Blog: December 26, 2008 : 3:30 pm

Take The Nicholls Challenge

This year, I’m taking the big swing at the Nicholls Fellowship, possibly the most heralded screenwriting competition in the world.  More than one career has been jump-started just by placing in the semifinals.

Read more about the Nicholls Fellowship here.

So here’s the challenge:

Submissions are accepted for 120 days: January 1st to May 1st.

During that time, I’m going to submit three screenplays.  A polished draft of Pure Love, and two other screenplays.

Here’s what I’m already aware of:

• Submitting more scripts doesn’t increase your chances.  If anything, spending 33% of the time on each is theoretically less effective than spending 100% of your time on one submission.
• I am deadline-oriented.  Having a deadline to hit means I will pound out work.  So whether I win or not, I’ve put myself into the creative mindset I want to be in.

So I’m completely using the Nicholls for my own ends: to have three scripts to polish for the summer.

But I have a secret reason for entering: I think I will place.  If not the quarterfinals, then the semifinals.

I’ve put the challenge to some of my screenwriting friends, and we’re all going in together on this.

120 days.  Three scripts.  $90 in submission fees.

I’ve been creating work on the outskirts of the Hollywood world for long enough.  If you want to be a world champion, you have to compete against the world.

Will you take the challenge?

Related posts:

1. Read More Screenplays (And How)


2. The End of the Screenwriter


3. Dealing with Silence and Rejection


4. Adapting Prose to the Screen (interview)


5. Me – On Art

tags: nicholls fellowship, pure love, screenwriting