WORD POWER

Word Power
By Jennifer Williams

Okay, so I’m watching television, I need to pay attention to how comedy and drama is crafted; so that means I wasn’t just watching but doing research. Anyway, while being a little nostalgic checking out “All Of Us” and it’s the episode entitled “Carmen’s Karma”; and as it ended I found myself so caught up, wanting more, and a little teary eyed…I know you say, she probably cries at anything, but you don’t know me like that…that’s not true! ;-)

It was at that moment it hit me how powerful the words of the screenwriter are…I mean seriously, I’ve always known it -- but this particular episode was so moving. It confirmed what I always knew. Writing carries a lot of responsibility and confirms the ability of the writer to totally bring people into their world, their vision. Arthur Harris did a great job at giving the actors just the right words to speak. Yes, actors have something to do with it because they have to bring it, but the writer gives them that direction. I’m excited and ready to go.

DO NOT DISTURB I’M WRITING!

THE OBS FAMILY PICNIC! ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW!!!

- PARTY PEOPLE STILL IN THE HOUSE!

If you missed this picnic you missed a great event! Everyone that came out had a magnificent time! The weather was wonderful and made for a beautiful day in the park. Special thanks to JaSheika James & Christy Lavalais for joining me in the early morning to stake out our space! Kim Allen too who came out and placed signs to make it easy to locate us! We celebrated family, we celebrated Quinn Jones’ birthday, we celebrated new friends, and we celebrated Corey Moore’s success @ the HBFF! We danced to the “Ole School” sounds spun by Jela! Man, Jela brought out the turntables, set up the speakers and took us on a journey that had everyone in the park on their feet at one time or another. And if they weren’t on their feet their heads were bobbin’! There was dancing in the seats, on the sidewalk, several Soul Train lines, and of course the ‘Electric Slide’ slid in, in several locations! Writers let their inhibitions disappear and let go to regenerate the creative side! If you weren’t there I’m not telling, but we have writers that really can ‘bust a move’! I’m sure you’ll see pictures show up in a few places.

However, Jela wouldn’t have been able to groove us if it had not been for one of our newest OBS members Michael Wolfe! We had no power and Michael, made a special trip back to Pasadena to get his generator to help get our party started! So a very special thanks to Jela Perry & Michael Wolfe for the collaboration in the Park! Michael also had the gaming tables set up with prizes and water guns for the kids! We were slapping bones, looking for a “Clue”, and declaring champions in a day long “Spades Tournament”.

Thank you to all the people that helped to make the picnic happen, to those faithful members that made a point to show, those new members that are excited about OBS, the veterans that want to see it keep moving, and those former members that have heard the rumblings in the street that OBS is on the move. We even had Samm Brown & Natoma Keir of Radio Station KPFK 90.7 "For the Record" along with filmmakers Tiara & Angela, who are working on a pilot set to start filming in July. Thank you all.

I think we finally left the park about 8 PM… But before the music we out, we all danced to “We Are Family… I Had OBS with Me!”(I stole that from Rene!) Everyone had a fantastic time. As we made our way to the parking lot, several people said; ”We have to do this again! Same time next year…And then I heard, I could do it next month!” Well, I don’t know about next month, but “Same time, next year sounds really cool!”

Again, thank you all it was a Blast!

Jennifer

INSTANT CONTACT AND RESPONSE? SERIOUSLY?

April 22, 2008

Yes is the age of instant contact and response. Everyone walks around with a cell phone that made pagers totally obsolete. With our cells we can answer a call almost anywhere…”Can you hear me now? --Good.” It almost seems as if there is no place off limits; I honestly feel that there is, but when you travel with other people’s children you find you even have to answer the cell phone in the restroom. (When that happened I felt like Dwayne Wade when he receives all those calls from Charles Barkley on the commercial…okay, I digress). But everything is instant. Even if the person doesn’t want to talk to you they can still reach out and touch by using a text message. The sad part is that the sender expects you to answer right then and there. And if its family and you don’t they’re ready to call the police and put out a missing persons’ report. No one stops to think maybe you could be busy! What a novel concept.

Then of course there’s the email message. That’s really funny. No one thinks there email ever is miss-routed or delayed. When people send me an email they expect an answer with in a few minutes. Then when you don’t answer, they pick up the telephone and call you and asked…”Did you get my email?” No one ever thinks maybe a server along the path couldn’t have been down and delayed the transmission or again; you could be busy!

What happens with me is that I actually try to get back to people as soon as possible. Often it is instantaneous, but sometimes it takes a few minutes, hours, days, and maybe a week. Why you asked? Well, some emails, although instant and simple to send, may actually take some thought or research before it can actually be answered. Or mostly importantly it takes thought to make certain you are actually responding to the information requested. But whatever the case, after a week, at the most; then in many cases after a couple of days you should respond with something that acknowledges the receipt of the email and the fact you’ll get back to the person within a few more days. This brings me to my point and question.

Communication is very important. Developing good communication skills is very important when it comes to telling a story and even more so when it comes to giving your characters individual and distinctive voices. Communication is utterly important in the business of writing. Like the examples I used above. No one is perfect including me; I still have to do better on response time. But the worst is no response ever. No feedback ever. You send an email and for all you know it fell in an unknown mailbox. The only way you learn that it arrived at it’s destination is when the system has a glitch or you mistakenly hit send twice or you have multiple email addresses for an individual and they make sure to let you know they received the message numerous times or to every email address (by the way, you never ask for the multiple addresses people like hand them out without instruction so you send). In any case, you are sure to receive the carefully worded response of, “Please don’t send mail to this address I never check it.” But you never get a response to your original email. Go figure.

So my questions are:
* Is the development of good communication skills necessary for a writer?
* What is the average time allowed that you should expect a response?
* Should you send email number 2? 3? 4?
* Is it wrong to expect a person to respond to an email in a given time frame?
* Is it unreasonable to expect the receiver to actually read the entire email before they respond?
* Is acknowledgment too much to ask?
* If you do work on development of your communication skills, response time, feedback, and acknowledgment skills will it hurt you in the business of writing?

Communication is very important.

WHY DO YOU WRITE?

OBS, great meeting yesterday! It was a great turn out and people were networking, making connections with fellow writers. I t was amazing. Almost 100 people in the place. The Education Committee asked Tracy Grant to give the Top 10@10 it was on the nose..."How to Give & Receive Feedback."

We had a great speaker too! Ms. Kellie R. Griffin, Associate Producer for “House of Payne.” She was very personable, answered all the members’ questions and spent a lot of time after the meeting to speak with members individually and pickup scripts. It was great.

Scripts? Yes, scripts....mmm... That could be a very scarry thing. Someone is about to review your work for potentail employment. Is my script good enough? Did I tell the story properly? Did I use the right format? One of the things OBS stresses is for its members to get connected to an OBS sanctioned Writer’s Group – it was also something Ms. Griffin stressed as she shared a few horror stories of people that submit spec scripts.

I could tell there were a lot of people with mixed emotions in the room; not grasping the total concept. I could almost hear the thoughts in their heads; “I don’t need a writer’s group.” “People don’t understand what I want to say.” “They can’t give me feedback because they’re trying to make it like I am.” "I know my script is perfect it, I don't need their feedback." No one actually said any of these things aloud, but I could see the lines in their faces. :-) I must admit I was very pleased to have twenty people approach me after the meeting to get signed up for a Writer's Group.

I’m not going to ask here do you think you should be connected to a Writer’s Group; it may not be the most important question, albeit very important. My question deals with you personally. When you can answer the questions below, the Writer’s Group won’t be an issue.

My questions are:
Why are you writing?
What are your goals?
What do you plan to accomplish with your writing?

A NEW ERA, THIS IS NOT THE “OLD HOLLYWOOD” ANYMORE

March 21, 2008 - "A NEW ERAThis is not the “Old Hollywood” anymore!" - This is a phrase I’ve been hearing over and over in industry circles; but my dilemma is what does that really mean?



Are they referring to programming for television and film? Or - Are they referring to the vast majority of new programming that have turned to reality and limited scripted shows? Or - Does it mean the model that Tyler Perry has developed and used to become very successful? Or - Are they referring to “new” media, Internet, PodCast, WebCast, etc.?



Just what do they really mean? Or is it all of the above?



OBS tell me what you think?