Chair lift

There was a meme going around a few weeks ago about putting up photos of writing workspaces. Not that I got memed but I did wonder what in the world I would show.

It is true that back up north I do have an office, but here in Reading? Nothing. Just the computer and sometimes bits of paper. No cards, no corkboards, no stick-it notes.

I also don't have a decent chair. For six months I've been sitting on the sofa with a pillow behind me for support and the computer perched on a stool. The only other option being the laptop on the table and me perched on the stool without any back support. Not good.

Today, having made a point of not completely knocking myself out at work, I decided I would buy a decent chair. So off I went to Argos and played with their high tech ordering system and located the very last of their (one person self-assembly, made in China) ergonomic chairs.

Excellent. I bought it and then discovered it was too bulky (20Kgs in a big box) to carry back to the flat nearly a mile away. Off I zoomed and located a convenient cabby, got back to Argos, loaded up, got the thing to the flat. Dragged it up a switchback flight of steps and collapsed into the sofa.

Having recovered I set about putting it together. Self-assembly is a lot easier than it used to be so just 45 minutes later I'm proudly enthroned in my super-duper ergonomic executive chair. The lumbar support is adjustable and I have it placed just right for me. It's really comfortable.

There is just one small problem.

I have nothing the right height to put the computer on. I need a desk.

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What's on the turntable? "Pentangling" by Pentangle from Light Flight.

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.

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What's on the turntable? "The Revealing Science of God - Dance of the Dawn" by Yes from "Tales From Topographic Oceans"

Scriptfrenzy complete!

I did it, at last.

This is partly the reason I haven't blogged in the past few days. Writing hard.

So I did 10 pages on Wednesday, same on Thursday and as I was travelling back to family on Friday afternoon I found myself an unreserved table seat, plugged in the laptop and wrote like a madman -- 20 pages including the all-action climax. Page rate over 6 per hour.

Deadlines are handy things as I mention in this blog. And I used this one to get the job done in advance. Having no TV in my flat is a definite advantage.

As I have mentioned previously the screenwriter I most admire is Joss Whedon, one of his trademarks is heading directly into a cliche and then taking an unexpected left. A classic example of this in Buffy when she and Giles are talking in a crypt. They leave. Ethan Rayne emerges from the shadows where he's been listening and says something out loud, gloating over having overhead the plan.

This is classic cliche. What does Whedon do? Giles comes back into the crypt saying "I thought I heard someone". And the plot shoots off in another direction completely.

I have tried to do emulate him where it's sensible (and funny). For example, after escaping their chains the hero and girlfriend peek out the door to see what the bad guys are doing. In most films they would then either creep out and escape, or shut the door and formulate a plan of escape. That's cliched and predictable. I do something different but I'm not saying what (hey, this might get made one day, I'm not going to spoil it).

So there we have it, 100 pages of script in a month which is what ScriptFrenzy is all about. It gives you a reason and deadline. You can do it too.

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What's on the turntable? "Do the Strand" by Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music from the compilation album "Street Life".

Professionalism in writing

Over on Lucy's blog she's started discussing genres, horror isn't my thing but I'm always interested in what she has to say. Before getting into the horror thing she discussed writing genre in detail. Now I have my own views on the concept of "genre" but there are two problems with that: I'm not discussing them here and the writing establishment won't change for little me.

This is what Lucy wrote:

Whilst I would never advocate writing the genre film that simply recycles what has gone before it, I WOULD argue that taking note of trends does help your writing and thus your own saleability. 'Cos let's face it: none of us are doing this *just* for fun.

Let me be clear: I agree with this statement. I just wanted to expand on it a bit from a personal viewpoint.

The question of saleability comes down ultimately to professionalism. A professional isn't someone who gets paid and a professional isn't a "hack". A professional writer is someone who can write something that people want.

My personal writing history is such that although I did write a couple of novels and lots of poetry before I got my first job; it wasn't until I worked at a magazine publisher, as a writer and editor, that I became a professional writer. Even then it probably took a year.

A professional writer delivers the goods: to style, to length and to deadline.

That's an easy concept to grasp in a magazine or newspaper environment. You get the right number of words down, in the house style, before they're needed. And I learned to do that through 13 years in the job.

It's not much of a stretch when it comes to understanding this for a professional screenwriter, he gets commissioned to write a script, there's a length, there's a deadline, there's a style.

But does it apply to beginning screenwriters, unrepresented, hanging around the edges of the media scene and trying to get in?

You betcha. But it's so much harder. You are your own commissioning editor. It doesn't matter that no one else has asked you for it - you've demanded it of yourself. The content is what you personally want to produce, the style is yours, you know whether it's a 30-minute comedy or a two hour feature. But the place we fall down, mostly, is the deadline. We don't give ourselves a deadline or, if we do, we're don't believe that the deadline is real, because, after all, it doesn't really matter, does it?

Which is why something like ScriptFrenzy, and competition deadlines are so useful and should be used whenever possible. They give you something completely unforgiving outside yourself, and if you miss the deadline then it's gone.

So the question is: How professional are you?

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What's on the turntable? "Nous Somme du Soleil" by Yes, from "Tales from Topographic Oceans"