One of 12 Tied From 1400 - Creative Screenwriting's Cyberspace TV Scene-Writing Contest

I'm in excited shock. I learned today that I'm one of 12 tied for the three winning positions in the TV scene writing competition. 1400 of us competed in the first round which was to write a 3-5 page scene in 48 hours, which would fit the parameters of the premise they gave us.

This was harder than it sounds because normally in a script you'd have the set-up and the relationships all defined by opening scenes before you get into the meaty pivotal ones. Here you have to do the set-up and define the relationships very quickly so you have most of your time to sparkle in the scene and in whatever climax the scene involves.

100 of us made it through to the second round. Second round consisted of writing a 3-5 page scene in 24 hours, consistent with the parameters they gave us in another premise. From that, they were going to select the three highest scorers as winners. These three would be read by actors and filmed, so the creative screenwriting community could vote on first, second and third place.

Instead, there are 12 of us tied for those three positions by points and the judges have been passionately arguing their favorites. No wonder they didn't announce on Friday like they said they would. They said they have chosen their three winners on criteria other than scores and are awaiting Creative Screenwriting's permission to announce them. But they haven't announced yet, and waiting is a bit like torture. Think good thoughts for me.

"Evening of Burn Notice" at Paley Center

Just a quickie because I'm so tired that I can barely keep my eyes open. Tonight I got a chance to do the red carpet for another show I love, Burn Notice.

I will be writing an article for Suite101.com as soon as I can... and I'll be back later to share tidbits with you... as soon as I become coherent again.

Update: My articles on this are now online at Suite101.com. You can link to them here:

Press interview

Evening program part 1

Evening program part 2

I had met Matt Nix through a friend who worked with him when he was an assistant at Don Buckwald & Associates. When they needed some computer database work, Barbara had asked me to come in for a few weeks to do it.


Update: As promised, I put up some more photos. The first six are from the press interviews. Creator and executive producer MATT NIX and lead star, JEFFREY DONOVAN greeted each other warmly.

Sandwiched between Matt and Jeffrey is BONNIE HAMMER, president of USA Network which airs Burn Notice. She popped over to say a few words to the guys and she greeted each with a friendly hug.

After the press interview, I joined the rest of the audience who were watching the season 3 finale episode. After that, we had the Q&A session.

These next two pictures are from the Q&A session.

The final one is Alfredo Barrios, Jr. -- one of the writers on the show with whom I chatted at the end of the program.