Sunday, January 25, 2009

Seeing red

Nothing to do with the Red Planet prize.

I had popped my script for Monsters over to Red Productions in Manchester, as mentioned here, since I discovered they will accept unsolicited scripts.

I got a reply this week though only discovered today, going through post I hadn't seen since being down south.

Standard rejection. But I'm not hugely surprised. When I'd finished my fantasy novel I'd sent out a lot of query letters and a lot of "first three chapters" - 100% rejection rate, except for one agent who did request the entire script to read, gave some hastily scribbled notes on the back of the synopsis and never replied again. (I got one rejection 15 months after I sent the letter.)

Rejection is part of the business and you get a lot more of that than you do of acceptance. As I discussed here, it's not personal and is no reflection on your work. (Well, it might be, but if you're basically competent and professional it isn't.)

Things to look forward to: "Being Human" in a few minutes and then "Supernatural" on ITV2+1, two hours of fantasy TV done right.



What's on the turntable? "River" by Joni Mitchell from "Blue". I read somewhere about a writer who envied songwriters because they created stories with so few words. I know what he means. 'River' breaks my heart every time I hear it.

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