Divine Secrets of the Nicholl Fellowships (using it)
August 31, 2006 — pooks(second in a series)
Note: If you have an agent or manager they may have a different plan for you. That’s cool. They know they can get your script through the right doors when they’re ready to. When all you have is your own gumption, this is my advice.
How to use the Nicholl competition to your advantage:
1) A deadline.
Obviously, some of us work better to deadlines. If having May 1 circled on your calendar helps you, then by all means, enter just for that purpose.
2) Getting read.
If you get any kind of note on your “regretfully you didn’t advance” or if you advance, you can use that to try to get read. It will work somewhere. You don’t know where until you try.
Don’t go into a big song and dance about what “being in the next 10%” means. The more complicated your explanation, the less impressive your accomplishment. “I was in the top 250 of over 5,000 entries,” is good enough, if you aren’t a quarterfinalist. Just figure out the round numbers (that don’t misrepresent, of course) and go for it.
Make some calls, faxes, emails, snail mail queries. Make the short and spiffy. Don’t go into huge detail trying to build yourself up. Mainly, have a good logline. Say you’re in the top “whatever of whatever.” Or you’re a QF. Say whatever you are.
Don’t tell anything that doesn’t help your cause. Do NOT tell that you live in Podunk, Nebraska. All you want is to get somebody to read your script. Give them a reason to read it, not a reason to skip it.
3) Being timely.
Some people will disagree, but I believe the time to use your status in the competition is while the status still means something.
I do not believe in being a QF and waiting to see if you advance before you start querying.
I believe in querying while only the QFs are querying.
Why wait until you’re competing against SFs, Finalists and Fellows, after the thing is over?
Get your script out there as soon as you can. What’s the worst thing that can happen? You get to call somebody back and say, “Oh by the way, the QF script I sent you is now an SF, just thought I’d let you know?” And this is a bad thing? I don’t think so.
Will people contact you after the lists go out? If you’ve reached QF or higher, yes some people will contact you. They’ll also be contacting lots of other people on the list.
Why are you waiting to be one of dozens (or more) of Nicholl scripts in a pile when you could be one of the first?
And if you do advance to the finals? Don’t worry. You’ll be read by a gazillion people. Don’t lose any sleep over the handful of folks who got your script early.
Next in the series: Preparing to be a Finalist.
Oh, in case you’re wondering why Pooks has an opinion on this stuff (as if she needs an excuse to have an opinion on anything) — she’s not only a Nicholl Fellow, but the only person to be a Finalist twice, with two different scripts. And in case you’re wondering why this is written in third instead of first person, it’s because she feels very odd writing it in first person, like she’s bragging instead of explaining. Um. Okay. There, are you satisfied, those of you who said I should explain this? Okay.)
