OK, here are some of the things I want to gripe about. I can't find movies to go see. I can't even find semi-old movies on my VCR to rent. 90% of the movies on HBO, SHOWTIME, CNMX, ENCORE, etc. are films I've already seen or won't even consider watching. I'm a grown up and the major studios couldn't care less. They just want those male teenagers. It's called having an audience that goes back and sees the same movie over and over with other friends. One of the things I'd like to know is where do those boys get all that money for movies, popcorn, candy and sodas. Thank goodness there are still a few good little independent films.
I hate all of these re-makes. I don't care if they were great films or just action junk. Why aren't the studios making more original films?? It is the death of the new idea and creativity. Film is an art and we should never forget it.
If you want to be a successful screenwriter, you better learn how to write mindless action pieces. I know I'm being a bit snarky but I miss going to a movie whenever I feel like it. I have to wait a long time before a good picture arrives on the scene. However, the truth is that right now if you are writing intimate relationship dramas or adult comedies, it ain't gonna sell. They might be good sample scripts so keep writing them and get very good at it.
Another thing I hate is "ghostwriting". I hate everything about it. I've even seen some consultants who offer to ghostwrite. I want to call the writing police and have them arrested. Your sample specs are YOURS. If anyone else writes it with you they must get credit on the title page, otherwise you are lying to the producer, agent and development person. I once had a partner who represented a famous writer who received lots of TV assignments. He would hire young writers, pay them a very small amount, read the drafts and put his own name on the project. He made a huge amount of money and I was furious when I found out. It was fraud.
In the wonderful movie, ROCKY, our hero talks with some kids on his block and warns them that "All you got is your rep". I agree with that statement. I believe that your word is your bond, a deal is a deal, and you never lie.
Thanks for letting me get these things out of my system. Take them to heart and become the smartest, best, most creative writing artist that you can be.
Come see my new web site: www.michelewallerstein110.vpweb.com
Friday, February 20, 2015
Monday, February 2, 2015
CONTACT and CLASS INFORMATION
Hi Everyone:
Just a note to let you know that I have a new web site. This site will give you all the information on my background and my credentials, along with my screenplay and novel services.
My rates are listed along with my phone and email address.
The site also has a link to my new on-line course titled "MOVING YOUR WRITING CAREER FORWARD". This course is designed to teach you how to get your material read by the right people as well as what you will need to do after it has been reviewed. It explains the agent/client relationship so you will know what to expect from an agent and exactly what you
will need to be responsible for in that relationship. There is also much, much more insider knowledge you must have to succeed in your writing career. If you have any questions about the course, please email me at: writerconsultant67@gmail.com
Since the course is on-demand it will be available to you at any time you desire. I am currently offering a large discount, but that may end at the end of February. Sign up now!
Check my web site at: michelewallerstein110.vpweb.com
Just a note to let you know that I have a new web site. This site will give you all the information on my background and my credentials, along with my screenplay and novel services.
My rates are listed along with my phone and email address.
The site also has a link to my new on-line course titled "MOVING YOUR WRITING CAREER FORWARD". This course is designed to teach you how to get your material read by the right people as well as what you will need to do after it has been reviewed. It explains the agent/client relationship so you will know what to expect from an agent and exactly what you
will need to be responsible for in that relationship. There is also much, much more insider knowledge you must have to succeed in your writing career. If you have any questions about the course, please email me at: writerconsultant67@gmail.com
Since the course is on-demand it will be available to you at any time you desire. I am currently offering a large discount, but that may end at the end of February. Sign up now!
Check my web site at: michelewallerstein110.vpweb.com
Saturday, December 20, 2014
SUCCESS IN 2015
HAPPY HOLIDAYS MY DEAR FRIENDS!! Let's make this new year a great one. Let's make it a year of fulfilling your dreams and aspirations.
You are capable of doing this by redoubling your efforts. The old saying of putting your nose to the grindstone is the only true way to make your desires come true. Sounds pretty grueling, but it's true.
You will need to spend more time at your computers writing those scripts. You'll need to read more, see more movies (old and new), buy books, watch videos and listen to podcasts on writing skills, take more writing classes online and in person.
Try to write 3 new screenplays in 2015. I know you have jobs, spouses, families and other responsibilities, but you can find the time to hone your craft.
If you have a true calling as a writer, make this year the one where you make it all happen for yourself.
If you write small, intimate stories, you will also need to research small, low budget independent filmmakers. If you write big youth movies, great thrillers with strong male leads, teen comedies or huge budget sci-fi, then you must spend more time researching the Hollywood Studio world.
I am now teaching an on-line class titled "MOVING YOUR WRITING CAREER FORWARD", via ESE Filmworks. We have recently decided to offer this as an on-demand course because we know how busy you are and that money can be tight at different times of your life. I've also decided to make the homework sections of the course as a choice for you.
This course will be taught in conjunction with my book; "MIND YOUR BUSINESS: A Hollywood Literary Agent's Guide To Your Writing Career". If you are serious about selling your films, you will sign up for the course as soon as possible. You need the knowledge to move forward. There's no point to writing and putting those scripts in a drawer. You must learn how to get them ready and get them to the right people. You must learn how to find the proper management team and how to work with them. Do you know what's expected from you as the client or an agent or manager or attorney?? Do you know how to make all of those pitch fests and weekend seminars work for you?
Lots and lots of questions like these will be answered. I will mentor you through the 6 week course on a personal basis. Don't let a lack of knowledge hold you back. Learn how the system works and make it work for you.
This course is available to you over the internet so that you can take it from anywhere in the world.
Let me help you travel the complex world of making movies.
Go to: http://www.
You might want to email me if you have any questions at: writerconsultant67@gmail.com, I'd love to hear from you.
Have a wonderful time over the Holidays and let's get started early to get your life on your chosen path.
You are capable of doing this by redoubling your efforts. The old saying of putting your nose to the grindstone is the only true way to make your desires come true. Sounds pretty grueling, but it's true.
You will need to spend more time at your computers writing those scripts. You'll need to read more, see more movies (old and new), buy books, watch videos and listen to podcasts on writing skills, take more writing classes online and in person.
Try to write 3 new screenplays in 2015. I know you have jobs, spouses, families and other responsibilities, but you can find the time to hone your craft.
If you have a true calling as a writer, make this year the one where you make it all happen for yourself.
If you write small, intimate stories, you will also need to research small, low budget independent filmmakers. If you write big youth movies, great thrillers with strong male leads, teen comedies or huge budget sci-fi, then you must spend more time researching the Hollywood Studio world.
I am now teaching an on-line class titled "MOVING YOUR WRITING CAREER FORWARD", via ESE Filmworks. We have recently decided to offer this as an on-demand course because we know how busy you are and that money can be tight at different times of your life. I've also decided to make the homework sections of the course as a choice for you.
This course will be taught in conjunction with my book; "MIND YOUR BUSINESS: A Hollywood Literary Agent's Guide To Your Writing Career". If you are serious about selling your films, you will sign up for the course as soon as possible. You need the knowledge to move forward. There's no point to writing and putting those scripts in a drawer. You must learn how to get them ready and get them to the right people. You must learn how to find the proper management team and how to work with them. Do you know what's expected from you as the client or an agent or manager or attorney?? Do you know how to make all of those pitch fests and weekend seminars work for you?
Lots and lots of questions like these will be answered. I will mentor you through the 6 week course on a personal basis. Don't let a lack of knowledge hold you back. Learn how the system works and make it work for you.
This course is available to you over the internet so that you can take it from anywhere in the world.
Let me help you travel the complex world of making movies.
Go to: http://www.
You might want to email me if you have any questions at: writerconsultant67@gmail.com, I'd love to hear from you.
Have a wonderful time over the Holidays and let's get started early to get your life on your chosen path.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
HELPING WRITERS
The first line in my book, MIND YOUR BUSINESS: A Hollywood Literary Agent's Guide to Your Writing Career, is; "I love writers." After all my years as an agent and now after quite a few years as a writer's consultant, I can still say the same thing. Writer's have always been close to my heart. I enjoy their creativity and I understand their pain. I have had and still do have a blessed life because I am working so closely with these creative and imaginative people.
As an agent I loved building a big career for a new writer. I loved making their deals and helping them choose which of their ideas they should write next. It was a team effort and always exciting. Being a creative consultant gives me the same thrill. I love reading those screenplays or novels. I love being able to see what will help make those projects better and better. It's so fulfilling to read the next drafts and watch the talent grow and mature.
Writing a marketable project when one is all alone is pretty much impossible. Writers need the eyes of a professional to point out the flaws as well as the good pieces. I never try to rewrite a writer. I only show the way to making a script better.
Have you followed the 3 Act Structure? Do your main characters have zip? Are you overwriting the descriptive passages? Does your plot work? Is your story compelling?
Let me know if I can help you! It's what I want to do!
As an agent I loved building a big career for a new writer. I loved making their deals and helping them choose which of their ideas they should write next. It was a team effort and always exciting. Being a creative consultant gives me the same thrill. I love reading those screenplays or novels. I love being able to see what will help make those projects better and better. It's so fulfilling to read the next drafts and watch the talent grow and mature.
Writing a marketable project when one is all alone is pretty much impossible. Writers need the eyes of a professional to point out the flaws as well as the good pieces. I never try to rewrite a writer. I only show the way to making a script better.
Have you followed the 3 Act Structure? Do your main characters have zip? Are you overwriting the descriptive passages? Does your plot work? Is your story compelling?
Let me know if I can help you! It's what I want to do!
Saturday, October 4, 2014
MOVING YOUR WRITING CAREER FORWARD
If you've written a couple of great screenplays and are not sure what to do next or if you are wondering how to get and keep an agent you should sign up for my new on-line course via the world famous Writers Store at: http://www.writersstore.com/moving-your-writing-career-forward/.
You will learn an in-depth, insiders knowledge of how to keep a great agent/client relationship and much, much more! Sign up asap. The course will be extremely helpful to you.
Hope to have you with us.
You will learn an in-depth, insiders knowledge of how to keep a great agent/client relationship and much, much more! Sign up asap. The course will be extremely helpful to you.
Hope to have you with us.
Monday, September 8, 2014
MICHELE WALLERSTEIN THE WRITER'S CONSULTANT & THE AUTHOR OF "MIND YOUR BUSINESS": HOW AGENTS THINK
MICHELE WALLERSTEIN THE WRITER'S CONSULTANT & THE AUTHOR OF "MIND YOUR BUSINESS": HOW AGENTS THINK: After wracking my brain for weeks I believe I've come up with sharing some vital information with all of you writers. Do you want to kn...
Friday, September 5, 2014
HOW AGENTS THINK
After wracking my brain for weeks I believe I've come up with sharing some vital information with all of you writers. Do you want to know how agents think? Do you want to know what motivates them? If you do then continue reading and I will explain these things. This information will help you to get an agent and to have a great relationship with them.
The first thing you need to realize is that the job of being an agent is work. It isn't fun and play time in Hollywood. It's very hard work with long hours, huge disappointments, heartbreak, and even mental abuse. Being an agent is not a secure job with the receipt of a gold watch at the end of a long career with one company. They don't always get health insurance and retirement packages. They often work on commission and must survive and support families through strikes and bad times. Agents often get fired for political as well as financial reasons. They are often replaced by younger people with good connections. Do you get it? It ain't easy.
The first and most important thing that pushes agents is to sell. They must make deals to make a living and keep their jobs. If their clients do well, then they do well. It's actually a wonderfully symbiotic relationship. Agents want their clients to work and to make tons of money.
They are often very bright and well educated people yet they live in fear of losing their clients who sometimes change agents the way other people change their clothes. Small agencies often do the hardest work because they build up new writers. The boutique agencies are the ones that clients leave so that they can go to big prestigious firms. Those big firms invariably disappoint these clients because they have so much inter-office politics and pressure that they can not give individual writers the time they need.
Very often agents get personally involved with their clients in that those clients tell their life stories and problems to their agents.
Agents are often thrilled to find new and great writers who they can work with and mold into big and important careers. But they also know that those people, for which they work so hard, will someday leave them. It is simply that clients feel that if their careers start to slide it is easier and emotionally safer to blame their agent than to take responsibility for their own failures.
Believe me agents are most often the good guys and gals in your life. Hope this helps.
The first thing you need to realize is that the job of being an agent is work. It isn't fun and play time in Hollywood. It's very hard work with long hours, huge disappointments, heartbreak, and even mental abuse. Being an agent is not a secure job with the receipt of a gold watch at the end of a long career with one company. They don't always get health insurance and retirement packages. They often work on commission and must survive and support families through strikes and bad times. Agents often get fired for political as well as financial reasons. They are often replaced by younger people with good connections. Do you get it? It ain't easy.
The first and most important thing that pushes agents is to sell. They must make deals to make a living and keep their jobs. If their clients do well, then they do well. It's actually a wonderfully symbiotic relationship. Agents want their clients to work and to make tons of money.
They are often very bright and well educated people yet they live in fear of losing their clients who sometimes change agents the way other people change their clothes. Small agencies often do the hardest work because they build up new writers. The boutique agencies are the ones that clients leave so that they can go to big prestigious firms. Those big firms invariably disappoint these clients because they have so much inter-office politics and pressure that they can not give individual writers the time they need.
Very often agents get personally involved with their clients in that those clients tell their life stories and problems to their agents.
Agents are often thrilled to find new and great writers who they can work with and mold into big and important careers. But they also know that those people, for which they work so hard, will someday leave them. It is simply that clients feel that if their careers start to slide it is easier and emotionally safer to blame their agent than to take responsibility for their own failures.
Believe me agents are most often the good guys and gals in your life. Hope this helps.
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