Well.... I published COLLIDER to the Black List and got it reviewed... poorly!
The script is not at the standard necessary for production, and the mythology/concept becomes convoluted and may have difficulty appealing to a wide audience Back to the drawing board? Probably. Got three other scripts approaching the stage of first review, so I'll get them out of the way and consider how COLLIDER could be improved... and if it's worth it? Think I'll take if off the Black List for now anyway and mull if there's anything else I could do to it to get it to a 'pass' level. Trouble is, every comment like that makes me think it's probably all shite! Get to the next step, think something's tasty, then learn that actually it's bollocks. I don't mind the learning curve, I am more than happy to put in the graft, but I need to feel like it's attainable and not a constantly shifting goalpost that's beyond my abilities. Then again, what else am I going to do? I'm pretty hooked on writing, so I sort of have to carry on anyway. Oh well, by the time I reach 60 I'll have an entertaining library of (unpubp
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I have a friend, who's friend's dad is a writer for tv and theatre - and friend of a friend (of a friend)! Marvelous, lovely man! He's read the stage play for Bing and Moo and come back with all sorts of great feedback. The most useful? Screen is shot in 'takes', with time in between to set things up... stage is one continuous event. Well der! Until he spelt it out like that, I hadn't thought of that, not really. What a plonka. It really is very different to writing a screenplay, and I need to strip out my (bossy) stage directions and let the dialogue flow! Draft 1, with re-writes (I can't really call the version I sent him a draft) is approaching completion. Just wonder how many times I can ask him to read it? Poor man. IF I ever make it as a screenwriter, I promise I shall be as kind to aspiring writers as people have been to me. I'm not great with comedy... probably because I don't find much (on the screen) funny. I won't slag off TV comedies that have my friends in raptures, but they leave me totally unmoved and bored. Ab Fab raised a titter, great concept, but my funniest film would be Fargo and I'm not sure that counts? How long ago were they made?? Nothing since then - really? Well, a director's got in touch asking me to co-write a comedy. I've warned him straight away, I'm shite at comedy! I start off trying to be comic, then veer into serious territory. Still, most of the 'funniness' is already there, and it is up my street (see Fargo comment), it just needs tidying up. So I've said yes, of course. Even if it doesn't progress, I feel that perhaps I should be able to write a comedy that I would find funny so it's good experience if nothing else - and hopefully a credit on IMDB. Got a lovely email response from MBA Literary Agents. Sadly, they are inundated and cannot take me on, but I appreciate the time to tell me.
Plus I learned "TV is developing something about the first women’s police officers". Of course they are! Sods law, but I'm not surprised - in fact, it's puzzling that it's not been done before really. I've been a bit naughty as it goes - I submitted an early draft of Red Star to the Beeb writersroom last year, which wasn't picked up. Two major re-writes, two critiques from the lovely James Burbridge at Raindance and the story has very little in common with that script. Live and learn, right? I'll never submit anything without a thorough review process - and, when that review is complete, review again. Proper thorough! Anyway, there's a warning on their submissions site - no re-submissions! Oops. I justify my cheekiness with the differences between the stories. Aside from the characters, there is very little in common. I've even renamed it! Gower Chronicles - Operation Red Star. There, let's hope that fools them. There are a couple of other agencies I'm waiting to hear on, which suggests they too aren't interested! Haha. Just as well I'm rhino-skinned. In my IT job, I do 'pre-sales' meetings with a 80% conversion rate. OK, my conversion rate is way lower with writing (non-existent at the mo, but let's not dwell). Anyway, it feels like the same process. Here's what I'm selling - do you want it, and do you want me to deliver it? No worries i Today, I'm off to meet Bill Hucthens anyway, with a view to collaborating with him on a couple of scripts. Payment? Writing credits, if we go ahead. LinkedIn approach, so that's cool. My profile is 'sparse', to put it mildly, but happy with the contact. Happy to take a punt if we get on well. Near where you sit, but long, long ago, Before people had houses, to keep out the snow Before planes and trains, cars and phones, When everything useful was made out of stone Haha, it's a start! Who knew kids rhymes could be so much fun? Twenty more verses and then the pictures.. though something tells me that unless I do some killer pics, I won't be winning any awards! Still, it's a laugh. Got the first book back, and it's immediately obvious that it falls between two ages - not enough pictures (perhaps too many big words) for the little 'uns, but not enough words or story for the bigger kids. Decided to go in two directions - keep my pictures for the bigger kid books (inspired by the fabulous 'How to Train Your Dragon' series), and try to write some poems and do MORE pictures for the younger kids. Been a very long time since I did any drawing, but it is great fun. See how I get on! It's great timing as this week is half term, so Arts & Crafts time. While they're painting zombie-pirate captains, I shall drawn stick figures and we'll see if we can differentiate the kid's and my efforts at the end of the week. Draft 1 of the stage play is finished, and I've scrounged 2 favours for this. A friend's friend's dad, who is an established play write, is very kindly giving it a once over to help me work out the formatting. Once that bit's done, I have a second cousin twice removed at a London theatre who is going to get another play write to look and maybe help me get off the ground. Maybe! It's a bit tortuous and certainly convoluted, but it might just work. Very rough and ready, but the order is placed with Lulu.com for my first book - Adventures in the Stone Age! I think I need more pictures in my stories, if I'm going for younger kids, but the book'll help decide that. The whole package is coming together though - a theatre script, tv animation series and books with characters. Games and school downloads would be the next step on an associated website - the Bing & Moo world! I'm a bit worried about my stage play... I've not written one before, and I'm not too sure of the rules. There's not much out there on't internet either, oddly. Lots on screen writing, very little on writing for the stage. Still, it's all part of the process and I must say it is really satisfying to finally be pushing things through on my own, rather than waiting for agents or prod co's... It might amount to nought in itself, though it's a cracking idea, but no experience is wasted entirely! I've just finished the first Bing & Moo story book, and the stage play is shaping up nicely too! No idea who to send the stage play to for review? Bit rough around the edges... plus I've never actually written a stage play before. No confusing me with Willy Shakespeare. Having great fun drawing the characters for the kids books though. Silly cartoons but we can get a proper 'artist' on when we get some money. Meanwhile, my Moo likes them! Next? Book 2 or the animated TV script, episode 2. I'm sort of doing them in tandem, but I reckon I'll stick with the TV scripts first so I don't get too confused. Got nine more to write! Yipppeee Bing and Moo are finally taking shape! The potted history of Social Evolution - Horrible Histories style. Following the lives of two cave-children as they think of much better ways to do things - from the Stone Age, to Copper Age, onward and encompassing maths, schools, counting... words, fire - pretty much everything pivotal in social development. Writers are supposed to observe people, right? And caricature them, to understand about people and distill their traits
In the name of research, I therefore observe the parents at my daughter's school and in fact have code names for many of them, which I am about to reveal. Poor Pigeon and 10to2 have odd stances. Toes pointing in and and out, respectively. Innit, 1-2-Many, Panda and Brassy make up Cool &the Gang, Caggy, Janus and... hmm, haven't got names for all of them yet, but I call their gang CupCakes. Perhaps that's more of a collective noun for try-hard parents? The CupCake of parents with their baking and fund raising PitBull - well, my life would be over if she read my Tweets. Rapidly, if painfully. She doesn't belong to any gang - or rather, floats between them at will. Ample drifts between gangs, wanting to be in them all but sadly rejected. And me, of course. I don't belong to any of the gangs but I pickup the floaters and of course the Ultra Cool who disdain the gangs (some might term them misfits) Today? Pigeon might never have been skiing, but she's a natural at the snowplough. 10to2 however looks like a penguin, while Claggy and Panda really should wear peaked hats in this weather. Eyelashes like that accumulate dangerous amounts of snow. Happy days! There's talk of school closure, so I'll dig out the sled. Yay! Just hope the trains are running tomorrow so we can get to the theatre |
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July 2019
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