Awash in a Sea of Ideas

I am not participating in NaNoWriMo this year.  Instead, I am attending Creative Screenwriting Expo 5, where tomorrow, my brother-in-law and I will participate in the screenwriting tournament.

We had the option of pitching a screenplay this weekend, and while we’re working on one, neither of us felt we were ready to pitch to anyone, much less the people who will be there to hear unrepresented writers pitch ideas.  Producers and executives from Universal Studios will be there.  Imagine Entertainment will be there.

I am certain that we could sell an idea, which in this case, would not be for money, but for an opportunity to come in to their offices for a second pitch to higher-level folks who could actually buy the idea.  For money.  

I am not so certain that we would be ready to make that second pitch on short notice.  And, since neither of us has actually written a screenplay before, there’s that whole Okay, so now what do we do? thing if we do sell an idea.

While we sat there listening to Simon Kinberg, writer of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and X-Men 3, talk about pitching a story, it struck me that the Hollywood establishment supports events like these because this is where the really fresh ideas come from.  The film industry needs aspiring writers as much as the aspiring writers need the industry.

The truly interesting thing about sitting in a room with a hundred writers is that creative energy forms an invisibly luminous pool, and if you’re sensitive to it, the ideas pour out of you.  

It’s a cool feeling.

Wish me luck!