CANADIANS ARE GOOD FOR SOMETHING

Well, we knew that already, because of Denis McGrath and John Rogers and William Shatner and having a functioning healthcare system and Vancouver and-- yeah there goes the whole premise of the title, but there is...another.

The check is in the mail. Okay, there is no check, because there is no fee for the ABC/Disney Writing Fellowship, but every other damn thing is in the mail. From the agreement letter (which I had do a little reorganization so that the notarization is actually on the same page as the signature and in accordance with the instructions) to the proof of registration (which I forgot last year, due to a case of raging stupidity) to the script itself (the one thing I could be sure not to screw up in any way other than in the writing of it).

Yeah, I like parentheses. Fuck you.

I sent in my Veronica Mars spec and I think it's much better than it once was and I'll tell you why. It's because of a (more or less) random Canadian, whom we shall refer to as Random Canadian. A film student and a Veronica Mars fan, Random contacted me both out of professional (academic?) curiosity and VM withdrawal. He said he'd like to read my spec and I agreed with the caveat that he would provide me with notes on it. They didn't have to be extensive, but they had to be honest.

"I don't know you, you don't know me and we're not likely to ever meet each other, so tell me what you really think and don't hold back."

Just because I said it...or rather wrote it, doesn't mean anything. I'd just have to see what I got back from Randy. When I give a script to a friend to read (which I don't do very often at all) I tell them I want an honest assessment and that if there isn't one negative criticism in what I'm told, I'll likely disregard all the positive ones. Very few scripts in the world are perfect, if any, and it would be the height of hubris (who I understand is about 5'9") to think that anything I write is every perfect. Orson Welles once said something about I'm about to paraphrase in the same way a tornado rearranges furniture. "A script is never finished, just abandoned."

So I heard back from RC and there was praise for capturing the characters voices and the general feel of the show. There were other favorable comments and then...there was the negatives. How sick is it that seeing some negative criticism warmed the cockles of my cold, dead heart?

One really hit me. I didn't use more of the supporting cast. I had kept it pretty tight between Veronica, Wallace and Weevil. I had to get Logan in there better. And a new C plot came to mind. One that creates a little twist in the B plot. Just the kind of interaction I was looking for. I wanted something like that between B and A, but there just wasn't enough time. Which isn't to say that I'm unhappy with it. I'm not. And I'm not going to send out a script I'm not happy with. Why should anyone else be happy about it to the tune of a fifty grand stipend and what-not if I can't get at least 90% behind it (because no script is perfect).

This maybe this spec's last chance to work for me, seeing as next year Veronica goes to UC Sunnydale-- I mean Hearst College, Neptune CA. The basic idea could likely still be used, but it will be a page-one-rewrite.

So it got all packed up, checked and rechecked for all components, and sent via Priority Mail to the House of the Mouse and the Land of the Lost. Now, I just don't think about it at all until it's clearly much to late to still be expecting a call.