Contest Season

For some reason, most of the major contests have their deadlines in the next couple of weeks.

I'm not a huge contest guy, at all. I've submitted to the Nicholl a couple of times, and made the semis in 2006, though that experience was ultimately not all that satisfying: a double-handful of read requests, mostly from managers, that didn't go anywhere.

I submitted to Bluecat, and as chronicled here that was a disaster; when I finally got their vaunted feedback with the script (weeks after it didn't make the next round), it was a rave without a single critical note. Oy.

When I bashed them about it here, they sent me an unhappy e-mail, though they did offer me free entry to their next competition. I didn't take them up on it. Just because I have another eye, doesn't mean I'm going to let them jam their fork in that one too.

But it's contest season again.

The Nicholl semi thing didn't ultimately lead anywhere, but at the same time it does look nice in an e-mail when I'm trying to get someone to read my stuff. It establishes that I'm not a complete noob.

But unless I dust that script off and send it in again, I don't really have anything that's Nicholl-friendly. In the last few years I've written a couple of dark thrillers and a TV pilot, but nothing that is liable to do well in that kind of competition.

It's the TV pilot that I'd like to get out there into the world; it's whining to me about sitting on the shelf all the time.

There aren't all that many contests that cater to TV pilots though. Austin takes specs of existing TV shows, but snubs pilots completely. Nicholl doesn't do TV at all.

There are Scriptapalooza and PAGE, both of which have deadlines coming up soon, and which are both possibles. Anyone have any experience with them?

Share stories here, as well as tales of any other contest experiences, good or bad.

Because it's contest season, and though it's always a longshot, it is one way to be a little proactive with the writing career thing.