I had purchased the first book in the Now Write! series many years before my first coaching session with Laurie Lamson. I thought the book was great and it was intriguing to me that its author and series creator, Sherry Ellis, lived in Massachusetts, in a town not far from where I lived. She offered coaching lessons for writers to boot. To think I could meet in-person with a writing coach was exciting to say the least.

I hesitated to contact Ms. Ellis because the project that I was working on at the time (and was quite passionate about) was a beloved screenplay, yet to be finished, of course. I didn’t know if she would scoff at the idea of reviewing and coaching someone on a screenplay and not “real” writing (i.e. prose.)

Then again, I didn’t ask. Ah, the insecurities that come with being an artist. That aside, I hadn’t finished it anyway, so there was no point yet. I was working a fulltime job and had a wife and two small children to support. Time spent on the screenplay was during “third shift” hours.

So I plugged away at my screenplay, night after night after night after night.

Developing character and plot and dialogue. Some days convinced I was a shoe-in for an Academy Award, the next wondering why I was wasting part of my life doing this (I’ve come to learn these ups and downs pretty much come with the territory for any writer.)

Finally, I finished and needed someone, a neutral party, to tell me if I had anything worth sending to Hollywood. By this time the Now Write! series had released a book specific to screenwriting so I hit the Now Write! website only to find out that Sherry Ellis had passed away. Ooof. Punch to the gut. Wind knocked out of me. A human life, dedicated to the arts, gone. A writing coach, in my own backyard. I had felt, somehow, that she and I were destined to work together.

I searched and contacted other writing coaches, especially ones who I could meet with in person, but either they were hard to come by or they all worked in prose. None worked in screenwriting.

Many months later, I don’t know why really, I went to the Now Write! website again. Laurie had revamped the site with a touching tribute to her Aunt and copy stating that she was taking over the series and she was offering coaching services. I emailed and asked if she was available to consult/coach on my screenplay.

She responded and said indeed she was available for consultation.

I sent along my screenplay and waited for her response with bated breath.

About two weeks later, she said she had finished reading and we arranged a call to discuss (had to be a call; she’s on the West Coast, I’m on the East.) The feedback was honest and blunt and sincere and useful.

My “little” screenplay weighed in at over 200 pages. Way too much for a screenplay, which typically run 120 pages max. Laurie touched on this in our session. She suggested that I stick to one theme (I had too many themes for a screenplay). The message among many that I took away was that I had written a novel in screenplay format. She provided encouragement but also a dose of reality, like any great coach.

In some ways I was shattered. No Academy Award after all. I didn’t take it personally because I knew the reality was a 200-page, multi-themed, screenplay wasn’t going to cut it for a first-time screenwriter. Heck maybe not even for a seasoned screenwriter with connections galore.

I contemplated many things. Should I publish it as a screenplay? I really dwelled on this one for a long time. Personally I ate up any screenplay I could read. A good number were sold on Amazon and in bookstores in “book” format (I have several) and others you could easily find on a variety of websites.

It was around this time that I noticed a large number of movies being released that were based on novels. Almost to the point where, it seemed anyways, every movie released was based on a novel. Perhaps, I thought, my entry into Hollywood would not come from submitting a screenplay but by publishing a novel, garnering an audience first and getting a movie deal that way.

I even emailed Laurie to ask her opinion: What do you think of me converting my screenplay to a novel?

Her response: I like it. Go for it!

It was then that I had an epiphany of sorts. I would no longer define myself as a screenwriter or a novelist, but rather a storyteller.

I didn’t really care if I was a hit in Hollywood. I just liked to tell stories and wanted an audience. Be it viewing or reading.

Okay, I would convert my screenplay into a novel, the one that I had put time, sweat, tears and more time into. This of course meant even more time dedicated to this particular story. All of my other ideas that were queued up would have to wait. This is one of the toughest parts of being a writer. Disciplining yourself to concentrate on the project at hand, despite the outpouring of new ideas from your subconscious. For the record, at least in my case, I think it’s a way to procrastinate as well.

But I knew how long it took me to write that screenplay. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to dedicate another year of my life to writing the novelization of it. And besides, I had never really written prose. Not in a serious way and not for a long time. The short of it was, could I even write prose? What to do?

I decided that before I embarked on the arduous task of novelizing my screenplay that I should write a short story to prove that I could in fact write prose and hang with the big boys and girls. I would then ask Laurie for feedback on this little tale and her candid advice would in some capacity, though not entirely, let me know if I should proceed.

It should be noted about now that I was paying her for all this. Laurie’s great but she does deserve to get paid. Just saying.

The Evolution of a Novel

For some time an idea had been sitting on the shelf in my brain where ideas yet to be born take up residence. It had been there for some time. It told of a character that is stuck in a dystopian future – I know, I know. Is there anything but a dystopian future these days? – where corporations ruled the world. Where work had not just tipped the balance but outright knocked the scale in the work-life balance equation completely over and crushed it into dust.

Around the same time, I had read of some reports that certain eBooks were being updated by publishers and authors without reader consent. The majority, if not all, of these updates were innocuous and innocent in their intent. Grammar and spelling changes and perhaps a slight change to some of the writing itself. All with the intention of making it better. What it boiled down to, in my eyes at least, was you were getting a second or third edition…automatically. But I guess this peeved some people off. That they were getting updates without consent. That it was in violation of something or other.

Regardless of my personal opinion on this, I thought, “What if these futuristic corporate overlords did this with the intention of re-writing history to serve their own interests and agendas”? 

And what if there was this one person who was sort of a recluse living out in the country that preserved real books and lived a life that was the complete opposite of the poor corporate drone? 

And what if these two characters somehow met?

I embarked on the writing of a story. A short story. A very short story. It would be twenty pages, tops. Five thousand words at the very most. And I always envisioned leaving the ending open-ended. The reader would interpret for himself or herself what happened.

I finished a decent rough/first draft and, yikes, it weighed in at some 30,000 words. So much for short.

I contacted Laurie again. I asked her to review one short screenplay I wrote, one children’s book I wrote and my “short story” titled Bookworm.

Laurie got to the children’s book and the short screenplay first and we had a phone session to discuss. She had her usual candid and helpful feedback and overall said she loved both. Okay, now I was getting somewhere. I wasn’t crazy to think I could be a writer. Not that anyone should ever need someone else to tell them that, but it helps when you have a professional, neutral party tell you that you’ve got something. If I needed someone to tell me I was the best writer in the world I would have just gone to my mom.

Anyways, Laurie said she was going to tackle Bookworm next and would be in touch when finished.

The waiting killed me and I would check my email compulsively. I had to know what she thought of my writing.

Finally, I got an email from Laurie. I read it immediately. Damn. The email started off by telling me she was still reading; just checking in. Apparently she had a life outside of reading my story. I know, the nerve of her, right?

At the end of that email were words I will never forget. I quote: “BTW I’m loving Bookworm!!”

Yes! I might be on to something here.

Within a few weeks she finished reading and sent along notes. Laurie provides superb notes. Detailed and thoughtful. She compliments, she argues, she prods, she questions. They are awesome. We also scheduled a phone session. She had more questions, more compliments and more critical feedback during our call. But for me it was all good. < There was only one little problem. She said she had to know how it ended. She told me I couldn’t ask someone to read 30,000 words and leave them hanging. My little “let the reader decide how it ended” wasn’t going to fly. Maybe at 5,000 or fewer words but not 30,000 plus. So it was back to writing. Back to taking her feedback and applying it to the 30,000 words already written and then to coming up with at least 30,000 more.

What started out as a very short story, “a little experiment” to see if I could write prose turned into a nine-month endeavor from there.

I finished the “new” first draft and sent it off to Laurie. When she finished reading and we connected she again provided excellent feedback. Complimenting me in some areas and calling me out for being lazy in others (she was both nice about this and right.) With her notes, I went back to the re-write.

The final draft came in at over 75,000 words. I asked Laurie to be the editor and she graciously accepted.  Once her expert editing was complete, I decided to self-publish and have changed the title to Escape From Corpworld.

I had started out with a screenplay. A screenplay that wasn’t working as a screenplay. I decided to convert it into a novel. But first, I would write a short, quaint, little story to prove that I could write prose and it turned into a legitimate novel. Funny how life works isn’t it?

Everyone who has read Escape From Corpworld has enjoyed it (especially my mom, but we all knew she would.) If you decide to read it, I hope you enjoy it as well.

With coaching I was able to prove to myself that I am a screenwriter, a novelist and ultimately a storyteller. I will be forever grateful.

If you have any questions for me in terms of my process, or what it was like working with Laurie, I would be happy to entertain such a discussion. Just send me an email at srebnickj@yahoo.com or contact me via my website: www.jasonsrebnick.com

And of course I need to give you the Amazon link to buy my book: Escape From Corpworld. It’s available in Kindle and paperback.

If you aren’t sure about spending the money, send me an email. I’ll gladly mail you a complimentary copy. All I ask is you write an Amazon review (good, bad or indifferent.) Amazon reviews are gold to an indie-author.

Excerpt from Escape From Corpworld: Chapter 4

Jason Srebnick is the author of Bookworm. He is a novelist, screenwriter, illustrator, poet, and cartoonist who lives in Massachusetts with his wife, two children and their dog. And books. Lots and lots of books. He currently works in IT Consulting and Management.