.... How patient are reps in terms of time...? If a writer wants to get it perfect, it might take 6 months or maybe a year... So reps buy you dinners and coffees?

With a spec they're patient because they don't have to do anything - it's your idea, you're working on it alone. If it's something someone really wants to read . . . well then you'd discuss the timeline you'd need with your reps to perfect it. Say 3 weeks to work on notes then they'd have a new draft. I can crank out a first draft very fast BUT that draft is not the one to show to people (learned that the hard way). If I tell my reps about an idea and they like it I go and write it for a month, get feedback from others for a month, rewrite for a month. then give it to my reps in a state I think is VERY SOLID, hear their thoughts, do one more pass, then we usually go out with it. So from idea to out is about three months. that gives me time to also do meetings to generate some hype for the idea - get people on board with wanting to read it. Creating a desire out there so when I give it to my reps they want it out in the world as much as I do.

Boy, 3 months--that's a lot of time pressure. The luxury of a spec (before reps) is that you can take all the time in the world. Thanks for doing the interview. It's very insightful and entertaining.