#htstwites

[bookenders]

WIP Blind Date Spinoff: How to Save the World in 12 Easy Steps

[Do you wanna read another amazing WIP? Do a spinoff!]

First Spinoff Date! Yay! I rolled the dice (literally) and got @cookiecuttercritters Fantasy/Scifi Kitchen sink slash Slice of Life screenplay.

Here’s the Blind Date Intro post - I highly recommend checking it out.

Now, on with the show!

[I read up to ep. 5, btw! It’s fantastic! Everyone go read it right now!]

General impression of WIP: Title, yes. WIP intro, yes. Concept, yesss. This is my exact brand of weird bonkers shenanigans. I can totally see this being sold as a script book; it’s ripe for the imagining.

Character intros in the script are solid. Not sure how formatting works for alien-ish characters, but I think you nailed it. (I come from the desert and have seen news stations fry eggs on car hoods and bake car cookies, so the opening made me chuckle.) I think I might be the target audience for this kind of story because I love me a good cliche/genre trope giggle served with a dollop of the absurd.

It kinda reminds me of Futurama, actually, the way everything is set up visually. And I love it.

Favorite part of WIP: The visual puns (and just puns in general) are great. The sidewalk eggs not being fried right before the cutaway, EXIT PURSUED BY BEAR (Shakespeare nerd is appeased), the Clark Kent reference, all of the subverted and poked-fun-at tropes and stereotypes, I love ‘em all.

I wish I could tell you every single one I loved, but that’d just be a really long list of out of context jokes. Which would be a sin, because you should really read the pages to experience them at full pun strength. 

A compliment about writing style: Dude. The dialogue? Quirky, snappy, and fun. Your style really lends itself to self-awareness, too, which is perfect for this kind of humor writing that evolves into something bigger than it started as. 

Favorite character: John Smith! I’m a sucker for the everyman. And he’s serving such a crucial role in this story: he’s the litmus test. He’s the guy you look at to remember that oh, no, normal exists and it’s not this dude. And of course he’s the Chosen One’s go-to guy. 

And I see that his role gets a lot more complicated as the story goes on. I, for one, am psyched to see where he ends up in the grand scheme of things.

A post that I liked a lot: Just one? Ugh, fine. This art is gorgeous and I really get a feel for her character! Also, all the episode posts. Because they’re excellent.

What I’m looking forward to seeing next: I really wanna finish the whole season and learn more about how everyone is connected. The plot you’re weaving is intricate and intriguing as hell. I wanna see where this goes!

Anything else?:

If you don’t have a copy already, I recommend picking up The Screenwriter’s Bible. I had to read it for two of my film classes and it’s a lifesaver (another is Story by Robert McKee, which is more popular and well-known and works as a writing guidebook too!). 

I’m not sure what medium you’re going for - like, podcast or tv serial or web series or what have you, and a lot of scripting advice will be only relative to that medium, and my experience is with feature/short film and television series, so I can’t really comment on that. 

If you want more nitty-gritty commentary/concrit, shoot me a message! I know a lot of people don’t like that kind of thing being public. 😊