I should have written the first ten pages of my Lighthouse project script, but I knew I wasn't ready. Writing is a lot about heart, it's a lot about craft and it's a lot about intellect. You can take all the courses in the world, attend every workshop you can find or afford, read all the blogs and books and interviews you like. Ultimately, it's about listening to that little voice in your head that tells you what happens next.
I believe you can teach the craft of writing. I'm not so certain you can learn the instincts of a storyteller. It's the nagging in my gut, the little voice at the back of your mind that warns when something ain't working. This scene isn't ringing true, this story logic doesn't flow, this moment ain't right to start writing. Recognising the difference between that and lazy ass procrastination tendencies - not so easy.
But sometimes you have to be willing to forget deadlines, forget the need to do something right now, forget the imperative to be a good pupil. Sometimes you have to listen to that voice that tells you today isn't the day to start writing. Instinct. It's elusive and tricksy and you can't always trust you're hearing it right. But your storytelling instinct is what makes you a writer, what makes your stories different.
So yesterday afternoon was one of those long, dark tea-times of the soul. Knew I needed to write, wasn't ready to start. Having it happen on a Sunday was no help either. I've always hated Sunday afternoons, that back to school tomorrow feeling. The weekend's over, you haven't achieved a fraction of the things you planned and now it's back to the harsh realities of your working life. Bang goes another week of your life.
But there's always hope. Had an email discussion with Phil, the screenwriter and author who facilitates the Lighthouse project. Sorted out a bunch of stuff that was stopping me from writing. Still got a mess o' things to resolve, need to re-plot the first half of my script - if not more - but that doesn't matter. The woods and the trees are separating, I can see a glimmer of pathway, I've got some ideas about where I'm headed.
So there's hope. No idea how of even if I'll make next Tuesday's midday deadline. Got to visit Edinburgh today for an appearance on the Book Cafe, a BBC Radio Scotland discussion programme. Need to pop into my office at Napier and read something I forgot to comment on last Friday. That's half the day gone, no matter how I slice it. Got a full day at Napier on Wednesday. Spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Bradford talking sci-fi.
Today will be about plotting and planning, I suspect. Working out a new road map for the journey my characters need to make in the second draft. So that leaves Tuesday, Thursday, Monday and half of Tuesday to write 60 pages. Not sure I'm gonna manage that, but I'll do what I can. After the long, dark tea-time of the soul that was Sunday I'm feeling more positive. There's hope, and hope is a wonderful thing. As ever - onwards!
Monday, April 06, 2009
Friday, April 03, 2009
Not drinking the fool-aid
Breathing a sigh of relief after what's felt like a non-stop charge around that's lasted the best part of two weeks. Several significant milestones attained on the new creative writing MA I'm helping develop at Edinburgh Napier University. Delivered my first two lectures - war films last week, horror films yesterday. After three months in the job, things are slowly falling into place. Three months? Cripes. Where did that go? Did I blink?
From tomorrow my main focus is writing the second draft of my Lighthouse project script. There's good material in the first draft, but a lot that needs reworking. Foolishly, I had the guest characters defeating the two threats in my episode, forgetting one of the first screenwriting lessons I learned: never take the resolution out of the hands of the protagonist. [McKee may be out of fashion, but he still speaks common sense.]
Changing the ending has a backwards ripple effect through the whole episode, so that needs to be factored in. Some of the regular characters' serial threads have been tweaked, so those need to be woven into the script. Got some murky motivations among the anatogonists, so those need clarifying. And the entry point for injecting the regulars into the action has been refined, so that's another stone into the plot - big ripples ahoy.
Delivering on deadline by Tuesday April 14 is still achievable, but complicated by the fact I'm going to this year's British National Science Fiction Convention [a.k.a. LX Eastercon]. Three days in Bradford, talking about all things science fiction and fantasy. I'm moderating one panel about classic British comics, and appearing on another panel about writers from other media crossing into comics. Should be a blast. Onwards!
From tomorrow my main focus is writing the second draft of my Lighthouse project script. There's good material in the first draft, but a lot that needs reworking. Foolishly, I had the guest characters defeating the two threats in my episode, forgetting one of the first screenwriting lessons I learned: never take the resolution out of the hands of the protagonist. [McKee may be out of fashion, but he still speaks common sense.]
Changing the ending has a backwards ripple effect through the whole episode, so that needs to be factored in. Some of the regular characters' serial threads have been tweaked, so those need to be woven into the script. Got some murky motivations among the anatogonists, so those need clarifying. And the entry point for injecting the regulars into the action has been refined, so that's another stone into the plot - big ripples ahoy.
Delivering on deadline by Tuesday April 14 is still achievable, but complicated by the fact I'm going to this year's British National Science Fiction Convention [a.k.a. LX Eastercon]. Three days in Bradford, talking about all things science fiction and fantasy. I'm moderating one panel about classic British comics, and appearing on another panel about writers from other media crossing into comics. Should be a blast. Onwards!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Count yourself lucky, Bishop!
Reading back yesterday's blog posting about finding a balance between writing and a part-time job. another thought sprung to mind: I should count myself lucky to have gotten the job when I did. An awful lot of people are getting made redundant or not having their contracts renewed right now. The recession is biting hard across many areas, with devastating consequences. So having too much work? Not easy, yet something of a luxury too.
Spent yesterday researching horror films from the past hundred years, and digging out journal articles on the genre. Today it's writing time. I've got a lecture to map out, highlighting the key horror movies of the 20th Century and illuminating current trends in the genre. Hollywood remakes of international hits and the torture porn sub-genre are likely to get more than a few mentions, as they've dominated recent releases in this field.
One thing has stood out clearly: for the past forty or fifty years, Hollywood has been following others when it comes to horror. Indie filmmakers are the ones who have pushed the genre forward, as evidenced by features like Night of the Living Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, The Evil Dead, The Blair Witch Project and Saw. It's hard to think of a horror film made by Hollywood since the 60s that's broken any new ground.
Spent yesterday researching horror films from the past hundred years, and digging out journal articles on the genre. Today it's writing time. I've got a lecture to map out, highlighting the key horror movies of the 20th Century and illuminating current trends in the genre. Hollywood remakes of international hits and the torture porn sub-genre are likely to get more than a few mentions, as they've dominated recent releases in this field.
One thing has stood out clearly: for the past forty or fifty years, Hollywood has been following others when it comes to horror. Indie filmmakers are the ones who have pushed the genre forward, as evidenced by features like Night of the Living Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, The Evil Dead, The Blair Witch Project and Saw. It's hard to think of a horror film made by Hollywood since the 60s that's broken any new ground.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Slammed, but coming up for air
Been a slammed few weeks and the next few look just as busy. The new creative writing MA I've been helping develop at Edinburgh Napier University went for validation last week and got approved, subject to minor changes. We're already taking applications and the course is getting some national attention [click here and here for examples]. So that's good.
But finding a balance between the course, my part-time job at the university and my writing is proving tricky. Spent much of yesterday marking assessments when I should have been writing. Going to be spending today and tomorrow developing a guest lecture on horror films when I should be doing my own writing. Back to Napier on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday when I'm only meant to be in 2.5 days a week. And so it goes, bleeding outwards.
Even next week when I'm only going in for one day the course will be eating my spare time. I'm heading down to Bradford on Friday to spent the Easter weekend promoting the course at Eastercon LX, the British science fiction convention. I'm doing research for an academic paper to be present in Belgium at the end of May. Throw in tutorials, sitting in on lectures and all the admin - finding that balance is proving harder than I thought.
But you know what? I took the job. I knew there'd be teething troubles, moments when it all threatened to overwhelm what I'm trying to do writing-wise. I've got to be firm about dividing my time from Napier time. More than ever, I have to be disciplined about carving out space for writing - and space for living. I refuse to let my part-time job become an excuse for not pursuing my goals, objective, ambitions or dreams as a writer.
If that means writing from 6.30 every morning for two hours before going to work, so be it. If that means coming home and writing for another three hours in the evening after work, so be it. If you want to succeed, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. Whining about too much work won't get the job done. Nobody owes you a living as a writer, the world isn't holding its breath for your stories. You have to make time.
You have to write with all the heart and talent and craft and brains that you've got. You have to push yourself to do better, challenge yourself to come up with a better line of dialogue, a better scene, a better story. You've got to make things happen, take responsibility for your successes and failures, validate yourself through the work you do. Don't expect competitions or prizes or acclaim to make you a complete person as a writer.
It's all on you just like it's all on me - so make it happen. Onwards!
But finding a balance between the course, my part-time job at the university and my writing is proving tricky. Spent much of yesterday marking assessments when I should have been writing. Going to be spending today and tomorrow developing a guest lecture on horror films when I should be doing my own writing. Back to Napier on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday when I'm only meant to be in 2.5 days a week. And so it goes, bleeding outwards.
Even next week when I'm only going in for one day the course will be eating my spare time. I'm heading down to Bradford on Friday to spent the Easter weekend promoting the course at Eastercon LX, the British science fiction convention. I'm doing research for an academic paper to be present in Belgium at the end of May. Throw in tutorials, sitting in on lectures and all the admin - finding that balance is proving harder than I thought.
But you know what? I took the job. I knew there'd be teething troubles, moments when it all threatened to overwhelm what I'm trying to do writing-wise. I've got to be firm about dividing my time from Napier time. More than ever, I have to be disciplined about carving out space for writing - and space for living. I refuse to let my part-time job become an excuse for not pursuing my goals, objective, ambitions or dreams as a writer.
If that means writing from 6.30 every morning for two hours before going to work, so be it. If that means coming home and writing for another three hours in the evening after work, so be it. If you want to succeed, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. Whining about too much work won't get the job done. Nobody owes you a living as a writer, the world isn't holding its breath for your stories. You have to make time.
You have to write with all the heart and talent and craft and brains that you've got. You have to push yourself to do better, challenge yourself to come up with a better line of dialogue, a better scene, a better story. You've got to make things happen, take responsibility for your successes and failures, validate yourself through the work you do. Don't expect competitions or prizes or acclaim to make you a complete person as a writer.
It's all on you just like it's all on me - so make it happen. Onwards!
Friday, March 27, 2009
I didn't win the Red Planet Prize...
...but I'd have been stunned and even dismayed if I had. Why? My first ten pages were polished so hard they shined, full of great little character moments and bloody good button to finish, even if I say so myself. That got my script enough love to make the second round, where some 70 writers were asked to submit their complete script [from more than 1000 entrants]. Only one problem - I hadn't actually finished writing the whole script. Arsebiscuits.
It's not like I had nothing. FAMILIES AT WAR started life as a 60-page pilot, written as the final project for my screenwriting MA. A subsequent polish knocked it down to 50 pages, before a total rewrite took it right down to 28 pages. That was what I submitted as my sample for the BBC Writers' Academy last year. [I've been told that version went a long way through the selection process, but got set aside for being too soapy, not bold enough.]
When Red Planet announced it was looking for TV pilot scripts, I spent two months getting nowhere on new projects. Eventually I saw the light and gave the first ten pages of FAMILIES AT WAR a high sheen polish, so it damn well gleamed. That's what got me to the second round two months later, and a request for the full script. Stupidly, I hadn't believed my work was good enough to make the cut, so I never progressed rewriting the rest of it.
The email from Red Planet asking for the rest of my script soon put a stop to that. I spent the next four days working round the clock to create a new script that did its best to deliver the promise of those first ten pages. But I still love my story and characters - they'll find a home one day, one way or another. What lessons have I learnt from this experience? An unfinished rewrite is no use to anybody, and have more faith in myself.
Congratulations to the writer who has won, and to all the other scribes who made the second round. Apparently some amongst us will be invited to workshops during the summer, with the chosen few to be notified.
It's not like I had nothing. FAMILIES AT WAR started life as a 60-page pilot, written as the final project for my screenwriting MA. A subsequent polish knocked it down to 50 pages, before a total rewrite took it right down to 28 pages. That was what I submitted as my sample for the BBC Writers' Academy last year. [I've been told that version went a long way through the selection process, but got set aside for being too soapy, not bold enough.]
When Red Planet announced it was looking for TV pilot scripts, I spent two months getting nowhere on new projects. Eventually I saw the light and gave the first ten pages of FAMILIES AT WAR a high sheen polish, so it damn well gleamed. That's what got me to the second round two months later, and a request for the full script. Stupidly, I hadn't believed my work was good enough to make the cut, so I never progressed rewriting the rest of it.
The email from Red Planet asking for the rest of my script soon put a stop to that. I spent the next four days working round the clock to create a new script that did its best to deliver the promise of those first ten pages. But I still love my story and characters - they'll find a home one day, one way or another. What lessons have I learnt from this experience? An unfinished rewrite is no use to anybody, and have more faith in myself.
Congratulations to the writer who has won, and to all the other scribes who made the second round. Apparently some amongst us will be invited to workshops during the summer, with the chosen few to be notified.
Monday, March 23, 2009
FP mega-signing for TPO was a blast
Had a great time in That Fancy London over the weekend. The Forbidden Planet megastore signing session to launch THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD as a paperback was fun, busy and bustling. Caught up with writers and artists I hadn't seen for years, lots of juicy gossip [none of which I can repeat in public - sorry]. Also chanced into several old friends, spent most of Sunday talking about writing, and finished reading Rebecca on the plane home. Aces.
This week's got crazy schedule written all over it. Writing a lecture on war films and contemporary Hollywood today. Tomorrow it's a 19-hour round trip to Brighton for the penultimate Lighthouse TV drama team writing workshop. On Wednesday the new creative writing MA I've been helping develop goes for official validation [keep your fingers crossed for us]. Thursday I gave my first lecture. Friday - I can't remember. More stuff happens.
The website news page for SFX is running a story about the MA course at the moment - read it here. We've already had a fistful of applications and marketing has only just begun. There's been a steady stream of people coming to see us at the Craighouse campus in Edinburgh, eager to find out more. We're offering something different from the usual mix of literary fiction and poetry on other creative writing MA course - and it's proving popular.
Right, no more time for idle typing. There's a lecture to be written, war clips to be selected and no time to waste. Onwards!
This week's got crazy schedule written all over it. Writing a lecture on war films and contemporary Hollywood today. Tomorrow it's a 19-hour round trip to Brighton for the penultimate Lighthouse TV drama team writing workshop. On Wednesday the new creative writing MA I've been helping develop goes for official validation [keep your fingers crossed for us]. Thursday I gave my first lecture. Friday - I can't remember. More stuff happens.
The website news page for SFX is running a story about the MA course at the moment - read it here. We've already had a fistful of applications and marketing has only just begun. There's been a steady stream of people coming to see us at the Craighouse campus in Edinburgh, eager to find out more. We're offering something different from the usual mix of literary fiction and poetry on other creative writing MA course - and it's proving popular.
Right, no more time for idle typing. There's a lecture to be written, war clips to be selected and no time to waste. Onwards!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
TPO signing at FP megastore in London today
Right, off to London for the TPO mega-signing at the Forbidden Planet mega-store. Back late tomorrow night, so I'm hoping to blog about the experience on Monday. Onwards!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Wolverine gives a new meaning to ****job
Looking at the photo above, you can't help thinking that's an unfortunate place to position a plastic gasket. But somebody in America has apparently taken this bad positioning in quite another way. There's an insane rant online that accuses Marvel of creating this product to promote a gay agenda. I've no idea if the rant is genuine - judge for yourselves. Warning: contents of rant could be offensive if you're gay, lesbian or have a brain.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Eye of the hurricane, or calm between storms
The last few weeks have been a helter skelter of deadlines, late nights and stress inducing moments. The next couple of weeks are going to be much the same, as I prep and deliver my first lectures, the creative writing MA course goes for validation and much more besides. So today and tomorrow are an oasis of calm amid the mayhem and madness. A time to catch breath, pause for thought and clear the decks of any other cliches lying around the place.
I'm going down to That Fancy London this weekend for the TPO paperback edition signing at Forbidden Planet on Saturday afternoon (1-2.30 pm, fact fans). Seeing friends later than night, but have got Sunday afternoon going spare. So, any other bloggers want to meet up for a drink and a natter on Sunday afternoon? Short notice and deadlines may make this impossible, but the comments section is open for [non-obscene] suggestions right about... now.
Decided to enter the British Short Screenplay Competition this year - a first for me. I've got a couple of scripts that fit the criteria and are never likely to get made otherwise, so the BSSC's first prize of having your screenplay produced is perfect. Something of a longshot, bearing in mind how many people enter, but still perfect. Early deadline is this Friday and I actually have the fee, so that's a job for these two days. Onwards.
I'm going down to That Fancy London this weekend for the TPO paperback edition signing at Forbidden Planet on Saturday afternoon (1-2.30 pm, fact fans). Seeing friends later than night, but have got Sunday afternoon going spare. So, any other bloggers want to meet up for a drink and a natter on Sunday afternoon? Short notice and deadlines may make this impossible, but the comments section is open for [non-obscene] suggestions right about... now.
Decided to enter the British Short Screenplay Competition this year - a first for me. I've got a couple of scripts that fit the criteria and are never likely to get made otherwise, so the BSSC's first prize of having your screenplay produced is perfect. Something of a longshot, bearing in mind how many people enter, but still perfect. Early deadline is this Friday and I actually have the fee, so that's a job for these two days. Onwards.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Getting there, one step at a time
The last few weeks have been jammed, both with paying jobs and speculative writing. Got my 40th script for Egmont's Phantom comic away, the second half of a fun two-parter. Wrote the first draft of a talking book, incorporating a blizzard of metafictionality. Scripted the first draft of my Lighthouse project script, sixty pages in seven days. Plus a script report for Scottish Screen, a fistful of ideas for Doctors and grud knows what else.
But the rest of March looks even more slammed, suggesting I'll be a frizzled-frazzled mess of nothing by the time April arrives. I'm researching and writing two 120-minute lectures for an undergraduate module on contemporary Hollywood cinema. Got another day trip to Brighton and back for the Lighthouse workshop. A fistful of tutorials to lead. Rewrites loom on the talking book. Another draft of my Lighthouse script to write. And so on...
Not to mention a round trip to London for the THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD signing event at the Forbidden Planet Megastore. That's Saturday March 21st from 1pm. Loads of artists sketching, writers talking and what have you. Should be a blast!
But the rest of March looks even more slammed, suggesting I'll be a frizzled-frazzled mess of nothing by the time April arrives. I'm researching and writing two 120-minute lectures for an undergraduate module on contemporary Hollywood cinema. Got another day trip to Brighton and back for the Lighthouse workshop. A fistful of tutorials to lead. Rewrites loom on the talking book. Another draft of my Lighthouse script to write. And so on...
Not to mention a round trip to London for the THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD signing event at the Forbidden Planet Megastore. That's Saturday March 21st from 1pm. Loads of artists sketching, writers talking and what have you. Should be a blast!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
It's tricky [as yet untouched by Jason Nevins]
Hit my target of page 50 for the Lighthouse project script yesterday, but ground to a halt at the end. Realised I didn't know how to get my heroes to their final confrontation with the Big Bad. There are plenty of obvious options, but I want one that comes naturally from the script. That means it's time to print and review my work thus far, remind myself what I've done and where that suggests I should go. Then it's a mad dash to page 60.
The Lighthouse TV drama team writing project is a fascinating process. Six writers are selected and each pitches a series idea to the group. After further development one is chosen from the six, with the originator expected to write the pilot episode. The others develop a subsequent episode that fits the series template, yet also works as a standalone script in its own right. Why? So it's useful as a calling card to promote them as writers.
Thanks to my love of serialised storytelling, I concocted an all-guns-blazing plotline that could only ever be the series finale - and that's what I'm writing now. Guess if I'd been cannier, I would have developed an idea that worked better as a standalone. But it's too late to worry about that now. My job for the rest of this week is making my first draft the best it can be. Deadline for delivery is noon on Thursday, no time to waste. Onwards!
The Lighthouse TV drama team writing project is a fascinating process. Six writers are selected and each pitches a series idea to the group. After further development one is chosen from the six, with the originator expected to write the pilot episode. The others develop a subsequent episode that fits the series template, yet also works as a standalone script in its own right. Why? So it's useful as a calling card to promote them as writers.
Thanks to my love of serialised storytelling, I concocted an all-guns-blazing plotline that could only ever be the series finale - and that's what I'm writing now. Guess if I'd been cannier, I would have developed an idea that worked better as a standalone. But it's too late to worry about that now. My job for the rest of this week is making my first draft the best it can be. Deadline for delivery is noon on Thursday, no time to waste. Onwards!
Monday, March 09, 2009
Threading the needle of narrative stuff
Spent Friday night, much of Saturday and most of Sunday progressing the first draft of my script for the Lighthouse TV drama team writing project. Managed to get from one third of the way through to two thirds done. That doesn't sound like much, but I find the middle of any project the most problematic. Some writers struggle with endings, others don't know where to start. Me, I get bogged down when the story swells to its widest part.
You reach a point in the middle of any multi-stranded narrative where everything's pulling in different directions. The characters have splintered apart, every single one of the plot strands is crying out for attention and progression. It's the top of the bell curve, the most crowded part of the story, a juggling act to maintain momentum and excitement. Get past that point and everything should start accelerating towards the finish line.
So that was my weekend, getting over the story hump. It was punctuated with a joyful epiphany on Friday night, as I decided to throw a character over a balcony to their death. They stayed dead until Saturday afternoon, when I decided to offer some slight hope of survival. Bones crushed, back probably broken, years of pain and misery to come - but they might get out of this script alive. Meanwhile other characters are showing their colours.
Found a voice for one of the core cast: she speaks like Clint Eastwood. Taciturn as hell, less is more, a sound like gravel and cement colliding. Good find. And the best scenes are still to come, as the thrill-ride speeds towards an almighty showdown. Last but not least, I should mention my soundtrack for this script. When I'm working on particular projects, I select a particular music to accompany my writing, acting as an aural prompt.
For this script I have mostly been listening to When David Heard, a choral piece by modern American composer Eric Whitacre. By happy chance I went to a concert a few weeks ago where this was performed by 170 singers and it was absolutely electrifying. It's proven a powerful accompaniment to my writing, full of power and pathos. For some scenes I have to turn it off, unless the music would overwhelm the script, but it's been a massive help.
I've only got today and tomorrow to finish my rough first draft, as I'm back into work at Edinburgh Napier University on Wednesday. Deadline for delivery is midday Thursday, so that leaves me just Wednesday night and Thursday morning to polish the first draft, before firing it off to the rest of the Lighthouse team. Today will be all about keeping my arse in the chair, my mind on the job and my eyes of the prize. The end's in sight. Onwards!
You reach a point in the middle of any multi-stranded narrative where everything's pulling in different directions. The characters have splintered apart, every single one of the plot strands is crying out for attention and progression. It's the top of the bell curve, the most crowded part of the story, a juggling act to maintain momentum and excitement. Get past that point and everything should start accelerating towards the finish line.
So that was my weekend, getting over the story hump. It was punctuated with a joyful epiphany on Friday night, as I decided to throw a character over a balcony to their death. They stayed dead until Saturday afternoon, when I decided to offer some slight hope of survival. Bones crushed, back probably broken, years of pain and misery to come - but they might get out of this script alive. Meanwhile other characters are showing their colours.
Found a voice for one of the core cast: she speaks like Clint Eastwood. Taciturn as hell, less is more, a sound like gravel and cement colliding. Good find. And the best scenes are still to come, as the thrill-ride speeds towards an almighty showdown. Last but not least, I should mention my soundtrack for this script. When I'm working on particular projects, I select a particular music to accompany my writing, acting as an aural prompt.
For this script I have mostly been listening to When David Heard, a choral piece by modern American composer Eric Whitacre. By happy chance I went to a concert a few weeks ago where this was performed by 170 singers and it was absolutely electrifying. It's proven a powerful accompaniment to my writing, full of power and pathos. For some scenes I have to turn it off, unless the music would overwhelm the script, but it's been a massive help.
I've only got today and tomorrow to finish my rough first draft, as I'm back into work at Edinburgh Napier University on Wednesday. Deadline for delivery is midday Thursday, so that leaves me just Wednesday night and Thursday morning to polish the first draft, before firing it off to the rest of the Lighthouse team. Today will be all about keeping my arse in the chair, my mind on the job and my eyes of the prize. The end's in sight. Onwards!
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Before you go see Watchmen...
...watch this version which recreates Watchmen as an early 80s Saturday morning cartoon. Genius, I tell you - genius!
Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy
I was due to pay the balance of my income tax by January 31, as is usual with self assessment for the self-employed. But declining revenue and rising expenses meant I was tapped out at the time - Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs would simply have to wait. Thanks to a combination of various freelance jobs paying off [and my new part-time job as a creative writing lecturer], I was able post a cheque this morning to settle the account in full.
Three hours later the post arrived with a stern letter from - you guessed it - Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs. A self assessment final demand, no less. To hammer home the point, there was lots of bold red ink. [It would have been nice if the words "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!" had been audible when I opened the envelope, but you can't have everything.] The gist of the letter was simple: my payment was late. Yep, knew that, thanks.
The letter continued: If Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs didn't receive the amount overdue by 28 February it would be adding a further 5% surcharge to the amount owed. I knew that was coming as well, so no alarms, no surprises there. But hang about - if they didn't receive the amount by 28 February? Today is March the 5th. Having received this letter, how was I meant to comply with its contents? Use my time machine to turn back history?
A glance to the top of the page reveals the date this letter was supposedly outputted: 16 February. Now, I know second class post isn't expected to be as fast as first class, but does it really take 17 days for a second class letter to get from Stockton On Tees to Biggar in southern Scotland? Happily, I added extra to my cheque to cover the interest charge for lateness. Let's just hope it gets to the payment office sooner rather than later.
Three hours later the post arrived with a stern letter from - you guessed it - Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs. A self assessment final demand, no less. To hammer home the point, there was lots of bold red ink. [It would have been nice if the words "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!" had been audible when I opened the envelope, but you can't have everything.] The gist of the letter was simple: my payment was late. Yep, knew that, thanks.
The letter continued: If Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs didn't receive the amount overdue by 28 February it would be adding a further 5% surcharge to the amount owed. I knew that was coming as well, so no alarms, no surprises there. But hang about - if they didn't receive the amount by 28 February? Today is March the 5th. Having received this letter, how was I meant to comply with its contents? Use my time machine to turn back history?
A glance to the top of the page reveals the date this letter was supposedly outputted: 16 February. Now, I know second class post isn't expected to be as fast as first class, but does it really take 17 days for a second class letter to get from Stockton On Tees to Biggar in southern Scotland? Happily, I added extra to my cheque to cover the interest charge for lateness. Let's just hope it gets to the payment office sooner rather than later.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Unleashing the torrent after months of prep
This week I have mostly been writing the first draft of my Lighthouse TV drama team-writing project. As a collective we've been developing our putative series since October - defining the show and its rules, choosing and honing our characters, finding and fine-tuning our individual plotlines. After months of talking and blizzards of emails, it's a relief to finally be writing some script pages, to crack open Final Draft and let rip.
My target is to get a rough-as-guts first draft down by next Monday, working around my part-time job at Edinburgh Napier University. [Used to be plain old Napier University, changed its name last week. These things happen.] I'm a third of the way through after two days, which is good progress - I always find opening pages the hardest part. It's like the first tentative chips of a carver, searching for the shape inside their chosen block of stone.
Our tutor Phil Palmer likes scripts for original series to have four things: brains, heart, legs and poetry. He wants it to be smart and clever, display some feelings and depth of emotion, to show the potential for a long-running series - and to have a little lyricism in its writing. It's the last of these that comes hardest to me. I once had an editor tell me I've no poetry in my soul, and that's kind of haunted my writing ever since.
The closest I get to poetic writing is the odd moment of magic realism and a tendency to create Gothic fairytale narratives. That's not really gonna fly in the series we're inventing on the Lighthouse project. So I suspect my writing on this will tend more towards the clipped and lean. Phil has a charming phrase for this: it should move like shit off a shovel. That's meant to be a positive thing, I think!
A quick thank you to all the Vicious Imagery readers who've sponsored my wife on her Race For Life run round Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh this June. She still needs another £100 or so to meet her target, so everybody else can still go here to chip in a few quid. Right, must dash. It snowed overnight and I need to defrost the car before I can drive to work. Onwards!
My target is to get a rough-as-guts first draft down by next Monday, working around my part-time job at Edinburgh Napier University. [Used to be plain old Napier University, changed its name last week. These things happen.] I'm a third of the way through after two days, which is good progress - I always find opening pages the hardest part. It's like the first tentative chips of a carver, searching for the shape inside their chosen block of stone.
Our tutor Phil Palmer likes scripts for original series to have four things: brains, heart, legs and poetry. He wants it to be smart and clever, display some feelings and depth of emotion, to show the potential for a long-running series - and to have a little lyricism in its writing. It's the last of these that comes hardest to me. I once had an editor tell me I've no poetry in my soul, and that's kind of haunted my writing ever since.
The closest I get to poetic writing is the odd moment of magic realism and a tendency to create Gothic fairytale narratives. That's not really gonna fly in the series we're inventing on the Lighthouse project. So I suspect my writing on this will tend more towards the clipped and lean. Phil has a charming phrase for this: it should move like shit off a shovel. That's meant to be a positive thing, I think!
A quick thank you to all the Vicious Imagery readers who've sponsored my wife on her Race For Life run round Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh this June. She still needs another £100 or so to meet her target, so everybody else can still go here to chip in a few quid. Right, must dash. It snowed overnight and I need to defrost the car before I can drive to work. Onwards!
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Sharpening the axe at ITV
Britain's leading commercial terrestrial TV channel is due to announce last year's financial results, along with a plan for the way ahead. 2008 was not a brilliant twelve months for ITV, and the next few years look worse. Advertising revenue is down, thanks to the rise of the internet and multi-channel digital viewing. The recession and stock market instability are helping to create a pension fund black hole. All in all, things ain't too pretty.
Jobs losses look likely [ditto rival channel Five, where a third of the workforce is facing a cull]. The programme budget is up for grabs, after being considered sacrosanct for years. What does this mean for TV drama, my area of particular interest? Long-running shows are getting axed [Wire in the Blood] or production mothballed [Heartbeat, The Royal] with no likely return date. Belts tighten, opportunities shrink by the day.
In truth these troubles won't be evident on screen for a while. There's a backlog of material waiting to be screened, with enough Heartbeart and The Royal in stock to keep Sunday nights cosy well into 2010. The crunch could show up in other places first. How long can shows like Emmerdale [six episodes a week] and Coronation Street [five] sustain output with ever-shrinking budgets? You can only stretch resources so far before something snaps.
Two Septembers ago I went for a storylining job at Emmerdale. Didn't get the gig, but spent a fascinating day at the Leeds production office. It's looking likely that building could be mothballed, and the Emmerdale team relocated to their exterior sets outside Leeds. That's going to affect hundreds, even thousands of people when you factor in all the ancilliary staff and services. Spare a thought for them as you read tomorrow's headlines.
Meanwhile the BBC is fast emerging as the only game in town for new TV drama. Channel 4 is grappling with its own financial black hole, while Five has never been much of a factor for British-made drama. Ironically, children's TV is looking vaguely healthy again after several years when it seemed dead and buried. Niche digital channels are proving there is a future for new shows. So there is hope, but you'd better be ready to play the long game.
Jobs losses look likely [ditto rival channel Five, where a third of the workforce is facing a cull]. The programme budget is up for grabs, after being considered sacrosanct for years. What does this mean for TV drama, my area of particular interest? Long-running shows are getting axed [Wire in the Blood] or production mothballed [Heartbeat, The Royal] with no likely return date. Belts tighten, opportunities shrink by the day.
In truth these troubles won't be evident on screen for a while. There's a backlog of material waiting to be screened, with enough Heartbeart and The Royal in stock to keep Sunday nights cosy well into 2010. The crunch could show up in other places first. How long can shows like Emmerdale [six episodes a week] and Coronation Street [five] sustain output with ever-shrinking budgets? You can only stretch resources so far before something snaps.
Two Septembers ago I went for a storylining job at Emmerdale. Didn't get the gig, but spent a fascinating day at the Leeds production office. It's looking likely that building could be mothballed, and the Emmerdale team relocated to their exterior sets outside Leeds. That's going to affect hundreds, even thousands of people when you factor in all the ancilliary staff and services. Spare a thought for them as you read tomorrow's headlines.
Meanwhile the BBC is fast emerging as the only game in town for new TV drama. Channel 4 is grappling with its own financial black hole, while Five has never been much of a factor for British-made drama. Ironically, children's TV is looking vaguely healthy again after several years when it seemed dead and buried. Niche digital channels are proving there is a future for new shows. So there is hope, but you'd better be ready to play the long game.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Progress check for March 2009
First off, thanks to the two Vicious Imagery readers who chipped in some sponsorship money to my wife's Run For Life efforts - much appreciated. On the other hand, more than 1000 unique visitors have come to this blog since I posted that appeal last week. So two people out of more than a thousand isn't a great response rate. I know we're all feeling the pinch financially, but chipping in two quid would kill you? Go here and make a difference.
Having given myself a talking to a couple of weeks back, I've gotten some good work done. Write my 40th issue of The Phantom, and completed the first draft of a talking book project for Big Finish. Can't reveal any more details about the latter job yet, but it proved to be more fun than I'd expected. Things move apace at my part-time job developing a new MA in Creative Writing at Edinburgh Napier University, as validation day beckons.
This week's major task is my first draft for the Lighthouse TV drama team writing project. Having spent months developing characters, weaving intricate plot threads and defining our rules, it's both scary and exciting to finally start scripting. Got to find the voice of our shared characters, discover a writing style that suits the piece and throw some rough scenes down. Get it written first, then get it right in rewrites. As ever - onwards!
Having given myself a talking to a couple of weeks back, I've gotten some good work done. Write my 40th issue of The Phantom, and completed the first draft of a talking book project for Big Finish. Can't reveal any more details about the latter job yet, but it proved to be more fun than I'd expected. Things move apace at my part-time job developing a new MA in Creative Writing at Edinburgh Napier University, as validation day beckons.
This week's major task is my first draft for the Lighthouse TV drama team writing project. Having spent months developing characters, weaving intricate plot threads and defining our rules, it's both scary and exciting to finally start scripting. Got to find the voice of our shared characters, discover a writing style that suits the piece and throw some rough scenes down. Get it written first, then get it right in rewrites. As ever - onwards!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Go read The Plattitude
Writers make up stories full of drama and tears and laughter. But real life's got us trumped every time. Go visit The Plattitude and read about real drama, tears and laughter. Spread the word.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Get your wallets out, it's for a good cause
Every year my wife enters Race For Life, a charity event staged at numerous round Britain where woman run five kilometres [about three miles] to raise money for Cancer Research UK. In my wife's case, that means running up, around and over Arthur's Seat, a very imposing volcanic hill in the middle of Edinburgh. It's not quite the equivalent of jogging up the north face of the Eiger, but it's close. Utterly exhausting and well worth sponsoring.
So, here's where you can pitch in. If you've ever read anything that was useful, or amusing, or [grud help us] inspirational on this blog - now's your chance to pay a little something back. Go to my wife's Race For Life page and sponsor her for a few quid. Minimum donation is £2, so there's no excuse for not chipping in. Cripes, the Sunday Times cost £2 now and that's just for some inky bits of dead tree that clutter up your house.
Go on, you know you want to. £2 isn't going to break the bank, even in the current financial climate. If you're feeling generous, throw in a fiver. Or a twenty. Go mental and put some more in if you wish, but even £2 makes a difference. She's halfway to raising her target of £400 - let's get her the rest of the way. Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on. Go on! Make sure to mention Vicious Imagery in the comments section while you're there.
So, here's where you can pitch in. If you've ever read anything that was useful, or amusing, or [grud help us] inspirational on this blog - now's your chance to pay a little something back. Go to my wife's Race For Life page and sponsor her for a few quid. Minimum donation is £2, so there's no excuse for not chipping in. Cripes, the Sunday Times cost £2 now and that's just for some inky bits of dead tree that clutter up your house.
Go on, you know you want to. £2 isn't going to break the bank, even in the current financial climate. If you're feeling generous, throw in a fiver. Or a twenty. Go mental and put some more in if you wish, but even £2 makes a difference. She's halfway to raising her target of £400 - let's get her the rest of the way. Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on. Go on! Make sure to mention Vicious Imagery in the comments section while you're there.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
KIll your babies kill your babies kill your babies*
When stress is getting in the way of creativity, I like to imagine how Daleks would say familiar adages. [Hey, it takes all kinds, okay? Sheesh.] For example, make hay while the sun is shining is an invocation to enjoy yourself when life is good. Turned to Dalek dialogue, this would probable be 'Terran sun is shining. Make hay! Make hay!!!' Another example: 'Forest. Trees. My vision is impaired!' And that's how I was feeling earlier this week.
Couldn't see the wood for the trees as deadlines piled up upon each other, one after another, each more urgent than the last. So I did what any daft freelancer would do: something else. Knowing I couldn't resolve any of those problems in one day, I opted to tackle a project I've been ignoring for five months. No matter that it had no deadline attached, wasn't urgent and nobody would thank me [let alone pay me] for doing this. It was time.
Last summer I wrote a 30-minute script called The Woman Who Screamed Butterflies. It was created for the BBC Sharps initiative, an open call for half hour TV dramas about 'the nation's health'. My script wasn't get shortlisted but I didn't care - I knew there was something special about this story. It chimed with me. The BBC writersroom did let me know TWWSB had gotten a full read and even sent some feedback, identifying two key script issues.
First, the major antagonist was a rather one-dimensional, cartoon villain - which I couldn't deny. Second, the highly visual nature of the script made it feel more like an extended short film than a TV drama. Bang on again. In fact, there's two issues in that second piece of feedback - length and chosen medium. The draft I submitted was 30 pages long because that's what they required. And while short films can be screened on TV, they're no TV dramas.
Think I managed three drafts before the Sharps submission deadline. I completed another draft soon afterwards, just for my own satisfaction, and then let it lay fallow for a while. Lucy at Bang2Write got me thinking about TWWSB again with a blog post about it making a big impression on her. So I did another draft, before giving it to a writer-director. He gave some subtle, brilliant notes and underlined what the BBC had said.
But I didn't act on those notes for five months. Other things became far more urgent, and I needed to get some distance from the project. Let the notes settle, give myself time to find my own solutions. Great notes are great, but it's always tempting to simply implement them immediately and represent the script the next day. I tend to get better results if I give myself time to realise the best response, to find my own response to feedback.
Five months on and facing a plethora of ravening deadline beasties, I decided it was time to pull TWWSB out and tackle the long-delayed rewrite. Lucy kindly re-read the September draft and offered a few thoughts. Then it was time to dig in. I nipped and tucked my way through the first half, winnowing out a few pages en route. The second half offered all the challenges, with far too much schlepping back and forth slowing down the endgame.
I also had my title character do something stupid and illogical at the midpoint for the convenience of my plot. This is always a mistake, one of which I've been guilty in the past. So I had to find another way forward before collapsing the ending. Suddenly pages were falling away, as the script tumbled from 29 pages to 22 in an afternoon. Last but not least, I had to kill a few babies. Every draft had a short sequence with a Polish kitchen girl.
It was a lovely run of scenes, foreshadowing what was to come later in the script. But it added nothing to the plot and said nothing about the core characters that wasn't evident later. Much as I didn't want to, those pages had to go. I was proven correct when I didn't even have to tweak the transition created by ripping out the sequence. The script simply joined itself back together, like the sea smoothing itself out after swallowing a stone.
End result of all this rewriting, hacking and slashing? My half hour TV drama is now a 19-page short film script. Next week it goes back to the writer-director for another read, to see what he thinks of this new version. Will it ever get made? Probably not, if I'm honest. There are millions of scripts in the world and no money to be made from short films. But it's a script I love, that I'm proud of and it'll always be dear to me. And that's enough.
*Sung to the tune of Hang the DJ by the Smiths.
Couldn't see the wood for the trees as deadlines piled up upon each other, one after another, each more urgent than the last. So I did what any daft freelancer would do: something else. Knowing I couldn't resolve any of those problems in one day, I opted to tackle a project I've been ignoring for five months. No matter that it had no deadline attached, wasn't urgent and nobody would thank me [let alone pay me] for doing this. It was time.
Last summer I wrote a 30-minute script called The Woman Who Screamed Butterflies. It was created for the BBC Sharps initiative, an open call for half hour TV dramas about 'the nation's health'. My script wasn't get shortlisted but I didn't care - I knew there was something special about this story. It chimed with me. The BBC writersroom did let me know TWWSB had gotten a full read and even sent some feedback, identifying two key script issues.
First, the major antagonist was a rather one-dimensional, cartoon villain - which I couldn't deny. Second, the highly visual nature of the script made it feel more like an extended short film than a TV drama. Bang on again. In fact, there's two issues in that second piece of feedback - length and chosen medium. The draft I submitted was 30 pages long because that's what they required. And while short films can be screened on TV, they're no TV dramas.
Think I managed three drafts before the Sharps submission deadline. I completed another draft soon afterwards, just for my own satisfaction, and then let it lay fallow for a while. Lucy at Bang2Write got me thinking about TWWSB again with a blog post about it making a big impression on her. So I did another draft, before giving it to a writer-director. He gave some subtle, brilliant notes and underlined what the BBC had said.
But I didn't act on those notes for five months. Other things became far more urgent, and I needed to get some distance from the project. Let the notes settle, give myself time to find my own solutions. Great notes are great, but it's always tempting to simply implement them immediately and represent the script the next day. I tend to get better results if I give myself time to realise the best response, to find my own response to feedback.
Five months on and facing a plethora of ravening deadline beasties, I decided it was time to pull TWWSB out and tackle the long-delayed rewrite. Lucy kindly re-read the September draft and offered a few thoughts. Then it was time to dig in. I nipped and tucked my way through the first half, winnowing out a few pages en route. The second half offered all the challenges, with far too much schlepping back and forth slowing down the endgame.
I also had my title character do something stupid and illogical at the midpoint for the convenience of my plot. This is always a mistake, one of which I've been guilty in the past. So I had to find another way forward before collapsing the ending. Suddenly pages were falling away, as the script tumbled from 29 pages to 22 in an afternoon. Last but not least, I had to kill a few babies. Every draft had a short sequence with a Polish kitchen girl.
It was a lovely run of scenes, foreshadowing what was to come later in the script. But it added nothing to the plot and said nothing about the core characters that wasn't evident later. Much as I didn't want to, those pages had to go. I was proven correct when I didn't even have to tweak the transition created by ripping out the sequence. The script simply joined itself back together, like the sea smoothing itself out after swallowing a stone.
End result of all this rewriting, hacking and slashing? My half hour TV drama is now a 19-page short film script. Next week it goes back to the writer-director for another read, to see what he thinks of this new version. Will it ever get made? Probably not, if I'm honest. There are millions of scripts in the world and no money to be made from short films. But it's a script I love, that I'm proud of and it'll always be dear to me. And that's enough.
*Sung to the tune of Hang the DJ by the Smiths.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
2000 AD event at London Megastore for TPO
Next month there's a massive 2000 AD event at London's Forbidden Planet Megastore to celebrate the paperback edition of THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD. Talented writers, artists and editors will be on hand to sign, sketch and mingle - and I'll be there too. Some advance details appear below, but you can expect me to pimp this event several more times before March 21st. Don't say you weren't warned, Earthlets! [Been a while since I typed that word.]2000FP - Thrill Power Overload!
Saturday 21 March, 2009 • 1:00PM - 2:30PM
Forbidden Planet London Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR
To promote the release of THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD we’ve gathered together writers and artists from a host of 2000AD titles – together with Matt Smith, the magazine’s editor, they will be available to sign, sketch and chat! On Saturday 21st March we’ll have the absolute best in British comics in store: Dan Abnett • David Bishop • Simon Davis • Rufus Dayglo • Al Ewing • Brett Ewins • Henry Flint • Frazer Irving • Robbie Morrison • Tony Lee • Matt Smith • Simon Spurrier
This is 2000FP, the second of our free-form signings – no tables, no queues. With an array of fantastic Rebellion Publishing titles on hand, this event blows away the barriers and gives readers and fans a change to really find out what goes on in 2000AD! Thrill Power Overload will be available to buy on the day, but if you can't make it you can click here to order your signed copy. [Orders must be placed before 12pm on March 20.]
The occasional joy of royalties
As a freelance writer, I've done an awful lot of jobs that offered no great prospects. Novels that paid a flat fee and nothing more, regardless of how many copies they sold, features and articles that brought a single payment, yet keep getting reprinted. I went in eyes wide open, it was my choice to sign up. But the dream is always to get a commission that pays good money now [not easy, especially in these bereft times] and the hope of further funds.
Even if you get a royalty deal, there's no guarantee your project will sell enough to clear its advance. I spent so much time and money researching a particular non-fiction tome, I probably lost money on it [curse you, Michael Caine!]. Then again, I suspect the publisher took a bath on that book too, so the pain get shared round. But sometimes a job comes good and you get a nice little trickle of money back from it. That's the joy of royalties.
In the last week I've have two such bursts of joy. Turns out six of my Big Finish audio dramas have now sold enough to generate royalties. Nothing huge, but a nice wee bonus. And the hardback edition of my magnificent octopus about the history of 2000 AD has effectively sold out, also bringing a royalty payment. THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD has just been published in paperback, meaning every copy sold now on will generate future royalties. Nice.
Even if you get a royalty deal, there's no guarantee your project will sell enough to clear its advance. I spent so much time and money researching a particular non-fiction tome, I probably lost money on it [curse you, Michael Caine!]. Then again, I suspect the publisher took a bath on that book too, so the pain get shared round. But sometimes a job comes good and you get a nice little trickle of money back from it. That's the joy of royalties.
In the last week I've have two such bursts of joy. Turns out six of my Big Finish audio dramas have now sold enough to generate royalties. Nothing huge, but a nice wee bonus. And the hardback edition of my magnificent octopus about the history of 2000 AD has effectively sold out, also bringing a royalty payment. THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD has just been published in paperback, meaning every copy sold now on will generate future royalties. Nice.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Enacting the F**k the Future manifesto
For those who weren't here yesterday, I gave myself a good scolding for waiting around in the hope of receiving an engraved invitation to become a TV drama writer:
Bit lacking in explicit political ideology for a real manifesto, but life's too short to sit round in coffee houses discussing whether this is a post-something-or-other approach. There's writing to be done and now's the time to do it. So, having kicked myself up the arse, I did some writing yesterday. Wrote and submitted three pitches to a script editor. One's new, one improves an old idea and the other's a flyer.
Today I'm going to get my episode for the Lighthouse team-writing TV drama project rolling forwards again. Need to dump the deadwood from all previous iterations and start from scratch. Tell the story, not get hung up on mythology and rules and all that extraneous shit. Introduce characters with clear, bold strokes. Make the reader, the audience care about the characters. Make people want to know what happens next. Simple, but effective.
Seems my F**k the Future rant struck a chord with Kay Reindl at Seriocity. She's written some groovy-arsed shows and has some interesting things to say about genre shows, mythology and the state of US TV drama. Go check it out.
Here's a belated resolution for 2009: no more excuses, no more waiting around. I don't want to hear myself talking about what I wish I was writing, what I'm planning to write in the future. Fuck the future. If you want to be a TV writer, you make something happen by bloody writing. That's not rocket science, it's common sense - but you need to embrace that reality and act upon it.
Don't be content to sit on the subs' bench, waiting for somebody - a script editor, a publisher, an agent, a producer or a competition - to invite you into the game. You want to play? Get your boots on, get your freak on and get writing.
Bit lacking in explicit political ideology for a real manifesto, but life's too short to sit round in coffee houses discussing whether this is a post-something-or-other approach. There's writing to be done and now's the time to do it. So, having kicked myself up the arse, I did some writing yesterday. Wrote and submitted three pitches to a script editor. One's new, one improves an old idea and the other's a flyer.
Today I'm going to get my episode for the Lighthouse team-writing TV drama project rolling forwards again. Need to dump the deadwood from all previous iterations and start from scratch. Tell the story, not get hung up on mythology and rules and all that extraneous shit. Introduce characters with clear, bold strokes. Make the reader, the audience care about the characters. Make people want to know what happens next. Simple, but effective.
Seems my F**k the Future rant struck a chord with Kay Reindl at Seriocity. She's written some groovy-arsed shows and has some interesting things to say about genre shows, mythology and the state of US TV drama. Go check it out.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
My dreams are telling me things
Every now and then my subconscious decides to give me a punt up the posterior. Most dreams vanish within moments of waking, lost to the strange places in the darkness, forever forgotten. But sometimes the central message lingers, like a big WAKE UP sign, telling me to act. For example, this morning I woke with the words '**** that tale of woe' stuck in my head.
Since 2009 started I've been guilty of sitting back and waiting for things to happen. Back in November my script Families At War was one of approximately 70 selected for the second round of the Red Planet Prize, from around 1000 entries. Apparently a shortlist of finalists has been chosen and an announcement of the winner is due soon. But I shouldn't even be thinking about that - I should be busy writing my next project, not looking backwards.
It's a similar situation at the BBC daytime medical drama series Doctors, where I've got a pair of ideas in a pile, waiting to be read. Instead of waiting to hear back about these, I should have been working with my lovely script editor to develop two more and then another two, and so on. Things like the Red Planet Prize and decisions made by producers are out of my hands - I should concentrate my energies on outcomes I can directly influence.
Went to an event called Cupid's Ball in Edinburgh last night, a LGBT shindig at the Assembly Rooms with a disco downstairs and a ceilidh upstairs. A friend asked how my efforts to get a TV drama commission were coming along and I heard myself trotting out what I always say, how so much of it involves waiting, playing the long game and paying your dues. But I don't have to settle for that, shouldn't depend on others to advance my career.
So here's a belated resolution for 2009: no more excuses, no more waiting around. I don't want to hear myself talking about what I wish I was writing, what I'm planning to write in the future. Fuck the future. If you want to be a TV writer, you make something happen by bloody writing. That's not rocket science, it's common sense - but you need to embrace that reality and act up it.
Don't be content to sit on the subs' bench, waiting for somebody - a script editor, a publisher, an agent, a producer or a competition - to invite you into the game. You want to play? Get your boots on, get your freak on and get writing.
Since 2009 started I've been guilty of sitting back and waiting for things to happen. Back in November my script Families At War was one of approximately 70 selected for the second round of the Red Planet Prize, from around 1000 entries. Apparently a shortlist of finalists has been chosen and an announcement of the winner is due soon. But I shouldn't even be thinking about that - I should be busy writing my next project, not looking backwards.
It's a similar situation at the BBC daytime medical drama series Doctors, where I've got a pair of ideas in a pile, waiting to be read. Instead of waiting to hear back about these, I should have been working with my lovely script editor to develop two more and then another two, and so on. Things like the Red Planet Prize and decisions made by producers are out of my hands - I should concentrate my energies on outcomes I can directly influence.
Went to an event called Cupid's Ball in Edinburgh last night, a LGBT shindig at the Assembly Rooms with a disco downstairs and a ceilidh upstairs. A friend asked how my efforts to get a TV drama commission were coming along and I heard myself trotting out what I always say, how so much of it involves waiting, playing the long game and paying your dues. But I don't have to settle for that, shouldn't depend on others to advance my career.
So here's a belated resolution for 2009: no more excuses, no more waiting around. I don't want to hear myself talking about what I wish I was writing, what I'm planning to write in the future. Fuck the future. If you want to be a TV writer, you make something happen by bloody writing. That's not rocket science, it's common sense - but you need to embrace that reality and act up it.
Don't be content to sit on the subs' bench, waiting for somebody - a script editor, a publisher, an agent, a producer or a competition - to invite you into the game. You want to play? Get your boots on, get your freak on and get writing.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
There's an argument in my brain
Sometimes you find yourself with so many deadlines, it becomes difficult to know which to tackle first. The obvious is also the most simple: write the project that's most urgent. But even that can be a mistake. For example, we had a blinding session on the Lighthouse team-writing TV drama workshop last Wednesday and Thursday. But it threw up all sorts of questions and conundrums we hadn't resolved, so they all need collective creative decisions.
Only then can we rework our beat sheets and scene by scene documents, before diving into the first draft of our respective episodes. Some will change in subtle ways, others require wholesale rewrites. Sad to say, mine is the latter. The course tutors kindly gave us an extra week on our first draft deadline - but it's still going to take plenty of time over the next month to nail this sucker done. Doesn't need be perfect, just needs to be done.
So there's that. Got a commission I've been avoiding that requires several hard days of creative work. Not happy with my plot, it's all too sketchy, but can't seem to fix on what's the biggest problem. Result: no progress, and that's not good enough. Another porject that's been puttering along for a year is suddenly coming on stream, requiring urgent efforts. And I need to develop some fresh ideas for Doctors, having been remiss there for months.
All these things are fighting for my attention, clamouring for a piece of creative head-space. I like to compartmentalise, I'm not good at nudging along five projects at once. I know a milion-seller author who writes several thousand words of novel in the morning and comic books in the afternoon. Wish I could swap my heads over like that, Worzel Gummidge style. Closest I'm getting today is wanting a nice cup of tea and slice of cake. Hey ho. Onwards!
Only then can we rework our beat sheets and scene by scene documents, before diving into the first draft of our respective episodes. Some will change in subtle ways, others require wholesale rewrites. Sad to say, mine is the latter. The course tutors kindly gave us an extra week on our first draft deadline - but it's still going to take plenty of time over the next month to nail this sucker done. Doesn't need be perfect, just needs to be done.
So there's that. Got a commission I've been avoiding that requires several hard days of creative work. Not happy with my plot, it's all too sketchy, but can't seem to fix on what's the biggest problem. Result: no progress, and that's not good enough. Another porject that's been puttering along for a year is suddenly coming on stream, requiring urgent efforts. And I need to develop some fresh ideas for Doctors, having been remiss there for months.
All these things are fighting for my attention, clamouring for a piece of creative head-space. I like to compartmentalise, I'm not good at nudging along five projects at once. I know a milion-seller author who writes several thousand words of novel in the morning and comic books in the afternoon. Wish I could swap my heads over like that, Worzel Gummidge style. Closest I'm getting today is wanting a nice cup of tea and slice of cake. Hey ho. Onwards!
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Apologies for all the radio silence
Pure mental busy for the last week - writing, rewriting, working at Napier - and tomorrow I'm off to Brighton [weather permitting]. Then four nights in That Fancy London. Should be home late Monday, and might get a chance to blog next Tuesday. Online updates have bee reduced to Facebook blurts and 140 character bursts on Twitter. Busy is good, right? Right?
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Wonder Year meme
Over at Tyranny of the Blank Page, my old mate Pete Kempshall is contemplating what year of his life to date he'd most like to relive. Hmm, interesting question - and perfect fodder for a fresh meme: If you could go back to live in any one year from your lifetime, which one would you choose?
Well, 1993 is an obvious candidate for me. That was the year my first and second novels were published, fulfilling a life-long ambition to become an author. I also got married, and went back home to New Zealand for the first time since emigrating to the UK at the start of 1990. With all of that going on it's fair to say my editorial work suffered as a consequence, but I had other fish to fry. A good year.
In retrospect 2007 wasn't too shabby either. I completed my MA in screenwriting [with distinction], and was awarded the Napier University Medal. My short film script Danny's Toys won a first prize at the Page International Screenwriting Awards in Los Angeles. And my history of 2000 AD, Thrill-Power Overload, was finally published as a hardcover tome - the culmination of six years' research and writing. So 2007 was something of a high tide mark too.
I'm hoping 2009 will have its share of achievements and landmarks too, but we're only 28 days into the new year so who knows what the remaining 337 days will bring. Right now I'll plump for 1993, but claim the perogative to chance my mind. So, if you could go back to live in any one year from your lifetime, which one would you choose?
I hereby tag Michelle, Lucy, Potdoll, Laura and Jason.
Well, 1993 is an obvious candidate for me. That was the year my first and second novels were published, fulfilling a life-long ambition to become an author. I also got married, and went back home to New Zealand for the first time since emigrating to the UK at the start of 1990. With all of that going on it's fair to say my editorial work suffered as a consequence, but I had other fish to fry. A good year.
In retrospect 2007 wasn't too shabby either. I completed my MA in screenwriting [with distinction], and was awarded the Napier University Medal. My short film script Danny's Toys won a first prize at the Page International Screenwriting Awards in Los Angeles. And my history of 2000 AD, Thrill-Power Overload, was finally published as a hardcover tome - the culmination of six years' research and writing. So 2007 was something of a high tide mark too.
I'm hoping 2009 will have its share of achievements and landmarks too, but we're only 28 days into the new year so who knows what the remaining 337 days will bring. Right now I'll plump for 1993, but claim the perogative to chance my mind. So, if you could go back to live in any one year from your lifetime, which one would you choose?
I hereby tag Michelle, Lucy, Potdoll, Laura and Jason.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Crisis on Infinite Davids (Version)
The following was inspired by Laura's blog posting Parallel Worlds.
Somewhere there's a David who never left New Zealand. He did get that features job he always craved at the New Zealand Herald, slowly ascending through the ranks. Maybe he resisted the move into management, maybe he didn't. But he always felt creatively frustrated, wishing he was inviting stories of his own instead of writing about other people's stories.
Somewhere there's a David who never left 2000 AD. He stayed in comics, helping new creators fulfill their dreams of making a living from doing what they love. But he couldn't help envying their success or wishing he'd made the leap to freelance writing, like his former assistant Andy. Still, he's looking forward to the new Dredd film.
Somewhere there's a David who wrote an original novel as his first published tome. Maybe it was a great success, maybe it wasn't. Maybe he now lives in New York, laden with awards and paying alimony to his ex-wives. Maybe his first novel was his best and it's been downhill ever since. Maybe he should stop wearing sunglasses indoors.
Somewhere there's a David who took up smoking at school and died of lung cancer. Or who didn't swerve that time and spends his days in a wheelchair. Or who went under the wheels of that Holden Kingswood instead of over the bonnet, and his head burst like a ripe blood orange. Wonder what his last thoughts were?
But I'm this David - former reporter, ex-patriate Kiwi, past editor of 2000 AD, non-smoker, careful driver and frequently jammy. With a bit of luck I'm halfway with my life, still learning, still earning and still pushing myself to try new things. Not sure what the future brings, but - fingers crossed - the best is yet to come. Onwards!
Somewhere there's a David who never left New Zealand. He did get that features job he always craved at the New Zealand Herald, slowly ascending through the ranks. Maybe he resisted the move into management, maybe he didn't. But he always felt creatively frustrated, wishing he was inviting stories of his own instead of writing about other people's stories.
Somewhere there's a David who never left 2000 AD. He stayed in comics, helping new creators fulfill their dreams of making a living from doing what they love. But he couldn't help envying their success or wishing he'd made the leap to freelance writing, like his former assistant Andy. Still, he's looking forward to the new Dredd film.
Somewhere there's a David who wrote an original novel as his first published tome. Maybe it was a great success, maybe it wasn't. Maybe he now lives in New York, laden with awards and paying alimony to his ex-wives. Maybe his first novel was his best and it's been downhill ever since. Maybe he should stop wearing sunglasses indoors.
Somewhere there's a David who took up smoking at school and died of lung cancer. Or who didn't swerve that time and spends his days in a wheelchair. Or who went under the wheels of that Holden Kingswood instead of over the bonnet, and his head burst like a ripe blood orange. Wonder what his last thoughts were?
But I'm this David - former reporter, ex-patriate Kiwi, past editor of 2000 AD, non-smoker, careful driver and frequently jammy. With a bit of luck I'm halfway with my life, still learning, still earning and still pushing myself to try new things. Not sure what the future brings, but - fingers crossed - the best is yet to come. Onwards!
Monday, January 26, 2009
I love the smell of epiphany in the morning
Just finished a beat sheet for my episode of the Lighthouse TV drama team-writing workshop, and had a juicy little epiphany. Nothing huge, more a case of putting together several pieces of the jigsaw and recognising the picture they create. Love it when you get these realisations, seeing things that are obvious once you know them but so elusive until that happens. One flash of inspiration resolves a plethora of nagging doubts. Nice.
Need to write a couple of test pages from my putative script, see if I can find the voices of my guest cast and the regulars. Need to choose scenes that reveal character, advance the plot, have a story arc of their own and feature some flavoursome dialogue. What else? Need to rewrite a plot synopsis for The Phantom, turning an interesting but unfocused one-one into a gripping two-parter. Plus my editor wants another one-off plot synopsis as well.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I'll be in at Napier, and back there again next Monday and Tuesday. Then it's off to Brighton for two days of Lighthouse activity, followed by four nights in That Fancy London. I had hoped to be heading across the Atlantic to Los Angeles two days later, but my parlous finances torpedoed that plan. Need to earn some money above and beyond my part-time work at Napier, to get my bank account back in the black. Onwards!
Need to write a couple of test pages from my putative script, see if I can find the voices of my guest cast and the regulars. Need to choose scenes that reveal character, advance the plot, have a story arc of their own and feature some flavoursome dialogue. What else? Need to rewrite a plot synopsis for The Phantom, turning an interesting but unfocused one-one into a gripping two-parter. Plus my editor wants another one-off plot synopsis as well.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I'll be in at Napier, and back there again next Monday and Tuesday. Then it's off to Brighton for two days of Lighthouse activity, followed by four nights in That Fancy London. I had hoped to be heading across the Atlantic to Los Angeles two days later, but my parlous finances torpedoed that plan. Need to earn some money above and beyond my part-time work at Napier, to get my bank account back in the black. Onwards!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Is a 50% cut a huge vote of confidence?
ITV announced yesterday long-running UK police drama The Bill is getting cut from two shows a week to one. The show's had a double helping of episodes for a decade, though it started life back in the 80s as a weekly series of one-offs. ITV's also moving The Bill late in the schedule so it starts after the 9pm watershed. That allows for more adult content - swearing, violence, sex, etc. So the kid gloves are off, harsh and gritty is in.
Online buzz suggests the budget per episode is going up, making more stunts and eye-catching sequences possible. But slicing the show's allocation of episodes in half is a sign of troubled financial times in the TV broadcast sector. Imagine if your workplace was told to cut production by half. Imagine what it must have felt like when The Bill's programme makers got that news from ITV. Welcome to 2009, folks - this is the future calling.
But no decision can be announced without someone trying to put a positive spin on it. ITV bosses win today's silver lining prize for the following statements: "I'm delighted to announce The Bill's transition to a weekly 9pm drama,' said Peter Fincham, ITV director of television. 'It's a fantastic opportunity to take the series to another level, marking a new era for one of the most established brands on British television."
CEO Lorraine Heggessey added: "This is a huge vote of confidence from ITV in the show and is a genuine first on UK television. We are incredibly proud of the show and we look forward to embracing the new opportunities this will bring." Will this take the series to another level? It should add extra grit and realism to The Bill. Is a 50% cut a huge vote of confidence? All those losing their jobs as a consequence might beg to differ...
Online buzz suggests the budget per episode is going up, making more stunts and eye-catching sequences possible. But slicing the show's allocation of episodes in half is a sign of troubled financial times in the TV broadcast sector. Imagine if your workplace was told to cut production by half. Imagine what it must have felt like when The Bill's programme makers got that news from ITV. Welcome to 2009, folks - this is the future calling.
But no decision can be announced without someone trying to put a positive spin on it. ITV bosses win today's silver lining prize for the following statements: "I'm delighted to announce The Bill's transition to a weekly 9pm drama,' said Peter Fincham, ITV director of television. 'It's a fantastic opportunity to take the series to another level, marking a new era for one of the most established brands on British television."
CEO Lorraine Heggessey added: "This is a huge vote of confidence from ITV in the show and is a genuine first on UK television. We are incredibly proud of the show and we look forward to embracing the new opportunities this will bring." Will this take the series to another level? It should add extra grit and realism to The Bill. Is a 50% cut a huge vote of confidence? All those losing their jobs as a consequence might beg to differ...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Oscar nominations announced today
After months of speculation and weeks of campaigning, the Oscar nominations get announced today. Hollywood buzz suggests certain films are a lock in the big categories, as are certain actors, writers and directors. Slumdog Millionaire looks to have the Big Mo, with noms for best picture and Danny Boyle as best director. Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon and Milk are other likely best picture candidates, but the 5th slot is up for grabs.
The same few names are touted for best actor [Pitt, Penn, Langella and probably Rourke] with variations at number five. The best actress race is more interesting, though Hathaway and Streep should be prepping their game faces. Will Kate Winslet get her 6th nomination, for Revolutionary Road? And a 7th, for The Reader? She's nominated as best actress for both at the BAFTAs, but Oscar rules mean her Reader role is being pushed as a supporting role.
Went to see The Reader last weekend, and it's daft to call her part a supporting role, but rules are rules. Whether Oscar voters will go along with the supporting actress campaign is another matter. Whatever happens, Winslet is long past due an Oscar - hopefully this year breaks her duck. I've got a lot of affection for Clint Eastwood, so have my fingers crossed he gets a best actor nom for Gran Torino. [Three more weeks till the film opens here.]
As usual, there's no shortage of great candidates for best adapted screenplay. That leaves a little more room for surprises in best original screenplay. The Wrestler seems likely, maybe some Mike Leigh action with Happy-Go-Lucky. Gran Torino could make an appearance, a film supposedly shot from the first draft. And will Babylon 5 creator and comics scribe J. Michael Straczynski need to dust off his tux for writing Clint's other contender, Changeling?
All will be revealed later today. Can't wait.
The same few names are touted for best actor [Pitt, Penn, Langella and probably Rourke] with variations at number five. The best actress race is more interesting, though Hathaway and Streep should be prepping their game faces. Will Kate Winslet get her 6th nomination, for Revolutionary Road? And a 7th, for The Reader? She's nominated as best actress for both at the BAFTAs, but Oscar rules mean her Reader role is being pushed as a supporting role.
Went to see The Reader last weekend, and it's daft to call her part a supporting role, but rules are rules. Whether Oscar voters will go along with the supporting actress campaign is another matter. Whatever happens, Winslet is long past due an Oscar - hopefully this year breaks her duck. I've got a lot of affection for Clint Eastwood, so have my fingers crossed he gets a best actor nom for Gran Torino. [Three more weeks till the film opens here.]
As usual, there's no shortage of great candidates for best adapted screenplay. That leaves a little more room for surprises in best original screenplay. The Wrestler seems likely, maybe some Mike Leigh action with Happy-Go-Lucky. Gran Torino could make an appearance, a film supposedly shot from the first draft. And will Babylon 5 creator and comics scribe J. Michael Straczynski need to dust off his tux for writing Clint's other contender, Changeling?
All will be revealed later today. Can't wait.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
When loose threads unravel your jumper of plot
Blimey, that was hard work. I've just spent days slaving over a third draft treatment for an episode of the Lighthouse team-writing TV drama project. The house is a tip, I'm fast running out of clean clothes and I even forgot to watch the live coverage of Barack Obama's inauguration as US President. Finally nailed the sucker at ten last night, after a fifteen-hour marathon [preceded by days and days of tortuous plotting and re-plotting].
On the face of it, my third draft should have been a straight-forward task. Most of my second draft was solid stuff, full of twisty-turny machinations and eye-popping moments to excite and intrigue. But there wasn't enough emotional drama, and course leader Phil Palmer was pushing me to dig a bit deeper. The simplest of notes - shift the death of one character from the teaser to later in the story - caused utter chaos in the third draft.
It's like the old joke about pulling one loose thread on a knitted jumper and the whole garment will come apart. The more I tweaked and teased at that single element, the more I had to rework the rest of my narrative. I applied a five act structure to help me keep track of the central guest character's emotional journey, for fear of simply inserting a bunch of repeat beats or Hamlet-esque hand-wringing and vacillation by this character.
I must have rewritten the first two acts half a dozen time, trying to find the right way into the middle section of my story. Apologies for dragging another metaphor into this, but writing act three in a five-act structure can be like get a goat through the digestive tract of a boa constrictor. It's a tight fit, takes a long time and can lead to narrative indigestion. I noticed this before in my writing - it's the middle that bakes my noodle.
Once characters start dying, things get a lot easier. The cast thins out, the stakes get raised to a higher and higher degree of jeopardy and everything accelerates to an almighty, shuddering climax. [Lucy Vee, stop going 'oo-er' in your head.] And so it proved yesterday. Took forever but once I finally pushed through act three everything that followed came so much easier. Thank grud. Trees. Forest. My vision is no longer impaired. Hurrah.
Now there's just the small matter of turning my treatment into a scene by scene breakdown by lunchtime tomorrow. Of course, I'm on call for my part-time job at Napier today and back in the office there tomorrow. So I've really only got until end of play today to nail this sucker and move on. There's scenes to write for next Thursday, and the small matter of finding time for some actual paying work outside Napier. Busy, busy, busy. Onwards!
On the face of it, my third draft should have been a straight-forward task. Most of my second draft was solid stuff, full of twisty-turny machinations and eye-popping moments to excite and intrigue. But there wasn't enough emotional drama, and course leader Phil Palmer was pushing me to dig a bit deeper. The simplest of notes - shift the death of one character from the teaser to later in the story - caused utter chaos in the third draft.
It's like the old joke about pulling one loose thread on a knitted jumper and the whole garment will come apart. The more I tweaked and teased at that single element, the more I had to rework the rest of my narrative. I applied a five act structure to help me keep track of the central guest character's emotional journey, for fear of simply inserting a bunch of repeat beats or Hamlet-esque hand-wringing and vacillation by this character.
I must have rewritten the first two acts half a dozen time, trying to find the right way into the middle section of my story. Apologies for dragging another metaphor into this, but writing act three in a five-act structure can be like get a goat through the digestive tract of a boa constrictor. It's a tight fit, takes a long time and can lead to narrative indigestion. I noticed this before in my writing - it's the middle that bakes my noodle.
Once characters start dying, things get a lot easier. The cast thins out, the stakes get raised to a higher and higher degree of jeopardy and everything accelerates to an almighty, shuddering climax. [Lucy Vee, stop going 'oo-er' in your head.] And so it proved yesterday. Took forever but once I finally pushed through act three everything that followed came so much easier. Thank grud. Trees. Forest. My vision is no longer impaired. Hurrah.
Now there's just the small matter of turning my treatment into a scene by scene breakdown by lunchtime tomorrow. Of course, I'm on call for my part-time job at Napier today and back in the office there tomorrow. So I've really only got until end of play today to nail this sucker and move on. There's scenes to write for next Thursday, and the small matter of finding time for some actual paying work outside Napier. Busy, busy, busy. Onwards!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Doctor Who: Enemy of the Daleks
Big Finish has posted all the details for my Doctor Who audio drama Enemy of the Daleks, on sale for download or on CD from May. [You can pre-order a copy by going here.] I expect there'll be a trailer posted for it in the next month or two, giving me another excuse to plug my story. In the meantime, here's the official teaser blurb:Doctor Who - Enemy of the Daleks (Duration: 120' Approx)
Starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred with Philip Olivier
CAST:
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Philip Olivier (Hex), Kate Ashfield (Lieutenant Beth Stokes), Bindya Solanki (Sergeant Tahira Khan), Eiji Kusuhara (Professor Toshio Shimura), Jeremy James (Sistermatic / Kiseibya / Male Patient / Male Voice), Nicholas Briggs (Daleks)
SYNOPSIS:
Bliss used to be a paradise planet. The Galapagos Islands of space. But when the TARDIS brings the Doctor, Ace and Hex to Bliss, it’s been over-run with ironweed plants, and the air is heavy with the stench of burnt silk and static electricity.
Worse, the Daleks are coming, on the trail of a lost patrol of starship troopers. Holed up in the Roarke 279 research facility, Lieutenant Beth Stokes is preparing her last stand against the invaders. But there’s a secret on Bliss, a secret guarded by the obsessive Professor Shimura…
This time, could it be the Daleks need saving?
AUTHOR: David Bishop
DIRECTOR: Ken Bentley
SOUND DESIGN: Steve Foxon
MUSIC: Steve Foxon
COVER ART: Alex Mallinson
NUMBER OF DISCS: 2
RECORDED DATE: November 24-25, 2008
RELEASE DATE: May 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84435-409-2
PRICE: £14.99
Monday, January 19, 2009
Plots that turn your heroes into idiots
I once wrote a rather bad Doctor Who novel called The Domino Effect. [Actually, I wrote it four times in an arse-about-face kind of way, but that's another story.] It had some good stuff in it, some well researched moments and the central premise was interesting. But the plot required one of my heroes to act like an idiot, stumbling about in stupid ways to enable events to incur as and when I wanted. This was a mistake and the book sucked as a consequence.
At the weekend I watch an episode of TV drama that did much the same thing. Two heroes got lured into an incredibly slow death trap, believing it to be the location of their enemy. Why did they go there? The mentor character wanted revenge against an enemy who killed the mentor's beloved years earlier. Once trapped, the villain stood on a grille directly above the heroes and monologued at them for a while. [Did the writers not see The Incredibles?]
All through the scene, the heroes make no attempt to hurt the villain. Who goes on a revenge trip, hunting their mortal enemy, and doesn't take a gun? Idiots, that's who. Meanwhile the villain has left a time bomb at the heroes' secret HQ - and set the countdown to 50 minutes. 50 minutes! Why not ten minutes? 25? Having done that, the villain walks out - leaving the HQ front door open. Why? So the young hero's best mate can get inside later.
She arrives with 13 minutes still left on the countdown. Does she evacuate the HQ? No. Does she carry the bomb to the nearby Thames and drop it in the river? No. She reads books, looking for a page on defusing bombs. As you do. The good news is she defused the bomb with two seconds to spare, and found time to help rescue the others heroes from the incredibly slow death trap. And I resisted the urge to throw my remote through the TV screen.
This episode did have something to say. It was all about the nature of heroism, the sacrifices you must make to follow the right path. It was about balance the needs of those you love and doing the right thing. All good thematic material, but buried under a plot that propelled logic through the nearest window. Having done the same thing myself, I know how easy it is to write this kind of story - and how frustrating the results.
At the weekend I watch an episode of TV drama that did much the same thing. Two heroes got lured into an incredibly slow death trap, believing it to be the location of their enemy. Why did they go there? The mentor character wanted revenge against an enemy who killed the mentor's beloved years earlier. Once trapped, the villain stood on a grille directly above the heroes and monologued at them for a while. [Did the writers not see The Incredibles?]
All through the scene, the heroes make no attempt to hurt the villain. Who goes on a revenge trip, hunting their mortal enemy, and doesn't take a gun? Idiots, that's who. Meanwhile the villain has left a time bomb at the heroes' secret HQ - and set the countdown to 50 minutes. 50 minutes! Why not ten minutes? 25? Having done that, the villain walks out - leaving the HQ front door open. Why? So the young hero's best mate can get inside later.
She arrives with 13 minutes still left on the countdown. Does she evacuate the HQ? No. Does she carry the bomb to the nearby Thames and drop it in the river? No. She reads books, looking for a page on defusing bombs. As you do. The good news is she defused the bomb with two seconds to spare, and found time to help rescue the others heroes from the incredibly slow death trap. And I resisted the urge to throw my remote through the TV screen.
This episode did have something to say. It was all about the nature of heroism, the sacrifices you must make to follow the right path. It was about balance the needs of those you love and doing the right thing. All good thematic material, but buried under a plot that propelled logic through the nearest window. Having done the same thing myself, I know how easy it is to write this kind of story - and how frustrating the results.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Where did flame raisins come from?
In recent years I've taken to eating muesli for breakfast [stop laughing at the back - yes, you with the clogged colon]. Not the world's most exciting start to the day, but it gets the job done. However, there's been a recent rash of flame raisins in every brand of muesli I try, which leads me to ask one question: where the hell did flame raisins come from? I'd never even heard of flame raisins two years ago, now they seem to be everywhere.
Were they invented in a laboratory by some crazed scientist, like the Kiwifruit? [True story: the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research created the kiwifruit by mutating the Chinese Gooseberry. See, crazed scientists can be a force for good, not just evil.] Or have there always been flame raisins and I was simply too pig ignorant to know about them? Or is there a third option, the lever marked Marketing Plot to Sell Stuff.
Twenty years ago I'd never knowingly consumed sundried tomatoes, now they're a handy way of adding flavour to dreary casseroles and suchlike. Then came the sunblush tomato. I can just about buy the sundried tomatoe, that sounds like a real thing - but sunblush tomatoes? What are they, slightly shy in direct sunlight? Is there a more extreme version out there, waiting to be discovered? How long before I can buy sunstrumpet tomatoes, hmm?
While we wait for that strange day, I humbly submit for your consideration this link to a review of the worst comic ever published. Warning: this is most definitely NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK - well, not unless you work in Denmark. The picture below should provide ample proof of what I'm talking about. You were warned.
Were they invented in a laboratory by some crazed scientist, like the Kiwifruit? [True story: the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research created the kiwifruit by mutating the Chinese Gooseberry. See, crazed scientists can be a force for good, not just evil.] Or have there always been flame raisins and I was simply too pig ignorant to know about them? Or is there a third option, the lever marked Marketing Plot to Sell Stuff.
Twenty years ago I'd never knowingly consumed sundried tomatoes, now they're a handy way of adding flavour to dreary casseroles and suchlike. Then came the sunblush tomato. I can just about buy the sundried tomatoe, that sounds like a real thing - but sunblush tomatoes? What are they, slightly shy in direct sunlight? Is there a more extreme version out there, waiting to be discovered? How long before I can buy sunstrumpet tomatoes, hmm?
While we wait for that strange day, I humbly submit for your consideration this link to a review of the worst comic ever published. Warning: this is most definitely NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK - well, not unless you work in Denmark. The picture below should provide ample proof of what I'm talking about. You were warned.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
All about writing better treatments
Can you teach creative writing is one of those vexed questions to which there's no simple, catch-all answer. Later this year I'll be helping teach an MA in creative writing, so I guess the truth will out then. I tend to believe craft can be taught, and craft can get you a long way as a writer. But natural storytellers also have an instinct for what they do. That'd explain why I kept getting novels published when I nil about my craft.
One skill I've developed is an ability to sculpt an easy-to-read treatment. Treatments are something that vex a lot of writers. They resent spending time on treatments, let alone polishing a treatment until it shine. Audiences never see treatments, the logic seems to be, so why bother making them exciting or fun? But treatments are seen by those with the power to advance your work - editors, script executives, producers and literary agents.
So here's what I do to make treatments read better: never uses words like that, just, trying, starting or any variations upon them. That can be eliminated from almost any sentence without altering the meaning or detracting from your prose - in fact, it makes your words leaner and pithier. Same with the word just. Trying and starting are both weak options for a treatment. Somebody opens a door or doesn't - trying to open a door is a bit feeble.
Never have one character telling another character anything. That's flat, dull and lifeless - exposition at its worse. Imbue that action with emotion. Characters should confess, warn, threaten, harangue, plead, beg, confront, challenge. Replace telling with an emotionally-active word and you load the sentence with fresh significance and power. Don't be afraid to pump up the drama, get the reader's pulse racing, make them care what comes next.
Adverbs are forbidden, obviously. Keep sentences short and pithy, make your paragraphs punchy and active. A lot of times you can replace the word and with a comma. Bill jumps the fence and runs toward Audrey is okay. Billy jumps the fence, sprints to Audrey is better. [Of course, I cheated by swapping a few words, but they were more active, more intense than the original version. Intensity good, dull and monotonous words are bad - mostly.]
Don't include dialogue unless it's absolutely vital. Summarise how characters feel, what they're communicating to each other - but don't get bogged down in actual conversations. Eliminate directional words like down and up, they don't often add much. Winnow away at your treatment, aim to cut a page from its length in total. Less is always more, especially when those with the power to advance your project are so starved of reading time.
None of these tricks will improve your plot, make your structure more sound or overcome the many other flaws you're hoping nobody will notice. But they make reading your treatment more pleasurable, which makes people more positive toward your work. A dull, turgid and overwritten treatment can kill enthusiasm within a page or three. A gripping treatment for a thriller, or a chilling treatment for a supernatural yarn can improve your chances.
One skill I've developed is an ability to sculpt an easy-to-read treatment. Treatments are something that vex a lot of writers. They resent spending time on treatments, let alone polishing a treatment until it shine. Audiences never see treatments, the logic seems to be, so why bother making them exciting or fun? But treatments are seen by those with the power to advance your work - editors, script executives, producers and literary agents.
So here's what I do to make treatments read better: never uses words like that, just, trying, starting or any variations upon them. That can be eliminated from almost any sentence without altering the meaning or detracting from your prose - in fact, it makes your words leaner and pithier. Same with the word just. Trying and starting are both weak options for a treatment. Somebody opens a door or doesn't - trying to open a door is a bit feeble.
Never have one character telling another character anything. That's flat, dull and lifeless - exposition at its worse. Imbue that action with emotion. Characters should confess, warn, threaten, harangue, plead, beg, confront, challenge. Replace telling with an emotionally-active word and you load the sentence with fresh significance and power. Don't be afraid to pump up the drama, get the reader's pulse racing, make them care what comes next.
Adverbs are forbidden, obviously. Keep sentences short and pithy, make your paragraphs punchy and active. A lot of times you can replace the word and with a comma. Bill jumps the fence and runs toward Audrey is okay. Billy jumps the fence, sprints to Audrey is better. [Of course, I cheated by swapping a few words, but they were more active, more intense than the original version. Intensity good, dull and monotonous words are bad - mostly.]
Don't include dialogue unless it's absolutely vital. Summarise how characters feel, what they're communicating to each other - but don't get bogged down in actual conversations. Eliminate directional words like down and up, they don't often add much. Winnow away at your treatment, aim to cut a page from its length in total. Less is always more, especially when those with the power to advance your project are so starved of reading time.
None of these tricks will improve your plot, make your structure more sound or overcome the many other flaws you're hoping nobody will notice. But they make reading your treatment more pleasurable, which makes people more positive toward your work. A dull, turgid and overwritten treatment can kill enthusiasm within a page or three. A gripping treatment for a thriller, or a chilling treatment for a supernatural yarn can improve your chances.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Time suddenly become more precious
Spent four days in at Napier University last week, getting a fast start on my new job as a creative writing lecturer. My contract says 2.5 days a week, and I'll be sticking to that hereafter. If I don't, I'll never get any writing of my own done and that isn't the plan. Having sliced my working week in half is helping to focus my attention, at least. I don't have time to fritter away, the hours become more precious when you've got fewer of them.
My other weekday was spent in Brighton for day 5 of the Lighthouse TV drama teamwriting workshop. We're now winnowing our material down to its essentials, finding the core story within each episode. I'm writing the series finale, puling together threads developed in the previous five episodes while also telling my own story. It's exciting, challenging and a little terrifying, all at the same time. Got plenty of work to do in the next few weeks.
What else? Grappling with the plot for a new Phantom story, need to nut out a brain bender of an audio idea, and want to develop some fresh story of the day ideas for Doctors. Nailing my first TV drama commission is a key goal for 2009, but I'm the one who has to make that happen. Yes, jobs do fall into your lap sometimes, but that's mostly when you already have experience and expertise. Emerging talents rarely get plumb writing jobs. Onwards!
My other weekday was spent in Brighton for day 5 of the Lighthouse TV drama teamwriting workshop. We're now winnowing our material down to its essentials, finding the core story within each episode. I'm writing the series finale, puling together threads developed in the previous five episodes while also telling my own story. It's exciting, challenging and a little terrifying, all at the same time. Got plenty of work to do in the next few weeks.
What else? Grappling with the plot for a new Phantom story, need to nut out a brain bender of an audio idea, and want to develop some fresh story of the day ideas for Doctors. Nailing my first TV drama commission is a key goal for 2009, but I'm the one who has to make that happen. Yes, jobs do fall into your lap sometimes, but that's mostly when you already have experience and expertise. Emerging talents rarely get plumb writing jobs. Onwards!
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Enemy of the Daleks cover now online!
The cover for my Doctor Who audio drama ENEMY OF THE DALEKS is now up on the Big Finish site. This reveals two guest cast names, so I can talk about them too. Kate Ashfield played Simon Pegg's girlfriend in Shaun of the Dead, while Eiji Kushuhara's been in most everything you can imagine. I loved him as Mr Toshimoto in dinnerladies, but he also appeared in The Elephant Man, Tenko, A Very Peculiar Practice and was the narrator for Banzai.
Hear me burble on the radio
On Monday I was among the guests for a BBC Radio Scotland show called Book Cafe, talking about the new creative writing MA Edinburgh's Napier University is launching. For those in the UK, you can hear me burble online for the next few days by going here. I'm on at the start with my fellow lecturer Sam Kelly, but we also chip into subsequent discussions with Ian Rankin and others.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
My PLR Top Ten 2007/2008
Every year a wonderful organisation called the Public Lending Right sends registered authors a statement indicating how many times their books have been borrowed from British libraries in recent times. To compensate scribes for the lost sale, the PLR pays out nearly six pence per loan. There's also a maximum payment threshold of £6600, to prevent the likes of J K Rowling and other immensely popular authors draining the PLR's coffers.
More than 20,000 authors get payments for the most recent PLR period [July 2007-June 2008], with around 250 getting the maximum amount. I’m a minnow in such matters, but can look forward to a healthy three-figure sum in February. Alas, my new statement is down about 10% from last year, because I didn't have many new titles published and those that did come out weren't big library titles.
All my books from the 1990s are defunct, and titles published in America don't tend to be bought by UK libraries. The first edition of The Complete Inspector Morse has also been retired, but there are two more recent editions still getting borrowed [with a new version coming out next month]. Perhaps the biggest surprise was how few times my 2000 AD history Thrill-Power Overload got borrowed - but it was a £35 book, a big purchase for any library.
Nearly of my tomes were borrowed at least 100 times according to the PLR and two title were taken out more than a thousand times each. My first Fiends novel topped the listings the last two years in succession, but this year gets toppled by... another Fiends novel. Indeed, five of the top six places are occupied by various incarnations of the Fiends thrillers. Here's my top ten tomes for July 2007 - June 2008 (with previous year's placing in brackets):-
1. (-) Fiends of the Rising Sun (published Jul 07)
2. (1) Fiends of the Eastern Front: Operation Vampyr (Oct 05)
3. (2) Fiends of the Eastern Front: The Blood Red Army (Apr 06)
4. (4) Nikolai Dante: Honour Be Damned! (Mar 06)
5. (3) Fiends of the Eastern Front: Twilight of the Dead (Jul 06)
6. (-) Fiends of the Eastern Front: Omnibus edition (Feb 07)
7. (-) A Murder in Marienburg (May 07)
8. (8) I Am The Law: The Judge Dredd Omnibus (Oct 06)
9. (6) Nikolai Dante: Imperial Black (Sep 05)
10. (9) Nikolai Dante: The Strangelove Gambit (Jan 05)
Bubbling under: Doctor Who: The Domino Effect (up from 12th last year), The Complete Inspector Morse 3rd Edition (up from 19th), and Ripped From a Dream: The Nightmare on Elm Street Omnibus (down from 7th).
The Fiends novels represented more than half of all my books published during this period, with my Nikolai Dante romps accounting for nearly one in five of every David Bishop tome borrowed from libraries. Not bad for two series now out of print, especially the Dante books which never sold that well but have acquiring a small cult following. The Fiends novels remain popular, particularly US servicemen, judging by emails I get.
Thanks to everyone of the thousands who borrowed one of my books from a library this past year. I hope you enjoyed the stories I had to tell. Support your local library, it’s a brilliant resource. And thanks to the PLR for finding all this out and disbursing all these funds. It's a nice post-Christmas bonus for me, but for many authors it's their major payday of the year. Long may it continue!
More than 20,000 authors get payments for the most recent PLR period [July 2007-June 2008], with around 250 getting the maximum amount. I’m a minnow in such matters, but can look forward to a healthy three-figure sum in February. Alas, my new statement is down about 10% from last year, because I didn't have many new titles published and those that did come out weren't big library titles.
All my books from the 1990s are defunct, and titles published in America don't tend to be bought by UK libraries. The first edition of The Complete Inspector Morse has also been retired, but there are two more recent editions still getting borrowed [with a new version coming out next month]. Perhaps the biggest surprise was how few times my 2000 AD history Thrill-Power Overload got borrowed - but it was a £35 book, a big purchase for any library.
Nearly of my tomes were borrowed at least 100 times according to the PLR and two title were taken out more than a thousand times each. My first Fiends novel topped the listings the last two years in succession, but this year gets toppled by... another Fiends novel. Indeed, five of the top six places are occupied by various incarnations of the Fiends thrillers. Here's my top ten tomes for July 2007 - June 2008 (with previous year's placing in brackets):-1. (-) Fiends of the Rising Sun (published Jul 07)
2. (1) Fiends of the Eastern Front: Operation Vampyr (Oct 05)
3. (2) Fiends of the Eastern Front: The Blood Red Army (Apr 06)
4. (4) Nikolai Dante: Honour Be Damned! (Mar 06)
5. (3) Fiends of the Eastern Front: Twilight of the Dead (Jul 06)
6. (-) Fiends of the Eastern Front: Omnibus edition (Feb 07)
7. (-) A Murder in Marienburg (May 07)
8. (8) I Am The Law: The Judge Dredd Omnibus (Oct 06)
9. (6) Nikolai Dante: Imperial Black (Sep 05)
10. (9) Nikolai Dante: The Strangelove Gambit (Jan 05)
Bubbling under: Doctor Who: The Domino Effect (up from 12th last year), The Complete Inspector Morse 3rd Edition (up from 19th), and Ripped From a Dream: The Nightmare on Elm Street Omnibus (down from 7th).
The Fiends novels represented more than half of all my books published during this period, with my Nikolai Dante romps accounting for nearly one in five of every David Bishop tome borrowed from libraries. Not bad for two series now out of print, especially the Dante books which never sold that well but have acquiring a small cult following. The Fiends novels remain popular, particularly US servicemen, judging by emails I get.
Thanks to everyone of the thousands who borrowed one of my books from a library this past year. I hope you enjoyed the stories I had to tell. Support your local library, it’s a brilliant resource. And thanks to the PLR for finding all this out and disbursing all these funds. It's a nice post-Christmas bonus for me, but for many authors it's their major payday of the year. Long may it continue!
Monday, January 05, 2009
And so it begins...
Today I start work as a part-time lecturer in creative writing at Edinburgh's Napier University. New year, new job and it's the first day of school. I'm having flashbacks to growing up in New Zealand, where the school year coincided with the calendar year [except we were still on our summer holidays in January]. I won't be detailing the ins and outs of my new job, that's not this blog's purpose, but it's still worth a passing mention here today.
In other news an actor's been announced to play the 11th Doctor in Doctor Who. I've seen Matt Smith in a couple of things on TV, but haven't been lucky enough to catch him on stage when he's played some notable parts. It'll be fascinating to see what kind of Doctor he becomes - Emo Doctor, all dark and brooding? Quirky Edward Scissorhands Doctor, all twitching fingers and soulful eyes? Most likely it'll be something else, both richer and deeper.
Spent the last few days agonising over my revised episode treatment for the Lighthouse TV drama teamwriting workshop. Just couldn't seem to get happy with my B story, and I'm still not convinced it's firing on all cylinders. But yesterday was the deadline so I delivered a finished version yesterday. Our next face-to-face is Thursday in Brighton, so I'll be interested to see what the response to my efforts is. Must go get ready for work - onwards!
In other news an actor's been announced to play the 11th Doctor in Doctor Who. I've seen Matt Smith in a couple of things on TV, but haven't been lucky enough to catch him on stage when he's played some notable parts. It'll be fascinating to see what kind of Doctor he becomes - Emo Doctor, all dark and brooding? Quirky Edward Scissorhands Doctor, all twitching fingers and soulful eyes? Most likely it'll be something else, both richer and deeper.
Spent the last few days agonising over my revised episode treatment for the Lighthouse TV drama teamwriting workshop. Just couldn't seem to get happy with my B story, and I'm still not convinced it's firing on all cylinders. But yesterday was the deadline so I delivered a finished version yesterday. Our next face-to-face is Thursday in Brighton, so I'll be interested to see what the response to my efforts is. Must go get ready for work - onwards!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Brace yourselves, I'm on telly this afternoon
Earlier this month I was interviewed on camera for a light-hearted documentary called The Perfect TV Detective. The show was screened by BBC2 on Monday night and gets repeated this afternoon [from 2 or 2.30 pm, I think]. Tune in if you wish to see me as one of numerous talking heads discussing television detectives through the ages. Let's face it, how often do you get to share screen time with Helen Mirren, John Nettles and Colin Dexter?
I'd redirect those who miss the show to the BBC's wonderful iPlayer service, but The Perfect TV Detective doesn't seem to be available there. Such is life. Right, I'm off to the wilds of Bristol for New Year's Eve, so have a happy and safe Hogmanay. We'll talk again once it's 2009. Onwards!
I'd redirect those who miss the show to the BBC's wonderful iPlayer service, but The Perfect TV Detective doesn't seem to be available there. Such is life. Right, I'm off to the wilds of Bristol for New Year's Eve, so have a happy and safe Hogmanay. We'll talk again once it's 2009. Onwards!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Goals and priorities update - December 2008
Back in May 2007 I was being mentored in screenwriting for television by Adrian Mead, thanks to the Scottish Book Trust's mentoring project. [The SBT is all about writing and about all writing, not just books.] He encouraged me to think beyond the script I was developing, to set out some specific goals and priorities for myself, alone with a timeframe in which to pursue them. I've got five months left of my two year plan, time to assess how it's going.
1 - Get an agent: Made some efforts to do this the back end of 2007, but needed a better portfolio of work and more evidence I could make enough money to be worth an agency's time and effort. Shelved this in 2008, will revisit it in May 2009 once I've completed the Lighthouse project [see below].
2 - Get more radio plays commissioned: My efforts to crack TV drama writing have come at the cost of pursuing opportunities within radio drama. Feel like I'm perpetually postponing this particular quest, which is likely my subconscious telling me something. Consider this shelved for now.
3 - Get my first TV drama credit: Hasn't happened yet, but feels a more realistic goal than it did back in May 2007. Did a successful trial script for Doctors, got asked to submit story of the day ideas and invited on the Doctors mini-academy. Plugging away, trying to get a story pitch banked.
4 - Develop and write at least two more TV pilot spec scripts: One of these, Families at War, is through to the second round of the Red Planet Prize. The other project isn't a pilot, but will fill a gap in my portfolio as an original spec script. Need to develop two more pilots in 2009.
5 - Get work experience in TV drama storylining or script editing department: Limited success. Spent a day at Emmerdale, had a good meeting with River City's then executive producer - but nothing further. Realised I was too old for entry level positions, so shelved this objective in 2008.
6 - Get on another script workshop and/or mentoring scheme: Selected for Lighthouse's TV drama team-writing workshop. I'll have a new calling card script for my portfolio in May 2009, and the course ends with a networking event in London where I'll meet agents and production companies. No guarantees beyond that, but it's an opportunity to target potential representation, which leads me nicely back to my first objective and goal on this list.
All in all, not a bad effort. One thing pursuing this list taught me was the value of timing and patience. I made a push to secure representation in 2007 after my short film script DANNY'S TOYS won a prize, but didn't have the portfolio or profile to get an agent. Feels like I'm nearer the mark now, but still another six months away from the zone, maybe longer. Having an agent isn't the be all and end all, but it does open doors otherwise closed.
Not having an agent hasn't stopped me getting a toe in the door at Doctors, nor does it prevent me having meetings with script editors, directors or producers. You simply have to get out and hustle, make an effort to network and build relationships. Cuts time and money, with absolute no guarantee of success. Most writers I know find most of their own work. Agents open doors, but they don't do your job for you. Ultimately, a writer writes.
So, how about some goals for the next two years? Call this my career resolutions for 2009-2010, a checklist of things I plan and/or hope to achieve. Some will definitely happen, some are likely and some are pretty ambitious. Some I'll likely fail, others are old favourites revived from past lists, but all are worth pursuing and would be rewarding achievements in my humble opinion. Eyes down for a full house of stuff, hopefully sans hubris.
1: Get an agent. For all the reasons stated above.
2: Get a TV drama credit. Because one credit should lead to another.
3: Write at least one feature screenplay. It's a gaping hole in my script portfolio, and I've got just the story that I'm itching to write.
4: Write at least two new TV pilots. Already got three potential projects in various stages of development, waiting to be written.
5: Don't be afraid of drama. I've been concentrating on improving my dialogue. Time to bring more emotional heft to the tales I tell.
6: Get an original story commissioned. This could be a novel, radio play or TV drama, but needs to be all my own work, my unique voice.
That should keep me busy until the end of 2010, especially with a part-time job as a lecturer in creative writing added to the mix from Monday. I'll be disappointed if I can't achieve at least three of these goals, although quantifying success for number 5 won't be easy. No doubt something will arise in the coming months to complicate matters beyond belief, but this six-strong list gives me a reference point. Onwards!
1 - Get an agent: Made some efforts to do this the back end of 2007, but needed a better portfolio of work and more evidence I could make enough money to be worth an agency's time and effort. Shelved this in 2008, will revisit it in May 2009 once I've completed the Lighthouse project [see below].
2 - Get more radio plays commissioned: My efforts to crack TV drama writing have come at the cost of pursuing opportunities within radio drama. Feel like I'm perpetually postponing this particular quest, which is likely my subconscious telling me something. Consider this shelved for now.
3 - Get my first TV drama credit: Hasn't happened yet, but feels a more realistic goal than it did back in May 2007. Did a successful trial script for Doctors, got asked to submit story of the day ideas and invited on the Doctors mini-academy. Plugging away, trying to get a story pitch banked.
4 - Develop and write at least two more TV pilot spec scripts: One of these, Families at War, is through to the second round of the Red Planet Prize. The other project isn't a pilot, but will fill a gap in my portfolio as an original spec script. Need to develop two more pilots in 2009.
5 - Get work experience in TV drama storylining or script editing department: Limited success. Spent a day at Emmerdale, had a good meeting with River City's then executive producer - but nothing further. Realised I was too old for entry level positions, so shelved this objective in 2008.
6 - Get on another script workshop and/or mentoring scheme: Selected for Lighthouse's TV drama team-writing workshop. I'll have a new calling card script for my portfolio in May 2009, and the course ends with a networking event in London where I'll meet agents and production companies. No guarantees beyond that, but it's an opportunity to target potential representation, which leads me nicely back to my first objective and goal on this list.
All in all, not a bad effort. One thing pursuing this list taught me was the value of timing and patience. I made a push to secure representation in 2007 after my short film script DANNY'S TOYS won a prize, but didn't have the portfolio or profile to get an agent. Feels like I'm nearer the mark now, but still another six months away from the zone, maybe longer. Having an agent isn't the be all and end all, but it does open doors otherwise closed.
Not having an agent hasn't stopped me getting a toe in the door at Doctors, nor does it prevent me having meetings with script editors, directors or producers. You simply have to get out and hustle, make an effort to network and build relationships. Cuts time and money, with absolute no guarantee of success. Most writers I know find most of their own work. Agents open doors, but they don't do your job for you. Ultimately, a writer writes.
So, how about some goals for the next two years? Call this my career resolutions for 2009-2010, a checklist of things I plan and/or hope to achieve. Some will definitely happen, some are likely and some are pretty ambitious. Some I'll likely fail, others are old favourites revived from past lists, but all are worth pursuing and would be rewarding achievements in my humble opinion. Eyes down for a full house of stuff, hopefully sans hubris.
1: Get an agent. For all the reasons stated above.
2: Get a TV drama credit. Because one credit should lead to another.
3: Write at least one feature screenplay. It's a gaping hole in my script portfolio, and I've got just the story that I'm itching to write.
4: Write at least two new TV pilots. Already got three potential projects in various stages of development, waiting to be written.
5: Don't be afraid of drama. I've been concentrating on improving my dialogue. Time to bring more emotional heft to the tales I tell.
6: Get an original story commissioned. This could be a novel, radio play or TV drama, but needs to be all my own work, my unique voice.
That should keep me busy until the end of 2010, especially with a part-time job as a lecturer in creative writing added to the mix from Monday. I'll be disappointed if I can't achieve at least three of these goals, although quantifying success for number 5 won't be easy. No doubt something will arise in the coming months to complicate matters beyond belief, but this six-strong list gives me a reference point. Onwards!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Well, that was kind of an odd year
By comparison to my achievements during 2007 [got my screenwriting MA with distinction plus the Napier University Medal, won a first prize in Los Angeles for my short film script DANNY'S TOYS], the last twelve months have been decidedly low key. Felt like I made a lot of progress during 2008, but there's not much evidence to support that on my hard drive. Financially it was my worst annum since the early 90s, but the past year wasn't about making money.
I devoted much of my time to speculative writing. Most of those projects didn't turn into commissions, but they got me meetings, got me other opportunities, some even got me noticed. In January I wrote a trial script for Doctors that got me invited in submit story of the day ideas to the BBC medical drama series. In February I was guest speaker on the screenwriting MA course at Napier University, a taste of teaching in an academic environment.
Much of March was spent in New Zealand, my first trip home in five years, but even on holiday I saw a painting that inspired a feature screenplay I'm itching to write. In April I was rewriting WWII domestic drama FAMILIES AT WAR as my creative sample for the BBC Writers' Academy. May saw the broadcast of my appearance on TV quiz show The Weakest Link, filmed three months before, and I performed in a local production of the musical Me and My Girl.
June was devoted to Sharps, a drama script competition run by the BBC. Didn't make the final cut, but the contest did prompt me to write THE WOMAN WHO SCREAMED BUTTERFLIES, a quirky script that's gotten some interest and several meetings. In July I was one of eight writers invited to the Doctors mini-academy [a brilliant experience, highly recommended]. During August I was writing the first draft of my Doctor Who audio drama, ENEMY OF THE DALEKS.
In September I submitted FAMILIES AT WAR to the Red Planet Prize. During October I was one of six writers starting the teamwriting TV drama course run by the Lighthouse arts centre in Brighton. In November I was stunned to learn my Red Planet entry was through to the second round. December brought publication of my 19th novel, A MASSACRE IN MARIENBURG, and I was offered the post of part-time lecturer in creative writing at Napier University.
2008 also brought plenty of disappointments. Got a second rejection letter from the BBC Scotland soap River City [happily, just a week after good news from Doctors]. Had a hugely positive meeting with a Manchester games company that looked likely to bring a small fortune in exciting work - but nothing ever came of it. Devoted weeks to a novel proposal at the request of an editor, but the proposal has sat unread on a desk for six months.
But that's the nature of freelance writing. You'll get rejected far more often than you'll be commissioned. If three months go by and you're still not getting any feedback from the person you submitted to, it's time to move on. That project may still come back to life, but it's not worth devoting any more of your hopes. Better to learn from your mistakes than keep repeating them - you'll only get your heart broken again and again.
God, what a load of rambling. You can tell I haven't written anything for a few days, can't you? In tomorrow's blog, I'll attempt a more succinct review of specific areas, assess my progress against the six goals I set myself back in May 2007 and maybe even contemplate setting some new goals for the next two years.
I devoted much of my time to speculative writing. Most of those projects didn't turn into commissions, but they got me meetings, got me other opportunities, some even got me noticed. In January I wrote a trial script for Doctors that got me invited in submit story of the day ideas to the BBC medical drama series. In February I was guest speaker on the screenwriting MA course at Napier University, a taste of teaching in an academic environment.
Much of March was spent in New Zealand, my first trip home in five years, but even on holiday I saw a painting that inspired a feature screenplay I'm itching to write. In April I was rewriting WWII domestic drama FAMILIES AT WAR as my creative sample for the BBC Writers' Academy. May saw the broadcast of my appearance on TV quiz show The Weakest Link, filmed three months before, and I performed in a local production of the musical Me and My Girl.
June was devoted to Sharps, a drama script competition run by the BBC. Didn't make the final cut, but the contest did prompt me to write THE WOMAN WHO SCREAMED BUTTERFLIES, a quirky script that's gotten some interest and several meetings. In July I was one of eight writers invited to the Doctors mini-academy [a brilliant experience, highly recommended]. During August I was writing the first draft of my Doctor Who audio drama, ENEMY OF THE DALEKS.
In September I submitted FAMILIES AT WAR to the Red Planet Prize. During October I was one of six writers starting the teamwriting TV drama course run by the Lighthouse arts centre in Brighton. In November I was stunned to learn my Red Planet entry was through to the second round. December brought publication of my 19th novel, A MASSACRE IN MARIENBURG, and I was offered the post of part-time lecturer in creative writing at Napier University.
2008 also brought plenty of disappointments. Got a second rejection letter from the BBC Scotland soap River City [happily, just a week after good news from Doctors]. Had a hugely positive meeting with a Manchester games company that looked likely to bring a small fortune in exciting work - but nothing ever came of it. Devoted weeks to a novel proposal at the request of an editor, but the proposal has sat unread on a desk for six months.
But that's the nature of freelance writing. You'll get rejected far more often than you'll be commissioned. If three months go by and you're still not getting any feedback from the person you submitted to, it's time to move on. That project may still come back to life, but it's not worth devoting any more of your hopes. Better to learn from your mistakes than keep repeating them - you'll only get your heart broken again and again.
God, what a load of rambling. You can tell I haven't written anything for a few days, can't you? In tomorrow's blog, I'll attempt a more succinct review of specific areas, assess my progress against the six goals I set myself back in May 2007 and maybe even contemplate setting some new goals for the next two years.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
One sleep until xmas
Before I forget, a happy xmas and merry new year to all readers of Vicious Imagery. Thanks for casting your eyes across my inane ramblings during 2008. You can expect more of the same in 2009, but with less frequency. I officially start work as a part-time lecturer in creative writing at Edinburgh's Napier University on January 5th next year [only 12 days away], so that will cut into blogging time. But I'll endeavour to keep you up to date on stuff.
Sad to say, I'm still finishing off a project that should have been done last week or even the week before. But illness and the local xmas show blew a big, fat hole in my schedule, so December 24th is a frenzy of last minute research and writing. There'll be a few days off, but I've got to get straight back into action come Monday. Need to write a new draft of my episode treatment for the Lighthouse TV drama team-writing workshop project thing.
Plus there's am audio book project I've been contracted to write that needs quite a few hours of my time. The good news I'll be hitting the ground running in 2009. Throw in the Napier job and time will be at a premium. Back to Brighton on January 8th for day 5 of the Lighthouse course. Got a new draft of The Woman Who Screamed Butterflies to do, that's been sat in a queue for months. A new book project beckons, assuming the planets can be aligned.
Once the xmas crush has passed it'll be time for the semi-annual Vicious Imagery ruminations. I'll look back on the year past, see what goals I've achieved and what objectives remain in my future. Plus there'll be some plotting and planning for 2009, and no shortage of other writerly witterings and work displacement activities. In the meantime, have a happy break, keep safe and healthy, and I'll see you on the other side of xmas. Onwards!
Sad to say, I'm still finishing off a project that should have been done last week or even the week before. But illness and the local xmas show blew a big, fat hole in my schedule, so December 24th is a frenzy of last minute research and writing. There'll be a few days off, but I've got to get straight back into action come Monday. Need to write a new draft of my episode treatment for the Lighthouse TV drama team-writing workshop project thing.
Plus there's am audio book project I've been contracted to write that needs quite a few hours of my time. The good news I'll be hitting the ground running in 2009. Throw in the Napier job and time will be at a premium. Back to Brighton on January 8th for day 5 of the Lighthouse course. Got a new draft of The Woman Who Screamed Butterflies to do, that's been sat in a queue for months. A new book project beckons, assuming the planets can be aligned.
Once the xmas crush has passed it'll be time for the semi-annual Vicious Imagery ruminations. I'll look back on the year past, see what goals I've achieved and what objectives remain in my future. Plus there'll be some plotting and planning for 2009, and no shortage of other writerly witterings and work displacement activities. In the meantime, have a happy break, keep safe and healthy, and I'll see you on the other side of xmas. Onwards!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Not enough hours in the bloomin' day
Had a friendly chat with a script editor in Glasgow yesterday. Every time we arrange a meeting, something goes wrong with my journey to see them. One time I crashed the car. Another time I got within a mile of my destination and a pedestrian overpass was closed, causing me to get hopelessly lost. No matter how early I set out, how many alternate routes I plan, I always get pulled off course by some black hole of chance, mishap and incident.
Yesterday was no different, although not so severe as parking the car atop a fence in some farmer's field. Everything went fine until I reached the M8, a motorway that can zap you through the centre of Glasgow in no time at all. When it's flowing smoothly. Which it never does when I go to see this script editor. Sure enough, I merged on to the M8 and discovered there was an eight mile tailback. [At least it has signage to warn of such things.]
Managed to get off at the next exit and went cross-country, staying above the M8 to travel through the mean streets of north Glasgow. Ever since The Bourne Supremacy? Remember that bit near the end where he visits the snowy outskirts of Moscow to tell a teenage girl he's sorry for murdering her parents? That's what north Glasgow looks like, through without the snow [as of yesterday morning]. Desolate, empty landscape with grim tower blocks.
In the end I was only 15 minutes late for my meeting - a personal best. Had a lovely natter and helped eat a hole in the back of a chocolate Santa's head. Then drove the width of Scotland to attend Christmas lunch with Napier University staff who'll be my colleagues come the new year. Typically, getting there proved so ridiculously easy I arrived an hour early. Eventually got home to erect the xmas tree and read a plethora of emails.
Having devoted yesterday to meetings and munching, today is a furious attempt to ram through two different jobs before the day ends. People start arriving for the festive season tomorrow, so I'm fast running out of time to get things done before offices across the land shut down. Got two writing projects that need work between Christmas and January 5th when I start my new part-time job at Napier. Then the balancing act really starts. Onwards!
Yesterday was no different, although not so severe as parking the car atop a fence in some farmer's field. Everything went fine until I reached the M8, a motorway that can zap you through the centre of Glasgow in no time at all. When it's flowing smoothly. Which it never does when I go to see this script editor. Sure enough, I merged on to the M8 and discovered there was an eight mile tailback. [At least it has signage to warn of such things.]
Managed to get off at the next exit and went cross-country, staying above the M8 to travel through the mean streets of north Glasgow. Ever since The Bourne Supremacy? Remember that bit near the end where he visits the snowy outskirts of Moscow to tell a teenage girl he's sorry for murdering her parents? That's what north Glasgow looks like, through without the snow [as of yesterday morning]. Desolate, empty landscape with grim tower blocks.
In the end I was only 15 minutes late for my meeting - a personal best. Had a lovely natter and helped eat a hole in the back of a chocolate Santa's head. Then drove the width of Scotland to attend Christmas lunch with Napier University staff who'll be my colleagues come the new year. Typically, getting there proved so ridiculously easy I arrived an hour early. Eventually got home to erect the xmas tree and read a plethora of emails.
Having devoted yesterday to meetings and munching, today is a furious attempt to ram through two different jobs before the day ends. People start arriving for the festive season tomorrow, so I'm fast running out of time to get things done before offices across the land shut down. Got two writing projects that need work between Christmas and January 5th when I start my new part-time job at Napier. Then the balancing act really starts. Onwards!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
FREE! Short screenwriting course in Scotland
Are you currently writing short stories, novels or plays, and have you ever wondered what it takes to write for Film and TV? After the success of last year's course, Scottish Book Trust is pleased to announce the launch of Screen Lab 2009.
Screen Lab will show you exactly what it takes to break into one of the most competitive and lucrative areas of writing. The lab will be led by award winning writer and director Adrian Mead. Over three days Adrian takes you through the realities of the script development process, and the strategy you need to break into the industry.
Course Details
Times: 9.30-5.00
Dates: Friday 20th February, Saturday 21st February and Sunday 22nd February
Venue: Scottish Book Trust, in central Edinburgh
Application Criteria: Screen Lab is open to writers at all stages of their career. Applicants must live in Scotland. Applicants who have not followed the application guidelines will not be considered. Successful applicants must attend the entire Screen Lab.
Deadline for applications: Monday 2nd February 2009
Find out how to apply here.
Contact: Caitrin Armstrong, Writer Development Co-ordinator
Email: caitrinarmstrong@scottishbooktrust.com
Tel: 0131 524 0177
Screen Lab will show you exactly what it takes to break into one of the most competitive and lucrative areas of writing. The lab will be led by award winning writer and director Adrian Mead. Over three days Adrian takes you through the realities of the script development process, and the strategy you need to break into the industry.
Course Details
Times: 9.30-5.00
Dates: Friday 20th February, Saturday 21st February and Sunday 22nd February
Venue: Scottish Book Trust, in central Edinburgh
Application Criteria: Screen Lab is open to writers at all stages of their career. Applicants must live in Scotland. Applicants who have not followed the application guidelines will not be considered. Successful applicants must attend the entire Screen Lab.
Deadline for applications: Monday 2nd February 2009
Find out how to apply here.
Contact: Caitrin Armstrong, Writer Development Co-ordinator
Email: caitrinarmstrong@scottishbooktrust.com
Tel: 0131 524 0177
Inspiring speeches from the movies
Matthew Belinkie at overthinkingit.com has crafted this gorgeous cut-up of 40 inspiration speeches from various films, all boiled down into less than three minutes. Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Engrenages: compelling French TV crime drama
Two years ago the BBC bought and screened a French TV crime drama called Engrenages [which roughly translates as gears or cogs, but can also mean a spiraling cycle e.g. into violence]. Renamed Spiral and shown in French with English subtitles, it won a small but loyal audience on BBC4, a non-terrestrial channel. This was before the days of iPlayer, so those of us without access to digital channels never had a chance to see this much acclaimed thriller.I filed the name away in my head and bought the series when it was eventually released on DVD two months ago. But life and work pressures meant I didn't have a chance to watch any episodes until this Sunday just gone. It proved utterly compelling - dark, bleak, funny and gripping - so much so I had to force myself to stop watching after the first four episodes. It was midnight and the working week beckoned. Save the rest for later, I told myself.
Watched another two episodes last night and had the same problem. Now there's only two episodes left, the drama is racing to a climax and I'm desperate to know what happens next. Like I said, utterly compelling. It's like a cross between the twisty-turny plot machinations of Damages and the gritty realism of The Wire, transported to Paris. Cops and lawyers, junkies and criminals, secrets and lies all grapple for supremacy in this police procedural.
The diversities of the French legal system give the procedural aspects a freshness after too many years watching shows set in the British and American systems. The fact you have to read the subtitles to understand what people are saying forces you to pay more attention. The characters are all flawed in some way, but most have redeeming features. This show isn't afraid to confuse its audience temporarily for the sake of better longterm storytelling.
The good news is a second series of Engrenages has already been made and screened in France. Even better, the BBC has bought it for broadcast this winter. Alas, it'll be on BBC4 again, but the advent of iPlayer means non-digital viewers now have a chance to see Spiral. [Why it's relegated to BBC4 escapes me.] In the meantime, I heartily recommend watching the first series on DVD if you didn't catch it first time round. A great find.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Film awards speculation a-go-go
It's that time of year again when the prospects of Oscar front runners, dark horses and long shots become the stuff of media buzz. There's no clear leader in the race to snaffle Best Picture this year, even though pretty much all the candidates have been screened for critics [if not the public yet]. Most leading contenders are held back as long as possible, as if academy voters have the memory span of a gnat. Cue massive movie logjam come December.
In the best actor stakes, Frank Langella looks a lock for playing Tricky Dicky in Frost/Nixon, but you've got to feel for Michael Sheen who seems destined to ever be the bridesmaid in this situations [as happened when he was opposite Helen Mirren in The Queen]. Sean Penn seems a sure bet for starring as San Francisco's first openly gay mayor in Milk. Another likely contender is Clint Eastwood for being a cantankerous old git in Gran Torino [go, Clint!].
Philip Seymour Hoffman was much touted for his role in Doubt, based on a Pulitzer winning play, but the shine's off that apple. Brad Pitt ages backwards in The Curious Case of Bejamin Button, but is that a feat of acting or effects? Leonardo Di Caprio could get his fourth nomination for Revolutionary Road, but that film's brand of post-war US suburban ennui got its thunder stolen by the success of Mad Men on TV. Penn to win this category?
Best actress is packed category. Meryl Streep usually gets a nom, so expect to hear her name for Doubt - but no trophy. Cate Blanchett is becoming Australia's answer to Meryl Streep, so she's a likely candidate for Button. Anne Hathaway won kudos for going edgy in Rachel Getting Married, she's a contender. Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky might propel Sally Hawkins to the list, while Angelina Jolie's role in Changling has Oscar-bait written all over it.
Embracing drab [or prosthetics] can improve Oscar odds. [A honking great rubber nose helped Nicole Kidman in The Hours, Charlize Theron went further for Monster.] But that trick only works if you're usually perceived as beautiful and glamorous. Kirstin Scott Thomas looks tired and speaks French in I've Loved You So Long, so she might get a nom. But Melissa Leo is too far under the radar to earn major plaudits for her work in Frozen River, alas.
Kate Winlet's been Oscar nominated five times without winning. This year she's got two much touted roles in Revolutionary Road and The Reader. But Oscar rules say actors can only be nominated once in a category, so her part in The Reader is being spun as best supporting actress fodder. The nightmare scenario - people nominate her as best actress for both parts and she cancels herself out. Personally, I think Winlet's long overdue an Oscar.
There's two writing categories, one for adaptations and one for original screenplays. It's said 60% of films are adaptations and these projects always feature heavily come Oscar time. So original screenplay is the category that's most open for writers. Step forward Nick Schenk for Gran Torino and J. Michael Straczynski for Changeling, both Clint Eastwood productions. Interestingly, both films were apparently shot from [polished] first draft scripts.
Also in the running [assuming they get classed as original screenplays]: Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky; Jenny Lumet for Rachel Getting Married; the writers of Wall-E; I'm not sure if The Wrestler is original or adapted, but if original it could be on the list [as could Mickey Rourke for best actor, come to that]. All in all, it's an exciting time of year if you're an Oscar geek like me. I've got to have something to get excited about, right?
In the best actor stakes, Frank Langella looks a lock for playing Tricky Dicky in Frost/Nixon, but you've got to feel for Michael Sheen who seems destined to ever be the bridesmaid in this situations [as happened when he was opposite Helen Mirren in The Queen]. Sean Penn seems a sure bet for starring as San Francisco's first openly gay mayor in Milk. Another likely contender is Clint Eastwood for being a cantankerous old git in Gran Torino [go, Clint!].
Philip Seymour Hoffman was much touted for his role in Doubt, based on a Pulitzer winning play, but the shine's off that apple. Brad Pitt ages backwards in The Curious Case of Bejamin Button, but is that a feat of acting or effects? Leonardo Di Caprio could get his fourth nomination for Revolutionary Road, but that film's brand of post-war US suburban ennui got its thunder stolen by the success of Mad Men on TV. Penn to win this category?
Best actress is packed category. Meryl Streep usually gets a nom, so expect to hear her name for Doubt - but no trophy. Cate Blanchett is becoming Australia's answer to Meryl Streep, so she's a likely candidate for Button. Anne Hathaway won kudos for going edgy in Rachel Getting Married, she's a contender. Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky might propel Sally Hawkins to the list, while Angelina Jolie's role in Changling has Oscar-bait written all over it.
Embracing drab [or prosthetics] can improve Oscar odds. [A honking great rubber nose helped Nicole Kidman in The Hours, Charlize Theron went further for Monster.] But that trick only works if you're usually perceived as beautiful and glamorous. Kirstin Scott Thomas looks tired and speaks French in I've Loved You So Long, so she might get a nom. But Melissa Leo is too far under the radar to earn major plaudits for her work in Frozen River, alas.
Kate Winlet's been Oscar nominated five times without winning. This year she's got two much touted roles in Revolutionary Road and The Reader. But Oscar rules say actors can only be nominated once in a category, so her part in The Reader is being spun as best supporting actress fodder. The nightmare scenario - people nominate her as best actress for both parts and she cancels herself out. Personally, I think Winlet's long overdue an Oscar.
There's two writing categories, one for adaptations and one for original screenplays. It's said 60% of films are adaptations and these projects always feature heavily come Oscar time. So original screenplay is the category that's most open for writers. Step forward Nick Schenk for Gran Torino and J. Michael Straczynski for Changeling, both Clint Eastwood productions. Interestingly, both films were apparently shot from [polished] first draft scripts.
Also in the running [assuming they get classed as original screenplays]: Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky; Jenny Lumet for Rachel Getting Married; the writers of Wall-E; I'm not sure if The Wrestler is original or adapted, but if original it could be on the list [as could Mickey Rourke for best actor, come to that]. All in all, it's an exciting time of year if you're an Oscar geek like me. I've got to have something to get excited about, right?
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