About those Black List evaluations…
After finishing a draft or two, I decided to try uploading About the Author to this website I had just learned about, The Black List.
(I told my dad I was putting my film on "the Black List" at the time, and he, being well versed in the history of Hollywood, was like "....is...that...good?")
Honestly, I didn't know! I had no idea what to expect. People tend to have very strong reactions to my work, and though I had presented it for feedback multiple times in my writer's group, it's very different showing your weird, offbeat dark comedy to a group of people who knows you (and has to look you in the eye while they deliver their feedback) and presenting it anonymously to an unspecified "pro" on the internet. And so I was only very mildly surprised when my first two evaluations came back as a 5 and an 8 — a high enough score to get a month of free hosting and two free evaluations.
And then it happened again! Another low score, but also another high score, another month of free hosting, and another two free evaluations.
You get the picture. I think there were two more rounds of this, with the biggest disparity being a 9 and a 3, both of which came in on the same day.
I was over the moon. I'm the kind of person who appreciates being seen more than necessarily being liked, and I felt these evaluations saw About the Author with very clear eyes — even the negative ones. I actually pulled quotes from almost every evaluation to use in my pitch deck.
Happy and unhappy readers alike said that ATA was "fascinating," "shocking," and "surprisingly funny too" — "a complex and well-executed reflection on what it means to be an artist/creative person."
They called Mimi "a fascinating protagonist," "a completely honest and unblinking female character," and "quite a compelling antihero."
They said my prose was "personal," "vibrant," and "sharp," and, my personal favorite:
"Like Charlie Kaufman, Noah Baumbach, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Miranda July, but with a stronger and sharper dark side."
And, well, that's what I'm going for! Thank you! So even though some of the readers who said these (in my opinion, very nice) things absolutely hated ATA, I take it all as a ringing endorsement. It's not for everyone — but no good art is.