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As usual Greg Beal has sent out a really nice letter via email telling me that I'm not a quarter finalist. At least this time he mentioned that I did get two positive reads, so believe it or not, I actually feel happy. One of 850 that had to be whittled down to 351! Wow, 6,730 entries in all.

So, who are in the lucky 351?

My script CARUSO AND THE SWORD was one of the lucky 351.

Congrats to both of you! One of my scripts was in the top 10% which is pretty gratifying.

Congrats, Paula. Interesting premise.

Congrats, Patricia! Good luck in the next round.

One of mine got two positive reads, and the other was in the top 10%. Nice of Greg to put the p.s.'s.

Oops, I meant to wish Paula good luck in the next round. But I still mean congrats to you too, Patricia:-).

And congrats to you, Julia!

Yes, congrats to all. Saw you on Scriptapalooza, too, Marjory.

I'm 1 of 351! The possibility of moving on isn't what excites me, it's that I've gotten to the point in my writing where I finally make it past the first round. For the rest of my life I'll be able to say one of my scripts made it to the Quarter Final round in Nicholl. So in awe right now. So in awe.

Congrats to the rest of you who made it! For those of you who didn't, just keep writing if it's really your passion! I entered Nicholl when I was 19, then again when I was 20 and got nowhere. Now I'm 23 and a quarter finalist. I'll be entering again next year.

Double congrats, Marjory! Good news from Nicholl and Scriptapalooza. Was "Precipice" in the 10% at Nicholl?

Philip, congrats on Scripapalooza and continued good luck.

Congrats to everyone who's progressed in the Nicholl Fellowship.

Congrats, LJ! Thanks and congrats, Phillip. Thanks, Julia. The Precipice got "2 positive reads", which is not as good as the top 10%. Interesting because I thought it was the stronger of my two entries. Go figure. Anyone else in Scriptapalooza? I wish the list was in alphabetical order by author name.

Congrats Paula and L.J. and all others who are progressing!

I also made it to the the top 850 with two positive reads. It was nice to hear Greg's encouragement of predicting that many of the non QF's will be successful one day.

Don

Paula, nice to see you back on the board. Congrats. And LJ.. Both of you, good luck on the next round.

Congrats Paula & LJ! Fingers crossed for the next round!

Just FYI, I made it to the top 10% for one screenplay, top 20% for another -- but no Q'finalaist! So congrats to those who did. Envy envy drool drool...

Now back to writing next year's winner!

I'm in! With a horror script, no less. Feeling good today. Up and down, this writing stuff.

Congrats TJ!

Just posted this on the Nicholl Facebook page and thought it would help clear up some misunderstandings about the PS Notes.

What does the PS Note in the Notification Email Mean

Here are the different PS notes that were written on entrants' email notifications. Placement was determined on the basis of the two highest scores for each script. Each group includes ties.

''PS:Your script was among the next 100 scripts that just missed advancing to the quarterfinals.'' After the 351 quarterfinalists, these were the highest scoring scripts. All were read three times. Places 352 — 459. 108 entries.

''PS: Your script was among the top 10% of all entries.'' This group falls just below the next 100 scripts. All were read three times. Places 460 — 684. 225 entries.

''PS: Your script was among the top 15% of all entries.'' This is the next group in line. Many were read three times; some were read twice. Places 685 — 1021. 337 entries.

''PS: Your script was among the top 20% of all entries.'' These scripts received two positive reads but none received a high enough score to generate a third read. Places 1022 — 1361. 340 entries.

''PS: Your script received two positive reads.'' These scripts received two positive reads but did not score high enough to be among the top 20%. Places 1362 — 2153. 792 entries

''PS: Your script was highly rated by one reader.'' These scripts received one strong positive score, high enough to be eligible to be among the reader comment excerpts posted on Facebook, but then received two negative reads. We only counted places for scripts with two positive scores. 23 entries.

No PS on email notifications Some of the remaining 4,554 scripts received two reads, one positive and one negative. The positive score was not high enough to generate a third read. Most of these scripts were read only once.

New writer here. Didn't get any ps in my Nicholl letter but made the QF in Scriptapalooza. Doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this process.

This process is SO subjective.... Some people LOVE It's a Wonderful Life and some people HATE it...just one of countless examples....

I got blown out in both Nicholl and Scriptapalooza competitions this year. I've done well before in Scriptapalooza TV and regular competition but this year wasn't for me. I'm not worried. I'm going to the Willamette Writers conference and pitch my script that didn't get past the first round anyway.

Thanks everyone. Good luck to you all as well. Just realized after reading Facebook that Nicholl doesn't post the QF etc. until after the Winners are announced. If I could edit my post I would remove the title but I can't (Frederick?).

I was fortunate to have a script advance--the first time after three attempts with this one. But a second one didn't make the quarter-finals (and no P.S.'s either!) even though it had advanced three times before, including to semi-finals.

This really means that if you do advance, you've proven you have a good script. But if you don't advance, it may not mean anything--maybe it's just that you couldn't get past that first tough reader.

P.S. this Nicholl contest is by far the heavyweight champion of them all. A quarter-finalist will usually garner 6-8 industry requests, and the semi-finalist more that twice that. (I can only guess the attention the finalists get!)

I've just learned from this that you have to keep re-writing and keep trying.