A young play-by-play announcer attempts to kick-start his flagging career by calling the winless high school basketball team to a mythical championship.
2 Likes
Looking for a quick break from those awesome, tense horror and drama scripts? Drop in on my script for a bit of feel-good mischief.
If anybody has any questions, happy to answer them.
Can’t wait to dig in to everyone else’s scripts. Love reading great work. Congrats to the other 25!!
Best,
Paul
2 Likes
Hi Paul,
I really appreciated the warmth of the father–son dynamic and the small-town atmosphere. The idea of narration shaping perception is a compelling concept.
I was especially intrigued by the collective illusion element. I’m curious — when you were developing the story, did you see the fabricated wins more as lighthearted mischief or as commentary on how communities sometimes choose belief over reality?
I found myself wondering how you approached the balance between feel-good tone and the moral implications of sustaining the deception. Would love to hear your thoughts on that.
Best,
Victor
1 Like
Victor,
Thank you for the read and nice comments. You are the very first person to ask me this question. I was wondering if anyone would pick up on this aspect of the idea.
So, yes, the project, in its infancy was born out of an exploration of the idea of choosing belief over reality…especially on a kind of mass scale. I really wanted to explore what I felt was a very human reaction to modern fears and discomforts. However, I had NO interest in writing a political story and NO interest in passing judgement of any kind. My work, at its core, is intended to bring people together, not further divide. Still, I wanted to experiment with that fascinating bit of humanity.
I also knew I wanted to write a story that incorporated some of my early professional experiences as a young play-by-play announcer (write what you know). It was the mashup of the two goals that led to this story.
You ask about balancing the feel-good tone and the moral implications. I thought quite a bit about this as I wrote. In the end, I decided that I was more interested in 1. Preserving the tone of the project and 2. Telling a satisfying story…than I was in making any specific moral point. It came down to…we all have our illusions. We all retain them for reasons that are useful to maintaining a level of control in our crazy lives. If I wanted to make any point, it would be that. Really, that’s the moral point of 90% of my work: we’re all crazy, and we’re all crazy together. So, let’s focus on that.
Finally, I would say, too, that I firmly believe that over-reaching in terms of moral statements in a project tend to do more harm than good. If I truly want someone to think deeply about, for example, mass illusion…then telling a satisfying story around that concept is more impactful than naming your project Mass Illusion and preaching about it for 95 pages.
TLDR: If I was going to miss in a direction, I wanted to miss telling a good story that left everyone feeling good. (So…more light-hearted mischief.)
Not sure I answered your question all that well, but I very much appreciate you giving me the opportunity to share some of my creative processing.
Happy to explore further, if you have any follow-ups.
Best,
Paul
1 Like
Paul,
Thank you for the thoughtful explanation — that really clarified your intention. I think my response came from my own creative bias toward realism and tangible consequences, so it was valuable to hear how you approached it from a different lens.
I respect the clarity of your choice to prioritize tone and cohesion. It’s always fascinating how two people, can look at the same concept from very different angles.
Best,
Victor
Given your bias towards realism…I’m curious if I did enough to pull you into the central premise? Did the story roll out in a logical enough manner that you could allow yourself to go along for the ride?
Paul
Hi Paul,
To answer your question honestly — the story pulled me in, but mostly because I was trying to reconcile its internal logic with my own bias toward realism. As a writer, I naturally look for plausibility and consequence, so I found myself questioning whether a collective illusion — especially one built on fabricated wins — could realistically sustain motivation.
That tension is actually what kept me engaged. I wasn’t resisting the premise; I was trying to make sense of it within my own narrative instincts.
After your explanation, I understand much better that your priority was tone and shared human experience rather than moral commentary or strict realism. Knowing that reframed the piece for me. I respect the clarity of that choice — telling the story the way you wanted to tell it, without trying to impose a lesson or satisfy expectation.
Best,
Victor
1 Like
Thanks for taking such care in answering. It’s very helpful to know how readers are experiencing the page.
Appreciate you!
Best,
Paul
Excellent work here Paul!
Definitely a feel-good story and a nice narrative flow from beginning to end.
Probably my favorite of the full scripts I’ve read so far.
Good luck!
1 Like
Thank you so much. I appreciate the kind words.
Best,
Paul
Best of luck to the top 10 finishers! Great job!
Had a bad feeling about things when a bunch of my votes disappeared the other day. I’m sure it didn’t affect anything…but, the script Gods weren’t in my favor on this one. 
Back to the board.
On the positive side…this clears me to produce a table read of this script for my storytelling podcast. So, I got that going for me.
1 Like
How cool (the table read). If it makes you feel any better, almost all of my votes disappeared too, but it didn’t affect ‘DUE’ moving to the final 10. Apparently it was only a display issue (it maybe clicked over to displaying script reads instead of treatment votes).
Your attitude is great by the way, people will notice that and it will get you far.
I wish you all the best with whatever comes next!
1 Like
Thank you! And, congrats on the top 10. I’ve only read your treatment so far, but I look forward to reading the script in the top 3.
As for the anomaly…yeah, the peeps at Kinolime (always on the ball) let me know about the issue. No harm, no foul.
Good luck with Due!!
2 Likes