On pwning Cyberspace Open, Round One

For those of you not conversant with the variegated, slightly geeky world of screenwriting competitions, The Cyberspace Open (retro name? or just slightly antiquated?) is a scene-writing derby put on by Creative Screenwriting magazine. It has a few features that appeal to my short-attention-span personality: strict time limits, a five page or less requirement, and it's something like fourteen dollars to enter.

In round one they give you a weekend to write up a scene. The best one hundred from those move on to round two, where they give you twenty-four hours to write a scene. The three survivors of that round... I forget exactly what happens next, but it's likely you have to write another scene in even less time. Whether this thing sounds like fun or some weird high-school homework nightmare is in the eye of the beholder.

The Round One standings were posted. Not only am I advancing to Round Two, but I received the best score of all 100+ Round One winners, 98 out of 100. Here, check it out: name on top and everything.

John Harden and I both entered the current competition, and the one the fall before. We're writing partners, so I think we both subconsciously use this contest as a friendly way of competing against each other. Okay, not so subconscious: The typical email exchanges were on the level of "Just submitted my entry: gonna pwn you, bee-otch!" All in good fun, I assure you.

When we entered last Fall's contest, John advanced out of round one and I didn't. This season, I advanced and he didn't. Just more spooky symmetry from the guys with the exact same birthday.

This is great fun-- but the problem is when the CS Open posts the Round 2 instructions I'm going to be in Los Angeles, fresh from a round of studio pitch sessions (more on this elsewhere). So this little win is, if you ask me a very good omen, and definitely something we can bring up with the CEs we're meeting with. But still: no fun Saturday cruising around LA in an air-conditioned rental car. I'll be at Dan's place in the Valley, grinding out a scene on deadline. But then again, it sounds like great, non-distracting place to write, and Dan is one of the finest writers I know, so hopefully some of that karma will rub off. Or even better, I just might pose as one of those screenwriting phonies and hole up at a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf with a laptop.