Screenplay1 is still going through the review process at Zoetrope, and I have had my first proper torpedo review – a review designed almost entirely to knock the wind from your sales and sink your battleship, if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor.
I had thought that I was a pretty thick-skinned writer. I’ve written a lot professionally, and I’ve dealt with all sorts of criticism from all sorts of people, but never have I been on the receiving end of quite so much sarcasm and bile. The frustrating thing is that, amidst the 4,200 words of bitterness, I have a sneaking suspicion that there might actually be some useful nuggets of information.
Of course, the point of putting the script up for review is to get reactions from a variety of people and to actively look for weaknesses, but it’s a bit much when one has to wade through page after page of twistedness in order to find them.
I’ve had a few other reviews, including a glorious ‘10/10’ review and another 4,000+ word epic which was the most detailed and constructive review I’ve ever had. However, I’ve had to re-evaluate my opinion of my own ability to deal with criticism after the torpedo job. I had thought I was thick-skinned, but it turns out that I need to work on that whole not-giving-a-shit thing a little bit more.
In retrospect, I really don’t care what this guy thinks about my script, but it’s taken me a few days to come to that conclusion, and it will be a few days more before I can read his review without wanting to smack him. Beyond that, I need to put a bit more effort into culturing a greater degree of objectivity, so that I can read the script as others would, and hopefully see the flaws that need to be corrected before I let it loose into the big wide (unforgiving) world.
After all, t'ain’t no use tryin’ ta be a screenwriter if ya can’t take a few knocks, eh?
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