Start off the New Year right and WRITE!

At a New Year’s Eve dinner with friends, we all took turns proclaiming what our New Year’s resolutions are. While I don’t think I need to lose weight, don’t smoke (regularly), and certainly don’t want to stop drinking, I decided my resolution is to make 2012 the year I finish the screenplay that has remained in my head for so long.

What inspired me to make this resolution is my coworker who just recently finished her first screenplay. This time last year, I playfully made fun of her when she said she finished her 50 page feature script which is now a much more polished 89 pages. She has the last laugh now and I admire her for her persistence to finish her script. It has been nearly 3 years since I have completed a feature screenplay. I have another story that I am passionate about sharing, but all this time, I’ve only jotted down random thoughts and ideas in notebooks without any real focus. I can blame the long stressful hours working at AFF and the numerous amount of amazing scripts that I have to read (that not only put my previous work to shame), but who needs to make excuses? I know there are writers who probably work two jobs with families to raise and they still make time to write and are more prolific in one year than I’ve been in 3 years. I have a story; I just need to write the damn thing! For all us who are writers, this is a plight we all share. There never seems to be enough hours in the day to write but if we budget our time well, turn off the TV (except for Modern Family and Breaking Bad), and dedicate at least one hour a day to write, we can all have a polished screenplay by this time next year or sooner just like my coworker.

Even if the Mayans are right and this will indeed be our last year of life on Earth, what have we got to lose? Our stories may be all that remain anyway just like the ancient hieroglyphics of cave men. If you have a story you’re itching to share, join me and make 2012 your year to finish that screenplay.

-Matt Dy, Screenplay & Teleplay Competition Director

Writers on Screenwriting - Jim Dauterive

Jim Dauterive at the 2011 Austin Film Festival & Conference

Next up in our series Writers on Screenwriting: Jim Dauterive, developer/executive producer “Bob’s Burgers” and writer/executive producer for "King of the Hill."

We know how valuable it can be to hear another writer, especially a successful one, discuss their craft. It can inspire renewed commitment to one's work, give ideas for different ways to approach a story and remind us that we are not alone with our frustrations - and joys - in the writing process.

We've asked some friends of Austin Film Festival to share some of their thoughts on aspects of the writing process with us. Here's Jim on how to combat feeling stonewalled by creativity:


When I was a younger writer, I used to dawdle, delay and wait for perfection that was never going to come until I had run out of time and had to write something, anything, and hope it was okay. Somehow, I almost always got away with it. But that's a cocky, immature young man's game and I no longer have a young man's nerves. I've got what old golfers call the yips. I hate the yips.

So this is how I cope; this is the deal I make with myself: I give my writing permission to be bad. I keep writing until I feel in my core it is good. That works for me. That's how I get words on the page. But the creative process is, I think, like grieving. It's a very personal thing. There's no way around it; writing is godawful hard. So if you're going to take it on, I suggest that you forgive yourself, love yourself, be hard but not too hard on yourself, and do the best you can.

Writers on Screenwriting - Brian Helgeland

Brian Helgeland, Rose McGowan and Robert Rodriguez at the 2006 Austin Film Festival

We know how valuable it can be to hear another writer, especially a successful one, discuss their craft. It can inspire renewed commitment to one's work, give ideas for different ways to approach a story and remind us that we are not alone with our frustrations - and joys - in the writing process.

We've asked some friends of Austin Film Festival to share some of their thoughts on aspects of the writing process with us. Here's Brian Helgeland on Writer's Block. How do you combat feeling stonewalled by creativity?


Writer’s Block is a myth, a chimera. It is a bogeyman spoken of around the fire by deluded writers too afraid to deal with the bitter truth. Writer’s block is not the departure of the muse. Because writing itself is a con, it’s a bait and switch and the muse is a slut who skipped town at dawn the night after you slept with her. Why would she stick with you? There are rock stars out there and writing is just hard goddamn work. Mental ditch digging. Anyone who ever used a shovel and hit a rock along the way knows what I mean. Writer’s block is not an obstacle to writing. Writer’s block is writing. When you stare at the wall, you are looking at the very spot through which the muse exited. She went that-a-way. Through the sheet rock. And she was laughing. Laughing at you for believing the lie. The life of the mind… Ha ha ha. Writing is staring at walls, banging your head into them, feeling stupid and useless and facing a life in which you will always fall short. Fear, anxiety and inadequacy are your cohorts. They are the weight you feel on your shoulder as you sit there staring. The joke of it is: get up from your seat and you have stopped writing. Do you really think you are writing when your hands are flying across the keys, when it feels like a symphony is rising before your eyes? Ha ha ha. Writing is a one man chain gang. Writing happens when you stare at that wall and wonder why you are so useless. Writing is doing the time harder than the time is doing you. So get your game face on, crybabies. Your sorry crooked ditch just uncovered a block.

- Brian Helgeland, screenwriter MAN ON FIRE, THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, PAYBACK, ROBIN HOOD, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, MYSTIC RIVER, A KNIGHT’S TALE

AFF Friends Are Getting a Jump on the New Year!

The 2011 Black List is out! Check it out here: http://www.blcklst.com/

Austin Film Festival has several alums and friends on the list - both writers and their representatives - including Ed Solomon, Tom O'Connor (2003 AFF Screenplay Competition Winner), Christopher Cantwell (2010 AFF Screenplay Competition Semi-Finalist), Mike Jones, Allison Doyle (Oasis Media Group), Rebecca Ewing (UTA), Jeff Gorin (WME), Gayla Nethercott (The Nethercott Agency), Andrew Deane (Industry Entertainment), David Boxerbaum (Paradigm), and Ryan Saul (APA). We wouldn't have this list if not for Franklin Leonard, Black List creator, AFF and writer champion extraordinaire.

Also, no strangers to the Black List,

Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman have just signed a deal with Netflix and Gaumont International Television to adapt McGreevy's book HEMLOCK GROVE into a 13-episode series. This should make their adaptation panel at next year's Conference interesting!