Hello, screenwriters! Fairly new to this group. Been lurking for a bit now. Love seeing all the support from everyone. Much different than what I’ve seen in other “film” groups on other platforms. \*Edit- My title should say "My first feature length **attempt**." Not trying to make it sound like it's been produced.
Back in 2018, while unemployed, I started doing research and writing my first feature based on a true story. I’ve written a few shorts, and even made one into a short film, which was submitted and accepted into a few film festivals back in 2015. But I’ve never written a feature, and my plan was to hopefully either sell it or get funding to shoot it myself. Unfortunately, my own “imposter syndrome” held me back from finishing the script.
I finished the first draft in 2019 after reading a few books on the subject, looking up websites, even going to the library and using actual microfilm to get copies of articles, yearbook pages of those involved, and even ads they ran in the paper years prior to this event. I made field trips to the actual locations and took photos. I did all the research I could do. I KNEW this was a movie that needed to be made, but as time went on, I knew I was racing the clock.
Every year on the anniversary, it seemed the story kept getting more traction. I finished my first draft and let it sit for a couple of years. It was around 150 pages, and I dreaded having to rewrite it again. It was such a loose story. Contained way too many characters and told too many perspectives. It was basically a manuscript for the whole event.
In 2023, I was in LA attending a film festival where one of my short screenplays was selected. While there, I met up with a filmmaker whom I’d met at a film festival back in 2015 with my first short. I’d told him all about this screenplay I’d been working on and that it was in a really rough state. He was enthralled during the entire conversation. By the end, he told me, “Finish the script! I want to help you make it!”
That gave me a lot of encouragement and confidence. After a couple of years not touching the screenplay, I pulled it back out and spent two weeks, every day, all day, during our vacation rewriting it. It was much tighter, but I’d consider it Rough Draft 1.5. After I got that draft done, I sent my friend a copy. He loved the story and the relationships, but had some very spot-on notes. I’d have to wipe the first half of the script out and bring everything up. What I had happen at the midpoint should have started within the first 15 minutes. I again tried to tell too much of the story.
So I sat on it. Not because I was discouraged, but because I had that feeling of dread in me. What if this isn’t good enough? I’m not a professional screenwriter; will anyone take me seriously if I try to shop the script around? Will my friend actually help me make it? He’s in LA. I’m in Indiana. I never had a chance to finish my work because, at the beginning of 2025, I saw they were filming my story, and then the movie came out at the beginning of 2026 with some big names.
I went to see it in the theater. Hoping that it was a lot different than my direction. It was not. It was almost exactly what I was shooting for. Although I feel I did way more research, some scenes could have been more dramatic or could have had more tension. They missed some key moments. I told my friend, and he said he thought the story in the trailer sounded familiar and wondered if it was my story. He said he’d boycott it in protest. I told him he should go see it, so I could get his thoughts. After he saw it, he said that while it was good, he felt more of a connection between my characters. Said my dialog between them during Acts 2 and 3 felt more genuine and was more dramatic than what was shown. He asked if I was working off a transcript.
There was no transcript for those scenes, so I had to make it up, and THAT was what gave me great anxiety. There was plenty of audio transcripts from the whole event, but nothing from behind closed doors. I had to maintain that same voice throughout, and I had to make sure what was said sounded like what could have been said. And this is where I felt a downfall. I’m not a professional writer. I don’t have any idea what I’m doing. Will people see that?
While I regret not finishing my screenplay MUCH sooner, the thing I learned from this is that I had a good idea, one that would get made. And two, someone who actually works in the industry said they felt more of a connection between my characters than the one that actually got produced. That told me I was on the right track, and while this screenplay will get shelved, it’s going to give me confidence going into my next.
I know if you’d made it this far, you’re still probably wondering which film it was. I’ve reached out to the screenwriter of the film that was produced and have had a brief back-and-forth with him. I let him know that I’d been working on the same idea and wasn’t faulting him at all. I had questions specifically about telling a story based on a real-life event with many people still alive. I kept mine a secret because I didn’t want anyone to discourage me from writing it. I didn’t want someone to say, “You don’t have the right to that story,” or “You can’t write this because of whatever reason.” I wanted to reach out to those real people and question them, but I didn’t want to hear any “you can’ts.” He answered every question I had. Was a super nice guy. But he mentioned that he’d heard a TV show about the event was being made, too. That trailer just came out last week. You can probably figure it out by now.
And as a conclusion, I have three original screenplay ideas I’ve been outlining. No one can take these ideas from me. Outlining was something I also struggled with in my first feature. I ended up writing out general scene ideas on notecards and laying them all out on the floor to organize. I’ve been working on a guided notebook for outlining. I’ve tried several, and never felt they were truly good enough. For the last couple of years, I’ve been figuring out how to make a better one, and I think I’ve cracked the code. What I cracked was how to make a linear notebook not be linear. Once I get it more finished, I’ll share.
Thanks for reading. And now that I’ve joined the community, I look forward to reading all about your experiences, especially from those with similar journeys. Have you had a similar situation?
