I got an e-mail back from the BBC Writersroom today saying that I didn't get anywhere in the Sharps competition, of course I'm a little disappointed however in some ways it's probably a good thing, I wasn't happy about taking another day and then another week off work -- as a contractor I don't get paid under those circumstances.
You see, the inner-optimist is irrepressible: presented with a failure, the silver-lining is quickly highlighted. Seriously, what can you do? (Mind you, I'm still wondering where my inner-pessimist went...)
On the other hand I received another e-mail from my script consultant in response to my response to his response... I'll start again:
I sent a script to him, he wrote his notes (and don't forget, professional script editor and lots of other related stuff on TV shows you've heard of and maybe even like, I know I do). So I got his notes (he really liked the script - I mean, he really liked it, but he felt it wasn't as good as it could be), from which I figured out how to fix those things he felt could be better.
I wrote down what I thought would fix it and sent that to him. Today he came back and said that he thought my ideas would indeed fix the problems. Yay.
I saw it as a kind of test.
When directors are auditioning actors they often ask them to play the same scene in different ways. It's easy to make the mistake of thinking that they are testing the actor's ability to act. Nope. They are testing the actor's ability to take direction.
The same goes for notes. Can you take the notes and do something with them? Of course not all notes are good notes, but with someone who has this kind of experience, they are. It's entirely possible that he didn't see it as a test, but I did for my own confidence in my ability to write.
Another little boost.
What's on the turntable? Nothing. I have been listening to a reading of an abridged version of "Methusaleh's Children" by Robert Heinlein on BBC7, but my truly awful Internet connection is getting in the way.
Showing posts with label BBC7. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBC7. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Oh fer heaven's sake!
Still nothing from the BBC about Sharps, now I'll have to wait another 24 hours as I only get to read my e-mail evenings after I get back and mornings before I go to work.
That damnable inner-optimist is jumping up and down going "I told you, I told you, they were trying to tell you you got through on Friday but messed up!" The inner-realist is completely out of wet kippers and I haven't heard from the inner-pessimist in weeks. I wonder whatever happened to him.
What's on the turntable? "The Fez" by Steely Dan from "The Royal Scam"
That damnable inner-optimist is jumping up and down going "I told you, I told you, they were trying to tell you you got through on Friday but messed up!" The inner-realist is completely out of wet kippers and I haven't heard from the inner-pessimist in weeks. I wonder whatever happened to him.
What's on the turntable? "The Fez" by Steely Dan from "The Royal Scam"
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Moods are for lovers
I really wasn't in the mood for writing this evening. Thursdays are my busy evening anyway, I do the shopping for next week, sort out washing, cook the meal for next week (I do one meal which I eat over four nights - a little boring, but efficient and cheap).
Plus it's been hot, I was tired and ... I really wasn't in the mood.
But that's not very professional. Writing is like any other job. Does a fireman not go to a fire because he's not in the mood or a little bit tired? Okay, maybe not the best comparison but I'm making a point here.
So by 9:00pm I'd done no writing. I had made a couple of phone calls, and listened to a couple of radio programmes on BBC7 Listen Again.
If I didn't do the Blockbuster treatment now, when was I going to do it?
So I sat down and did it now. Finished. (Bar the edit.) Much more about character arcs and progressions, more emotion but still lots of action and I haven't compromised the source material too much.
I think it's good enough now so I shall be sending it off for the old critiques next week and making any last changes before I send it to the potential client. Who probably doesn't need it.
Have I explained the Blockbuster project? A well-known Hollywood Director has acquired the rights to adapt a story that I've always wanted to do. Now he'll need a script and before that he'll need a treatment. So I'm doing a treatment. I doubt I'll get paid, I really doubt I'd get the writing gig even if he saw my treatment and liked it. (If I was him I wouldn't risk $150 million on an unknown writer.)
But nothing ventured, nothing gained. And it's good practice.
So, back to the point, even if you're not in the mood: Write.
What's on the turntable? "The Revealing Science of God - Dance of the Dawn" by Yes from "Tales From Topographic Oceans"
Plus it's been hot, I was tired and ... I really wasn't in the mood.
But that's not very professional. Writing is like any other job. Does a fireman not go to a fire because he's not in the mood or a little bit tired? Okay, maybe not the best comparison but I'm making a point here.
So by 9:00pm I'd done no writing. I had made a couple of phone calls, and listened to a couple of radio programmes on BBC7 Listen Again.
If I didn't do the Blockbuster treatment now, when was I going to do it?
So I sat down and did it now. Finished. (Bar the edit.) Much more about character arcs and progressions, more emotion but still lots of action and I haven't compromised the source material too much.
I think it's good enough now so I shall be sending it off for the old critiques next week and making any last changes before I send it to the potential client. Who probably doesn't need it.
Have I explained the Blockbuster project? A well-known Hollywood Director has acquired the rights to adapt a story that I've always wanted to do. Now he'll need a script and before that he'll need a treatment. So I'm doing a treatment. I doubt I'll get paid, I really doubt I'd get the writing gig even if he saw my treatment and liked it. (If I was him I wouldn't risk $150 million on an unknown writer.)
But nothing ventured, nothing gained. And it's good practice.
So, back to the point, even if you're not in the mood: Write.
What's on the turntable? "The Revealing Science of God - Dance of the Dawn" by Yes from "Tales From Topographic Oceans"
Monday, April 21, 2008
After the weekend
Ah, the ignorance of it!
BBC radio 4 on a weekday evening has a review programme that can be very interesting though I dislike the main presenter, Mark Lawson. One of the reasons I dislike him is his contempt for Science Fiction in any form, so whenever there is a review or feature which has an SF element you can guarantee there'll be some snide comments floating about. And ignorance.
On a little filler feature this evening the most recent episode of Dr Who was mentioned, with its title "Planet of the Ood". A very good episode as it happens, but I digress. Mr Lawson demonstrated his ignorance by saying that it had introduced a new monster; which it didn't, since the Ood appeared in an earlier episode. But there was no reason to even mention it since the feature was about episode titles, and not the subject matter, he was trying to be clever and put it down with "monster" and demonstrated his ignorance instead.
So. Here I am back in Reading having been home for the weekend.
I had such plans for my Scriptfrenzy writing. It's a straight through train from Reading to Manchester during the week and I wanted to take a seat and work on my script for three hours. Unfortunately something got in my way: well, I got in my way. Well, my stomach to be precise. The train seats were too close together and my laptop isn't a little one. I was annoyed at myself, and then doubly annoyed because I hadn't brought a notepad with me. Tsk.
I have a family and it seems a bit wrong to hide in a room writing when they haven't seen me all week, so I didn't write while I was there. But the journey back was better, somewhat. I missed one connection (a train had failed at the platform we were supposed to arrive on) so I ended up on the wrong trains. But one part of the journey I managed to get a seat where the gap was bigger and had a good hour and a half of writing, and knocked out another 8-9 pages which was pretty good going.
As I have mentioned my script is inspired by the 10CC album "The Original Soundtrack" mainly the track "One Night in Paris", but other tracks where I can fit them in. One of which is called "Blackmail" and the protagonist has met the blackmailer. In fact this part of the plot is going to work very similarly to the way it does in the song (click for lyrics).
I've still got a way to go on the script, I'm on 38 pages, so 62 to go. That might seem like a lot but quantity isn't really an issue, it's just another deadline. I have 4 nights this week, 3 next week and 2 train journeys, that's 9 writing sessions so a minimum of 7 per day. But if I aim for 10 per session I'll wrap it up by the end of the weekend, and even if the train journeys turn into nothing I should still be able to complete it by the deadline.
Well that's enough the sums I suppose, I better actually do some writing.
What's on the turntable? "The Caves of Altamira" by Steely Dan from "The Royal Scam"
BBC radio 4 on a weekday evening has a review programme that can be very interesting though I dislike the main presenter, Mark Lawson. One of the reasons I dislike him is his contempt for Science Fiction in any form, so whenever there is a review or feature which has an SF element you can guarantee there'll be some snide comments floating about. And ignorance.
On a little filler feature this evening the most recent episode of Dr Who was mentioned, with its title "Planet of the Ood". A very good episode as it happens, but I digress. Mr Lawson demonstrated his ignorance by saying that it had introduced a new monster; which it didn't, since the Ood appeared in an earlier episode. But there was no reason to even mention it since the feature was about episode titles, and not the subject matter, he was trying to be clever and put it down with "monster" and demonstrated his ignorance instead.
So. Here I am back in Reading having been home for the weekend.
I had such plans for my Scriptfrenzy writing. It's a straight through train from Reading to Manchester during the week and I wanted to take a seat and work on my script for three hours. Unfortunately something got in my way: well, I got in my way. Well, my stomach to be precise. The train seats were too close together and my laptop isn't a little one. I was annoyed at myself, and then doubly annoyed because I hadn't brought a notepad with me. Tsk.
I have a family and it seems a bit wrong to hide in a room writing when they haven't seen me all week, so I didn't write while I was there. But the journey back was better, somewhat. I missed one connection (a train had failed at the platform we were supposed to arrive on) so I ended up on the wrong trains. But one part of the journey I managed to get a seat where the gap was bigger and had a good hour and a half of writing, and knocked out another 8-9 pages which was pretty good going.
As I have mentioned my script is inspired by the 10CC album "The Original Soundtrack" mainly the track "One Night in Paris", but other tracks where I can fit them in. One of which is called "Blackmail" and the protagonist has met the blackmailer. In fact this part of the plot is going to work very similarly to the way it does in the song (click for lyrics).
I've still got a way to go on the script, I'm on 38 pages, so 62 to go. That might seem like a lot but quantity isn't really an issue, it's just another deadline. I have 4 nights this week, 3 next week and 2 train journeys, that's 9 writing sessions so a minimum of 7 per day. But if I aim for 10 per session I'll wrap it up by the end of the weekend, and even if the train journeys turn into nothing I should still be able to complete it by the deadline.
Well that's enough the sums I suppose, I better actually do some writing.
What's on the turntable? "The Caves of Altamira" by Steely Dan from "The Royal Scam"
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Stir crazy
(Before I start I better put something on the turntable, for when I get to the end...)
So I've done three days in the new job -- and how much work have I done?
Nil.
This is silly. Actually no, it's not silly, it's government. (A government contract no less, but it's okay, I don't have to shoot you now that I've told you.) I'm a team leader but they haven't employed my team yet. They might turn up sometime next week.
Meanwhile Lars and I are going stir crazy. We're both used to commercial environments demanding results yesterday! I know, some people might be grateful for this level of work, but I'm just not one of those people.
Oooh, exciting. I bought myself a mobile modem. Tonight is the experiment before I decide whether to return it or not. I was a bit annoyed at it last night because it was just not working at all well. But I think I've got the measure of it now, and discovered a different lead which plugs into two USB ports and gives it a bit of extra ooomph. I watched a YouTube video (this one on Lucy's blog, it's brilliant) with no drop-out. I might try some BBC7 later (that's radio) and even give a go to come video, but I'm only allowed 3 Gig per month and a half hour TV show is 500Mb. The downloads are a bit slow but it's not bad.
I wrote about 6 pages of "Une Nuit a Paris" last night, and did some more research about Parisian brothels and prostitution. Interesting subject and there's some little snippets of history I can include in the script so that I can pretend to be clever.
And then I did some work on the dialogue of Monsters. Wonderful reader Lucy (blog as linked above) commented, last time she read the script, that my dialogue was fine but a bit soap, and I'd rather it was more Joss Whedon (I should be so lucky).
Anyway I'd best sign off and get on with some real work.
What's on the turntable? "My Immortal" by Evanescence, from "Fallen"
So I've done three days in the new job -- and how much work have I done?
Nil.
This is silly. Actually no, it's not silly, it's government. (A government contract no less, but it's okay, I don't have to shoot you now that I've told you.) I'm a team leader but they haven't employed my team yet. They might turn up sometime next week.
Meanwhile Lars and I are going stir crazy. We're both used to commercial environments demanding results yesterday! I know, some people might be grateful for this level of work, but I'm just not one of those people.
Oooh, exciting. I bought myself a mobile modem. Tonight is the experiment before I decide whether to return it or not. I was a bit annoyed at it last night because it was just not working at all well. But I think I've got the measure of it now, and discovered a different lead which plugs into two USB ports and gives it a bit of extra ooomph. I watched a YouTube video (this one on Lucy's blog, it's brilliant) with no drop-out. I might try some BBC7 later (that's radio) and even give a go to come video, but I'm only allowed 3 Gig per month and a half hour TV show is 500Mb. The downloads are a bit slow but it's not bad.
I wrote about 6 pages of "Une Nuit a Paris" last night, and did some more research about Parisian brothels and prostitution. Interesting subject and there's some little snippets of history I can include in the script so that I can pretend to be clever.
And then I did some work on the dialogue of Monsters. Wonderful reader Lucy (blog as linked above) commented, last time she read the script, that my dialogue was fine but a bit soap, and I'd rather it was more Joss Whedon (I should be so lucky).
Anyway I'd best sign off and get on with some real work.
What's on the turntable? "My Immortal" by Evanescence, from "Fallen"
Monday, April 14, 2008
Hie Ho------
Just thought I'd stop in and say: Off to work in a few minutes. Nervous as hell, but that's fairly normal. As I say to my kids, even adults get nervous when they go to a place they don't know.
I shall report back this evening.
I didn't write anything yesterday either. Tidied around, organised my stuff in the flat (realised how much I needed to buy to make this place work), listened to the Goon Show and an adaptation of the first Falco book on BBC7, and cooked the meal that I'll be eating most of this week. That was an adventure -- cooking on electric is a pain in the posterior when you're used to gas.
See you later.
What's on the turntable? Nuffink, all is quiet.
I shall report back this evening.
I didn't write anything yesterday either. Tidied around, organised my stuff in the flat (realised how much I needed to buy to make this place work), listened to the Goon Show and an adaptation of the first Falco book on BBC7, and cooked the meal that I'll be eating most of this week. That was an adventure -- cooking on electric is a pain in the posterior when you're used to gas.
See you later.
What's on the turntable? Nuffink, all is quiet.
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