Welcome!
www.austinscreenwriters.org is the
website of the Austin Screenwriters Group.

Mission Statement:

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ASG CALENDAR
Regular Meetings - 1st and 3rd Saturdays or Sundays from 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

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ASG NEWS!

• June 2009: Austin Monthly will have a write-up of the Austin Screenwriters Group in an article on arts and literature groups in Austin.
• June 2009: We will have a social potluck BYOB with Michael Hauge on June 27th from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. At the home of Peggy Schatz in Spicewood (directions). All are welcome; don't have to be an ASG member or a workshop attendee. Thanks, Peggy!
• May 2009: WE HAS A WORKSHOP! Saturday, June 27th, we will have a one-day workshop with Michael Hauge on story mastery and pitching. Cost will be $95 for ASG members and $125 for non-members. Go here for info on where to sign up and what to send (if you're an ASG member, you get to submit a manuscript for Mike's review), location, etc. Michael Hauge is a well-known and respected story consultant for all the major production studios. He has several screenwriting books out, including Writing Screenplays That Sell, which is in its 32nd printing from Harper Collins. Update: Mike will be available for one-on-one coaching sessions on Sunday morning at his usual fees as well; contact Wendy Wheeler to schedule.
• October 2008: In connection with the Austin Film Festival, the ASG had some wonderful networking opportunities. Our thanks to the folks from Hollywood who met with us, in receptions and dinners: Robert Markovich, Director of Original Programming at Starz Entertainment; Curtis Burch, producer with Latitude Productions; and Tim Albaugh, UCLA screenwriting instructor and producer/writer with Popular Films. Your Website editor forgot to bring a camera to most events, but here's one of the ASG with Curtis Burch at Stubb's BBQ the Saturday night of the conference:
  
• July 2008: Screenwriter and craft guru Blake Snyder (Save the Cat) came to Austin to teach an intensive workshop on July 12-13. The ASG took Blake to dinner again, at Threadgills South, again.
  
  Randy Brown, Blake Snyder, Jill Oleson (and others) at dinner at Threadgill's.
  
• May 2008: The ASG Spring Workshop the weekend of May 31-June 1 was coordinated by First Look Script Analysis (Nancy Smith) and brought in the amazing Dave Trottier. Dave presented his seminar "Four Keys to a Salable Script," gave tips on pitching, listened to members' pitches, and joined us in a wine and cheese party. He also chose the First Annual Hook Contest Winners from our 8 finalist scripts. More information about the events on the Spring Workshop page. Congrats to the winners: 1st place: KITTYHAWK by Julie Kenner. 2nd place: BECOMING QUANAH PARKER by Steve Warren. 3rd place: LIFE WITHOUT FATHER by Anton Diether.
  
  
  Nancy Smith and Dave Trottier
  
• ASG Goods to Buy: Thanks to Helen Cates, the Austin Screenwriters Group now has t-shirts, mugs and more on CafePress you can buy with our ASG logo on it. Wear 'em proudly!
  
  
• October 2007: Members of ASG, got to select one of their scripts and print the first 15 pages to send to producer/manager Colin O'Reilly. Also, members were invited to a reception (beer, wine, bottled water with potluck hors d'hoeuvres) Wednesday before AFF. We also had informal networking and pitching with Colin at the Pecan Street Cafe Saturday on October 12.
  
  
  At Olde Pecan Street Cafe, Mona Lee, Colin O'Reilly (in green) and Will Hagewood with others
  
• June 2007: Member Lauren Peterson worked with local screenwriting teacher and coach Jill Chamberlain to create a special 2.5-hour craft workshop for the ASG during our regularly scheduled meeting time and place on June 16, 2007. More on what Jill offered here. We got a flat fee for the class, and allowed in anyone who was interested. We had a great session, great participation with about 30 people doing the workshop.
• Feb 2007: The Workgroup of the Austin Screenwriters Group is the closest thing we have to officers. Any dues-paid member of ASG can come to the Workgroup meetings and have input into the retreats, workshops, Hollywood outreach, and other activities of the group. We have Workgroup meetings infrequently, and we really need to focus more on managing the group activities since we've grown and our treasury is building up funds. What about having these meetings after the Saturday meetings, say at 12:30 p.m. in the same Bookpeople room? What if we have them every other month, or maybe every quarter? Discuss amongst yourselves...
  

• Our Meeting Room at Bookpeople. The generous folks at Bookpeople have allowed us to use their 3rd floor meeting room for free for over seven years now. Hearty thanks to them! They ask us to respect a few small rules, which I've promised to document on our website. First, clean up when we leave (which we've been great about doing). Second, we can bring food if we clean up well when we leave. And if we want coffee, please get it from the coffee shop on the first floor and don't bring in outside coffee. We've just learned that the coffee shop will sell an urn of coffee with cups, if the person getting the table reading is inspired to treat the folks at the meeting. Just coordinate that ahead of time.

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ASG MONTHLY MEETINGS

• 1st and 3rd Saturdays (sometimes Sundays, per Bookpeople) of (almost) every month
• Starts around 9:30 am, goes until done, but no later than 12:30 pm
• Our generous hosts are the fine folks at the BookPeople at 6th St and Lamar in Austin, 3rd floor (see map below)
• Typical format: Networking and introductions are followed by an out-loud reading of the screenplay to be critiqued that day
• Anyone with an interest in screenwriting is welcome to the meetings! To have a script read and critiqued, however, you must be a member of the ASG and meet a few simple rules, which are covered in the FAQ.

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ASG MAILING LIST

The Austin Screenwriters Group has a mailing list on Yahoo. We highly recommend that you sign yourself up! We share networking, news, upcoming events, etc. Last-minute schedule changes are posted there, and are often the only way you'll know about them. Joining the list is easy, and you don't have to be a dues-paying member for it. Please note you must subscribe first, before you can post emails. The listserver software will bounce back emails that come from unregistered email addresses!

1. Start from within the mailing address you wish to register, and send an email to: austinscreenwriters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. (The reference line and content aren't important in the message.)
2. You'll get a confirming email from the listserver at YahooGroups. Just follow the instructions (usually, it just asks you to respond to verify), and you should be on the list for the moderator to approve you. (We had to add this step because spammers were joining just to send us off-topic email.)
3. Once you get the message from Yahoo saying the moderator has approved you, you're registered on the listserver software and can then send emails easily to everyone on the ASG list by addressing them to: austinscreenwriters@yahoogroups.com.

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ASG FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) List

The FAQ list is on another page, and contains instructions on signing up for a reading, preparing your script for the reading, conducting the reading, and the feedback session. We suggest you visit the page and print it out. You can also get a copy of the information if you download a copy of the ASG brochure as a Word document, click here for that.

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LINKS TO OTHER USEFUL WEBSITES

We keep a list of helpful writing and screenwriting books on another page.

How to format a script? It's a question at the top of the mind of many beginning writers. Here's a good discussion with samples written by a fan of Austin (he comes regularly to the Heart of Film Conference) Greg Beal, who coodinates the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship.

Writers Guild of America is the group that lobbies and negotiates on behalf of American screenwriters. It's also the place to register your scripts for protection, and if you live in Texas you should use the WGAw (West). The U.S. Patent Office issues copyrights for more-formal protection. Most of the screenwriting contests require that your script submissions be registered, in fact.

MovieBytes is another useful site which also features a listing of the many screenwriting contests each year, along with their open and closing dates, as well as other information.

BookPeople has been hosting our twice monthly meetings since early 2000. They are great people, and generous in their support of Austin arts! Show your appreciation by shopping at the store as often as possible!

Another wonderful host (this time, on the Internet) for the ASG is Randy Martin, who has the Web design and Web hosting company, Chili Design. Check out the awesome portfolio on his website! (And please note he had nothing to do with the dorky design of the ASG website!)

The ASG enjoys a very close relationship with the Heart of Film Conference and Austin Film Festival. What an awesome opportunity for education and networking they provide for local screenwriters! The Heart of Film was the first screenwriter-specific conference (now it has many imitators). It's a can't-miss event that happens in Austin each fall. Many of us submit scripts to the Heart of Film competition. Many of us also volunteer to be HoF readers each year--be looking for announcements on that to come from the HoF folks each spring. And the AFF provides wonderful cinema-related events throughout the year.