Volunteering as a reader for a screenplay competition has seriously cut into the amount of reviewable material I can read. I’m doing tons of reading (have to wade through 80 screenplays) but I can’t write about any of it, and even if I did, you wouldn’t be able to get a copy, so it would be pointless.All that so say that until I get through them, posting will be a bit sparse. On the upside, for all my trouble I get a full-access badge to the festival. Of course, when you do the math for the benefit on a per-hour basis, it would be cheaper to buy the badge. But for me, someone who is navigating the journey from novelist to screenwriter, the experience as a first reader is very valuable. I’m getting to see first hand what it is like to evaluate random stuff that comes in, just like somebody will one day evaluate a screenplay I send in.
The main thing I’ve learned so far is that I have to up my game. If I got my first project, currently in fourth draft, to read, I’d drop it in the No box.