Another feature-length screenplay gets notched into our belts. The Line of Control is a Science-Fiction/Drama that pays strong attention to the drama. What does that mean? A story with intriguing "tech" elements and captivating character pieces. 

We've knocked around several other script ideas, even hurried a rough draft or two. But, chasing multiple ideas was pulling us from completing one. We tabled future script ideas and finished The Line of Control. It's a satisfying feeling. That is, until we get our feedback from our faithful readers and have to start another rewrite.

But in the meantime, on to the next work.

Just received some judge's feedback on Allatoona Lake from the Slamdance Screenplay Competition. Mostly positive, but we won't find out if we placed as a finalist until September. Here's an excerpt of the review:

What's not to like about that?

Today we heard back from the first screenplay competition we entered in to... and we were rejected. The screenplay competition was the Tony Cox Screenplay Competition via the Nantucket Film Festival. We were somewhat disappointed, but not discouraged. Mark and I both read Stephen King's On Writing, and we both loved the story of his initial rejection letters. When Stephen King was still developing his craft, he entered his stories into numerous magazines and was rejected one after another. He saved all of the rejection letters and pinned them to his wall with a thumbtack. Soon he had so many rejection letters he had to replace the tack with a nail. Then he  had to replace the nail with a stake. With each no, he was one step closer to the yes. 

We are no Stephen King, but we're happy to file our first rejection letter and know that with each no, we are one step closer to that yes.

Today, Mark and I finished our first script together. It's called Allatoona Lake.

We are very proud of it and plan to send it out to a few screenwriting competitions to see if it can gain any traction. We'll keep you posted. 

We began working together two months ago and are very glad to see what our collaboration has brought forth. Here's to many more screenplays.

Today forms the official beginning of the Mark Botts and Isaiah Mouw writing collaboration. I wrote a script called, Allattona Lake, and sent it to Mark. We had never officially met, but knew of each other through mutual friends. I knew Mark was in New York studying screenwriting, so I sent the script to the only "connection" I had. Mark read it and luckily, he saw something beneath the improperly formatted, amateur script. We pitched each other all of our other screenplay ideas and definitely felt we shared a common passion and interests. We decided to collaborate on all our work going forward until we get sick of each other. Today, Mark and I began the rewrites on Allatoona Lake. After this is complete, we plan to rewrite one of the three scripts he has written. We decided to blog all the ups and downs to show what life is like for struggling screenwriters.