As I reflect on my time as a Professional Member at Writers Boot Camp from 2018-2020, I have a fond…read morememory of my time there and also life before the Coronavirus outbreak. My recollection there remains even more clear now because of how well the end of my time coincided with the beginning of the pandemic. Unlike most, who have clear memories on what they were doing before all of our lives changed, I remember it more distinctly because of how my writing process significantly changed over the two years I was in Professional Membership.
Before joining Writers Boot Camp I would spend months filling up notebooks with stories I wanted to tell, not knowing that I was both spending too much time researching stories, but also spending way too much overwriting them. It wasn't until I signed up for Professional Membership and started in Basic Training, that I realized how much extra work I was doing and how unaware of my own process I was. I quickly learned how much time and effort I could be saving in my pursuit of screenwriting. With the tools and distinctions that Jeffrey Gordon and his staff showed me, not only did it become easier to write and decide what to write, but I soon gained knowledge and awareness in my own process.
Working in a group environment ultimately makes your work more transparent, because for so long I was writing in a vacuum. Like most writers who don't have the benefit of a writing group, it's hard to see feedback as timely and throughly as I did as a Professional Member. Some breakthroughs came easier than others. In Project Group I learned how much my story was still in my head, even after multiple drafts of writing on my own. With screenwriting, as with most writing, the proof is in the pudding, and in Writers Boot Camp, the pudding is on the script page.
The most important part I learned is that re-writing is when the magic starts happening on the page. Writers Boot Camp emphasizes the re-writing process from day one. They tell you right away, you're going to be re-writing your first draft, so they get you comfortable with that idea. This philosophy keeps you from thinking your idea, character and pages are precious, because unless you're a born natural, they most times are not. The company and its trained staff know what makes material work, they know how to execute those ideas and they love movies! Those three things I feel, are the most important parts about creating a productive and comprehensive learning environment for aspiring writers and filmmakers.
I'm now a better writer, conceptual thinker, collaborator and authority of my own work. If you would have asked me before I joined Writers Boot Camp if these things were true, I would have told you, "yeah", but now as I look back I can truly say, I didn't even know what I didn't know. I didn't see a lot of things I was doing wrong, but today I see them all. Now, I spend my time re-writing and making my scripts better, knowing what I need to know. I no longer waste my time hoping I'll be a better writer, because I'm becoming one.
