Trouble ahead

Can I get myself into any more trouble? Of course, I can. Getting into trouble is easy, it's the getting out that's the hard part.

You see, something's been bothering me for a while now. And then I was on the phone to a producer last night, a very experienced producer, and the subject of the BBC TV series Outcasts cropped up (which I didn't like much, though I watched all of it).

Then this producer said what I've been thinking.

Let's make this clear from the start: I am not interested in doing the BBC Writers' Academy - lots of people do want to do it, good writers get to do it. And it gives them a hell of a boost in their careers. This is a good thing, I am pleased when other writers do well.

For those who don't know, the Academy's primary purpose is to find writers for shows like East Enders, Holby City, Casualty and so on, and train them to write for shows like that, the BBC's flagship shows, as they call them. More importantly the BBC see this route as the way you earn the right to write other stuff.

You see I have this feeling we're seeing the soapification of British TV drama. Now you may say that soaps are drama and, well, fine, but are you sure?

William Gallagher in this blog (where he was celebrating some fantastic success) mentioned in passing something he'd got from Russell T Davies, something which was a revelation to him:

In the liner notes for the DVD release [of Queer as Folk], he talked about the difference between writing for soap and writing drama. He'd had to learn this, he said, and realised that it boiled down to one major thought: in soaps, people say everything they're thinking; in drama they don't even know what they're thinking. 

In other words one of the best writers in Britain today states there is a fundamental difference between soap writing and drama writing, and that difference is what makes drama drama: subtext.

For RTD and many other excellent writers this is not a problem. They can do both and do them well. And I'm sure that many of the writers progressing through the Writers' Academy can learn to do that too.

But then, you see, we have these heavily plugged shows like The Deep and Outcasts (oh and by the way, in another interview the writer and producer claimed Outcasts was not SF...) what do we get but character dialogue lacking in meaningful subtext. Characters that just say what's in their heads.

Soap not drama.

Yet some of the most original work in the BBC is coming from writers who did not go the soap-writing route, and from ones who clearly recognise the difference.

But we're getting soapified drama as well, but what else can we expect? It's built into the system now. 

I would love to be convinced I am wrong. Truly. Can you convince me?

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What's on the turntable? "In Search of a Heart" by Clannad from "Sirius"

The Editor's Pen

I finished Tec last night after that burst of inspiration courtesy of Torchwood. It really was excellent, I love having my expectations exploded. (Have you ever had yours exploded?)

So I've printed up Tec and I'm hitting it with the red pen - there are two, possibly three (even four), reasons for not waiting a couple of weeks: I've been writing so slowly I've become disconnected from the beginning anyway. I'm still inspired. I feel I need to practice editing stuff more quickly after writing: 17 years as a magazine editor does give me some help in that area. I need to clear the decks for the new stuff and the existing things are beginning to pile up. Red Planet will get announced soon and, assuming the format is the same, this is my entry.

Five reasons.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

By the way, commiserations to those who missed on the Writers Academy.

Only three days to the CBBC/Writersroom announcement.

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What's on the turntable? "Free Man in Paris" by Joni Mitchell from "Hits" compilation

As a final comment on the Ofsted inspection at the Teacher's school - today she was at an Early Years conference for educators in Huddersfield. As it turns out, unsurprisingly, everything she's implemented in the school is 100% right.

Monday saw the CBBC Screenwriting Q&A in London which I didn't attend but many in the local scribosphere did - the list is summarised by Robin in this blog entry (and includes two people I wasn't previously aware of, they are added to my huge number of blogs). Since I sent my entry - Air - three weeks ago I can't change anything but I am very interested to know whether I got it right or not.

So I have analysed each blog to arrive at the definitive list, so thanks to everyone who took the trouble to (a) go; and (b) share:

1. Relentlessly exciting;
2. Expanding the imagination of kids;
3. Show the world differently;
   
4. Educate and inform through entertainment;
5. Don't talk down to them;
   
6. Help children find their place in the world;
7. Provide quality shows that will be remembered into adulthood;
8. Child-driven story - they are the protagonists, they do the problem solving;
   
9. Real characters with depth;
10. Small cast but enough to allow for replacement in case of illness (more common in kids);
    
11. Mix of characters in scenes for both potential illness and allowing for restrictions on performance that kids have;
12. The protagonists must have exciting lives;
13. Be scary as appropriate - but not too scary;
14. Think big, go anywhere;
15. Take risks - if the characters are good you still might get the commission even if it means toning down the risks;
16. Make sure you balance emotion with action;
17. Know your genre and use it;
18. Have a solid/unusual concept;
19. Don't do personal relationships with the kids (target audience is too young);
20. Different cultures;
21. Mental illness (wha?);
22. No less than 28 pages (no more than 32);
23. Do number scenes;
24. Write from a child viewer's perspective;

Credit where credit's due most of this excellent list was stolen from Michelle (whose blog, incomprehensibly, I wasn't following either. Weird.)

Everybody mentioned this as well (wording nicked from Jez though he didn't write it): The drama should be all of these: MAGICAL (like waking up and seeing carpet of snow for the first time) THRILLING (like a ride at Alton Towers) and EXCITING (like Christmas Eve when you're a kid).

As mentioned yesterday this is a selfish blog because I am happy to report that Air meets pretty much all the requirements, except it's 27 pages (they won't shoot me for that will they?) And I did number the scenes because that's what most of my readers want - it makes it easier to discuss points.

I never talk down to kids, and never have - they're human beings who happen to have smaller bodies than adults. (I could never comprehend people who have the idea that they "own" their children. We are given the responsibility of bringing up a child so that he or she can survive successfully in this vicious world we live in: they have to be tough without losing the love.)

Funnily enough, I even have the mental health thing in there - since the main adult character assumes the protagonist has been abused and has created a fantasy world of her own to escape it. Amusing.

Risks? Yes. Conceptually big and unusual? I think so. Scary? Oh yes.

Without really thinking about it I do have a good mix of scenes some not involving the kids. I was well aware of the licensing issue since our children have done professional performances. (We've just received the paperwork for the Boy's licencing for recording Bamzooki.) Mind you the illness thing kind of surprised me, our two are almost never ill - neither of them has seen the inside of a hospital since they were born. The Daughter was personally affronted when she got a cold a couple of months ago, how dare the virus come her way.

No boy-girl (or any other variation) planned in Air. Though, funnily enough, one of my readers suggested there might be something between the protagonist and one other character. Quite surprised me. It's not in the outline.

Most of the other stuff is there too. So I heave a sigh of relief.

If you want to read the first 10 pages of Air you should be able to download it from my Shooting People profile. If you're a member, you can read it all. (Note: as of 9:00pm this evening this page is generating an error for some reason.)

And did they really say that Buffy was about slaying vampires? How silly. It was about being a teenager and how hard it is growing up. Air, on the other hand, is about family.

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What's on the turntable? "Mother Stands for Comfort" by Kate Bush from "The Hounds of Love"

The Inktip Trial: Day #2

Not much happened today on Inktip. In fact nothing.

Except I got an email telling me that my listing would be removed in 7 days, so the system is quite efficient. It also offered to let me pay some money to have the listing there for 6 months. ($10/month isn't really that bad.) They also offer lots of help in improving your logline.

Now one reason why I didn't get read today is that as more people put in their titles your one goes down the list. However you are allowed to bump it back up to the top every 6 weeks. So it's not a major issue - plus you are not fighting against everybody on Inktip because the listings are accessed by searches so the more details you can put in about your script the better your chances of appearing in searches. (So if someone wanted SF, Martial Arts, Female protagonist, TV - I'd be up against Joss Whedon - I'm cheaper than he is.)

In other news...

Popping Monsters into the Shooting People Script Pitch bulletin boosted the number of people that had read my profile by 11. Which is pretty good considering how few people read it previously. However there is no way of telling how many people have downloaded the scripts to read.

I wrote about 6 pages of Tec last night which brings me up to about 28 pages. I am not, realistically, going to finish by Sunday but I did have the hiatus caused by reworking Air for the Writersroom/CBBC competition. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

The day job has become pressured, the new project requires me to finish something with the power of Google Analytics written from scratch in 10 days. I suggested that their specification was a little ambitious. Still I shall do my best - which is usually quite good - and do have some help.

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What's on the turntable? "Incantations, Part One" by Mike Oldfield from "Incantations"

Opportunity slips a note under the door

Paul got it from Laurence who got it from the Writersroom website - a CBBC writing competition no less ... and they want 30 minute scripts.

Oh frabjous day!

I done got me one of those: Air!

Philip Shelley liked it so much he had only two minor suggestions. David Bull described the first 10 pages with the word: "Wow!". And I asked Jez Freedman to have a look at it just last week.

Of course this is why it's recommended that one has a portfolio of different types of work ready to go at a moment's notice (one of those things recommended by Adrian Mead). Something which I was not entirely enthusiastic about but it paid off this time.

Anyway, if you've got something - brush off the dust and let fly.

(18 pages of Tec now complete but nobody's dead yet. Soon though.)

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What's on the turntable? "Quest" by Gordon Giltrap, the orchestral version from "Perilous Journey"

Getting the reference

It was 1 hour and 28 minutes ago that I sat down to write this blog. How do I know? Because I wrote the "What's on the turntable" entry below. Then I killed the blog and have just restarted it, and it's the same song - and I have exactly 1:28 hours of Steely Dan music.

What have I been doing in the last hour and a half? I have been writing the Table of Contents for the planned reference book. It's a programming manual for a large and well-known publisher of such reference books.

I had sent some notes on what I thought should be in it to my co-author, he'd responded by expanding it with his stuff. So I took the TOC suggested by the company, and his notes on my notes and ran them all together, sorting them out into some semblance of a logical sequence and incorporating the headings of the publisher, just to show them that we're not ignoring them.

I had this rather nifty idea, since we need a website to demonstrate the principles we will be describing in the book why not build a website that will potentially make us some money? Along with the free advertising from the book. Mercenary, moi? (Hey! I'm 50, and though I'm not planning on retiring [what a waste of time that would be] I'd like to have lots of pennies rolling in so that I can live in the style I wish to become accustomed ... to.)

Speaking of plans. You might like to try this: A couple of years ago I sat down and worked out how much money I would need to generate in order to handle all my debts and do everything I wanted to do. The figure came out at about £300,000. Then I multiplied by 3.3333etc to round it up to a million. (I had my reasons.)

Then I picked a date which seemed a reasonable target: End of 2012. So I decide that by that date I would make £1m and handle all my debts and so on. Then I sat down and started working out ways that I could make the money required.

Last year was a good start but I mishandled the money and ended up back where I started. So this year I'm doing it better and getting more long-term money generating plans off the starting blocks. Obviously I'm never going to make a million if I go on doing what I'm doing, you need to continue to make the money to live on plus devise sensible schemes that can deliver in the future.

I actually made this plan before I discovered I had some screenwriting talent.

I don't really believe in coincidences, I do believe we are responsible for what goes on around us, both directly and indirectly (why can't I win the lottery then? Because there are millions of other people trying to as well). And just by making the plan, as I did all that time ago, my life began to change around me (like discovering I had a highly valuable programming skill and now having the opportunity to write a book).

I'll do some set-up work for Running this evening, get my notes out and have look over them, probably change them. And get some writing in wednesday evening.

Oh! I'm going to the Toby Whitehouse thing set-up by the BBC Writersroom - are you going?

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What's on the turntable? "Barrytown" by Steely Dan from "Roaring of the Lamb"

The Blunt End

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.

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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.