Time May Change Me

I think my calendar is broken. It's telling me November but that can't possibly be right can it? Hmm. Seems my phone is broken too. And my laptop. And my watch. Oh hang on, I don't wear a watch...

Hello and welcome to a new update on my blog.

Despite the acceleration of 2009 (I suspect we may have skipped September altogether) the year continues to go well. I am almost completely treatmented up and ready to write the first draft of my new script. It's intended as a pilot and has the working title of "The Preservationists", in fact I like that title so much it may stick. I've booked Friday off and my intention is to write like a bastard for three days before collapsing onto the sofa on Sunday night with a glass of wine to have my pants scared off by The Waters of Mars. If all goes well this project will be the long awaited (by no one in particular apart from me) follow up to BBC writersroom's request to see my next work.

Once the first draft of The Preservationists is completed I'm going to forget all about it for a month or so while I do a full rewrite on my horror feature, The Quiet Night Inn. That should take us up to December when I'll have a tinker with The Preservationists before resurrecting a long dormant feature film script and starting it from scratch over Christmas. I'll probably be after some power of three action around then too, so let me know if you're interested - I'll return the favour naturally.

Exciting stuff which will take me up to the new year - hopefully with three decent scripts and a fair bit of momentum. In the new year I have some new projects to start, including a strong idea for another horror feature (something more... urban this time), a sitcom and various other half formed ideas. Most of all I want to start with a clear desk. Hence the frantic work in the next couple of months.

"So how come you're so enthusiastic about your work again?" You're probably not asking. I'm glad you asked. It's because there's something I haven't told you, dear reader. A couple of months ago I left my employer of some ten years for a job that allows me more flexibility, a shorter commute, and some hope of having the energy to work when I come home of an evening. I was sad to leave the old firm, they've been good to me and I will always be fond of them, but there are changes on the way and it was a prudent move. Happily my new job has been a terrific success. I'm home much earlier in the evening and writing most evenings.

I'm feeling positive about the future for a lot of reasons, but particularly because I've worked on my writing more, and harder, for the last few months than for a long time. There have been a lot of changes over the last couple of years; leaving Cardiff, Emma becoming a teacher, buying a house, and so on. My change in jobs feels like the last piece slotting into place. Finally I can commit all my energies to making it as a screenwriter.

As long as nothing else comes along and demands all my attention...

Porcine Influenza

Swine flu then. Knocked me out for two weeks. Two weeks where I couldn't do much more than sit on the sofa gazing at the goggle box, sometimes raising the strength to use my Xbox controller. It was actually less fun than it sounds but it did give me a chance to watch a hell of a lot of films.

Had a bit of a John Carpenter retrospective, re-watching They Live and Assault on Precinct 13 and (incredibly) watching The Fog for the first time. Followed those up with some New York films, The Warriors and the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three. The Warriors is so stylish, so exciting, just a great film. Pelham One Two Three blew us away though. The characters were so real, and so quickly established. I loved that everyone looked like real people, no beautiful Hollywood faces. Why don't films look like that any more? And that ending! They're running trailers for the remake on TV that make me want to weep!

Finished the third draft of The Quiet Night Inn on Monday night (Tuesday morning) so that's good. Quite a lot of little changes made and a lot of pages cut. Course now I've had a brilliant idea which involves a massive change to the script so draft four starts as soon as I get my strength back.

Unfortunately returning to work after two weeks off is taking it's toll at the moment. I'm a zombie by five pm every day. Not in a cool way though. There's also some quite major real life stuff going on which I'll be able to mention soon. It's not directly related to my writing but will have a big impact on it, in a positive way I mean! More news soon.

Feeling very motivated at the moment, probably due to a combination of watching loads of films, revisiting James Moran's blog from the very beginning, and just being excited about what I'm working on again. Nice.

The Skinny

In The Loop

Caught this at the Electric on Friday and was very pleased with it. I heartily recommend the film, and no prior knowledge of The Thick of It is required.

Newswipe

I think this is half way through it's run now but as I always seem to promote Charlie Brooker's television exploits why break the habit now? Here he uses his razor sharp wit to cut right through the media flim-flam and get at the guts of how the News works. If you haven't been watching you can catch up here, for now at least...

Primeval

They're back, and they're making some brave changes to the set up. I'm a big fan of the show and series three continues to deliver. If you like Saturday night family drama then check it out.


Law & Order: UK

This has been fantastic, and has lost none of the pace or tone of the original in the transatlantic shift. I think we're in a mid-series break at the moment but you can see previous episodes here. Episode seven from the sixth of April has been the best of the bunch so far. I understand they made thirteen episodes for series one so hopefully it will be back soon. It can be strong stuff though, so be warned.

Waiting for Godot

My favourite Beckett, well it's everyone's favourite I suppose. Caught this in Malvern in March and was a bit blown away. The production hits London April 30th, you could do far worse than get yourself a ticket.

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I finally got around to buying Adrian Mead's Making It As A Screenwriter last month. Embarrassingly I hadn't bought it because I no longer have a paypal account (don't like or trust paypal after nearly getting badly burned a few years ago). I decided to open a new account just to get the book only to discover you didn't actually need one. D'oh!

Anyway if you haven't got it (and I'm pretty sure you have) then you really ought to snap it up. It's a bargain at £7.79 and the dosh goes to Childline.

I used to buy a lot of books about screenwriting but stopped because they all had more or less the same amount of useful advice in them. Also most were written by people whose names you never see on a screen, large or small, which says something, eh?

Mead's book is different. It's relevant, filled with example documents and clear, simple advice, it's witty and motivational. If you're serious about screenwriting this is the tool you need most urgently, click here to buy it.

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I've been having a go on Trigger Street at last. Response to my script has been encouraging, and there has been some very useful notes. Towards the end of the month I'll compile a list of points raised and get ready for a rewrite next month.

I didn't realise quite how the credit system works, which is my own fault, but it turns out it's quite a lot of work to get credits so that your script get's reviews. It is if you're going to put your full energy into reviewing someone's submission anyway (which is only fair if you're going to expect the same in return). I now know that it takes me a good hour or more to read a script (more if I'm not enjoying it), and probably the same again to write up some notes. That's two hours per script, and for me it's coming out of writing time (unless I pick up a netbook or something, then I can do it on the train). That's quite a drain on your time, though worth it for the feedback.

I don't think I'll be putting all my energies into TS. It's fairly rare for me to work on a feature anyway and they have no forum for television scripts. It has been very useful with this specific script, if you're after unbiased feedback I recommend it. Doing a lot of recommending today!

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Heartfelt congratulations to Jason, Dave, Oli and William for securing positions on the Red Planet workshop with Tony Jordan. Congrats also to Mark Wilkinson, the winner of Red Planet 2009.

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You may have noticed I'm updating this site less often. This is only because I'm being much stricter with myself as regards usage of time. All my energy is being put into writing at the moment.

When I sit in my nice shiny chair in my (Lamont Cranston-style) Sanctum I sit here to write, not to blog. Blogging isn't working, so it has to come second. In fact it's further down than that because it comes after planning too. Ahh, poor blogging.

Also a lot of this blog used to be television reviews, and me spouting off about telly in general. In fact that was initially how I intended to use it, I started blogging about my writing only when I saw others were doing it (No sheep jokes puh-leeease!). Since I read Making it as a Screenwriter I'm somehow less keen to do this. I should be building bridges here. It's not like I'd go into work at the day job and email the MD to tell him his latest idea is shit, is it? I don't want to piss him off.

I'll still update as and when I can, and trust me - if I have news I'll be here like a flash. In the mean time though, I'll see you when I see you.