That Comic Book Thing

This time last year I decided that instead of writing a screenplay during ScriptFrenzy I would write a comic book script. After all I'm good at script writing and I have a very visual imagination, how hard can it be?

Very.

For the first year I failed at ScriptFrenzy. It was a technical win, you have to write 100 pages and I wrote 100 pages. But they were appalling. The story was intended as a sequel to my Rebel steampunk script featuring the same protagonist and supporting cast but moving on in time.

It was the worst story I'd written in a long time. Now it's easy to say it was a first draft, and that's true, but I write decent first drafts usually. (Not that's brilliant send it out first drafts, but they are usually coherent with good sequences and scenes, good clay for reshaping.)

The story might have turned out alright if I had been in the familiar territory of a screenplay but instead I was in a medium I believed I understood (having read my Eisner and Scott McCloud books). But theory is not practice.

There was another barrier to me realising I didn't know what I was doing: I had worked in print media, magazine production specifically, for many years so, of course, I knew all about printing stuff, didn't I? The first barrier to learning anything is thinking you know it already.

By the end of April (the month ScriptFrenzy takes place in) I was forced to acknowledge that when it came to writing comic books, despite everything I thought I knew, I was clueless.

Fast forward a few months to the London Screenwriters Festival, and a talk by awesome writer of scripts in many mediums: Tony Lee. Who in one hour covered the practicalities of writing for print comics. It was a revelation. You see my knowledge of the print industry was not worthless - I discovered it did have application in the subject but I needed someone who was familiar with the problems to join the dots and show me how to re-apply what I already knew to this new medium.

Consider this: A reveal in a print comic must be the first thing on a left hand page (otherwise a reader will see it before he reads his way to it). And this: you will typically have 22 pages to work with in an issue. That means your cliffhanger must appear on page 22 (it will be a left-hand page). You have no choice. And when Tony said these things, it all clicked together my existing knowledge of print and made perfect sense.

Comic books apply absolute restrictions with no wiggle room which means that unlike a novel or even a screenplay, you cannot wing it. You have to plan every sequence and scene to the very page it will appear on and make sure your reveals appear as the first thing on a left-hand page and your cliffhanger hits on page 22.

I think that's brilliant.

And the consequence of all that is I am converting an existing script to comic form. I have a professional illustrator lined up who loves the script (and, from her comments, sees what I see) so I'm putting together a few sample pages that she'll do some roughs for, just to see whether we're happy with each other's styles. And if that works we'll put together an issue.

But for ScriptFrenzy 2013 I have another feature script to write for the Voidships universe, new time period, new characters and hopefully awesome will ensue.

(And I'm also working on a Voidships novel.)

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What's on the turntable? Hergist Ridge by Mike Oldfield (often considered the poor relation to Tubular Bells being the follow-up but I love it just as much - and Ommadawn which came next.)

Technical knockout

Oh my, it's been over a month. Sorry to have neglected you but I've been busy.

I have completed ScriptFrenzy for the 6th year but only "technically". Which is to say that the Celtx generation of PDF reached 100 pages (WIN!), however in actual comic book pages I got to about 74 (not really a win). But I learned a lot, mostly that writing a graphic novel is really quite hard. Unfortunately the story began to deviate from my plan almost from the start and I wrote myself into a very dull corner. (I had called this post "Technical win" but that doesn't sound anywhere near as interesting as "Technical knockout".)

Of course, at the same time, I've been doing the Producer thing in order to shoot scene 8 of our steampunk webseries WINTER. More than that we've been going through a crowd-funding exercise and I have been sending out emails to everyone I have contact with (and that's several hundred).

And still doing the day job, of course.

But my mind is heavily focussed on ensuring that the shoot goes according to plan. There are so many things to think about from the producer side, I have been given able assistance from people who've already done it. Without them I imagine I would have been rather lost.

Anyway I'm not lost and it's going smoothly (everything crossed, touch wood).

So, give us a hand and contribute to our project at http://igg.me/p/93585?a=405734

Self, Director, and cast all available for interview :-)

(Oh, and I got a rejection from a very well-respected agency. "Clearly a very talented screenwriter..." they said. Which was nice. "...but no clear distinction from our other writers." Ha! I'm too busy to care - I don't even remember sending them a script.)

(Also went to see John Carter which was really quite good, and Battleship - it's not a deep film, but very enjoyable and does have real characters and real plot. It's also has very well integrated links to the game. I was quite impressed. It even managed to surprise me a couple of times.)

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What's on the turntable? "The Fall of the House of Usher: Arrival" by The Alan Parson's Project from "Tales of Mystery and Imagination".

The Ice Furnace

Hallo peeps.

I've been ultra busy with writing stuff, production stuff, work stuff, family stuff, so I've decided to do something else as well.

It's ScriptFrenzy time again!

This is that awesome time of year when you are provided, free, gratis and for nothing, with a built-in deadline to get your feature script written in just 30 days.

I've done it every year of its existence which means I have five feature scripts I might not otherwise have had.

This year I am writing The Ice Furnace which is a sequel to the film script I wrote last year (and thus part of the collaborative transmedia Voidships project) but I'm doing it as a graphic novel instead - and I even have an artist who will (hopefully) get the some of the first chapter on paper before the end of April. Pretty graphics, yay!

Anyway, thought I'd just keep you up-to-date on what's happening.

Do ScriptFrenzy - you know it makes sense - what are you going to write?

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What's on the turntable? [at work so nuffink]

The Year I Became Angelic

Traditions are for fulfilling so here's my look back at 2011.

In many ways it's not been a great year. Nor has it been a bad year.

There have been bad things though not on the screenwriting front. I've had two bad contracts this year - one of which cost me money. I could take time going to court over it but frankly it's not worth the effort. I went down that round years ago when I ran a design agency and we were ripped off by someone who said to our faces "If I can get out of paying you, I will".

Here's a tip: If you choose to take legal action against someone to get money you're owed: Get the biggest legal firm you can - even if it means that you'll lose most of your money in fees. Why? Because you'll win, and that's more important than the money.

But here's another tip: Think long and hard about taking legal action. It's very stressful, very expensive and seldom really worth it.

Mmm. Cheerful. Let's move on.

Agents

Early in the year I met with an agent. They liked what I could do but it just wasn't quite ... enough. Later in the year I made the Talent Connector through Industrial Scripts and had two bites from other agencies. They read my stuff but it wasn't quite ... enough.

As mentioned in a previous blog I am competent. But nothing I currently have has sufficient spark.

Not writing

I spent a lot of time not writing this year. Partly because of the contracts I was working on and partly because of the travel time to and from work. And partly because of a web site I've been working on for a while now, though it's finally coming together. Part of my plan is to make myself less reliant on the day job but since I have a family, mortgage and credit cards to support I can't dedicate myself 100% to the writing, which would be what I'd like to do.

Events

But I did go to the BBC's writing festival in Leeds which was very good indeed. And where I made a contact with a major US TV writer and producer (a legend in the TV SF world) currently working on something for the BBC. I have his email address and he's reading my stuff :-)

I almost didn't go to the London Screenwriters Festival. But I did and what happened? I got onto the advanced mentoring session with Gub Neal. Awesome.

But curiously that leads into something else which will be in my "Next Year" post coming up tomorrow.

The LSF also taught me something very very important: Rehearse pitches. I pitched at Gub Neal's session, the speed-pitching and, on the spur of the moment, the Pitch Factor. For Gub I had rehearsed the pitch and narrowed it down to a set of reminder cards that just kept me on track, though I barely used them. The speed-pitching was hastily written and only slightly rehearsed, while the Pitch Factor wasn't planned at all.

Result: From Gub "Good pitch" and from the others no kind words at all, and some critical ones. This also becomes relevant for the future (in the obvious way but also a less than obvious way).

ScriptFrenzy

I always do ScriptFrenzy and write a feature script in April. And this year was no different. Except I wrote a Steampunk story in the same universe as the Winter project.

ScriptFrenzy has been going five years which means I have five feature scripts I wouldn't otherwise have. Of course they need work but they're out in the real world.

Winter

This web project has been in development for three years now - you can read the potted history of that developing on the Voidships blog and if you're a Google+ person you can circle the Voidships page (and please don't believe the anti-hype about G+ being quieter than the grave - that is truly bollocks).

Two months ago the pressure I'd been building up internally to rewrite Winter suddenly kicked in and the story poured out. I zoomed it off to various readers and a month later I had all the feedback - which wasn't too bad and the areas that need work were agreed on by all readers which is a clear sign of what's needed.

Angels One Five

When we make the Winter project happen a lot of it is going to be crowd-funded. I could take the attitude that, well, we'll find the people and they'll pay. But that's not fair, really, is it? How can I justify asking people to pay money towards my projects if I take no notice of anyone else's? There are other filmmakers (and other creatives) who are trying to get their projects made.

What goes around comes around. As ye sow so shall ye reap. Treat others the way you'd like them to treat you. Stuff like that.

So I started funding projects - short films and book. Those on a personal basis.

Then, as my business, I became an investor in Piers Beckley's Red Table stage productions.

Let me say this: If you're in it for the money, or the rewards, forget it. That's not what it's about. What it's about is supporting creative people because they are the ones who make the real difference in the world. (Not that I want to give the impression that Piers' Red Table does not give ROI, but that's not the reason why.)

Summing up

It wasn't a bad year, much of it felt like treading water. There were a few good things and a few bad things, but the coming year is shaping up to be totally awesome and I will speak on that anon.

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What's on the turntable? "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield

ScriptFrenzy - that's a wrap

So, I have completed my script for ScriptFrenzy this year, 101 pages.

Funny I always seem to hit almost exactly 100 pages every time I write a ScriptFrenzy script (I've done it five times), of course 100 pages is the amount I need to "win". But I never overrun which is surprising since I barely plan these things - I start with a rough idea of the characters and the plot, and nothing else (except last year which was an adaptation).

The Teacher has suggested it's my magazine training. Nearly 20 years of writing articles for magazines (and editing them) has meant I have had "writing to length", "writing to style" and "writing to deadline" drilled into me until it happens automatically. I will write the correct length of script - almost to the page - by the deadline. I like deadlines, though not for the same reason as Douglas Adams, that's one reason I do ScriptFrenzy, I know I'll come out the other end, a month later, with a feature script.

Anyway it's done, codename Rebels, now I have a polish to do on Running which will take a couple of days and then it's on to the rewrite of Winter. Finally.

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What's on the turntable? "Brandenburg Concerto No. 1" by J S Bach.

ScriptFrenzy 2011, part the second

I have been remiss and not blogged for a while.

But I have been busy, among other things with ScriptFrenzy, however while battering my way through the first draft of this 100 page feature script this evening I had a passing thought which I thought I'd share with you. Because you are my friend.

It's to do with what you call your characters in your script ... or perhaps it's to do with what I call my characters in my script. I don't mean the choice of name (although that is relevant, of course), but how you say it.

I have a character called George Hadfield, he is the father of Victoria Hadfield. She is the protagonist, and the story is set in 1911.

It's been bugging me for some time now - actually through the entire script that I refer to him as "George". This is very very wrong because it communicates entirely the wrong message. Apart from the bit where Victoria shouts "Daddy, my Daddy" (ok, this is a first draft, that will be going) she refers to him as "Father" because that is the appropriate level of respect.

You've seen Mary Poppins? Of course you have. The children refer to their Father as Father.

Since Victoria is the protagonist and the audience will be identifying with her, they will have to have the same level of respect.

But, you may say, they won't be reading the script. This is true, but people will be reading the script - script readers to name but one variety of person who will. And they will get the wrong idea, they will not have the right level of respect for George, or rather, for Mr Hadfield.

So there, I thought I'd share that with you. What we call people in the script can be important.

I hope you're thoroughly impressed. Now I must stop procrastinating, I need to finish up to at least page 60 tonight to stay on schedule, but that's only a couple of pages to go and I do have it all mapped out now.

Perhaps I shouldn't worry, he's going to be dead within the next five pages, and Victoria is going to very sad.

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What's on the turntable? "Shining Morn" by Gordon Giltrap from "Shining Morn"

ScriptFrenzy 2011

So we're on Day 5 and, as of yesterday, I was on target - not sure if I'll get my 3-4 pages done this evening but we shall see. (Might help if I stopped prevaricating.)

But I have a name Rebels (not Rebellion, not personal enough), a plot, I have characters and I have flora-jutsu: the use of flowers in a combat situation.

I know, sounds silly, but that's deliberate; in fact it's far from silly in context. An amateur botanist from 1911 will use every weapon she has to hand, especially when she's in a long dress and a corset, faced with a character reminiscent of Dredger from the recent Sherlock Holmes.

It was all the Teacher's fault. I was picking her brains about what a well-brought-up young girl suddenly finding herself in impecunious circumstances could do. "She could work as a florist", says the Teacher. "Like Eliza."

You see, it wasn't my fault.

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What's on the turntable? "Don't Go" by Yes from "Magnification"

You're going to think I'm just rambling but...

...I have a plan, and it's cunning.

Six days to the meeting with the agent.

Bring ideas they said. "What else you got?" I have ideas, quite a few. (And twelve original ideas for Hustle plots.) How about two kids series from the 70s that could be "re-imagined" for Saturday evening. A naughty $200m blockbuster book adaptation without permission (my excuse? Kate Leys told me to just write it - and, to be honest, I had to get it out of my head). And some original stuff.

Bit like the perennial question that established writers get: "Where do you get your ideas from?" The correct answer is, of course, everywhere.

I like to use ScriptFrenzy to knock out feature scripts, it's a handy deadline to write a script in a month. But this year I was thinking, hm, I've got no feature script idea, and I have a rewrite on Winter to do. And we're halfway through March. (Mind you, the last two years I've done the scripts in two weeks rather than the permitted four.) So maybe I'll skip it this year.

Timeline is a fairly poo movie that was on TV this evening. I read the book first, that was a bit poo too, and read like a movie treatment, which I guess it was. It should have been a better movie, but it wasn't.

But that's not the point.

I was watching the end of it (nothing would make me watch all of it again - well, nothing except money, or love, or cake. Especially cake.) and a scientific question formed in my mind. Something about the technology being used for the time travel. And this scientific question begat another question (also in my mind). And the second question begat a "what if"* ... and suddenly I had a plot for a feature**.

So I'll need to knock that into some sort of structural shape before April 1st, and knock the whole thing out in a couple of weeks because that's how I roll. (Unlike some I don't roll by turning over and over - that's just so last millennium.)

And that's another idea I can present to the agent.

Easy as falling off a log. (And, as someone who has fallen off a log or two in his long log-standing career, I can confirm that it really is that easy. And often as painful.)

Right. That's enough garbage for one evening. Night-night.

* In my mind.

** Guess where - though I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget.

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What's on the turntable? "In the Gallery" by Dire Straits from "Dire Straits"

Muddy waters

Not the great blues singer - I've hit act III of my ScriptFrenzy script and I'm procrastinating.

Now the movie plot has to deviate significantly from the book plot because the original ending just won't work for an action movie.

Mostly, up to now, I'd been following the storyline although I had changed the order of some events and lost a few superfluous characters.

If truth be told, I haven't envisaged the ending fully - and without a place to go, how do you know how to get there?

Better think quickly, I need to finish this today.

EDIT: I pondered, I resolved, I wrote - and finished. That's ScriptFrenzy done for me this year.

I have been watching...

Warehouse 13 - fun, popcorn TV. The Prisoner - nowhere near as bad as the bleating sheep try to make you believe. Sir Ian is wonderful, of course. Some nice little nods to the original but it's definitely its own story. Weirdly enough it reminded me most of The Truman Show. And they kept the rovers, lovely. Ashes to Ashes - excellent. The Mentalist - why try to make a modern Sherlock Holmes when you have this? (Which is a modern Sherlock Holmes.) Flash Forward - rather good. Dr Who - Spitfires in space! What else is there to say? Heroes - the ship has been turned around, but I doubt anyone will believe me.

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What's on the turntable? Bach's Prelude No.1 played Jacques Loussier and his jazz trio. (I've added a Spotify link, I wonder if it'll work)

Cooking with Gas

Missed a couple of days of Scriptfrenzy but I'm on 41 pages which is well ahead. Really need to finish this quickly so I can get on with Winter.

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What's on the turntable? "Fear of the Dark" by Stare from "Haunted"

It's the first day of Scriptfrenzy and by sheer chance I have a free day so I'm getting ahead with my adaptation, sitting alone in this Birmingham hotel. On page 12 so far.

It has to be said this script is a work of love - as someone blogged recently the idea of not being passionate about a script you're written is a bit silly. But I really love this book. It's available for option.

It's a book that had a profound effect on me when I was young and, apart from having rounded characters for even the smallest bit part, it is gloriously visual and structured like a blockbuster*.

I just pray that I can communicate the original author's vision because no matter how beautiful I make it (assuming I do), it's a shadow of the original.

Mind you it's also a relief to finally get it out and on to paper ... well, electrons.

*Except the end, which needs to be very different to work as a movie ending. And the beginning which was a very nice beginning but not a movie beginning ... I'm also leaving out some main characters and combining others. Well look, a novel is not a movie and never will be, you can't be blind to these things.

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What's on the turntable? "Fairground" by Simply Red from "Simplify"

Update

After my feedback from Blue Cat I've gone through the script of Running doing a general clean-up and trimming of dialogue and scenes. Doesn't really seem to have shortened it much.

Mind you I am now slightly embarrassed: As I mentioned this was a second draft and, as it turns out, it was packed with errors. Okay, in my universe a grammatical error every couple of pages = "packed" - but honestly there were so many adverbs plus continuous and passive tenses it was painful.

To think I sent them that ... and I've had it up on Inktip for the last few months as well. It even got downloaded a few times. Oh dear. Basically I just completely forgot that it had had no feedback at all, and no rewrites.

Anyway it's all shiny now. So I'll pop it back for the competition.

I originally wrote Running during a ScriptFrenzy a couple of years ago. And I've just decided I'm going to do it again (4th time). I find the deadline of 100 pages in 30 days to be very helpful in forcing page writing. I also have a script I've wanted to write for a few years, so I'll be doing that. We will give it the codename of Babel.

In fact this is a genuine secret project, it's an adaptation of a novel by a very famous author that made a huge impression on me, I know the option is available and I've been talking to the author's agent for several years. I spoke to Kate Leys about the project at the last Screenwriters Festival and she told me I should definitely write the script and not worry about the option for now - because I'm already in a good position.

So I will.

(There's another secret project which I'll call Beijing, another adaptation for which I have consent from the author but I won't be getting to that for a while.)

Next up is Winter in it's new guise as a period piece. Although the script isn't finished we now have a producer on board - and this project is very "serious". The producer is already asking very serious questions so we can nail down a budget because this one is going to involve money and everything.

As mentioned by Director Chris we need to find our niche in this world - play to our strengths. We both love SF and Fantasy - but those don't generally come cheap when it comes to production, so we shall be experimenting with the CG route. And if you want a clue to our plans I refer you to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

It's very interesting and very exciting.

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What's on the turntable? "Lerandis" by Cluster from "Qua"

Miaow

Amazing - or at least, interesting.

I got my Blue Cat feedback today. So I thought I'd include a picture from "Dougal and the Blue Cat" - the first Magic Roundabout film - and when I typed "Dougal" into Google, it was the first item in the list.

This feedback is a bit of a marketing trick really, give early entrants the feedback early and let you resubmit, at additional cost. Thing is it doesn't cost that much to resubmit (and get more feedback) so there's no downside.

And the feedback was fairly decent, you could argue they're being nice to encourage me to spend more money, well, okay, but I'm sufficiently far from this script to see the advice makes good sense.

I wrote Running during ScriptFrenzy two years ago and this was the second draft, which I didn't even re-read before sending to Blue Cat (not that I'd necessarily recommend doing that, but at least I know I can spull and do gud gramma). I'd written it originally for a Director I'd met through the Screenwriters Festival - but it wasn't exactly what he was looking for.

So, time to get things moving again - in between working on my website project and Winter I'll re-work Running and their suggestions will probably knock a good few pages out which won't be a bad thing, it's currently 100 pages so losing 10 pages will be fine.

I'm quite looking forward to it.

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What's on the turntable? "Rainy days and Mondays" by The Carpenters - Karen's voice is possibly the most beautiful in the entire universe, what a loss.

Evening off

As my reward to myself for finishing Scriptfrenzy successfully I'm having the evening off and just watching some TV. And catching up on my email.

Due to my Internet problems I haven't had any email for 2 days and it all came flooding through this evening once the gates were opened - and, as I stepped delicately through the sea of messages, picking my way through the flotspam and jetspam. I came across the report on my fun Being Human/Torchwood 15-minute crossover script. See this for full details.

I have to admit that, after my little debacle with Unit X, I had suffered a little from self-doubt. Was it possible I only had two good scripts in me? I didn't actually believe it, but those little niggles can be hard to squash (even with the heel of your shoe). Besides you can't let something like that stop you. Pah!

So what was the result? It got what you might call a 6/10 - characterisation and dialogue good for all the Being Human characters (particularly George) and Jack Harkness from Torchwood, but less so for Ianto and Gwen. Lots of nice Wizard of Oz references; and basically a fun read.

BUT, viewed as real script, the plot was more Torchwood style so didn't do the Being Human characters any favours and 15 pages really isn't enough for character depth when you have seven major characters (don't forget the baddie: Mrs Wormwood from The Sarah Jane Adventures).

I've decided to get another opinion on this - not because I disagree, I completely agree - but one viewpoint (even one as good as Philip Shelley) is never enough. Not even for this - because you need to be able to compare and contrast viewpoints to extract the full meat.

However it does answer one really important question: Can I write in the voices of characters from someone else's show? Apparently I can.

This is good.

(I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I have spent some time re-doing my background research on my next project, Tec . Have to put together a nice complex plot.)

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What's on the turntable? "Hunter" by Bjork from "Homogenic"

Done it!

So, this evening my Internet was completely failing to do anything useful. (As I am not at home we are, of course, back to Rubbish Internet(tm) except it's been okay, until this evening.)

And there was nothing on the TV.

So I analysed future probabilities - what if my Internet didn't come back? I must finish the script tonight so that I can upload it tomorrow at work to be sure that I win ScriptFrenzy (I hate failing - especially when it's just words on a page).

So I did.

I wrote the final action scenes involving lots of people getting shot to death.

It was also one of the more poignant scenes in the whole script - plus lots of little twisty turny twisty-turny bits. It all came out in the wash very cleanly, every plot point resolved, everything rounded off nicely.

Not as quickly as that zenith of action writing Die Hard which resolves about eight plot lines in 30 seconds at the end. A masterpiece.

Now Celtx has to send the file to its online PDF creator - which meant I had no idea how many pages I'd written. I needed six.

But come 10:30pm my Internet was back and Celtx told me I'd written 101 pages (not including the title page). I'm a winner! Part of the deal with ScriptFrenzy is that they engage in charitable activities, and I always give - but after I complete the task.

My third ScriptFrenzy win - 101 pages in 15 days. Cool.

Now I have to let it compost for a while before taking an objective look and ripping it to shreds.

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What's on the turntable? "No Expectation Boulevard" by Vangelis from "Bladerunner CD3"

A Walk in the Park

The Screenwriter's Festival has got a new-look website and they've told the whole world who I am. I order you not to go and find out - assuming you don't already know.

And then they have the audacity to suggest that writing this blog (as they put it "significantly more regular than many others", of course I haven't actually posted in - what? Two days? That's bad for me) ... they have the audacity to suggest that this might actually interfere with my screenwriting.

How little they know me.

I'm up to 88 pages on Running which means that I have 12 pages to do in the next 3 evenings - a walk in the park. I have just completed a car chase which was almost embarrassing for a script to do with Parkour. However the characters had to get somewhere fast, and the main character was, at that point, not even capable of walking unaided.

But she's better now, thanks to the miracle of nano-technology.

Speaking of walks in the park - I have now done two days in my new job. As previously mentioned I am now working at the Open University in Milton Keynes. It's a very special kind of University, it has all the trappings of academia but (blessing from heaven) no students - at least none on campus.

I'm staying at a B&B - sorry, 4-star Guest House - a little over a mile from where I'm working so once again I can walk to work. Through leafy lanes, fields and parkland surrounded by English rural countryside. I could get used to this. Yesterday I got soaked from the rain as I walked back - and I really didn't care. It's worth checking out the Wikipedia entry to see how Milton Keynes was designed to work for both cars and people.

It's true that there is the constant sound of cars in the background but that's the price you pay for being both rural and urban simultaneously.

In case you're interested the contract is going well so far, except that all the work I did yesterday was deleted by someone else at the end of the day. Thanks. It took me less time to get back to the same position, of course, and I have powered onwards.

I was brought in because they are on deadline and their programmers were taken ill (not Swine Flu as far as I know). I'm not sure I can hit their deadline (particularly not losing a day and a half - the day's work plus re-doing it) but I shall try.

I'm not a fan of the news, I am a fan of Charlie Brooker and his Newswipe prog - it explains exactly why I have ignored the news as much as possible for the last 20 years. Except he explains it more succinctly and with more humour than me.

But the Swine Flu thing did scare the life out of me - it sounded exactly like the backstory in my TV script Monsters. I had to go and do some research just to confirm that it wasn't killing too many people. That's one future I'd rather not be the prophet of.

So let's see how many pages I can knock out, at least 4, tonight.

EDIT: 6 pages. Oh yes.

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What's on the turntable? "An Architect's Dream" by Kate Bush from "Aerial CD2: A Sea of Honey"

Scriptfrenzy 4 days to go

Well, I needed to catch up today.

And I also needed to prepare for my first week in Milton Keynes and the trip down, new place to stay.

Everything went off fairly smoothly, the trip down was reasonably quick - only 1.5 hours on the train plus 30 min at the start and 15 min at the end: 2.25 hours end to end. (When I was doing Dundee last year it was 8 hours total travel time.)

But I was falling behind on Running. I got up and walked the dog at 6:15am this morning, got back about 7am, and wrote a couple of pages. Later I wrote a couple more.

Then I piled it on in the train and wrote some more this evening before watching William Goldman being interviewed on The South Bank Show.

So how did I do? Twelve pages. Result! I'm now on 87 pages, and if I had taken the trouble to write a couple more I'd be on same level as someone who'd started at the beginning and done 4.6 pages per day. (But I didn't.)

So that was good. Well it was semi-good, the actual content is not so hot, lots of tightening up needed and probably junking most of this sequence I've just written. But it's first draft so we don't really need to worry about that.

Anyway, off to bed now ready for discovering what the new contract will bring tomorrow.

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What's on the turntable? "Pi" by Kate Bush from "Aerial CD1: Sea of Honey"

Academia

Fresh out of university I did not want the type of job that other graduates of possibly the best computer degree in the world were getting.

I graduated in Computer Science from Manchester University about 28 years ago. It was a course that I doubt gets taught anywhere any more. We were taught everything about computers: from how the electrons flow through the wires, through constructing the basic circuits that all computers are built on, up through programming basics that have never and will never change, to managing massive database systems. Nowadays the courses tend to specialise - we covered everything.

And where did most graduates of this amazing course go? They went to write payroll systems for large corporations.

I was always bit of a rebel, in a very middle class sort of way. In my third year I did a subsidiary course in the History of Music, I've always had an interest in music - I can get a tune out of most things but can't play any individual instrument at all well. Doing this additional course caused real problems because it ran to a completely different schedule and entailed a long walk between the various campus areas.

My intentions were less about learning music history and more about the girls - no, that's a lie - I really wanted access to the Music Faculty's music technology lab, I wanted to play with the synthesizers. I wanted to be like Mike Oldfield. I had a band in the second year that managed just one performance, although we had some real talent, in the third year I wanted to go it alone.

Getting back to the point, when I finished my degree course I wanted something different, and eventually landed myself a job with the Open University, making these new-fangled personal computers talk. I added speech output to various types of micro-computer.

It was from there I went off into my career as magazine writer and editor.

The circle turns. On Friday I got offered a new contract, not the one I wanted, once again I'm working for the Open University, this time at their HQ in Milton Keynes. Not to do with talking computers though.

As mentioned in my previous post one thing that will stop you from writing is outside influences - and getting things organised, not to say actually getting the job, has rather interfered with my committing Running to script. I've managed to keep it going but not at the proper rate unfortunately. I'm on 77 pages with 4 days to go, about 6 pages per day.

But I will have a train ride from Manchester to Milton Keynes in which to write, plus evenings in the B&B that I've booked for the week. Six pages per day is not a huge number.

The B&B does have a TV in every room which may be a bit of a problem, and hopefully I'll be able to organise the room so that I can type fairly comfortably. I hope so.

After Running, according to my plan, I'm writing the pilot for my detective TV series Tec (working title). I have been looking for the notebook that contains the notes for Tec I made with my wife a couple of years ago. Unfortunately I can't find it anywhere which is a shame. Still, I can remember most of the points about the plot and a bit of re-research into the unusual disease required for the pilot will tell me what I need to know.

###PRIMEVAL SPOILER (SEASON 3, FIRST 2 EPISODES)

In other news: I note that this new series of BBC's Robin Hood lost 1.3 million viewers last week. It's got lower figures than Primeval. I haven't watched the Robin Hood because of no interest, the first ones were just so poor (in my opinion); Primeval however has got into its stride and this series has had some really good episodes (including actually killing the lead character, permanently).

### END OF SPOILER

I have downloaded all the episodes of Robin Hood to watch them and see why it's lost so many viewers. Is it just because it can't match the Primeval/Britain's Got Talent combo? Or has it improved and driven away some of its viewers? (Ooooh, harsh!)

Of course it's all my opinion, but I shall let you know what I think.

(I also downloaded BBC4's repeat of a Kate Bush concert from 1978. I have been madly in love with Kate Bush since Wuthering Heights.)

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What's on the turntable? "Mrs Bartolozzi" by Kate Bush from "A Sea of Honey", CD1 of "Aerial"

Block and tackle

I wrote nothing yesterday, I hit a wall.

As regular readers will know, I loathe the concept of "Writer's Block". I believe I am justified in this loathing (obviously) and I shall explain (this is my view):

When someone says "I can't write, I have writer's block" it's as if they have some sort of disease, that it's something outside themselves preventing them from writing.

There certainly are things from "outside" that might stop you from writing, like worries about money, or a loved one's had an accident, or you have someone close to you who is constantly undermining you.

These are real external issues - they are not a disease and they are not "Writer's Block", but they can stop you writing.

From my personal experience the only thing that stops me from writing (and I tempted to believe that this is the real truth generally) is that I don't know what to write.

If you don't know what to write then you can't write it.

So clearly the trick is: find out what to write.

I've known for a couple of days that I have a problem with my plan for Running, it was too low-level from the start. In other words what I was writing as an Act-level description was really more of a Sequence-level.

And I ran out of plot. I was trying to write my Act III notes when I was barely halfway through. And then I made the mistake of sitting in front of the computer pretending that I was trying to solve the problem - because I knew what it was - when really I was doing nothing.

I faced the fact that I was deluding myself yesterday evening and decided not to try to fix it then and there - because other issues were intruding. Like the fact that I had an interview for a contract in Bristol today and I had to get everything sorted for that.

However that was to my advantage because it meant I had 6 hours of writing time available without interruptions sitting on the train. I made the decision I would sort out my plot problems and write a goodly number of pages today.

Then I had a terrible night. I had to get up about 5:30am, I went to bed at midnight and the dog decided to disturb us during the night. So I was really tired.

I drank a lot of coffee today - but not in the interview, didn't want to get coffee-breath. (The interview seemed to go well but, frankly, I've given up trying to second guess the result. Anyway I have a telephone interview tomorrow and another possibility coming up.)

So I spent the first part fo the journey figuring out how to fix my plot problems. I'm not a fan of flashbacks generally but I thought adding a few really short ones spaced out through the script would help explain things. I made a big note to add some more stuff in one particular scene. Then I sorted out how to fill up Act IIb and Act III.

Then I fell asleep.

I woke up at Birmingham and set about integrating the flashbacks. Rather than abrupt changes to flashback, I wanted to have common elements between the flashback and the present, to make the integration smooth - and that seemed to work well. I also kept them very short, 30 seconds max. (I can always take them out later if I decide they don't add anything.)

Thing is there is the issue that in order to "win" ScriptFrenzy I have to write a script that's 100 pages long. Which may mean padding, though I try not to.

On the way back from Bristol I carried on writing, though I was so tired I fell asleep twice and seemed to jump in space because I almost failed to notice I'd fallen asleep.

In the end I still added only another 7 pages but they were good pages for the most part.

I had a very bright idea for a Parkour action scene in a location I'm betting that no one else has ever done. I like the process of putting your hero into a situation that it's completely impossible to get them out of, and then getting them out of it in an entirely logical way. In this instance the "getting them out of the impossible situation" put them into the new location.

(I had fun with that one in my Une Nuit a Paris script where the hero and the prostitute are chained up in an S&M room in a brothel. Getting them out of there was ... interesting.)

However I ran into an interesting problem: It was rubbish. There was no drama, no impetus, nothing.

Now I like writing action, apparently I'm good at it. The stuff I usually write is exciting and full of will-they won't-they tension.

But not this. It was as limp as a dunked Rich Tea biscuit. There is no tension because the people running away are not being closely pursued by their enemies, and there are no enemies ahead of them. Just look at all the Die Hard movies, the real tension comes when the jeopardy is right there, right NOW.

So that needs sorting out.

In the meantime I now know where I'm going again, and I can write again. There is no "Writer's Block" - just not knowing what to write.

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What's on the turntable? "The Last Time I Saw Richard" by Joni Mitchell from "Blue"

My Yesterday

What a yesterday.

I'd had this cunning plan about taking the dog for the morning constitutional. Settling down to a day of things (some involving writing), job applications, household chores and so forth.

Step 1 usually proceeds as follows: Leave house about 7:10am (the Teacher and the Boy will already have left by this point) take dog on nice big walk - mainly for my health. Meet the Daughter heading for the bus to college on the way back, about 8:00am. Into house for coffee, proper breakfast then start work.

This went well, met the Daughter, arrived at house. No keys. Hurry to try to catch the Daughter before bus arrives. Fail. Locked out of house. Most neighbours already gone to work. Find one who's still in and get a selection of tools: (a) hammer; (b) crowbar; (c) screwdriver; and (d) wallpaper stripper. This neighbour then leaves for work as well.

So there I am at the back of the house. The large set of windows are too big to tackle. The smaller window is one possibility, and there's the pane in the backdoor. Which is the smallest.

I try to take the window frame in the door apart to see if I can remove the pane intact. I make the edges of the glass pane accessible, using my motley tools, but it refuses to shift. I contemplate taking out the wood in the door panel - decide against it.

Frustration, a barking and confused dog, and a desire to go the loo force me to the decision I don't want to make. I grab my hat and the hammer. Place hat against glass and belt it with the hammer.

I gain access, carry the dog over the glass and call a glazier to fix it. Which happens four hours later.

I leave the dissection of the above story into its component dramatic parts as an exercise for the reader.

This morning proceeded according to plan, apart from the meeting of the Daughter on her way to college. This is because she didn't go to college. Instead she's off to that London for her audition at RADA, I sent her off a little while ago. She's done a fair amount of long distance train travel by herself so it's not too much of a worry. But she's never been to London by herself.

Not that I'm worried - for a start RADA is close enough to walk from Euston station. Not that you would walk anyway, but you could. And, as has been mentioned occassionally, but for the benefit of new readers (Hi Ellie!), her personal safety is not an issue she is competent at killing and maiming any potential attacker (2nd Dan Jujitsu - Jujitsu is the Samurai self-defence art from which both Karate and Judo are derived, the training involves disabling your opponent as fast as possible by any means; she's been training since she was 5, she fought off three attackers several years older than herself when she was 7).

I hope she does well, Bristol Old Vic very annoyingly said she was good but too young - she's of small stature and looks young but she's 18 (in two weeks) for heaven's sake! And also far more worldly wise than most people her age.

Sorry, rant over.

As I mentioned in my brief note last night I only managed 6 pages for ScriptFrenzy yesterday, though that's still ahead of the required average. Problem was there was a fair amount of action again which takes longer to write and occupies less space on the page.

But as I also said I wrote possibly the best scene I've ever written.

As we all know, as a writer, you do not put in camera instructions or anything that is "telling the director how to direct" - this, in some ways, is purely practical because the director will automatically not do that if you put it in.

But, with good use of language, you can create direction in the reader's mind's eye, and perhaps the director will do it because he imagines it the way you wrote it - but you're not telling him how to do it.

This is why I felt this particular scene is my best. Through the description of the scene I directed attention. It's not a long scene, it has only one line of dialogue, but I felt it directed the attention of the reader clearly and in such a way that the events in the scene had maximum emotional impact, and it is a hugely emotional scene with a major reveal for the audience and a different huge realisation for the protagonist - the thing everyone else had been telling her that she did not want to admit.

Which makes me think of Frankenstein's monster.

Lucy discussed themes recurring in your work I said I write about outsiders and trying to find a place in the world. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I write about Frankenstein's monster - in different ways, of course.) Maybe that's why I love "Rocky Horror" so much.

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What's on the turntable? "Speak to me/Breathe" by Pink Floyd from "Dark Side of the Moon". Perfection. If any band ever used the theme of alienation, it would be the Floyd.