"Screenwriting: It’s Not Just for Movies Anymore"

One of my students Jas Lonnquist is currently featured on the UCLA Extension Writers' Program website. Jas won the 2006 UCLA Extension Screenplay Competition with a script she worked on in my class (and in additional courses with other fine Writers Program instructors). We swapped emails a few months back in which she told me about this great writing gig she'd landed up where she lives in Northern California:

Writers' Program: Tell us about the project you're working on now.

Jas Lonnquist: I'm currently writing a series of nineteen short films for the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Subjects range from the top-secret decryption computers of WWII to the story of "Space War!" The first film premiered June 29 in the new "Silicon Engine" exhibit. The films will ultimately be part of the museum's spectacular expansion which opens October 2010. It's rich, un-mined material, it's great fun, and I'm proud to be part of preserving and honoring the history of the fascinating people and mind-blowing inventions that changed our planet.

How cool is that! You can visit the website to learn more about Jas used what she learned writing screenplays to apply that to her writing these series of short films.

Hopefully one day, Jas will sell a spec screenplay. But now she's got a wonderful opportunity to use her writing skills -- and get paid for it.

The point being there are more ways than writing movies to make money as a writer.

You can go here to read some writing advice from Jas. Probably my favorite one is the first one on her list:

1. Find satisfaction in telling the story, not just selling the story, or you may break your heart before you break into the industry.

Man, that is great advice. Whenever you write a screenplay, you have the opportunity to fall in love with your story. Push yourself creatively. Dig into a unique story universe. Hang out with your characters. And learn about your Self. There's a whole lotta satisfaction to be gained from the very act of creative writing.

Thanks, Jas, for that piece of advice. It's a keeper!