I'm Not Dead Yet!

CS Open Shows Signs of Life

Earlier this year I announced the death of the CS Open, the live writing competition begun at the 2001 Screenwriting Expo and hosted every year by Creative Screenwriting and Coverage Ink. Over the last 8 years we've put thousands of writers under the gun, judged thousands of scenes and given away over $25,000 in cash (Seriously? Sweet!) It's an enormously fun and interactive writing exercise that stokes writers' furnaces and educates, too. But earlier this year it was looking like the CS Open was going to be a casualty of tightening economic constraints. Rising room rental fees and diminishing attendance put the beloved tournament on the chopping block.

Well, rumors of the Open's death may have been exaggerated! CS publisher Bill Donovan has come up with an innovative strategy to save the CS Open and best of all, to eliminate the worst part of the whole thing -- having to write the scenes by hand. The solution was to move the early rounds of the contest online, yet still have them be timed and evaluated by the Coverage Ink team.

The details are still being hammered out, but we are going to endeavor to make this happen in time for this year's Expo. We'll let you know more on this as it develops, but as of now, yes, Virginia, there IS still a CS Open! Watch this blog for more details and plan on seeing the Coverage, Ink team, as always, at the Expo!

--Jim C.

HURRY! Writers on the Storm deadline 7/27. Click HERE to enter online!