Riprap Entertainment TV The Business Side of Writing with Barry THE CUMULATIVE RESUME

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THE BUSINESS SIDE OF WRITING WITH BARRY

THE CUMULATIVE RESUME
By Barry M. Putt, Jr.
Copyright Oct. 30, 2007

The Business Side of Writing With Barry [October 30, 2007] A cumulative resume is an important resource to have as a writer. It serves as a repository for all your credits and can be a useful tool when you need to create resumes focused towards a specific type of writing like screenplays or stage plays. It is also a way to track your ascent up the dramatic writer’s “personal career ladder.” Both new and more experienced writers will find it easy to create and valuable to maintain.

To get started, jot down the titles of all of the pieces you’ve written at least a first draft of. Be sure to note the year you completed the first draft of each piece and whether it’s a short or full-length piece.

Categories can include:

- Stage plays
- Screenplays
- Teleplays
- Radio plays
- Industrial scripts
- Novels
- Short stories
- Articles
- Poems

Next sort your pieces under a main heading. Here are some to consider:

- FILM/TV PRODUCTIONS
- STAGE/RADIO PRODUCTIONS
- UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAYS
- UNPRODUCED STAGE PLAYS
- PUBLISHED ARTICLES
- UNPUBLISHED ARTICLES
- EDUCATION
- WRITING AWARDS
- WRITING GROUPS
- WRITING ORGANIZATIONS
- WRITING CONFERENCES

Separate the listings under each main heading into one of the following sub groups:

- PRODUCED
- UNPRODUCED
- PUBLISHED
- UNPUBLISHED

Now you’re ready to do some detail work on each of your listings. Besides including a title and creation year for each piece, it can be useful to have a log line or story sentence as well. This will enable you to have a single source to come to for all of your log lines/story sentences. First, decide whether you want to include a log line or a story sentence. The difference between them is that a logline doesn’t have to include the entire story within it, but a story sentence does. The formula for creating a story sentence is:

PROTAGONIST + HIS/HER OBSTACLE = STORY OUTCOME.

Here is an example:

“A girl escapes her hum-drum life in search of something better
only to discover that what she was looking for she had in her life all along.”
– The Wizard of Oz.

Occasionally, a screen, stage, or radio play can fall into one of the following sub-groups:

- Options
- Development Deals (film/TV only)
- Commissions (theatre only)

An option agreement gives a producer exclusive, yet temporary, legal authority to pursue a production on a writer’s script. Development deals and commissions come about when a theatre or production company requests a writer to create a story for them. During the period when a project in one of these areas is active, the project should be cited under the appropriate “Production” heading and sub-group. If a project ends without a production occurring, it should be removed from the “Production” area and relisted under the appropriate sub-group name. Here is an example of how to detail a development deal or option that falls into the unproduced category:

DEVELOPMENT DEALS
“Temple of the Tiger” (2002) (Deal Time Frame: 9/16/2002 to 9/16/2005)
(An animal-activist takes a pilgrimage to the world's largest
man-eating tiger reserve of Sunderban, India in hope of a
cure for her fatal illness, and ends up confronting the
world's most treacherous creatures of all...humans.)
Aananda Pictures, Torrance, CA.

Having a complete production history for each of your scripts is an important component of your cumulative resume. When you detail your listings in the stage play category be sure to include full and workshop productions along with public readings. Important elements to list under each title are:

- The name of the producing theatre
- The theatre’s location
- Production dates.

The more information you include, the more valuable each listing will be when you need to refer to it. Here is a citation to use as a guide:

The Porch (one-act) {writer} [2002]
(A man struggles to break free from convention and truly live.)
- Produced at The Theatre-Studio, Inc., New York, NY
{Production Dates: 1/20 and 1/21/2006}
- Produced in the 30th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway
Short Play Festival, New York, NY. (July 13th, 2005)
- Equity staged reading (November 2003)
Goldberg Theater, NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.

Titles in the screenplay category can follow the same configuration as stage plays. Be sure to include the following in your citations:

- Production company name
- The production company’s location
- The film’s release date

Here is a sample listing to consider using:

Bleeding Through (short film) {writer}
(College guys use a faulty video camera to record their informal basketball
competition. With each camera short out, their friend's pre-recorded,
unknown murder is revealed under their footage.)
-Produced by VTV Productions, Somerset, NJ
- Released in 2001

When itemizing your TV-show credits, I’d recommend incorporating the following components into each citation. These are in addition to the standard components used in all dramatic writing categories. They include:

- The date range in which you wrote for the show
- Your job title on the show
- Season number
- Episode number
- Episode title
- Episode’s original air date
- Co-writer’s name (if applicable)

Episode numbers should be comprised of the season number followed by a period and then the episode number for that season. The original airdate refers to the first time a particular episode was broadcasted on TV. Listings may be detailed as follows:

In the Cellar (television series)
(A bumbling man and his zany friends find themselves in the
stickiest of situations with hilarious results as they watch
classic creature-feature films in the bumbling man’s basement.)
- Produced by Cellar Productions, Fremont, CA.
TV scriptwriter (from 7/2005 – 10/2006) on:
- Episode #1.6: THE CURSE (First Aired: 3/3/06)
- Episode #1.7: I DUNNO WHO DUNNIT (First Aired:
10/29/05) (co-written with Nathan Levine-Heaney)

Be sure to include spec TV show scripts in your cumulative resume. These citations can be configured using the same format that produced TV scripts do. Place them under the unproduced sub-group of the TV show heading.

In addition to productions and readings of your work, it is important to include TV shows on which your writing has been discussed or evaluated. These can be listed in the production area. An excellent example is a script that has been featured on Riprap Entertainment TV. Citations can be set up as follows:

Riprap Entertainment TV (television series)
(A weekly entertainment series featuring stage and screenplay critiques)
Produced by Riprap Entertainment, North Hollywood, California
The following scripts were discussed on the show:
- A Fair in Spring (air date: 8/06)
- Temple of the Tiger (air date: 5/11/07)

Non-dramatic writing pieces are important to include as well. They can be listed under the main heading of either “published” or “unpublished”, then by the type of writing they are, like:

- Short story
- Novel
- Book proposal
- Novella
- Magazine Article
- Newspaper Article
- Newsletter Article
- Poem
- Essay
* Personal
* Critical

Unpublished listings should include the title of each piece and its’ creation year. Published listings can be set up using the standard bibliography format and contain the following elements:

- Title of piece
- Publisher’s name
- Magazine/Newspaper name (if applicable)
- Volume and issue number
- Page range (if applicable)
- Publication date

Here is an example of a listing in the published category:

“Life Trail” (poem) Published by Riprap Entertainment “Coffee-zine Scene!”
ezine Vol. 4. Issue 1. September 1, 2003.

Writing awards are also important to track. Listings
should contain contests you’ve won or placed in. Be sure to include:

- Award name
- Title of the winning/placing story
- Where your story placed in the contest

Here is an example of how to format award credits:

Award Name: New Jersey Wordsmiths' Competition 2003
Story Title: A Different Blend of Friendship
(First place)

Writing education, writing conferences, and writing groups are other categories to list on your cumulative resume. Education includes writing degrees or certificate programs as well as individual writing courses you have taken. Your formal education credentials should include:

- Name of school
- Program of study
- Year of graduation
- Name of the writing degree

For non-degree writing courses list:

- The individual course name
- Year the course was taken
- Name of school
- Instructor’s name

Writing conferences incorporates those you’ve attended as well as presented at. For conferences you’ve attended list:

- Name of conference
- Year Attended

For conferences you’ve presented at be sure to include:

- Name of conferences
- Name of the seminar you presented
- Year you presented at the conference.

Writing organizations, such as the Dramatists Guild, and critique groups in which you are a member should appear under the heading “Writers Groups/Organizations.” Each credit should include:

- Name of organization or group
- Start and end date of your involvement with them

The cumulative resume can be a useful tool in tracking your progress as you strive to reach your goal on the dramatic writer’s “personal career ladder.” Once your resume has been compiled, compare the type of productions you have had to your goal on the career ladder. In doing so, determine whether your credits support that goal or lead in another direction. If it’s the latter, it may be wise to consider the new direction. If that is not of interest to you, then look towards ways in which you can move yourself back in the direction you wanted to pursue.

Your career history document can be a great resource when you need to create a resume specific to a certain type of writing like stage play productions for example. I suggest placing your resume credits in the following order:

1. Education
2. Stage play production credits
3. Other dramatic writing production credits
4. Writing awards
5. Writing organizations

The second and third categories will change depending on the focus of the specific resume.

A cumulative resume is a record you can turn to throughout your career to track where you’ve come from and where you’re going. I’d recommend updating it as soon after a credit occurs as possible. That way the details will be fresh in your mind and you’ll always have a complete history of your credentials to refer to. Regardless of how you track your writing credits, I hope that the techniques outlined here will be of assistance to you.

Written by Barry M. Putt, Jr.
Copyright October 30, 2007 Barry M. Putt, Jr. all rights reserved. This article may not be reprinted without permission from the author.

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THE BUSINESS SIDE OF WRITING WITH BARRY

THE CUMULATIVE RESUMEBy Barry M. Putt, Jr.Copyright Oct. 30, 2007

VIEW MORE EXCERPTS LOADED DAILY!

THE CUMULATIVE RESUME
By Barry M. Putt, Jr.
Copyright Oct. 30, 2007