What is the New York Script Club?
Writing clubs abound coast to coast, some concentrating on specialized genres like New York Script Club (NYSC) with its goal to bring people together who want to delve into the world of screenwriting but who lack the knowledge, motivation, and support to get started.
If you are like Troy Alexander, creator of NYSC, you have a long list of ideas for great films, but you have no idea where to start. Troy has been seeking to meet people with similar interests, to co-write a movie one day. His search for the right collaborator was not fruitful, so he decided to start a club for “would be” screenwriters like him.
Screenwriting is the art of writing for film production. Although it is increasingly difficult to make a living as a screenwriter, tens of thousands of people try their hand at it every year. The capricious nature of the film industry makes it improbable that a complete unknown individual will find success. Producing a winning piece is hard enough, let alone getting it into the right hands.
The NYSC club enables folks with the desire, and maybe some good movie ideas, to meet and critique one another’s work to hopefully produce a finished product, and to uncover the means to get the work sold. The club is currently open to new members. Meanwhile, questions such as club rules, how many can join, club objectives, and others are still open to suggestion. NYSC is growing regularly by many new members, and meetings are held, where else? New York. Troy, at nyscriptclub.org offers updates on meetings so that anyone missing the Saturday meetings can get caught up with what’s going on.
Several members have stepped up to assist with the grass roots organizing of the club. “They are excited that their writing ideas are finally taking shape,” boasted Troy. Matt Presley, who had completed several scripts is finally motivated to start trying to seriously sell them as a NYSC member. Matt has attended every meeting so far and he presides over NYSC meetings in Troy’s absence. Another member, Ruthie Effler, has committed to creating a MySpace page for the group. “Soon every regular member will be given their own page on nyscriptclub.org to display their work and their bio along with a NYSC email address if they want one,” offers Troy.
For all of you aspiring screenwriters out there, keep in mind that likely the single best non-writing thing you can do to improve your work is to read scripts produced by other writers. Just reading a screenplay of a movie that you have already seen can produce a wide range of useful information that you might be able to employ in your own writing. Look for how the writer sets up the action on the page. Notice how scenes are turned into visual escapades. Reading scripts in various stages of progression is also helpful. NYSC member, Matt Presley’s script, The Bone Orchard, is available on the nyscriptclub.org website for download. Such scripts are in progress and offer a peek at how some writers are moving through the screenwriting process. And this is what the New York Script Club is about.
