THE STORY SPOT

As you know, dreaming up worlds and the characters who inhabit them is work done mostly in the company of one’s self. For those moments when our creations become vivid in our minds, it is just us and the page — even when working in a writers’ room or a collaborative partnership. So I thought I’d offer this post up to you to share some of the places where writers gather to let off steam, ask for advice, chat about the weather, or just lurk secure in the knowledge that there are other oddballs out there holding imaginary universes aloft and alive. It’s a bit LA-centric so I’m counting on the rest of you to fill it out!

• SheWrites. “A new social network where women writers working in every genre—in every part of the world and of all ages and backgrounds—can come together in a space of mutual support.”
• InkCanada on Facebook. For “Canadian Screenwriters & their sketchy friends (all are welcome).”
• The AWP Writers’ Circle. An online forum from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.
• Los Angeles Poets & Writers Collective. “The Collective is made up of hundreds of Los Angeles poets and writers who have studied at one time or another with Jack Grapes. We hold readings, writing classes, seminars, retreats, dramatic productions, and sponsor the publication of books, anthologies, and literary journals.”
• AltScreenplay. Writers and actors gather to read Indie scripts and documentary treatments.
• Wordspace. Brenda Varda’s Los Feliz venue “providing space for creative development & collaboration while developing partnerships between writers (& writer/performers) and producing organizations.”
• Book Party! A lively reading series and cocktail hour in Culver City brought to you by Emily Benz and Liz Anderson.
• Rhapsodomancy. The five-year-strong reading series and cocktail hour hosted in Hollywood by Wendy C. Ortiz and Andrea Quaid.

It would be a good thing if we could build this resource together and make it as international as you all are. If you are part of a local or virtual community of writers, why not post the info in the comments and share the love?

The amazing international film resource that is FilmFresh.com has recently partnered with some of the big studio players and relaunched. This is exciting news to those of us who are already addicted to their catalogue of hard-to-find international films. Now we can ditch those who shan’t be named for a smaller service run by true a cinefile, Rick Bolton.

There are so many exceptional films made throughout the world, and few opportunities to see them. That’s why we started Film Fresh. We collect great contemporary films from around the world and make them available to film lovers throughout North America at FilmFresh.com. On our Web site, viewers can discover new films, converse with interested viewers, and purchase films for home delivery, on DVD and via digital download.

What more could we movie-lovers want?

Visit the *new* FilmFresh.com.
Follow FilmFresh on Twitter to get the freshest releases first.

Photo Credit: svenwerk via Flickr

Books? For free? Whatchatalkin’aboutWillis?

Recent economic troubles, it seems, has boosted library use. And why not? Libraries are in every community, often carry the latest releases, and are there just for you. So get back to your grade-school roots and check out and/or donate books. You’ll make your local librarian happy and re-discover the joy of sharing. Do it in time for the weekend and you’ll have picked up somewhere wonderful to get lost.

Related stories:
“Check It Out” at The Boston Globe
“Library Use is Booming Because of Recession” on Treehugger

Thanks @alissagrosso for the story tip. If you’re a Twitter follower and have an idea for THE STORY SPOT, DM us! We’d love to hear from you!

Scriptshadow is the blog by Carson Reeves that lets us eyeball screenplays that have been recently purchased in this big machine we romantically call “Hollywood”. Makes a nice complement to your Done Deal Pro and IMDB Pro subscriptions, no? (Plus, it’s free!)

Here’s how Carson describes his work:

Scriptshadow started off as a small intimate blog whose purpose was to review and make available recently sold spec scripts for amateur writers to study so that they could improve their own writing.

But then came The Man:

Fortunately/Unfortunately, the blog has grown to a place where me posting scripts has become impractical. I’ve received enough legal urging to convince me it’s not worth the risk. As a result, from this point on, I’ll only be reviewing scripts and not linking to them.

Still, he provides a great resource for those who like to be in the know.

Visit ScriptShadow at http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com
on Twitter at twitter.com/Scriptshadow
and on Facebook (where there are treats to be had)

Thanks, Mike H. for the tip!

Here’s your Friday thought:
Expertise can be yours with a simple 10,000 hour investment.

We writers–high-school students to showrunners to Nobel Laureate novelists–certainly know a few things when it comes to creating stories. We make people laugh, we make them cry, and–if we’re lucky– our audience claims our stories as a part of them forever.

Even that phenomenal success does not necessarily mean we may claim the title of “expert”…not in its truest sense, anyway (for there is much room in our culture for casual use of the idea). It doesn’t mean we know all there is to know about our art, our craft. Today’s post is a reminder to seek out that which we DO NOT know in our work and learn more about it. Today. Do it. Just one thing.

Want to know how to become an overnight success? Sure, there are people who, every minute, land in New York, London, and Hollywood’s eager laps and get swooped up into the publicity machine to be lauded as fantastic! A spectacular spectacular! And surely they are all of those things…but perhaps “dazzling” isn’t an all-encompassing definition of success nor expertise.

You need a particular kind of practice— deliberate practice —to develop expertise. When most people practice, they focus on things they already know how to do. Deliberate practice is different. It entails considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well—or even at all. Research across domains shows that it is only by working at what you can’t do that you turn into the expert you want to become.

– Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, Professor of Psychology, Florida State University

So whoever you are, whatever your accomplishments, keep working. Stay curious. And remember that you will always have learned more than someone else and there is always someone who has learned more than you do. And that’s a great thing.

The Expert on Experts by Christopher Percy Collier at Fast Company
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
The New York Times talks with Roger Moore (a podcast direct link)