Back To The Drawing Board

Friday the 13th....EEK! It could have been so much worse.

First of on a personal note, my lovely wife had her twelve week scan today. We were very nervous because earlier in the year she had a miscarriage at seven weeks and although we were very grateful to get to twelve weeks, there was still a chance things might not be right. And what idiot gave us a scan date on Friday the 13th anyway? Someone who thinks they have a sense of humour no doubt. Well done you.

Luckily things were OK. The baby was asleep (like child, like father), but we could see the heart clearly and it was going ten to the dozen. We were relieved. So it's now official I will be a dad for the second time on February the 26th 2011. GET IN!!!

And then came my notes for my Red Planet submission. The sixty pages were done, but I knew something wasn't sitting right, couldn't put my finger on it, so I sent it out to the lovely Bang2Write.....she gave it to me straight like she always does...ooh, err!

'Get rid of the police,' she said. I stared blankly at her...or I would have done if she hadn't have said that in an email. So I stared blankly at the email instead. Get rid of the police? What, all of them? Yep, all of them, not just in this episode but in all the others too. Holy crap! Bangers (as I never call her) is most often than not spot on with her judgement and I trust her above all others. But get rid of the police? In a crime drama? But she's right! Fecking cow!

So I have roughly two weeks to write another draft, with changes of roughly 50%, surgically removing the fuzz, focusing more on the protagonist Mad Frank Hattman. The police will be there, not in the foreground, but in the background, a presence rarely seen, a threat implied not forced into your face like an unwelcome dildo. It's going to be tough...it's actually going to be very tough. Two weeks is pushing it even if it does need to be done.

So today could have been much worse, but all in all I'm satisfied with what I've got.

Best get on.