Greetings Heroes!

Time for some new "About" words as the previous "About Page" was running about four years old.

I'm a writer. Started out as a campfire story teller and it grew from there. I grow'd up in Kentucky. Still have the accent. Ain't as thick but it's still there. Currently and since '96 screenplays have paid the bills. My first movie was a Friday the 13th movie. Love me...or more likely hate me, I'm the guy who put Jason in space. Don't ask. It's a long story. Just know that the answers are rarely simple. It wasn't my first screenplay. 23rd if memory serves. My first was a fantasy. This was back before fantasy was cool. It was an awesome script. 40 pages in and still no plot had revealed itself. It was many scripts and many years later before I got the hang of it.

Talent, luck and who you know. I used to think those were equal. They're not. Luck is 80 percent of it. But if you don't have the raw talent, don't bother. Not trying to be mean, just saving you some time. So where was I? First movie? Hockey Mask guy movie. Yeah. I wrote a pretty fun script. Oddly enough, that script didn't get made. Welcome to Hollywood.

I'm what you call a working writer. I suppose there are different definitions. For me it means I write, I get paid, I pay my bills. But I've managed to pay the bills with writing money since '96. I know that's rare. I complain but I'm not blind to my being slightly blessed. I've had at least one gig a year since my first film and I'm very thankful for that.

I wrote a Mini Series for the Scifi channel. Yeah. It didn't get made. I've sold a spec with an A List writer attached to direct. Yeah. It didn't get made either. I've written a couple of video games. Should I say it again or has the pattern revealed itself? I've written a couple of comics. Oddly enough, those got made.

As for screenplays the executive runs the show now. It's always been that way but used to there was one or two at every studio with the power to "make" you change the script. Now the guy who answers the phones has more clout than the monkey with the keyboard. So far, I've never seen my vision make it to the screen. You could say that my writing wasn't good enough. Maybe. Maybe not. Fact is, I'm more than happy to put my drafts up against any shooting draft out there and let the opinions speak for themselves. Well, except for one but I'll come back to that.

This is a simplistic way of looking at it but you could say there are currently two trains of thought. Those who fight and those who smile and make the changes. I've always been a fighter. I would argue for what I thought was best. And in the end I would get replaced. So, one time, just for gits and shiggles, I tried the friendly approach. I would calmly state my opinion but if I couldn't sway them (and I never did), I'd make the change. What resulted was the worst screenplay ever written. Not worst screenplay written by me. Worst screenplay ever written. I made changes that I knew were totally wrong. And I can't tell you why. It's a gut thing. It's tone and pacing and structure and arc and character. I can't tell you why it was wrong. I just know it was wrong. Horribly horribly wrong. As a result, not only did I hate the process, I really didn't like the finished script. And, of course it was read and deemed problematic. Not by those who'd given me the notes. No. It was deemed problematic by those with the money. And would you believe it. Them what gave me all those wonderfying notes suddenly pointed the finger at the moron of a screenwriter. If I'd only listened to them none of this would have happened. I was promptly replaced. Welcome to Hollywood part II.

So, I'm back to fighting. Sorry but I'd rather fight for what I believe and be replaced than do what I'm certain won't work and then later be replaced because...it don't work. At least my way I always have a script I can show with pride.

Moving on...My mentor wrote Dirty Harry. He passed away at 83 and I miss the old fart. My best friend is a writer who's gone from movies to TV and now to novels. Smart man if you ask me. I should be alot more successful than I am. Not cuz I deserve it exactly but I have a daughter now and I'd really like to keep her fed and clothed.

Oh. And I guess being a daddy has made me a little nicer than I used to be. Not much, mind you. But a little. She really is my greatest screenplay.

So that's me for what it's worth. I write and I put my story here so that one day I can look back and laugh. I'm more than willing to answer questions but I can really only tell you what I've done. As for teaching screenplay method, that's not my thing. There are some great sites out there with screenwriters way smarter than I am. I'm really just here to vent and record for reasons of my own sanity.

If you need to send witty banter Farmer at Wendago dot com is open 24 hours a day.