Posting about my terror of finding a story has worked, my brain has actually managed to come up with an idea that I'm mostly happy with. Still needs some work, but it has potential.
Darn, that means I have to put together a treatment, and a synopsis, and fill in their forms...
It's most unreasonable of the UK Film Council to request enough information on a project to make a rational decision as to whether they will supply funding for it or not. They should just throw money at me! Without asking any questions at all!
I guess I'd better go do some writing. Or maybe I can procrastinate for a bit? ;-)
...
*sigh* I hear the keyboard calling its Selkie siren song.
Oh, and posting The Grim on TriggerStreet went horribly right. I've just got back my coverage - from my favourite reviewer at ScriptShark (how lucky was that!). Very, very useful feedback and suggestions.
... I now feel slightly guilty for putting the reviewer through the pain of reading my script in all its first draft, car-wreck glory. - - If you're reading this, "Sorry."
And if you, my gentle readers, are suckers for other people's punishment, you can go read the coverage at the same link I gave for reading the screenplay on the post below.
Yeah, that's right. Leg work. Go on. Scroll down and find it.
TRICK OR TREAT? ... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Sunday, 28 October 2007
ARGH!
My next post was going to be about the 3 gifts my Fairy Godcat cursed me with: writing, procrastination, and reckless optimism. But I'm going to save that for another time. This is more urgent, I need to splurge.
I'm blocked! Actually, no, that's a total lie.
I'm scared.
... And I am allowing my brain-melting terror to melt my brain. How pathetic is that. And due to my terror, I'm going to side-step the issue and work up to it...
I originally set up this blog to force myself into writing and finishing my last script. And it worked! The terror of blogging (instant readership) outweighed my terror of people - honest to goodness strangers - actually getting to read my screenwriting (delayed/potential readership).
I finished my script #1, in all it's first draft, car-wreck glory, and entered it into South West Screen's development competition, and also posted it on TriggerStreet for comments so that I could get enough ammo to work out how to rewrite the sucker.
And that's when everything went horribly wrong... or possibly right...? - - Jury's still out on that.
It virtually leaped like a salmon into the top ten on TriggerStreet, and then *horror* got nominated for Screenplay Of The Month. ... Sure, it's an okay story, but it does need a heck of a lot of work still. I can only assume I got very lucky with the readers who were assigned to it#2. What this means is that I get free coverage from ScriptShark. Very cool. Which will no-doubt point out all the many areas that need work (assuming they have enough space in the coverage for that!), so I'm looking forward to getting this. It will be excellent to get professional coverage. I am a very happy bunny, in that respect.
What is causing the brain-melt ... finally I cut to the chase ... is that with delusions of actually possibly, maybe having the talent to be a screenwriter [unwavering core of self-belief and total arrogance#3 asserts itself: I have talent. I am a god of screenwriting, it's just that no one has noticed yet!], I am trying to put together an application to the UK Film Council for funding so that I don't have to worry about where the next meal is coming from while I devote myself full time to writing one of my screenplays.
This is where the brain-melt sets in: which one?
A brand new one? Fleshing out an old idea for a new one? Rewriting a first draft? ... ARGH!
Each time I sit down to narrow down my options, pick a story/create a story, I get part way into it and then look at the decisions I'm making and question them into oblivion. It's the fear that's doing it. The exact same fear I want to comment on properly in future posts, the fear that I know I have to work on; the fear that prompted the title of the blog, the fear that prompted the creation of this blog. The fear of success (I think it is success rather than failure?), which then leads to procrastination.
Darn it, I am going to be a professional screenwriter! I just need to get this effing self-doubt under control. *gnashing of teeth* I blame my parents. ;)
#1 Title:The Grim, genre: horror. Here's a link, if you're mad enough to want to read it: The Grim
#2 It wasn't good enough to make the shortlist for South West Screen's recent development competition. www.swscreen.co.uk
#3 All screenwriters have this - no matter their level of talent or lack thereof. Ignore any denials, if they didn't have it they wouldn't be trying to earn a living as a self-employed writer. Okay, maybe not all, but I reckon the majority do. So nyar! *blows raspberry*
I'm blocked! Actually, no, that's a total lie.
I'm scared.
... And I am allowing my brain-melting terror to melt my brain. How pathetic is that. And due to my terror, I'm going to side-step the issue and work up to it...
I originally set up this blog to force myself into writing and finishing my last script. And it worked! The terror of blogging (instant readership) outweighed my terror of people - honest to goodness strangers - actually getting to read my screenwriting (delayed/potential readership).
I finished my script #1, in all it's first draft, car-wreck glory, and entered it into South West Screen's development competition, and also posted it on TriggerStreet for comments so that I could get enough ammo to work out how to rewrite the sucker.
And that's when everything went horribly wrong... or possibly right...? - - Jury's still out on that.
It virtually leaped like a salmon into the top ten on TriggerStreet, and then *horror* got nominated for Screenplay Of The Month. ... Sure, it's an okay story, but it does need a heck of a lot of work still. I can only assume I got very lucky with the readers who were assigned to it#2. What this means is that I get free coverage from ScriptShark. Very cool. Which will no-doubt point out all the many areas that need work (assuming they have enough space in the coverage for that!), so I'm looking forward to getting this. It will be excellent to get professional coverage. I am a very happy bunny, in that respect.
What is causing the brain-melt ... finally I cut to the chase ... is that with delusions of actually possibly, maybe having the talent to be a screenwriter [unwavering core of self-belief and total arrogance#3 asserts itself: I have talent. I am a god of screenwriting, it's just that no one has noticed yet!], I am trying to put together an application to the UK Film Council for funding so that I don't have to worry about where the next meal is coming from while I devote myself full time to writing one of my screenplays.
This is where the brain-melt sets in: which one?
A brand new one? Fleshing out an old idea for a new one? Rewriting a first draft? ... ARGH!
Each time I sit down to narrow down my options, pick a story/create a story, I get part way into it and then look at the decisions I'm making and question them into oblivion. It's the fear that's doing it. The exact same fear I want to comment on properly in future posts, the fear that I know I have to work on; the fear that prompted the title of the blog, the fear that prompted the creation of this blog. The fear of success (I think it is success rather than failure?), which then leads to procrastination.
Darn it, I am going to be a professional screenwriter! I just need to get this effing self-doubt under control. *gnashing of teeth* I blame my parents. ;)
#1 Title:The Grim, genre: horror. Here's a link, if you're mad enough to want to read it: The Grim
#2 It wasn't good enough to make the shortlist for South West Screen's recent development competition. www.swscreen.co.uk
#3 All screenwriters have this - no matter their level of talent or lack thereof. Ignore any denials, if they didn't have it they wouldn't be trying to earn a living as a self-employed writer. Okay, maybe not all, but I reckon the majority do. So nyar! *blows raspberry*
Friday, 3 August 2007
Trial & Error - the start of my screenwriting journey
I'm one of those unfortunate souls who was cursed with "writing" at birth. I guess my Fairy Godmother has a wicked sense of humour -- but since I suspect that she is in fact a cat, I'm not surprised.
You've probably already guessed that I'm a little eccentric ... well, okay, mad. But I figure as long as I'm not a danger to myself or others, where's the harm?
Erm. Don't answer that. Where was I?
... Writing.
The curse of writing.
I've been writing snippets of stories and making up worlds for as long as I can remember, but then in 1992 something happened that changed my life. I saw Batman Returns, and it sparked against an old thought I'd had watching the Batman & Robin TV series (well over a decade earlier), and that was that. Inspiration. Struck down by the Muse.
Over the next two months I watched the film 8 times and rewatched Batman 14 times, investigated the Batman comics (Arkham Asylum - from Vertigo, is a favourite), and then went on holiday to Tuscany with my family and spent half of it locked in a room writing.
My family thought I was mad - why this seemed to be a new concept to them, I have no idea ... or maybe I just hit a new depth of insanity as far as they were concerned? Quite frankly, I don't care. I loved every second of it. While they were enjoying Italy, I was staring out of the window at the sky.
Best. Holiday. Ever!
By the end of it, I had written Batman's Grave, and thus committed the first major error of many aspiring screenwriters: creating a spec sequel to an existing franchise. I then made the second error -- convinced of its excellence and thus gaily ignoring the rules of format, I tracked down an address for Tim Burton and sent it off.
Oh boy. I cringe to think about it now.
I can only apologise to any one who had the misfortune of trying to read it back then. Hopefully it hit the bottom of the round file unopened.
But that was when I first really realized that someone, somewhere wrote a screenplay for each film that was made. And that possibly, just possibly it might be something I should be doing with my life. -- The length of a screenplay was less daunting than that of a novel, AND it was moving pictures and moving emotions ... and that held a magic for me - a sparkling desire - to see my story playing on the big screen at my favourite cinema. I was hooked. My Fate sealed. I had glimpsed that screenwriting is who I really am, who I'm supposed to be, my destiny.
...
Bugger!
There's a cat laughing somewhere, I know it.
What have I been doing since then? Procrastinating.
You've probably already guessed that I'm a little eccentric ... well, okay, mad. But I figure as long as I'm not a danger to myself or others, where's the harm?
Erm. Don't answer that. Where was I?
... Writing.
The curse of writing.
I've been writing snippets of stories and making up worlds for as long as I can remember, but then in 1992 something happened that changed my life. I saw Batman Returns, and it sparked against an old thought I'd had watching the Batman & Robin TV series (well over a decade earlier), and that was that. Inspiration. Struck down by the Muse.
Over the next two months I watched the film 8 times and rewatched Batman 14 times, investigated the Batman comics (Arkham Asylum - from Vertigo, is a favourite), and then went on holiday to Tuscany with my family and spent half of it locked in a room writing.
My family thought I was mad - why this seemed to be a new concept to them, I have no idea ... or maybe I just hit a new depth of insanity as far as they were concerned? Quite frankly, I don't care. I loved every second of it. While they were enjoying Italy, I was staring out of the window at the sky.
Best. Holiday. Ever!
By the end of it, I had written Batman's Grave, and thus committed the first major error of many aspiring screenwriters: creating a spec sequel to an existing franchise. I then made the second error -- convinced of its excellence and thus gaily ignoring the rules of format, I tracked down an address for Tim Burton and sent it off.
Oh boy. I cringe to think about it now.
I can only apologise to any one who had the misfortune of trying to read it back then. Hopefully it hit the bottom of the round file unopened.
But that was when I first really realized that someone, somewhere wrote a screenplay for each film that was made. And that possibly, just possibly it might be something I should be doing with my life. -- The length of a screenplay was less daunting than that of a novel, AND it was moving pictures and moving emotions ... and that held a magic for me - a sparkling desire - to see my story playing on the big screen at my favourite cinema. I was hooked. My Fate sealed. I had glimpsed that screenwriting is who I really am, who I'm supposed to be, my destiny.
...
Bugger!
There's a cat laughing somewhere, I know it.
What have I been doing since then? Procrastinating.
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