WOTS moves into LATE ENTRY PHASE

Hey guys, as of midnight tonight PST (that's 7/27/09, or rather, 12:01 AM 7/28,) Writers on the Storm passes its regular deadline and goes into LATE mode. All submissions to the contest until our late deadline (midnight 8/10/09) will now cost $50 for a single entry or $95 for a double entry of the same script (when submitted directly into the contest at www.coverageink.com.)

However, submissions to Coverage Ink for script analysis will still net you a contest entry until 8/10 at no extra cost (feature scripts only! Sorry, TV writers... we'll add a TV component next year!)

After the late deadline, there will be one final week that the contest is open for submissions, our FINAL week, which will be open only for Without a Box members. The FINAL contest deadline is 8/17/09.

Hope that's all clear (judging by the amount of calls and e-mails today, it isn't!) Thanks everyone for sending in your scripts, and we look forward to finding some great ones in there!

Jim C.

The Days Before THE DAYS BEFORE

Hi guys, in case you didn't hear, I'm now writing for both Creative Screenwriting AND Script magazines now! Your intrepid Coverage Ink and Writers on the Storm founder (me) is now the dispenser of sage wisdom in every major screenwriting magazine! Gag, okay, that sounded ridiculously full of myself. In all seriousness, it's very cool to be working for both magazines. I'm continuing with my long-running AGENT'S HOT SHEET at Creative Screenwriting, bring my panel of industry-leading agents and managers to you every month. And for Script, I'm doing special assignment articles with a heavy biz focus.

My first piece in Script is called The Days Before THE DAYS BEFORE, and it chronicles how this old-school big money spec sale went down. It's a wonderful Cinderella story about how writer Chad St. John sold his sci fi time travel actioner THE DAYS BEFORE. It's nice to know that regular guys like Chad (and you and me) still have a shot out there, even if our script is going in cold to a buyer with no attachments, no heat, no nothin'! The article is in the current issue of Script, on newsstands now. Check it out! (PS: Sorry, it's not posted online. This here be old-fashioned print journalism.)

Jim Cirile
founder, Coverage Ink
Writers on the Storm

WOTS Regular Deadline Approaching!

Gasp! It's that time, Stormies! Time is running out to get your scripts in to Writers on the Storm for the dirt-cheap entry fee of 40 bucks. After 7/27 (our regular deadline) the contest goes into LATE entry mode, which means the price goes up to 50 dollars. Our final deadline is 8/10. So let's get a move on, y'all! Just like the second half of Act 2 in your screenplay, the clock is ticking... ;)

Holy cow, we actually have 20 quarterfinalists already! This is amazing. These 20 represent folks who sent their scripts in to Coverage, Ink for analysis (thus scoring them a free contest entry.) As we explain in the blog pieces below, there are a couple different ways to enter the contest, and one of them is sending your script to CI for coverage before the 8/10 contest deadline. If you do that entry is free, and if your script scores a 'consider with reservations' or better for script, roughly top 10%, you're an automatic quarterfinalist. Everyone else who enters the contest directly (at www.writerstorm.com) finds out if they've made the QFs or not when everyone else does, about a month after the contest closes.

Here are the 20 so far who have kicked serious booty (in order of when they were submitted):

The Enginist by Tim McGrath
Macau Twilight by Tony Shyu
Nightmare in the Ardennes by Walt Malinowski
Shades of Grey by Michael Morra
Svengali Effect by Jeremy Shipp
Operation Chronos by Jon Sklaroff
Man on the Overpass by Kevin Madden
Sense of Self by Craig Cambria
Rainwashed by Paul Sargia
Future Visions by Stephen Moretti
Sure Would Be Nice by Thomas Serio
Scout's Honor by Jocelyn Osier
Three Cousins & the Cannolis by Lisa Cordova
Angel Trap by Holli Herrie-Castillo
Murderous Me by Vicky Sutton
Tortoise and the Heir by Russ Meyer
Laramie by William Johnston
Sorority Kings by Scott Fickas and Brian Jones
War Without End by AF Grant
Peanut Butter by Yvonne Miranda

Congrats to everyone listed here, but remember there's plenty more room for quarterfinalists! One last note. In the last CI newsletter I noted that I was a tiny bit disappointed the list was so male-dominated. Well, I am pleased to see a bunch of ladies stepped up! Thanks, Holli, Vicky, Lisa, Jocelyn! Represent! ;)

Portia Jefferson
Writers on the Storm Contest Coordinator

Enter Writers on the Storm now right HERE.

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!