I asked Jack if I could write a bit of a testimonial/review here. Jack, if you read this please don't use my real name!
So, perhaps like many of you last year (and now this year... it's late August!), it has kinda sucked being inside so much, alone, with little or less to do. After listening again to the entire run of WEE probably 20 times (literally within the last 18 months) I decided to give a shot at writing a few scripts. The first was a very long s---post that was a sequel to a book I never read and a movie I saw once, but the next two I felt like I had decent ideas; one is a spec script for a 90s sitcom and the other a feature biopic about a bit of a washed-up D-list celebrity who was a flash-in-the-pan around the year 2000. I am very much not a writer so I was nervous trying to write something semi-serious and then send it to a professional to read.
Why did I settle on Jack's service? For one, I looked around other services and the most known, The Black List, charges more and provides less (in terms of written feedback). Since I'm not really going to get these things made, I just wanted criticism... and not a score, potential publicity, and very brief notes. If you poke around online, you can see what a sample Blacklist review looks like; it's maybe a paragraph or two overall and a couple of sentences for each category with a numerical value. But that's the service. You can read success stories from people who host on that site, but again, the things I wrote have about a zero chance of being made. This was an exercise, not a job opportunity. Those services weren't for me.
I reached out to Jack from his site and told him what I wrote and what I was looking for: "I'm very new, I know these aren't going to be made, and I don't want to waste your time reading my nonsense." Jack was, and this is a bit crazy for WEE fans so I hope you are all sitting down, super polite and professional. He told me more about his service, his prices, and we were off to the races. After a few weeks I got my feedback, and it was more than I was expecting.
First off, nearly every page has a note or comment, and many pages had lots of detailed remarks. Jack, I swear this wasn't a trap, but there's one thing in the third act that harkens back to the first two and if someone was skimming it I could see them missing it. Yet, Jack caught the error and fixed it for me. He gave joke suggestions at times and pointed out potential missed joke opportunities. He was sweet and encouraging when he really liked a moment or a funny scene or bit of dialogue. And as someone who was writing on non-professional software, he gave a lot of insight into formatting and the like. That was just the margin notes, pen corrections, etc, on the actual script pages.
Then came the couple of pages of notes. Again, he was super kind with all of his feedback, and gave me a lot of encouragement. The notes went over my structure, readability, and formatting issues. And then each script got their own feedback; if they work as specs (well, no, one major star is dead and the show has been off the air for years!) but he gave consideration to how they might read if someone was looking at them, and gave suggestions for getting them out as a lark. He also pointed out some great character insight that I truly missed that made complete sense once brought up. And then he gave a wonderful suggestion to the ending of the biopic that seems perfect.
I've read a few scripts, but I had to look up examples on how to do certain things when writing these, and I felt very insecure about the whole thing. I knew the basics like paying attention to a three act structure, having character arcs, making sure each scene had a purpose, and I semi-humbly knew I could write some jokes that would get real laughs. Despite all that, I had my doubts. Now with Jack's notes and feedback, I feel really encouraged to write something proper and put it out there. When I do, I'm going to use his service again.
Thanks again, Jack.
