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"I wrote a script called ‘Point of Honor,’ which was essentially a men’s group counseling session… character-driven, very dramatic stuff. And a producer said, ‘You know, I read that ‘Point of Honor’ and I liked it and I want to hire you to write a script.’ I said, ‘This is great…what do you want me to write?’ He said, ‘’Incubus’…it’s a teen horror-sex-farce.’ I said, ‘I wrote about five guys grieving from deaths in their lives…where the hell did you get this?’ He said, ‘You had one location and five characters and you made a whole script out of it. That’s what I’m lookin’ for.’"

Welcome Beyond the Looking Glass — to the curious world of the movie business.

It may be fickle and its precise incarnation may be difficult to predict, but opportunity does occasionally knock in this illogical industry, and Scott Anderson will be the first to tell you that when it does, it’s usually best to take it. Over his 17 years with Harvard Square Scriptwriters (HSSW), Anderson has been the author, co-author, consultant, tweaker, renovator, peddler, and critic of countless scripts, a good chunk of which have been optioned or produced, including the 1999 PBS film "A Midwife’s Tale," written and produced by HSSW member Laurie Kahn-Levitt. As with most screenwriting portfolios, however, a greater number of these works lie dormant.

So with the odds stacked as unfavorably as they are and the many pages that must be eked out only to end up facedown in the recycling bin, why would anyone venture into the perilous and uncertain territory of screenwriting?

The answer is in long-time HSSW member and filmmaker Jean-Paul Ouellette’s admission that he’s "had a great time writing scripts that never went anywhere." Without this passion for the process of writing (and revising) and the tenacious hope that a script will one day make it to the big screen, a writer’s circle-cum-support group-cum-networking resource like the Harvard Square Screenwriters simply could not survive.

But survive it does. HSSW was founded in 1984 by New England film producer Laura Berneiri, who, after a brief hiatus, resurrected the group in 1986 and has kept it going ever since. At the core of the group’s work is its regular meetings: principal one- to two-hour gathering each week to which all members are invited, and smaller, occasional script "reviews," organized upon request. The weekly meetings in Harvard University’s Longfellow Hall introduce new writers to the group and open their scripts or treatments (synopses of potential scripts) up to initial, general discussion. For the more intimate reviews, a writer selects individual members whose strengths are best suited to the demands of their script and to the genre in which they’re writing.

For instance, long-time member and former Saturday Night Live sketch contributor Steve Gianino tends to "nurture the comic writers." Anderson, who taught screenwriting courses at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, has a better knack for dramatic scripts and story structure, and Ouellette’s background in the horror and thriller genres lends itself to like scripts (he wrote and directed the cult films "The Unnamable" and "The Unnamable II" and was the 2nd Unit Action Director on the set of "Terminator").

Membership is fairly open; the only prerequisites are the $15 per week dues and the approval of at least one script or treatment by senior members. The latter requirement is, however, hardly a throwaway. Anderson and Gianino look first for solid knowledge of basic format — things like margin settings, capitalization, and standard introduction of characters. "If you can’t start from that as your fixed point…" Ouellette doesn’t finish his sentence, but one could gather from his exasperated tone that without proper format, you won’t get far.

What started as a small, rather exclusive clique of locals seeking moral and creative support for a craft little acknowledged in the Boston area has grown into a full-fledged network of both aspiring and seasoned screenwriters that reaches as far as Los Angeles and Hawaii. HSSW member and former Bostonian D.R. Farquaharson just began pre-production work on his third feature film in Los Angeles, where his last one is being scored. And Ouellette only recently returned from working in Europe. Like many other members who have flown the coop, Farquaharson and Ouellette have continually maintained contact with the group and have always been considered members, even when unable to attend the weekly meetings and discussion groups. Filmmaking being the demanding and time-consuming endeavor that it is, lots of coming and going is accepted as part of the profession. "We have people join and attend meetings regularly for a couple of years," explains Anderson. "They’ll disappear for a year, they’ll come back with a script… they’ll have a review, they’ll disappear again."

"It’s very fluid," adds Steve Gianino, long-time HSSW member and the group’s unofficial office manager. "It’s not disruptive at all. If anything, it brings some continuity, like ‘Hey, yeah, how ya been?’"

Far from disruptive, the geographical and creative diversity of HSSW’s members is one of its best perks. The group has approximately 50 to 60 active members at any given time and as many as 150 total. Members in Los Angeles, New York City, Europe, and elsewhere mean connections in film communities outside of New England, which can open doors to jobs on film sets, meetings with producers, or simply places to stay when you first make the big move to Hollywood yourself. For many of its members, the Harvard Square Scriptwriters has also become a bridge to production experience and a great resource for help on one’s own production. "What happens is you’ll see a production start and we’ll lose a bunch of members," says Anderson. "When production began on ‘Next Stop Wonderland,’ we lost half our members to the crew."

Anderson estimates that about one script is produced each year by a Harvard Square Scriptwriter. The best-known film connected with the group is the romantic comedy "Next Stop Wonderland," produced by HSSW member Laura Berneiri (directed by Brad Anderson, written by Brad Anderson and Lyn Vaus). Other success stories include Lorre Fritchy’s documentary about basketball "entertainer and speaker" Sandy "Spin" Slade and Shelia Curran Bernard’s work as a writer on the Emmy Award-winning television series "Eyes on the Prize," a historical documentary about post-World War II America.

The group’s long string of successes is due in part to the collaborative and extremely supportive nature of the group’s meetings as well as to creative exchanges that extend beyond the meeting room walls. There is no shortage of feedback or ideas for improvement on most scripts. Of the weekly meeting, Anderson says "It’s almost like watching an auction… people will raise their hands and go ‘Ooh, ooh, ooh!’" To maintain a semblance of order amid the sea of eager hands flying into the air, Anderson — the group’s unofficial leader — makes sure everyone signs in before meetings and makes a note of where each person is seated, so as to better direct the discussion.

A typical meeting focuses on a single writer and their script or treatment, which is always cracked open with the same questions: What is your log line? What’s the story in a verbal paragraph? What’s the theme? Why did you write this story? Anderson, Gianino, and Ouellette all stress the importance of the latter question. "If [the writer in question is] talking 15 minutes later — which will never happen, because I won’t let ’em — then they don’t know their story," Anderson says. "If you can’t boil it down to a sentence, you don’t know it." And if you don’t know it, your story probably lacks direction and cohesiveness, which amounts to a dull read — the kiss of death for a screenplay.

"The only thing about a script is that it’s easy to read," emphasizes Ouellette. "If it’s not easy to read, nobody likes it… The only person you write a screenplay for, ultimately, is a reader. Because that reader makes all the decisions for 100 other people who may or may not make the picture."

The point may seem like an obvious one, but, Gianino insists, "As paradoxical as it sounds, a lot of people write a whole screenplay and they don’t know still what their story’s about." This is precisely the kind of issue the Harvard Square Scriptwriters can help a writer resolve. For example, working out a treatment or an outline for every script is strongly encouraged and much time during meetings is spent not just on whole scripts, but also on honing basic story lines, in order to avoid the pitfalls of an underdeveloped idea. "Do an outline, do a treatment… work out your issues before you start," Anderson says.

Following the initial questioning period is a phase of the meeting called "clarifications," during which the writer’s answers are further scrutinized and any qualms or confusion are addressed. Members do their best to keep these initial interrogations as gentle as such a process can be, but improvement necessitates honesty, and honesty can’t always be nice. "Then we go onto the harder questions," Anderson explains, "which tend to be like ‘What the hell were thinking?’"

Criticism is an inextricable part of the process, but HSSW members are careful to keep the main objective in sight — that of improving as writers and business people — and to maintain a nurturing atmosphere. "The bulk of it is talking about what is inspirational about this story?" says Gianino. "How can the story be more powerful?… We want to keep it constructive." In keeping with this idea, meetings always include a segment HSSW members call "Positives." During this self-explanatory part of the discussion, members point out the aspects of the writer’s work they particularly like or that they feel work well. The meetings usually conclude with general, open discussion to tie up any loose ends and give air to any burning comments or questions on people’s minds.

Much of the work that creates successful scripts like Walter Brauer’s "Berger’s Burgers" (a semi-finalist in the American Accolades Screenwriting Competition) and Andrew Arthur’s "Love in a Warmer Clime" (which earned a staged reading at the Woods Hole Film Festival), actually happens outside meetings. Anderson cites the example of a script of his own that benefited from the insight and talents of fellow Harvard Square Scriptwriters: "Since [Ouellette] was working to put a production together, he said ‘You know, this needs more humor.’ So I called Bill [Bill Campbell is another HSSW "lifer" and a veteran stand-up comedian] and I gave him the script and I said ‘Find me humor in this.’ And he went through and he wrote… probably 13 to 20 jokes… I’m not good at that. One of the great things about the group is that you can say, ‘Well, you know, I know I need this, I know I need it quick, and there are people who are better at it than I am. I will let them help."

In addition to a little outside help and a little tough love, another key benefit of HSSW membership are the talks and lectures the group organizes. Guest speakers over the years have dealt with the creative aspects of screenwriting as well as the practical. Presenters have included Richard Krevolin, a major Hollywood writer and script consultant; Laura Berneiri, who lectured on her experience screening "Next Stop Wonderland" at the Sundance Film Festival; and a representative of Eastern Script Services, a firm that deals with "errors and omissions" issues for writers, helping them to work out the myriad of potential script problems that can lead to lawsuits.

Clearly, HSSW is an indispensable resource for local writers for a host of reasons. Some of those reasons, however, are not quite as self-evident, and many are just as screwy and unexpected as the film industry itself.

Anderson tells the story of one writer whose life took a rather serendipitous turn as a result of his membership of the group. He came into the group as a writer for National Mortgage News and was active in the group for three years. After a focused and whole-hearted effort to hone his skills as a screenwriter, he decided he’d gone down the wrong road and left the group as well as the profession. "But he had learned in some ways how to write in that period," Anderson says. "His writing improved overall from going to the group. And then he took off." Took off to write for the Economist, that is — "Well, once he was making, you know, a solid six figures… he didn’t want to write screenplays anymore."

And this story has another happy ending: "He met the love of his life… another screenwriter… And they now have a condo together… And he still actually comes to meetings more often than not, just to go out for drinks afterwards."

Only in Hollywood… I mean, Boston.