Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A Good Writing Session

I wrote another five pages of a screenplay today, which I'm quite pleased with as I've also been doing other things as well. And it's also not bad considering I have a two and a half year old running around my feet for most of the day, wanting to be picked up so he can sit on my lap and see what his daddy is up to. Five pages was a good day.

It made me wonder what other writers would consider a GOOD WRITING DAY?

How many pages makes you happy?

Friday, June 25, 2010

How Not To Be A Writer Part 1

A possibly true (ish) story.

Bob (let's call him that to protect the stupid) has been unemployed for nearly eight months, he doesn't have a girlfriend, all his friends have moved away and, even though he never thought he'd admit to this, wanking is losing its allure... basically he's bored... suicide is beginning to look like a realistic option.

But after watching Dirty Harry he has an idea. He decides to write a script, can't be that hard after all, it's just a few words on a page...yeah, piece of piss - fame and fortune await.

So Bob sits at a computer and types like a man possessed, which is partly true because he has been drinking spirits for the best part of the day, and the words pour out. Two weeks later he has a 115 page thriller. He shows his mum, she thinks it's brilliant, so he puts it in a draw and forgets about it for five years...

...to be continued.

Friday, June 18, 2010

London Screenwriters' Festival

£299 for three days of ramming my head full of lovely screenwriting knowledge. I am so going! But how to afford it? I've just gone self employed so money is tighter than a duck's bum hole in winter.

Steal? Potential for an instantly large gain, but also a big risk of finding myself at Her Majesty's pleasure at the time of the festival. VERDICT - DON'T BEND DOWN FOR THE SOAP TYPE LOSE

Sell everything I own? I don't own anything of significant value that I can sell, except the wife and child, but I'm sure human trafficking is illegal. VERDICT - LOSE

Beg? I'm old and my knees hurt. If I got down on them I'm not sure I'd get back up again. VERDICT - LOSE & POSSIBLE PERMANENT INJURY

Borrow? My bank manager laughed at me when I asked, and my parents left the country the next day. VERDICT - LOSER!!!

Sell Vital Organs? I'm already in trouble for having three kidneys and two livers on eBay. VERDICT - DEAD

Actually Sell Some Work? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. VERDICT - YEAH RIGHT

Charity? www.FundDomToGoToLondonScreenwritersFestival.com VERDICT - ASKING SCRIPTWRITERS FOR MONEY...NO CHANCE

My only choice seems to be to sneak over the wall on the day.

Who's with me?

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Sprint Or Marathon

My writing as of late has been phenomenal, like my fingers are on fire. I just can't stop writing, but I'm also painfully aware that this isn't the case all the time, so I'm making the most of it.

I find writing usually comes to me in two ways.

Bits & Bobs

I write most days, but only half and hour, to an hour at most. Not much gets done, but what is written is good because I stop writing when I switch off.

The Blur

I write loads. Pages of the stuff, some good, some bad, but a good high word count. Not every day though, sometimes I write as much as I can for two or three in a row and then I leave it for a few days to give my brain a rest.

But which is best? Are there any other ways of writing? Tell me, how do you write?

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Jazz Me Up.

I'm bored with the header on my blog, it's just too plain. It needs jazzing up a little. I'm in a new phase of my life and it just doesn't fit any more. Out with the old and in with the new as it goes.

Are there any technologists out there who could whip me up a special header for my blog, with a picture maybe, to make it look pretty? I would be ever so grateful. There may even be a snog in it for you.*

Please get in touch if you can help, or know someone who can.

Cheers my blog buddies.

*I have the right to withdrawn snogs at any time with out notice.

Monday, June 07, 2010

Coming Up Gone

My Channel 4 Coming Up entry is in the post, a little late but better that than not at all.

I've been very bold with this year's entry really, delivering a very dark haunting drama of suicide and why sometimes there are no answer to your questions. It's very different from anything I've entered before and we'll see if it makes a mark this time.

Good luck to everyone else who has entered.

On to my Red Planet submission now.

Friday, June 04, 2010

Flash Forward

So the series has ended and the second will not be going ahead. To be honest I don't blame the studio for dropping the show because the last few episodes were a big disappointment, and there were too many loop holes in the plot.

The series started off really well but tried to be too clever towards the end, concentrating too much on how people's flash forwards changed, rather than sticking with the original concept of how people would cope knowing, or not knowing, what they were going to be doing six months down the line.

And the plot suffered from some terrible loop holes. The biggest was why the instigators of the incident wanted to make it World wide? After all if they had been using it for years to see all the possible futures, to make money, to better their own lives, why all of a sudden did they want to share that with the whole World? To me it didn't make sense. What was the point of giving everyone a flash forward?

I also thought the idea of having a flash forward was that it was personal. Then why, and how, could Gabriel see other people's futures, and how did Dyson Frost know Demetri would watch his video tape in the future if he wasn't there to see Demetri find it? It all got more than a little confusing.

And the ending was very underwhelming. The only flash forward we got to see was Charlie's, when she was grown up saying, 'They found him'. We invested time in those characters and what we deserved was a decent pay-off. I personally wanted to see the main characters' new flash forwards so if there had been a second series you would be wondering right from the start how things were going to play out.

Overall I found it very disappointing and I won't be buying it on DVD. Give it a miss.

Red Planet Prize 2010 Part 3

It's here at last. The Red Planet Prize 2010 has been announced. Get writing, people, and good luck.