When I was thirteen, I decided I was going to write a script for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
At the time, our household had one computer, which had to be shared between three teenagers. If we weren’t doing homework, our butts had to be in a different chair.
I needed professional equipment to write a killer episode, so I improvised. I lugged my mom’s well-loved, one hundred pound typewriter out from the closet, and got to work.
It was a brutal process. My fingers weren’t used to typing slowly, and to make matters worse, there was no easy way to correct any of my mistakes.
Three weeks later, however, I had thirty pages of what I thought was damn fine television.
I secretly used some of my homework computer time to research how to write a query letter. In hindsight, I probably should have spent time investigating the actual number of pages needed for an hour length script, or even how to go about formatting the thing.
In any case, I wrote a query letter. I told ‘to whom it may concern’, all about a girl Buffy meets at Sunnydale High. This girl is terrified because she has the ability to see into the future, and what she sees, is her own death.
I sent it off. A few months later, I had a response, which went along the lines of:
“Thank you very much for your interest in the show, unfortunately due to our writer’s union contracts we don’t accept outside submissions.”
I still have the letter. It’s taped to the inside of a journal. Beneath the folded page, I wrote that I wasn’t upset. Instead, I was thrilled that the studio had actually taken the time to write me back.
Present day ‘me’ wants to know what the hell I was thinking. Aside from the fact that my script reads like a cheap n’ cheesy horror flick, how did I ignore my fear and do something so…brave?
This year at SIWC, one of the final keynote speakers was Laura Bradbury. She spoke about the life threatening auto-immune disorder that is part of her daily life. Despite this, she was brave enough to write and then self-publish her first novel and is now releasing a third. She is a writing warrior, and encouraged all attendees to forget about fear and finish whatever it is that we’re working on.
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I won’t lie, by the end of her moving speech, I had to blink back ALL of the tears.
When I got home from the conference, I took a look at that script for old times sake.
(As a delightful aside, I cringed (as I do every time I read it) mainly because on the first page, I had Buffy say, “I’m pooped.”
There are two things wrong with this:
- The dialogue is completely out of character
- The sentence actually reads, “I pooped.”)
If you’re familiar with Buffy, you might remember Season 7, Episode 4: Help. Buffy has returned to Sunnydale High as a guidance councillor. She meets a student who states that she knows she is going to die.
I don’t know how the writer came up with the idea for the episode, nor do I really care. What I want to focus on, is this:
At thirteen years old, I came up with the same hook that was used in an episode of one of my favourite shows of all time. At thirteen, I knew a good idea when I saw one and wasn’t afraid of what might happen if I took a chance at something I was passionate about. I also finished the script (to the best of my ability at the time).
I was a word warrior, and I’m determined to become one again.
For those of you who are looking for writing inspiration, SiWC is the place to be. Check out their website for more information!
