Desk of Amy Suto

TV writer who eats danger for breakfast

Antidote 15 is Going to the Hollyweb Web Festival!

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Antidote 15 started in January 2014 as a fun experiment to see whether or not I could do something waaaay outside my comfort zone, which was to independently produce a web series I had written. Up until that point, I had mostly just been studying the craft of screenwriting, with a small number of short films done for classes and for fun.

Season one I tried to do everything: writing, producing, directing — simply way more than I could handle. Season two I brought on more wonderful people who saved the day and elevated the series beyond what I thought we could achieve on such ridiculous budget constraints.

And today, this tiny little thriller web series and experiment in seeing what happens when a bunch of awesome people work really hard on something has become something I’m really happy about. I could not have accomplished any of this without our tireless cast and crew.

We made it into the Hollyweb Web Festival as an official selection, and we will be screening episodes 2.01 and 2.02 on March 27th between 11:30-1pm at Raleigh Studios! We will also be attending the Avalon Hollywood Red Carpet event on Sunday starting at 7pm.

Writing The Vision

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2014-03-17 16.42.17 I’ve been writing short films, short stories, and summaries inside and outside of the classroom of this idea since December of 2013, and I’m excited to finally use the power of deadlines and inordinate amounts of coffee to bring it to fruition. So partially in order to procrastinate from the writing I’m doing today and to hold myself accountable, here’s an update on The Vision.

The Story

The story follows Elise, a controlling oil painter knocked by critics for doing work that is technically perfect but void of passion. However, she begins losing her eyesight and must complete her masterpiece before she goes blind, and come to terms with this ultimate loss of control. She meets Michael, a street artist who believes that art exists outside the realm of perfectionist artists like Elise’s mentor Gia, who thinks that true art is made in the medium of the old masters, not through mixed media art installations or spray paint.

Elise must discover the meaning of art, and be able to give up control and find out how to persist as a creative individual. She must discover that true sight can be found in the strength of your vision, not of your eyes. [Read more…]

Web Series as Practice for the Real World

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2014-07-12 16.36.17on set with Bryce Morgan, our fearless director, and Claire Hupy, our lovely stand-in

Today after the 10am staff meeting for Orientation I hibernated in my apartment and attempted to catch up on sleep, but then quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen and I was better off catching up on work.

For the past few months I’ve been in pre-production for season two of my web series, Antidote 15, which has (happily) been my life since December 2013. Season one followed Anita, a theater major who was poisoned and has fifteen hours to follow a set of instructions to find the antidote. At the end of season one, she has to poison someone else — and she does. Season two will deal with her guilt, and the lengths she’ll go to make things right.

One aspect of this project that I love is that everything is practice for the “real world.” Can you write something people like? Can you organize a team of great people to help and add their own visions to the project? Can you drink four cups of coffee and not be shaking too much to make a call sheet? [Read more…]

Tips and Tricks for Novel Writing

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So yeah this is Maui guys

What did I learn from a week of writing over 13,000 words worth of my novel?

That if you’re going to rent a surfboard and try and surf, you should have some instruction of some kind. Don’t be a lone wolf like me, eager to show the world that the premise of if-I-can-longboard-I-can-surf is a valid one.

Anyways, after finishing a few short scripts up for an upcoming competition, I turned my focus completely on the time sensitive project of my novel that I need to finish by the end of this month!

Now, as you can imagine, writing a novel is not all sunshine and roses. This is my fifth and I can tell you for certain that instead it’s more like you suddenly lose all ability to function and/or write anything good and it’s like help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up as suddenly the walls close in on you and there’s a boulder and snakes and fire.

I don’t know when my novel went all Indiana-Jones-death-trap on me, but it did. My beta readers kept finding glaring inconsistencies in my protagonist’s motivation and flaws, and I also definitely screwed some small picture things up that took my readers out of the story. [Read more…]

How to Write a Novel in a Month *Free Full-Color Manual*

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I wrote this manual that details how you can write a novel in a month. It includes all the tips, motivational pep talks, and elaborate espresso drinks you could ever need for a month-long writing adventure!

I’m not going to lie– I’m pretty proud of my InDesign kung-fu on this one.

Also — before you dive in, be sure to check out my other novel writing-themed blog posts!

How to Write a Novel in a Month

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