Connie Lansberg-The Pefect Tear

continued- How Long Should You Keep Working on One Story?

noreply@blogger.com (Connie Lansberg) — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 01:34:00 +0000

There I was. Years of writing, manipulating, honing, cutting, adding to this one story, The Perfect Tear, and now I was at a dead end. Being in the business of entertainment, I had an aversion to asking anyone with a profile for help because I knew how hard they had to work to get where they were and how hard it is for the unproven to get through the doors. There had to be another way. I admonished myself that I did not come this far to hit an insurmountable wall. The Perfect Tear was a good story and original in its content. I admit, at this point, I simply asked the Universe, the Field of Potential or, as it's called in my story M.E.G. (Main Energy Grid) for help. No, that's wrong. I demanded help in no uncertain terms. I had done all that I could do. I spent my savings on my project to prove to myself that I thoroughly believed in it and I had never given up on my story. I needed help and I needed it now!

A few days later, browsing through Facebook, I noticed a post from a singer I had met in LA. She was proudly announcing the fact that five of her songs had been put in a film produced by a small company in LA. I followed the links until I found this company's website and saw that it was run by two women who mostly managed writers and scripts. I liked that. I have no real business skills nor any shared language with business men. so they scare me. I had far less trouble with the idea of asking these women to read my script and that the singer had told me to contact them. ( I think they will eventually forgive the white lie)
I was ecstatic when they agreed to read it and convinced they would think it was the best thing ever.
I was wrong, again.

They told me they would have it covered by a very good professional reader and it would be rated as to its chances of being picked up by a studio. That sounded exciting. I was pretty confident it would do well after all the work I had put in with the previous script editor. The girls from the management team set up a Skype call and promptly informed me that the idea was fabulous but the execution, once again, was a mess. I had rated a four; A FOUR!

It was over. This was the bitter end of many years of hard work. I had done all I could to tell this story. I was confused when they laughed at my obvious devastation and told me that a four was a good thing. What? How could a low score like that be a good thing? I was confused.
"No," the said, "some veteran script writers only get a score of one. A four for a first time script writer is really good!" I remember shaking my head in disbelief. But, I was overjoyed that they thought that way.
Hollywood is weird place.

I have always accepted criticism because I believe that it's part of the job. I never defend myself or block it. If one person does not understand what you're trying to say, then many will not. Your writing has to be clear. The girls told me they would help me to get The Perfect Tear into shape and they did. I was told to get a book called Save the Cat and that book saved my life. It very clearly set out the fifteen beats all producers look for in a script. These beats had to be on certain pages. Unlike some who might feel this stifles their creativity I reveled in the precise structure. Let the two hundredth rewrite begin!

to be continued:

Here's a sample of my other job!

How Long Should You Keep Working on One Story? Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Connie Lansberg) — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 17:00:00 +0000

My friend, Steven Kearney was instrumental in keeping me going. He was already a successful comedian, actor, writer and producer. In Australia, you have to be a jack of all trades and he does them all really well. He told me about Michael Hague
http://www.storymastery.com/
and that having the script covered by him would the cost of $800. (This is the part where I tell you start saving.) What came back was devastating. The story itself and the characters were wonderfully original, (OK, so far so good) but the story was a complete mess. Unmanageable. Too many characters and who was the bad guy? Damn! I'd been working on the structure of this thing for years and it still wasn't right. Never mind, I took a deep breath and his notes, and started over. After a few more months of rewriting, I felt I had implemented all of Michael Hague's instructions via his DVD on structure, however, when I had finished, I was too scared to send it back. I just did not want to spend another $800 to be told it was still terrible.

Steven was busy with his own production company by now, so I really was on my own. And let me tell you, on my own was not something I wanted to be. I needed a support group but I had worn them out. No body wanted to hear about my script or lack of one. By this time, I had rewritten the main characters into, probably, a hundred drafts and the story was changing each time. I decided that I would run it by someone else, someone who had never heard of me or my story, before sending back to Michael. I found a producer, someone on the net, who had started a script covering business and who offered me a good deal, so I started work again. I will admit, he gave me one great piece of the puzzle. But, I was to learn later, that he was a bad script editor, though he did leave me with some great advice after our last session. 'Find a really cool, up and coming Australian director." What? Is that all you've got? Where am I going to find one of those? Australia does, small outback stories about dogs or great little films about sixties singing stars. My story spans time and dimensions with a seventeenth century heroine. I'm talking big fantasy for the YA crowd and those who like fantasy mixed with Sci Fi. In fact, Lord of the Rings for girls! You can see my problem.

I had to face the fact that as a producer, and that after spending six sessions with the story, if he himself did not want to produce it, then, what was I left with? I thought it was really good now; in fact, I was certain! Oh boy, was I was wrong.
To be Continued....This blog is going to document the journey of The Perfect Tear and what it took to get it this far!

This is the other thing I spend a lot of time doing. Here's a link of a great Jerome Kern song my band and I recorded live last week. My dress is by Cut 25 and the gorgeous shoes are by Jean-Michael Cazabat. If you look closely, you will see my shoes match Steve Hadley's beautiful bass! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlrXLWT2GHA

continued: How Long Should You Keep Working on One Story?

noreply@blogger.com (Connie Lansberg) — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 04:39:00 +0000

I made the decision to learn to write. After all, I worked as an actress, I had my own original band, I wrote songs, how hard could it be? I enrolled in play writing classes and script writing classes to learn about structure, story and so forth. I did everything the teachers said. I sat down and, using my cool and funny flat mates as the basis of my story, I pumped out a script about three girls who wanted to marry rich but learned that they could depend on themselves. I even had a director who ask to read it. And so the tug of war between interest and disappointment began. My ideas were deemed interesting yet the execution continually let me down. Why was I not getting this right? No one who taught, or set themselves up as an expert, was able to sort out what the problem was. (That was before I knew about Hollywood coverage, a brutal and enlightening process when done correctly.)

The genesis of The Perfect Tear began simply enough. I had been in a ridicules relationship for a few years, however, the break up was still traumatic. I had come to believe I needed this person to be successful. A few weeks later, alone in my room, I was watching a news program, where, a teacher being interviewed, expressed dismay that her young female students felt Cinderella was the female they aspired to be most like. They wanted the fairytale. I was outraged. Why were these children still being read these stereotypical, "I need a man to take care of me," type of stories? I sat down and wrote a song called Cinderella, in which she laments that she never learned to read and was trapped in loveless marriage through ignorance. People seemed to like the song and I got interested in exploring what happens when the books close, what comes after Happily Ever After? I read a lot of great books, like, Women Who Run with the Wolves and The Cinderella Complex to discover more about the dark side, a place I had been for a long time. The songs flowed and when I told a friend what I was doing, she said I should write a musical. I scoffed at first, but then I thought about my skill set, combined with my experience and I thought she might be right.

I sat down and began to write a story around my collection of thirteen songs. I used the characters of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Blue Bear's Wife and Sleeping Beauty. I put a singing group together called The Fairytale Girls. People loved the idea and we even did gigs showcasing the songs. It was fun and exciting until a producer came along and attempted to steal it from me. She wanted the songs, but she was going to hire a writer to rewrite the whole thing. Her proposed story line had absolutely nothing to do with my theme of self esteem and independence. Her idea was silly and offensive to me. She even suggested I should be happy with the fact I could write good songs and leave the real writing to the professionals! However, after much sould searching, and though we had raised over $1000,000 from sponsors (we sang for them) I had to say no. I told her I was happy to get help in shaping the story, but, it was my story. Another story, with my songs, would make no sense and I was not prepared to do it. Said producer had a major meltdown and told me in no uncertain terms to jump in the lake. She took the money raised by my story and songs, and produced a completely different play. Needless to say, the sponsors were confused and disappointed and swore never to sponsor the arts again. (Way to go, Producer!) It was a an emotional roller coaster for me, but I realized I had a very strong belief in my story and the goal was to learn to write, so I set out with even more determination to learn how to write it. Over the years, other producers came and went, the project hit every wall there was and I was at my wits' end. But, every single time I tried to put the story away for good, something would happen and I would have to get back to work. I was singing full time by now, so creatively, I was fairly fulfilled, but deep inside, I knew I supposed to keep going.

To be Continued....This blog is going to document the journey of The Perfect Tear and what it took to get it this far!

How Long Should You Keep Working on One Story?

noreply@blogger.com (Connie Lansberg) — Sat, 02 Nov 2013 05:33:00 +0000

My name is Connie Lansberg and The Perfect Tear is my first book. But, it is by no means my first attempt at writing. No, that has been going on since I was eight. I wrote pages and pages of rhyming poems and I loved to sing as a child, (even now I sing for a living) so it was only natural that I wrote songs. I fell in love with jazz standards, the writing being as close perfect as there is and got myself a great band and worked very hard ever since. I live in Melbourne Australia and I gig around the city having a wonderful time. However, for the event that prompted my writing career, I need to go back a few years.

I was doing a tour of Australia in a very bad play, but, a play where I got to sing one of my own songs, every night. The rest of my time on stage was spent listening to terrible dialogue by bad actors. I learned a valuable lesson. Either go mad, or find a way make it work. I remember a director saying to me once, "you really know how to listen. That's what makes you a good actress." I took this to heart and decided I would listen as if I had never heard the dialogue before. Each and every night I learned to stay in the moment; A difficult but powerful thing to do. This has nothing to do with writing, however, listening and staying in the moment is something we all can benefit from.

Back to the bad actors and their terrible play. They were TV stars in Australia and they simply put together two episodes of their bad but popular sitcom and put it on the stage. The four other actors in this play spent all day writing new episodes for their TV show which left me in strange cities all by myself, with nothing to do! This is where I learned my most valuable lesson ever and one every female on the planet needs to conquer.

I realized I had a choice. I could be horribly bored and lonely or... I could learn how to be alone and be happy with my own company. I set about this task every day. I took long walks, wrote songs, read books, practiced singing, anything and everything I could think of. I went into training over the next nine months of the national tour to learn how to happily alone.

To be honest, I'm too good at it now. At the end of the tour I realized I was a different person. I would never be that needy kind of girl always looking for validation and attention from the outside. Because I was happy by myself and never bored, the company I did keep was exceptional. As a writer, you need to be happy spending hours alone. You need a good relationship with your imagination. I would say to all women, one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself is to learn to be happily and productively alone! You will never run out of things to do if you are a creative person with a burning desire to achieve something wonderful.

The other thing that happened when I finished that tour, was I realized, that if I did not want to be stuck in stupid, vapid roles, that did no justice to my talent, I would have to learn to write, for this is where the real power lies.

TO BE CONTINUED:

This blog is going to document the journey of The Perfect Tear and what it took to get it this far!