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

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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!

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...

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!

A Novel Idea

Where was I?

Oh yeah. So three weeks tomorrow marks the beginning of NaNoWriMo.

I mentioned this back in May when I revealed that I would be writing a novel in November, though I had no idea what it would be about.

I've been kicking around ideas ever since then. I came up with three possibilities. One quite heavy idea, which seemed like it would be a complex, if rewarding, story to tell. One which was a lighter, more humorous supernatural/detective sort of affair. The final idea is basically my very own pulp novel - A genre mashing thriller with no purpose other than helping me to produce at least fifty thousand words and be a NaNoWriMo winner.

It may seem daft to set out to write something that you think is probably unsellable, but I feel I have the best chance of completing this exercise if it's a fun, relatively straight-forward piece. I can start getting clever and stretching my technique with my second novel, all I want right now is to finish book one.

I'm excited. I've been concentrating on scriptwriting for so long I can't really remember the last prose story I wrote. I feel pretty rusty.

Also, this hasn't been the most productive year for me and I want to use NaNoWriMo to kick start my routine so I can get back down to scripting with some energy.

I may also start blogging more often. I miss blogging and I miss the community of screenwriting blogs we had a few years ago. I love Twitter but it has definitely thrived at the expense of the ol' blog. It's a lot easier to chuck a couple of thoughts straight on to Twitter than it is to develop them into a full post. Even a rambling aimless one like this. Must try harder.

I hope to keep you posted throughout NaNoWriMo but it will depend how I get on. Otherwise you should be able to follow my progress here, if you have a mind to.

Cross a finger for me why dontcha?

NaNoWriMo 2011

So I'm writing a novel.

Not yet. In November. Don't ask me what it will be about, or for any details other than how long it will be and when it will be finished. It will be at least fifty thousand words and it will be finished by November 30th.

I have, like many others before me, decided to take advantage of NaNoWriMo, the annual event where thousands of people set out to write a novel in thirty days.

I've started to write a novel twice before (see left for my first effort, circa '92 (I still may go back to this one day (this will never happen))), but that was in the old days, before I knew about structure, and planning, and... writing a novel.

Having focused exclusively on scriptwriting for a good five years now I've been feeling like trying something different. I love the extra motivation provided by i)having an external deadline, ii) having a community of people on hand who are all trying to meet the same deadline, and iii) having quacked on to anyone who'll listen (or not) that you're going to have written a novel by the end of November.

My head is spinning with the possibilities as far as picking an actual story go. I have had an idea for a novel knocking around for some years, but I fear it may now seem a bit like a British Dexter, and I never know whether an association like that works for or against you. Could adapt one of my script ideas, but not every story wants to be a novel. Plus it would certainly be more fun to come up with something brand new just for this exercise. New is always better, after all.

Anyway, if you fancy a challenge or have nothing planned for November why not check out the NaNoWriMo website, you might decide to churn out a novel of your own. Otherwise please do feel free to bother, cajole or even support me as I produce my magnificent octopus. You can find my NaNoWriMo profile here, but there's not much going on just yet.

In the meantime, I'd better get planning, there's only one hundred and seventy-three days and four and a half hours to go till the starting gun.

Wicked.

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EDIT - This post restored from Scribomatic folowing the great Blogger outage of 12th May 2011.