u/BrilliantFile6941

I've been working with a group of writers in my area for about a a year and a half now, and while I've enjoyed having that connection, I have to say I'm not completely sure about the experience. Our group is led by the husband of one of the writers, and he is not a writer himself but has many connections (legitimate as he is an entertainment lawyer with a linkedin and everything). However, he has become this insane bottleneck and in order to get him to send something to his connections, he has to approve. In theory, that makes sense because after all it's his reputation on the line.

But he genuinely does not understand any non-formulaic story. Whenever I try to get him to look at my work, he keeps asking things like "this draft doesn't seem to have the second act doorway" or he doesn't understand any character or theme work unless I spell it out. The other writers don't seem to have the same issues, or at least they're not saying anything about it. Their comments on my work are also very minimal and generic so I don't know that they're even reading.

Because of him, I have done so many drafts on my current script to the point where I think I've completely lost the original intent behind the project and I have no idea what to do. I honestly think he sent me in the completely wrong direction. And for my previous scripts that I thought were ready, he simply dismissed them as "getting there" with no actionable feedback. It's left me very confused on where I'm at with any of my work and I'm wondering if it's better to just step away entirely from the group or to maybe amend my approach by keeping the connections but finding some other way.

A couple of the people in the group are repped and one even got staffed through this guy, and even though they're in completely different genres, they've managed to make some progress. I want to improve as a writer and I know I have some ways to go, but even though the connections here might be helpful, I don't think I'm getting the support I need to improve my work and get it ready for the industry.

edit: i should also add that this guy gives a lot of weird "rules" based advice as if we've never read scripts before. He once told me I have "unfilmables" in my action lines and that I need to read actual industry scripts. But reading scripts for years is how I learned that no one actually gives a crap about so-called "unfilmables" and I'm not talking about pages of internal monologues. I'm talking about when a script says "he rolled his eyes. what a load of crap." or "he'd rather die but he relents" basically voice-y stuff. bad examples I made up off the top of my head but apparently we're not allowed to say things like that. I've read scripts of stuff that was produced AND repped writers who have relationships with studios through script reading jobs, so I know the rule doesn't just apply to famous writers who can "get away with it."

They just announced this year's cohort and it seems like every year Sundance chooses the most formulaic and "prestige bait" kinds of stories. Every show seems to be about some extremely specific or quirky type of person with a specific background who meets another extremely specific person of a different specific background and they have to navigate some extremely topical conflict. I just don't know if it's worth trying to apply to this again if they only pick pilots that are explicitly commentary driven. If only I'd written about climate change or the military industrial complex instead of family drama!

I also feel like for the marginalized writers, they always have shows about being marginalized and I've genuinely never seen writers of color or queer or female writers get in with a project that's not about navigating those identities. I personally am from a marginalized community and I did NOT write about that and maybe that hurt my chances. Also all the fellows have extensive experience according to their bios so it seems like this is more for mid-level writers with produced credits or staff writing experience.

Of course, I'm sure the selected writers are highly talented people. I also think I probably wasn't good enough of a writer to make the cut anyway. But I am starting to figure out that maybe this industry only rewards certain ideas. Does anyone else feel like all these industry labs and fellowships are like this?