How is this different than me barging into a doctor's office asking him to give me a free examination?

Respect the craft, learn the business, and stop feeling that the world owes you something. Read Dan Simmons' “Writing Well” series and maybe understand how much work goes into writing and how difficult it is to actually do it well. http://www.dansimmons.com/writing_welll/archive…

Calling him an asshole in this way is attacking him as a person. If Josh is an asshole, he's only so to verified assholes, particularly after years of wasting time and energy helping that parasitic breed and receiving zip in return. I've helped scores upon scores in this industry to gain life-changing career advances and I have yet to see a single one of these people include me in their lives thereafter. In a city rife with ambitious sociopaths, Josh's attitude is not only understandable, it becomes a necessary self-defense mechanism.

As for writing a novel– Been there as well. What I find insanely sad about being a novelist in LA is the reaction you get when you mention you wrote a novel, one that actually got published by a major. Not once has anyone ever asked me the title. Christ, in New York it's the first thing they ask.

Only assholes have to tell the world how busy and important they are. They're also so important and busy that they have time to write a rant about how they don't have time to do what they've already have done.

It's pretty damn clear that Olson is an asshole.

The guy who asked him for the free read had no excuse for his behavior, and it's obvious that Olson's article is meant to make that point clearly to people like “Dr” Abaius who obviously don't understand it.

Most writers who are serious don't do what this person did. They don't corner people they barely know and put them on the spot to read their work. The guy who asked was rude. Cole Abaius is rude. The people who are attacking Olson for the article are rude. But Olson was extremely polite to this guy, and it's pathetic to see amateurs like Abaius expressing such ignorant rage, rather than learning something useful from this. Olson did you a service.

And it sucked. Not normal Hoover-type sucked, I'm talking Dyson-type sucked. It was full of cliches and topical references that were guaranteed to be dated by the time the movie was finished, never mind released. So I wrote notes. I went page by soul-sucking page and wrote intelligent, informed, constructive notes. I met with him later that week and went over every one of them with him, along with suggestions to improve the script, and he completely blew me off. Then, to add insult to ignorance, he gives me an early call that weekend and never shows up to shoot. I wouldn't piss on that guy if he was on fire now.

I have another friend who wants to produce and he keeps sending me these scripts that he swears have backing, and the producer wants “notes” on them. So I read these things (although now I insist on a synopsis) and he sends me both. Well, it HAD to be written with voice-recognition software because it made absolutely no sense whatsoever and no human being can mangle the English language the way it was done in this synopsis. So after torturing myself trying to decode it, I tossed it aside and read the script. It started out okay but soon veered off into the third bardo and made even less sense than the synopsis. A couple of days later, I get on a conference call with my friend and the producer who was pushing the script, who tells me (what else?) to “be brutally honest” on whether or not I can doctor the script. So I told him the best way to doctor that particular script was to euthanize it as quickly as possible. Our conversation petered out rather quickly after that.

The problem here is that everyone really does think they can write a screenplay, even more so if they buy Final Draft, but the fact of the matter is this: buying a hammer doesn't make you a carpenter. I sympathize with Olsen, but there are better ways of refusing. I don't mind doing favors for my friends or acquaintences, but it's getting to a point where I'm going to draw the line. The sad fact is that for every writer who will actually take your advice to heart and learn from what you say, there are a thousand that will get pissed off because you can't see the inherent genius in the mis-formatted pile of shit they give you.

It's hard to give people honest criticism, and it's something I'm (rather alarmingly) known for around the circle of filmmakers I work with, but I'll do it and I won't hold back. I try to take the feelings of whoever I'm giving this opinon to into consideration, but every once in a while you run into someone who is so blind to their own lack of talent that patience just runs out and you have to take drastic measures. If that makes me an asshole in their eyes, well, I just have to live with it. Life goes on.

Josh Olsen's an asshole, blah blah blah.

Get out of the business if you can't handle it.

” as long as they write and complete their script or novel, their film book or an acting gig, whether it's good or bad, they ARE writers, filmmakers and actors and not wannabes. “

You couldn't be more insulting to the people who hold those jobs if you tried. Those are all highly skilled professions that take years to master. If you actually did any of those things for a living, you'd grasp how completely rude and ignorant that comment is. The whole point of Olson's piece is to call people like you out on your lack of respect for professionals. Just because you want to be a writer or an actor or a filmmaker doesn't make you one. Neither does typing some words on a page, taking a picture, or reciting your favorite lines from Chasing Amy in your living room. Have some respect.

Olsen occurs as an emmotionally immature twit who is unable to navigate even the most basic social interactions. Were a waitress to ask him if he was finished with his meal, I imagine Olsen would be so wrapped up in the pressure he believes the waitress is putting on him to hurry up and get out that he'd put his paws down in a protective stance around his food and lash out at the poor waitress like an angry rabid beaver. Then he'd post a food critic review of how horrible and overbearing the waitstaff is at this restaurant.

Basic social skills would resolve this problem: Are you finished eating? Not yet. Would you read my script? No, thank you.

I'd say Olsen's reaction is something I'd expect out of people who have to wear helmets to keep from injuring themselves, but the people I've met who actually wear such helmets were usually ashamed of their behaviour once they recover. Olsen has withdrawn and allowed similarly helmeted, emotionally stunted people to defend his behaviour as “satire”.

No, that was a tantrum.

This crazy girl is claiming that you plagiarized her post about the article. You might want to take this up with either her or your attorney, as accusations of plagiarism – even when they're this silly – are very serious, and can come back to bite you in the ass.

http://www.halfcute.com/2009/09/its-flattering-…

It takes effort to constructively criticize, but it's worth it for both critic and writer and hell, civilization.

I don’t think anyone perceives John August as the norm, nor expects every other writer to do as he does. What people should expect from others is common decency. If you can’t, or simply do not want to help me, fine. Wonderful. I understand. If I ask you to lend me a hand, and you tell me to “fuck off,” then yes, you just said something that makes me view you as an asshole.

Again, I don’t know what Josh Olson’s intentions were, but judging by the tone of his article I took it as he is telling aspiring writers that he will not read their fucking scripts, and he does not want to be bothered by it. If due to his childishness people come out of the woodworks specifically to bug him and ask to read their scripts, then I’d say his approach was not the right one.

What Olson did is in no way like that of a tough college professor. The professor would read your stuff specifically to tear you down, Olson would just tell you to fuck off. He’s not going to make anyone want to stop writing, just stop pestering.

The reason that other writers are praising him right now is because they will reap the benefits of his assholishness and not come off as the bad guy. Maybe that was Olson’s intention. Maybe he wanted to sacrifice his own well-being to help other writers not have to deal with it as much. Could be.

It could also be that he didn’t think of that, and is just an asshole.

“A fantasy scenario? I’ve already seen it happen several times and I’ve only been on two film sets so far.”

You’re obviously never going to actually read or comprehend what people are saying and talking to you is useless. You’re insistent on having the last word, so I will let you have it with whatever ridiculous, close-minded and uninformed retort you have.