Character and Dialogue Polish

As part of my new direction for this year I am offering a unique opportunity to five lucky individuals. As my writing strengths lie in the area of characterisation and dialogue I have decided to offer some help to my fellow writers.

If you have a script and you're not sure about the characters and dialogue, and would like someone to have a look over your script and offer suggestions on how to improve these areas, then email your scripts ASAP. The first five that land in my inbox will get the Carver treatment.

Why should you seek advice from me about characters and dialogue? These testimonies from industry professionals say it all:

Nadine Mellor - September Films: "I thought the characterisation was strong..."
Karen Clarke - Open Mike Productions: "The characters are well thought out..."
BBC Writersroom: "A good study of a family...A good grasp of male rivalries...The writer has potential for character driven TV drama..."
Dom Philpot - World Productions: I believe that dialogue is one of your strengths...Richard: I found his later transformation to be believable and touching..."
Johanna Devereaux - Festival Film & Television Ltd: "The brothers are well contrasted..."

So as I said, the first five scripts in my inbox will receive at least one A4 page of advice free of charge. Hurry while you can.

Sleeper

It's coming!

Get your TV viewing pants on; the countdown has begun.

Can't wait that long? Then watch the TRAILER.

Direction

Sometimes I wonder where my career, or lack of it, is going. I write good stuff, strong character driven pieces, with sizzling dialogue. Yet after seven and a half years I'm still struggling to find that all important first foot in the door moment, the one that will launch my career.

Writing part-time is hard, and it's even harder to make contacts in the industry when you don't have any to begin with. I'm not the most social of people and I do find it very difficult to keep conversations going. So why should the industry be run on who you know rather than what you know? Surely the quality of television would greatly increase if talent was all it took? But no, you have to sell your self too. I've learnt this the hard way. You have to put yourself out there, make contacts and make sure people are reading your work, and most importantly make sure that work is good.

I know what I shall be concentrating on this year.

Chairalisous

It's important to be comfy when you write. James Moran knows the importance of this. You don't want a back problem when you sit down to write.

My writing seat has been a bastard for a while now. It has a mind of its own, and decides to change height at the most inappropriate moments, whether I want it to or not. It's frustrating when my fingers are on fire and the words are flying to suddenly find my nose on the keyboard. God forbid I decide to lean back and the chair decides my head might have need of being burnt by the room's light bulb. I swear I've heard my chair cackling evilly at night. The chair had to die.

So at 8am this morning I was woken by Parcel Force delivering my brand new, shiny, leather reclining heaven, writing chair (pictured above). It took me ten minutes to fix together and now sits proudly in front of my desk. This chair is not evil; it purrs, I've heard it. It supports me with it's leathery, luxurious comfort.

What happened to the old chair you ask? It's down the local council dump, hiding behind a skip, ready to jump out and savage its unsuspecting new owner. Beware!!!!

The Highs And Lows Of 2007

Back in January 2007 I made the following promises to myself:

• To sell a script. FAILED
  
• To get a script made. SUCCEEDED
  
• To write a children's novel. FAILED
  
• To rewrite all of my back catalogue. THREE QUARTERS COMPLETE
  
• To write a lot more than I did last year. FAILED
  
• To send out at least ten scripts a month. FAILED
  

HIGHS OF 2007

AGN, the first of my scripts to be filmed, was shot in October in Norway and was due to be released in Norwegian cinemas in 2008, as an appetiser to the main feature. AGN's future is now in doubt as TVVest, the TV station my friend works at, are making him redundant in March. I'm sure AGN will get finished and shown sometime in the future but it's more important that my friend gets another job first. I'm sure he will as he's a talented individual.

The first draft of my feature, Paper, Scissors, Stone was completed early in the year. I'm not entirely happy with the draft, but there is a good foundation and some excellent scenes.

The Dead Side Of Life made the quarter finals of the BSSC, in only my second year of entering.

The BBC Writersroom declaring me a 'writer of interest' and inviting me to submit more of my work.

Becoming a dad for the first time. My son is an absolute diamond and I love him loads.

Owning my own house for the first time.

LOWS OF 2007

I didn't send out anywhere near enough work, something I'm really annoyed about.

Cross The Rubicon still sits on the production company's shelf gathering dust. They might be interested in it but films take so long to get off the ground it's almost worth forgetting about. I've done three free rewrites for them and I'm now of the mind that if they want another one done they'll have to either option the script or pay me for the rewrite.

Being ill with a virus (a medical term for, "we don't know what's wrong with you") since July has pretty much stopped me doing any writing since then. I have done bits and bobs, but it's kind of hard to sit in front of a computer for more than a half an hour at a time when your chest feels like an elephant is sat on it. The last six months have been a complete write off writing wise.

Having to go through the house buying process.

Losing a friend who died of heart faliure aged 30 years.

THINGS I LEARNT IN 2007

Success has to be worked at. Being ill might be hard but it's no excuse. If you want to write, or you need to write, then you HAVE to write. I've said this several times over the last few years, but it needs repeating. A writer writes. If you don't write you're not a writer.

A second point needs to be made. If you've written stuff then send it out. It's not going to get sold sitting on your computer hard drive.

Networking is important and something I'm rubbish at. My networking skills need a lot of work.

Solicitors are from hell and will fuck you over every chance they get. They speak only lies and deliver disappointment at every turn. They should all be hung, drawn and quartered...then burnt...then stamped on...then hung, drawn and quartered just to make sure.

To believe in myself and not to listen to the idiot warblings of small minded people with nothing better to do.

HOPES FOR 2008

Finish Paper, Scissors, Stone.

Write a pilot for Second Skin, my TV comedy drama series idea.

To sell something...anything...this year...for definite!!!!

To get into TV.

To write, write and write some more... and send it all out.

To meet more people in the industry and make more contacts.

Happy New Year, people. I hope you everything you want in 2008.