Unpublished posts: Sticking stuff in my eyes

Here is an unpublished and unfinished blog post from space year 2014. It is a little bit like a time capsule. How could 2014 Rob know that eventually even he would be ready for the Moffat era to end, though I would have kept Capaldi forever. 

Also, Gotham did eventually manage to become a complete car crash.

Stay safe. 

2020 Rob. 

—-

Some of the things I've enjoyed watching in 2014...

Doctor Who

I think, for once, everybody expected the new Doctor to be fantastic but Peter Capaldi still managed to exceed most expectations. What an extraordinary, prickly, comical, considered and occasionally Machiavellian-seeming Doctor he has been. 

The consistency of this run has been excellent, with only one bum note out of the last sixteen episodes. Securing the talents of Ben Wheatley to direct two episodes shows just how much the production team want to keep the programme fresh. If the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who ever comes to an end, and I rather hope it doesn't, it will surely be looked back on as the most ambitious and innovative period of the show since the 1960s.

That's my opinion, others are available.

Days of Future Past and Guardians of the Galaxy - I loved Captain America: The Winter Soldier but it somehow managed to be my third favourite comic book film this year, purely through having the bad luck to be released in the same year as X-Men: Days of Future Past and the amazeballs Guardians of the Galaxy. What a year for comic films when you can almost overlook The Winter Soldier. 

X-Men: Days of Future Past had a slight advantage as I am already a pronounced fan of X-Men films and comics and was really bloody excited about it. Aside from translating a truly classic comic story to the big screen (Proteus next please!), this film was going to bring together the casts of two separate and somewhat contradictory big screen X-Men films and confront the continuity problems (well, some of them anyway). The end result could have been a total mess but instead produced probably the best X-Men film yet made and certainly one of the films of the year. X-Men: Days of Future Past is a work of genius. 

I'm excited all over again at the thought of the extended version expected next year. I can't get enough of this film.  

Guardians of the Galaxy had me excited too but for different reasons. I had no knowledge of the comics at all so was purely excited at the prospect of a new and seeminlgy very different Marvel Studios film.

Penny Dreadful

I wanted to hate this. It was for completely selfish reasons, mind. I have been trying to nail the concept for a supernatural Victorian returning drama for a few years. I might as well give it up now. Penny Dreadful won me over quickly with its lush visuals, fantastic performances and genuinely frightening moments. Eva Green shines among a stupendous cast as the sad and terrifying Vanessa Ives. Series two is one of my most anticipated events of 2015. 

Black Mirror: White Christmas

The emergence of Charlie Brooker as a world class screenwriter should have surprised no one. With Dead Set he took his wise and demented eye and created a darkly amusing drama that reflected the same concerns and drive that infused his writing and broadcasting. With Black Mirror he has further explored these themes and honed his skills. White Christmas, his feature length Black Mirror portmanteau special, was Brooker epitomised. Intelligent, vulgar, horrifying and compassionate. 

Bolstered by the talents of the incomparable John Hamm, Rafe Spall and Oona Chaplin among others. 

Mad Men

One of the greatest questions facing humanity in 2015 must be this one: What are we going to do in a world without Mad Men? It's with the familiar sense of hot anticipation and rising calamity that I look forward to the last ever episodes of this extraordinary series in a few months. 

Gotham

Gotham is really, really good. It feels weird writing that as it should be a total car crash. But it isn't. 

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Continues to improve. In a world glutted with mediocre comic book tv series SHIELD continues to carve its own path. Uniquely tied into an ongoing series of films it this year gave us something we have never seen before. We were able to see a TV series cross over with a mutimillion dollar movie, The (outstanding) Winter Soldier, and use it to prompt a massive change in direction for the show. SHIELD does not get enough recognition for its innovation and plumb uniqueness. 

Ghostbusters

Parks and Rec

Also of note...

Flash, Arrow (by association), American Horror Story, The Lego Movie, Frozen, Star Wars, Star Wars, STAR WARS!!!!!

Some of the things I've enjoyed reading in 2014...


Bendis' X-Men

Snyder's Batman

Tomasi's Batman and Robin

Hickman

Doctor Sleep

The Dark Tower

Nadolig Llawen!

Merry Christmas everyone, and a showstopping 2015. 

Love always,

Rob. 

The Blog Tour

You must know about this thing. Do you know about this thing? Okay, well there's this thing called the blog tour and it's been passed around from one blogging writer to another. Well from one writer to three others, actually (which kind of reminds me of the projections for how long it would take John Carpenter's The Thing to entirely infect the Earth's population). 

The idea is for writers to answer four questions about their work and habits. The man, the legend, Phill Barron was kind enough to nominate me for a turn - which puts me in pretty awesome company. Phill doesn't like John Carpenter's The Thing (I know!) but I don't hold that against him.

I'm sure you're already familiar with Phill's blog but if you aren't then check it out. His no bullshit perspective on writing and the filmmaking process is invaluable, and always a breath of fresh air. He's written a shedload of films what got made too.

So, on to the questions...

1) What am I working on? 

Um... Well, I've almost finished decorating my little boy's bedroom...

But seriously, without getting all self pitiful (been there, done that), I've struggled to keep a good work routine since my little boy was born. There's been a lot going on for us and it's hard to be in full time work with a family and still bash out the words if you get some free time. 

Yeah, I know. It's hard. Boo hoo. Anyway, he's a big lad of (nearly) four now and I've been determined that this year writing becomes a priority again. 

Trouble is I'm out of my preferred cycle and I don't really feel like I'm working on any one thing. There are a couple of spec scripts rotting in rewrite limbo which are in dire need of taking apart and fixing. One is a pilot which I love but fear I may have been sat on too long. The other is a horror feature set in Wales which (I think) has the potential to be awesome but is nowhere near there yet.

I'm brainstorming a couple of spec projects which I want to take to script in the next month or so. They're both in mediums I've not really tried before which is cool. I hope the clickety-clack frenzy of a draft zero will be the nitrous injection I need to kick my writing process back into gear. 

One is a radio comedy. I haven't written anything funny, (well, not deliberately funny) for years and (despite being a big fan of The Navy Lark, Hancock's Half Hour, Nebulous, Cabin Pressure, the works of Big Finish and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) I've never written anything for audio. Not ever. So I'm very bloody excited about that. I don't want to say anything about the other thing yet in case I break the magic, you know how fragile it can be. 

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

I don't think I have "a" genre. I'll write just about anything, same as I will read, watch or listen to just about anything. I guess if I'd ever had great success in a genre that might have changed but, as it stands, so far so good!

So lets ignore the genre thing and just ask how does my work differ from others? Oh shit, let's not do that. That's even worse. 

As Ray Davies sang, "I'm not like everybody else". None of us are. What makes my work different is me. My experiences and perspectives. My hang ups and obsessions. My secrets and my fears.

And maybe an over-awareness of my place in the universe.

3) Why do I write what I do? 

To see if I can. To test myself. I don't like to stick to comfort zones in my work so if I'm choosing between ideas for a future project I'm more likely to go for the most difficult one because that's the experience that will teach me the most.

Does everyone do that?


4) How does my writing process work? 

First I find a successful writer, then I lure them to my stone altar... 

This feels a bit pretentious. My process is nothing special. It's a mixture of things I've read in "how to" books, the insights of other writers and what I've found works, or doesn't, for me personally.

Still, the question has been asked.

First there's The Idea. Unless I've just woken up one day and said something like "Hey, how come I never wrote a radio comedy?" in which case first, there's the format. Then, later, sometimes much later, there's The Idea. In either case The Idea will be hurriedly scribbled in Evernote or an actual physical notebook and left to it's own devices for a while. Some ideas don't get beyond this stage. Actually most ideas don't get beyond this stage but they're probably just rubbish. 

When an idea starts to actually look like a viable story then out comes the A4 notepad and I start brainstorming that sumbitch. At this point I'm most interested in the possibilities of the idea, whether it or something similar has been done before and whether it worked. Basically - is there any point writing this? If the idea were to explore the Cosa Nostra in New York City through the course of the twentieth century then I'm unlikely to think, "hey, I can do that better than The Godfather." Although, if there was an angle... 

Actually, I'm aware that a personal failing of mine is to be too ready to think my idea is similar to something that has been done. If I'm not careful I can let that kill an idea dead before I've really considered its potential. At the end of the day, especially with specs and Hollywood, no one else will care if it's been done before if it's good enough.  

After the storming of the brain comes a one pager. From there we go to some index cards or an electronic alternative. 

Once I know who's who and what's going to happen then I'll want get into Draft Zero when I should be nailing the treatment. This takes some self control. I'm not a meticulous planner by nature, I like to busk. I can be so eager to get started (this is the fun bit - I'm actually writing!) that I go off half-cocked. So it's about nailing the story without going off the boil. I don't know that I've perfected this. I mentioned those lumbering rewrites, didn't I?

Once that draft is done then it goes on ice for as long as possible (my one NaNoWriMo effort still hasn't been defrosted). 

I'll read it straight through first to see if it's any good and make sure it's not just a hundred pages of "I am a fish". If it's salvageable then I start making notes. Usually reading off the screen and making notes on an A4 pad. 

It's pretty much rinse and repeat after that until I start to feel I could stomach the thought of someone else reading it. The first reader is always my wife. She's an English teacher by profession and damned good at spotting issues, from typos to plot problems. She'll always have notes and then it's back to work I go. 

After a few more drafts, if I'm getting to be generally happy with the script, I'll start looking at specifics like dialogue only, sometimes looking at the dialogue of individual characters in isolation. Any dead pages? Any unnecessary characters or scenes? Are the action lines as sparse as Poundland on Boxing Day?  If it's a comedy I'll count and categorise the laughs. 

Alright, that's enough of that. This is all pretty obvious, isn't it? You'd be far better off reading what Phill or Piers wrote for this anyway.

Now it's time for my taggees. I'll let them introduce themselves...  

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Lucy V. Hay is a novelist, script editor, screenwriter and blogger who helps writers via her Bang2write consultancy at www.bang2write.com. Lucy’s script editing credits include the British Thrillers ASSASSIN , DEVIATION and ACT OF GRACE and she is the author of WRITING AND SELLING THRILLER SCREENPLAYS and THE DECISION: LIZZIE'S STORY. A trained teacher, Lucy is Head Reader for The London Screenwriters' Festival's screenwriting competitions and schemes. As a script reader, Lucy has worked for funding initiatives and screen agencies, as well as literary agents and individual producers, directors and writers, new to professional. Lucy can be found on Twitter (www.twitter.com/Bang2write), plus her writing group “Bang2writers” is on Facebook (www.facebook.com/bang2writers) and at LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Bang2writers-4650546.

Bang2Write

www.bang2write.com

-----------------------------------------

Lucy doesn't like John Carpenter's The Thing.

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Rachael Howard introduces herself as follows: 

Only 75 words? Cripes. Well I’ve been writing since I could hold a crayon. Early success in a class Limerick competition gave me a boost, I won a pen so binned the crayon. I’m not a guru, just another writer pottering away. I tackle Film, TV, Radio, Stage and Novels. Some have been wrestled into submission, some are fighting on. Feel free to pop by and say hello at @rachwrite or my blog.

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I don't know where Rach stands on John Carpenter's The Thing.

Check out Lucy and Rachael's blogs next Monday for the next stops on The Blog Tour. 

Stickler OUT!

Follow the White Rabbit

In which I ramble on about The Matrix and Hugo Weaving's teeth. No one can be told what the The Matrix is but there will be spoilers here...

Watched The Matrix the other night, for the first time in years. Well it was New Year's Eve, actually. Way to ring in the new year.

We all loved The Matrix, didn't we? It was different and gritty and science fictiony in a way we hadn't seen done well for a while. Then, a few years later, there were a couple of sequels that somewhat tarnished the original. Actually I've never seen the third one, that's why I wanted to rewatch the original. They're running them on ITV or somewhere. I fancied some of that. 

I really enjoyed most of it. For one thing I've always really liked Keanu Reeves, ever since seeing him in a film called Permanent Record (which I loved!). 

Anyway, The Matrix. I love the atmosphere of it. Future noir. Rain. Lightning. Blade Runner. Decay. Shabby hotels. Derelict buildings. Inside the matrix everything is grey and it rains every night. In the real world everyone wears sackcloth tops and eats something that looks like... Well, it don't look too tasty, let's just say. 

There's a rich sprinkling of philosophy, history and big ideas through the film. They turn out to be little more than a garnish, but they are there and they do provoke thought. 

I love the little details. The window cleaner's squeaky sponge when Neo is summoned to his bosses office for being late.

It's plain that the Wachowskis have a very special vision. 

Laurence Fishbourne, Joe Pantaliano and Hugo Weaving are just on fire. Terrific performances. Cypher's treachery especially is played with total conviction. I find it quite affecting that the character would rather live a fantasy as a battery than fight for survival in the real world. 

The idea of an insane artificial intelligence combined with Weaving's rabidly toothy performance as Agent Smith is top dollar. 

And Jebus but that Ericsson phone looked sexy with it's little swishy mouthpiece keypad cover thing.

I remember having the impression that Switch swapped genders between reality and the matrix but I didn't get that when rewatching. Maybe I was reading a bit too much into that (Nice idea though, with the self image avatars). 

So I was really having a great time. And then they start with the guns. Guns and guns and guns. 

They establish quite quickly that if you die in the matrix you die in the real world. So when Neo and Trinity start shooting the shit out of security guards and policemen those are real humans dying, yes? 'Cos only the agents are artificial. Right? 

We already know Neo and Trinity can hack the matrix. They know kung fu. Why do they need to massacre these guys? They could probably just run past them. No one but an agent gives them reason to pause. 

Is it for the spectacle? I don't remember how much I liked it in 1999 but it got kind of boring the other night. 

After that though it's all good to the end. The rescue of Neo and his battle with Agent Smith is dynamite. And I still love that closing Neo-does-Clark-Kent bit. 

I've spent over ten years thinking that The Matrix was a full on classic SF film but on rewatching I find it's just pretty damn good fun. Glossy but lacking in real depth. I am disappointed. 

I was never that fussed on number two, Monica Bellucci cameo aside (why didn't they get Vincent Cassel to play her husband????), so I hardly know whether to bother rewatching that now.  

I'd be interested to hear anyone else's opinions on the film. Have I lost the plot? Am I being too harsh? Clue me in.

Resolution

Happy New Year!

I've been wanting to blog for a while now. I've rather fallen out of love with Twitter, I don't know why really, and I guess I've been missing the experience of venting my brain into cyberspace. I still think Twitter is A Good Thing, and really important, but I've been struggling to get back into tweeting, or even reading tweets. 

And anyway it's time the blog got some love. I miss that old blog camaraderie. So few people seem to comment on blogs now. It would be really cool to have some interaction on the here so if you read something you like, or something you hate, or whatever, then drop a comment please and we'll pass the time o'day. 

I'm going to aim to spew up a new post at least once a week. Might be about writing, or telly, or what I had for breakfast (cheese on toast). I really just want to get into a routine. It's a part of a 2014 relaunch strategy I've come up with because it's not just the blog that's been idle for a year. 

I've quite unintentionally taken a little over a year off from writing. I didn't want or mean to but there have been so many things going on in our lives that I've found it impossible to get any coherent work done. There was half a short story in February. Some script pitch busking in the last few months. Otherwise nowt.

So what were the distractions? Many and varied. Minor health issues, commitments, dayjob stuff, poor time management, moving house, and sometimes (for me at least) I think the less free time you have the less effectively you use it. I didn't find time to write but I have managed to complete sixty odd percent of GTA V. *ashamed face*

As a result of this lack of material I'm even missing Red Planet cos I have nothing ready that they've not already seen. That's a wake up call. I bloody love Red Planet. (in the wildly unlikely event that you don't know what I'm on about then go here or listen to this (you still have six days to enter your first ten pages)). 

Anyway, phase one (or January) of my 2014 Relaunch plan involves me coming out of the month having sat at my desk and worked at least three times every week. A modest ambition, surely? I'll keep you posted. 

Has anyone else got a January target they'd like to share with both my readers?

Greetings for Christmas

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, a restful break and an incomparable 2014!

xx

May your days be merry and bright...

Merry Christmas and very best wishes for Space Year 2013! xxx

The Man Inside

Support British cinema and check out Dan Turner's new film - out now!!

"...a quality drama that's down to earth, uncomfortable, well-made and worthwhile." Den of Geek

"This is intelligent and ambitious work." The Guardian

Dan Turner's blog and twitter

The Man Inside on twitter

Five Years

It's five years this month since I started this blog so I thought I'd better squeeze out a commemorative post.


This is it.


I might post something of more substance soon but for the mean time here's one of my very favourite David Bowie songs...

Orbiting the Red Planet

I'm through to the second round of the Red Planet Prize!

What a great surprise it was when the email came, just as I was queueing to pay for a falafel and houmous wrap in Tesco!

This is the third time I've entered the Red Planet Prize, the second with that script, and I'm absolutely over the moon to get to round two for the first time.

Congratulations and good luck to everyone who got through to round two. If you didn't get through this time then don't give up, have a read of these posts...

Jason Arnopp - Your Script Is Not A Lottery Ticket

Phill Barron - Ivory Tower

Script Punk - Red Planet Prize - What's Next?

I'd better get back to work!

Happy be your Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone.

I hope you have a fabulous break and a prosperous 2012.

With love always,

Rob.

xxx

"In the end, winning is the only safety."

While my memories of Doctor Who dribble all the way back to 1979 and beyond I was a teensy bit young for Blake's 7 the first time around. I have a few memories of watching the series from between my fingers* but it wasn't until UK Gold reran the series in it's entirety in the early nineties that I finally got to appreciate the show. I think I went a bit Blake's 7 mad for a while. 

I think I've gone a bit Blake's 7 mad again. I don't know what's caused it. It might have been playing through Mass Effect 2 or reading Iain M. Banks' Player of Games**. It might have been finally getting around to listening to the first of the B7 media audioplays, Rebel, two or three months ago (it's good stuff). It may just have been a rising pitch of excitement since Big Finish were revealed to be preparing a new series of audio dramas and novels. Squee doesn't come close to covering it. I've even dug out issue one of the Blake's 7 poster magazine*** and now have a tatty picture of the series two Liberator crew adorning the study.

Anyway, after talking about it for many years my good lady (or woman, as Gan would say) and I finally started watching the series from the beginning recently. She has never watched it before (well, maybe a few episodes when the DVDs were coming out) and I am well due a rewatch. I might post some notes here as we go. If you are, or were, a fan of Blake's 7 I'd be delighted to have any comments, notes or disputes offered via the comments****.

* I've mentioned this before
** (if the main character isn't at least partly inspired by Kerr Avon I'll eat my hat (and also, I've often thought the AIs in the Culture seem very similar to those of B7))
*** There were only seven issues, and I only ever saw one in a shop, worse luck.
**** I'm not too interested in knocking the effects. I think that's been pretty extensively covered in the last three decades. Of course, I wouldn't let that stand in the way of a good gag.

The Road to the Red Planet

This update is late, sorry. I meant to do a 'What did I learn from NaNoWriMo' type post last week but time has rather got away from me. I will try and do something like that soon but in the meantime I'll just say that it was a really good exercise, got me in to a nice (if intense) routine and I'm happy to have met the traditional target. I hoped initially to write 60k words rather than 50k, and on learning of the Heartlands opportunity I amended this to trying to finish a week early, but due to a family emergency type situation I lost a few days and failed both of those self-imposed targets.

Although it was fun to write I can't see me ever going back to revise the book. It will require a lot of work to make it into a sellable, or even readable, manuscript and the potential for the market is teeny-tiny. Still, the exercise was the important thing. I didn't really set out to create something sellable, just to test myself. On the other hand I could see myself harvesting the plot for a feature script one day...

I definitely want to write another novel, whether I will leave that until next November or get underway sooner I don't know. Having shown myself that hey, I can do this! I think I would like to set a more demanding wordcount target for a fully prepared novel intended for publication.

No sooner had I wandered, dazed and confused, over the NaNoWriMo finish line I was thrown head first into revisiting a bottom(top?)-draw script which I felt was the most appropriate thing I had to enter into the BBC's excellent Heartlands opportunity. It's kind of funny really as I have never known quite what to do with that script but it seemed perfect for Heartlands, or that's my feeling. Fingers crossed they have a similar view at the Beeb. In any case I had a day or two to work that up and send it in. It was pretty rushed but hopefully I managed to make it shine. I genuinely like the script. Actually, while rereading it, I laughed out loud at a couple of lines. I hope that's a sign that the script is good and not a sign that I've lost all perspective on my own work!

The Heartlands shortlist will be announced on Tuesday. Good luck to all.

So now it's all about the Red Planet Prize again. This time I'm going to write something from scratch, specifically for Red Planet. In previous years I've sent in what I thought was my most suitable existing script (as you may remember they passed on what is still my favourite effort last time, sadface). I don't suppose it really makes any difference but I have some superstitious idea that it will infuse each word with extra special Red Planet-ness that will make it a winner, fingers crossed.

Obviously I won't say too much about the script, mainly because I'm not commited yet, I'm still kicking around a couple of ideas, but I'm very excited about writing a new script.

The Red Planet deadline is January 16th.

It's the Final Countdown

Greetings Carbon-based units,

It doesn't look likely that I'll meet my self-imposed target of finishing the novel today. It's a bit of a cliché but real life has caught up with me in a sudden and upsetting way this week which meant that work ground to a halt Wednesday and Thursday.

I guess there's a chance that I might write the last 9,000 or so words tonight but as I will be away from home for at least part of the weekend it's far more likely that I will finish early next week. There is still plenty of time before the official deadline of November 30th, after all. I was hoping to be able to concentrate exclusively on my Heartlands entry all next week but I do have a couple of days booked off from the day job for that purpose so I'm sure I will still be able to catch up.

If this were a film then we'd be at the part where you keep cutting between the clicking countdown and our hero's herculean efforts to beat it...

In Memoriam Freddie Mercury

So dear friends your love is gone

Only tears to dwell upon

I dare not say as the wind must blow

So a love is lost, a love is won

Go to sleep and dream again

Soon your hopes will rise and then

From all this gloom life can start anew

And there'll be no crying soon

Brian May

Freddie Mercury (5 September 1946 - 24th November 1991)

New Writing Talent Search: Heartlands

BBC Writersroom have joined up with the nice folk who make Doctors to develop an exciting opportunity for Midlands-based writers.

Heartlands will provide an industry training and development opportunity for writers with some of the most experienced producers in the country. A shortlist will be invited to a masterclass day. Selected writers will then be chosen to take part in an intensive three-day mini-academy for Doctors, and/or
receive mentoring on their original script from an established writer.

On Monday evening I went along to the launch event at Birmingham Library Theatre.

Will Trotter (BBC Executive Producer, Drama Series) Peter Lloyd (Senior Producer, Doctors) and Paul Ashton (Development Producer, BBC Writersroom) were there to officially launch the search, to talk about BBC One drama, Doctors, and to answer questions.

The main focus of the Q&A was on Doctors, as you would expect, but Paul Ashton did cover the Writersroom unsolicited script process and speak a little about television drama, both in the region and nationally, in the current economic climate.

I came away feeling really excited about the opportunity, but also about Writersroom in general. I think in the past I've thought of Writersroom as a big impersonal mechanical process, but having heard Paul Ashton speaking about it I can see that it really isn't, and of course it wouldn't work if it was.

All in all a brilliant opportunity and I will definitely be entering. The deadline is 9am on December 2nd so no time to waste.

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The NaNoWriMo novel is still chuffing along. Had a very bad time of it last week, so much so that I ended up feeling that the week might have been more productive if I'd just headbutted a wall every night for five days while chanting “NA-NO-WRI-MO-NA-NO-WRI-MO”.

This week I finally seem to be settling back into the groove and I'm now relatively happy with how it's going. Again.

I've found myself recalling the anecdote about Douglas Adams being locked in a hotel suite until he finished So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish quite a lot lately. I think I've found some strength in his example this week and it's helped me pick myself up. I'm also rereading Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency as a small tribute to him and a treat for me.

Support has also been provided by that lovely Neil Gaiman, who linked to this on twitter and cheered me right up. There can't be all that many professions where the news that it doesn’t get any easier can be encouraging.

Something else that I've been reminded of - years ago James Moran mentioned in a blog post that while you might say you don't have time to write, you still find time to watch television every night, or read a book (I can't find the link sorry, so just go and read his Big Writing FAQ again instead). I feel like the living embodiment of this point, having hardly looked at a television or seen my ever supportive wife all month. On the other hand I've written about 26,000 words of prose. It's amazing what you can do when you try, eh?

Due to the Heartlands deadline, and with a heavy heart, I've decided to abandon my secret target word count of 65,000 words. My new ambition is to finish (hit 50k) by November 25th to give me a full week to work on my Heartlands entry. A full week, you scoff. Yes, a full week. Luckily I have just the draft zero script for this competition sitting in a draw. I've been meaning to do something with it for ages but now the opportunity has come knocking it's time to make it shine.

Exciting!

Set Course for the Red Planet!

How curious, here was I just throwing together a post about my progress with NaNoWriMo so far and what I might do next month when BOOM! Scribosphere superstar guru Danny Stack throws down something more exciting to blog about.

Yes, it's that time again - Red Planet Prize 2011/2012

I'll let the man himself fill you in...

It's the best screenwriting competition in the world. Here's why:

- FREE to enter.

- A truly amazing prize: £5k, a script commission and an agent (if you don't already have one).

- Lots of opportunities and mentorship for the finalists.- Robert Thorogood, a finalist in the inaugural 2007 competition, developed his new BBC series 'Death in Paradise' via the Red Planet Prize.

- Many other finalists have launched their careers through the scheme and have worked, or are working, on other shows.

- Quite simply, it's a screenwriting competition by writers for writers.

Here's how it works:

- Submit the 1st ten pages of a 60-minute pilot or one-off 60-minute TV script. Any genre you want. A 100 word synopsis and a 16 word maximum logline is also required.

- If we like your first ten pages, we invite you to submit the entire script.

- A shortlist is compiled. A winner is chosen from an esteemed line-up of judges.

Full details and how to enter can be found on the website. And/or click here to read how and why the competition started.
THE DEADLINE IS 16TH JANUARY 2012.

Plenty of time to think of a new idea, polish the first ten pages to an inch of their life, AND have the entire script finished in case it gets chosen for the second round.

GET WRITING!

I'll be entering, of course, and so should you. It really is the best screenwriting competition out there.

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NaNoWriMo week one has gone pretty well. Hopefully you can see that wee progress bar filling up daily over on the right there. I'm now a quarter of the way to the 50,000 word official target, although I've actually set myself a more challenging target of 65,000 words. I've been pleased with the amount I've been producing. I do have concerns about the quality of the work but hey, that's what Draft Zero is all about.

Most of all I'm just pleased that I'm sitting at my desk every day and bashing out around 2,000 words. It's a long time since I've had a good spell like this and it really feels like a new start.

Even though I'm not accepting an award or anything, I'd like to thank my lovely wife (who is blogless but can usually be found on twitter) for all her support. She's always been enthusiastic about my writing but I'm sure I wouldn't have thrown myself into NaNoWriMo so wholeheartedly if it hadn't been for her encouragement.

I was only thinking this morning that come December, in the post NaNoWriMo glow, I might bash out a first draft on a feature idea I've had knocking around for a few months. Hear the sound of smashing window panes? Now I'll be working on a new TV script for the Red Planet prize - how exciting!