Suleyman Films

Happy Wednesday!

Remaking a Substack account has inspired me to write a quick lil blog post, so here it goes. This last month has been a busy month of writing, revising, and blankly staring at the wall above my computer screen. I finished the third full (FULL) draft of my horror novel, The Exorcist Archives. The file is named “Exorcist Archives Sixth Draft,” sure, but that’s because I got halfway through a few drafts before saying, “F it, let’s start over.” This latest draft is a tad bit longer than I wanted it to be, but I already know what I can trim to get it under the 100K mark. Maybe. We’ll see. Or it’s perfect. Who knows.

I also, in record time, finished a full screenplay for a novel idea I had started a few years ago. It took me about…two-ish weeks from start to finish? I really need to get better at tracking my working/writing time… But, I took some advice from my screenwriting mentor and wrote a full outline before working on a beat sheet (think, line-by-line summary of events), and that helped tremendously. Sure, I got stuck a few times and had to mull things over with my wife—who is great at helping me drive over roadblocks, whether she wants to admit it or not—but I was able to write the entire thing and end it with a sense of satisfaction rather than…I’m blanking on the emotion, but for now, we’ll go with “lethargy.” I think most writers and creatives and anyone who has ever done anything can relate: sometimes, you’re not happy with the finished product, but you’re happy the product is finished. But this time, I was delighted with it (it still, of course, needs finishing touches), and it got me excited to rework it some before I submit it to screenwriting competitions and the like. Side note, for the first time, I used Save the Cat’s method for beat sheets, and I gotta admit, it made the process a breeze and allowed for a lot of creative freedom while still maintaining the required screenwriting structures. Big recommend.

_{(Photo Credit: https://www.arcstudiopro.com/blog/save-the-cat-an-overview)}

Which brings me to my next latest and greatest: searching for agents. Again. Now that I finished my latest draft and a screenplay, I wanted to do something every fledgling writer loves. So, I fired up my QueryTracker account, touched up all my documents (query letters, synopsis, similar books/authors, the nervewracking first ten pages that you pray are good enough, a bio that you want to be different but not too different or risk coming off as quirky!!), and navigated agency websites until I submitted half a dozen queries. I know everyone laments the process (and for good reason), but I’m doing my best to see it as part of the process and, like with any application for just about anything, expecting that a lot of “No thanks” will be coming my way.

But enough about all that, I have to get back to querying, editing my manuscript and script, and, of course, preparing for the NOVA Open in a few weeks (the topic of my next blog). Wish me luck, and thanks for reading.  

Oh, and be sure to checkout my new substack: https://substack.com/@suleymanwrites