Creative Screenwriting Cyberspace Open 2010

Last fall, I entered my first screenwriting competition, the Creative Screenwriting Cyberspace Open. It had been nearly a year since I'd last opened Final Draft, much less written anything. I missed the first round cut by 2 points, but enjoyed the experience. Therefore, I was happy to give it another shot when the CS CS Open 2010 returned in April. I didn't anticipate getting through to the next round as I felt my dialogue was cliché, my scenario not particularly original and my writing style rather stale. However, this time I somehow matched the cutoff score of 93, undoubtedly thanks to a very lenient judge. My dialogue score was, not surprisingly, the lowest of the four criteria, though not nearly as low as I would have expected.

I was understandably shocked to find I was among the 108 finalists out of more than 1,400 entries. I was very pleased, of course, and this did give my confidence a bit of a boost, though listing the finalists in reverse alpha order by first name ensured I was listed dead last. That, and I was listed as "Al" instead of A.J., so there wasn't going to be a whole lot of head swelling here.

The Round 2 submission had to be conceived and written within 24 hours. I felt this entry was much more original and the dialogue slightly better, so I'm hoping for a higher score, but the judging is very subjective and unless I'm more talented than I believe I am, I don't anticipate climbing many rungs on the scoreboard, if any.

I really have no business partaking in this contest, as I have no complete script to shop, but it's so far been a good motivator. Making the winner's circle seems rather unlikely, still I look forward to seeing how I fared - matched up against serious writers with loads more experience. The second round results were expected on Friday, but as of this post, nothing's been posted. Regardless of the outcome, I already feel accomplished to have made it this far and this experience may very well be the push I need to get back to work on my long neglected script.