2011: My year with writing

This time last year, I reviewed where I was in my writing career.

I thought I had written the penultimate draft of Steampunk Assassins. I was writing the first draft of The Greenwich Problem. I was planning to write a romantic comedy termed Baking Lawyer (which I abandoned due to fatal flaws). I determined that Military Monster needed a complete overall (which is still awaited.) And I put everything else on hold.

And then 2011 happened.

In January, I finished the first draft of The Greenwich Problem for the BBC’s Laughing Stock competition.

In February, Realm Pictures won the Raindance/Pepsi Max competition. This started them on the road to The Underwater Realm.

In March, I was longlisted for Laughing Stock, which caused much excitement.

In April, I attended the London Comedy Writers Festival, got some great advice and met some awesome creatives. I also wrote another feature script for Script Frenzy.

In May, Realm House hosted the first UWR big production meeting.

In July, Dave, Jon and I went on the first UWR feature script retreat.

In August, I made a wiki for Realm Pictures.

In September, I created my first storyworld.

In November, I went to the London Screenwriters Festival. I got more great advice, and met more awesome creatives, and I pitched my scripts to three producers. I’m waiting to hear back from one of them about The Greenwich Problem. I also wrote an 80K NaNoWriMo novel that I will start editing in January.

In December, Realm launched their Kickstarter. The fund is currently at 85K and climbing. An absolutely amazing response.

Wow, what a year!

So, in 2012, I will:
- Final FINAL draft Steampunk Assassins and send it to producers
- Edit my Cyber Crime Sleuth (NaNoWriMo) novel and send to publishers
- Finish my Asylum pilot, enter it in Red Planet Prize, and send it to producers
- Make a short film
- Get an agent
- See Realm Pictures take Raindance 2012 by storm
- Get married XD

NaNoWriMo Owns Me

I originally started this blog at the end of 2009, when I wanted to write 100,000 words of my Apocalypse novel in two months, Nano-style.

That novel’s word count currently stands at 18,041. That’s because someone pointed out to me that the concept was exactly like ‘Good Omens’. Disheartened, I shelved that novel and moved on to screenplays.

However, I’m still passionate about the novel, and when I got the idea for an agoraphobic, techno-whizz detective and a streetwise ex-con fighting crime, how could I say no?

And, oh look, it’s November. And hey, I’ve won Nano twice before – 2006 (Vivid Images – never edited) and 2007 (Deus Ex Machina – partially edited, one of my favourite stories). So, I think to myself, I can do this 50k thing. Why not make it challenging?

80,000 words. That’ll be a walk in the park.

Yeesh.

I’m only 5k behind schedule, giving me, at this moment, 21,859 words. Which, for those of you who can’t count, is 3,000 words more than that Apocalypse novel.

Meanwhile, it seems every competition under the sun is calling my name. Immersive Writing Lab, Jesting Around, Red Planet Prize, The Sitcom Mission…

I think I need to lie down.

A Whole New World

I’ve been knee-deep in development work for my projects this past month, responding to some thought-provoking notes on Steampunk Assassins from Ste Russell at Loves Me Not Films and attempting to whip The Greenwich Problem into shape before sending it out to producers.

However, three opportunities came along this week that had me dusting off old projects and exploring their potential.

The first was a call for feature screenplays based in and around Europe, which required writing a treatment for said screenplay. This seemed like a perfect fit for The Local, my Script Frenzy screenplay about an English doctor joining Welsh villagers in their fight against a construction company. A very “local” European story!

Unfortunately, I loathe treatments and I haven’t done a pass on The Local for about four months, so I needed to re-familiarise myself with the ins-and-outs of Act 2 to try and sell my story. Still ongoing, but my personal editor is on it.

The second is news of a relaunch for a new media series for which I was going to write before it got shelved. I had to flick through all my old e-mail correspondence from January (neatly filed, thank God) before I remembered what the script was even meant to be about!

And the third is a brilliant competition from The Immersive Writing Lab through Circalit – creating a storyworld.

Until today, I had little idea what I storyworld was but: think Star Wars. Think The Matrix. Think Battlestar Galactica. It’s a whole societal concept suitable for a multi-media platform.

Do I have something that might fit those requirements? Step in, Overambitious Island. There’s a reason I labelled the project with that daunting title and it’s because it’s a novel concept for which I developed not only an entirely new society but also a language. Yes, I decided I wanted to play Tolkien and have a go at amateur linguistics.

Remarkably, I can still wax lyrical about their education system, their core religious beliefs and their extensive martial arts. I can even remember the reasons the more right-wing elements of London hate their guts.

The lesson is this: if you were once enthusiastic about a project, you may set it to one side, you may even despair of it ever being worthwhile, but you should always keep an open mind about its future.

Except if it’s about dream heists. I mean, you could develop that thing for ten years, and nothing would ever come of it…

Writers’ Tools: The Mind Map

Yes, I vanished again. Let’s blame an abundance of both work and holidays – go summer!

But I have not been idle. Indeed, friends, I have been knee-deep in preparation for a Script Retreat. Doesn’t that sound grand? Basically, it goes like this:

See, these guys called Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan decided to go away for a few days in 1978 and work on this thing called Raiders of the Lost Ark.

And the guys over at Realm Pictures decided they would emulate their heroes and go away for a weekend to work on The Underwater Realm. Jon Dupont, our producer, then sets us all homework to do prior to this script retreat. It’s like going on a Biology Field Trip, seriously.

Our first task: characters. I love characters. They’re one of my favourite things about films. I grin at their entrances, swoon at their first kisses and cry when they die heroically in a decent-sized explosion.

However, most of my ideas flow organically as a whole. Protagonist, characters, plot, setting – they come as a package deal in my head. So, for my new structured approach to brainstorming, I decided to turn to an old friend: the mind map.

You may remember these from school but, for those who don’t: what is a mind map?

In its simplest form, it often resembles a spider: a central idea with releated ideas sprouting off it in all directions.

As it grows more complex, ideas offshoot from the first level and then arrows start flying between the ideas to show interconnections.

It’s also not just for characters. When I was stuck on the Fun and Games section of my Baking Lawyer rom com, a bit of brainstorm helped me find what was good about my concept – and what was funny.

As seen above, I like to paperstorm and then snap a pic with the old iPhone before sharing across my devices with Evernote. However, I’ve also delved into mindmapping software and am currently using iMindMap.

Here’s one of my character creations on the basic free software (in fact, the development of my initial basic map above):

The one drawback is obvious: conversion to text. As my producer pointed out to me before attempting to transcribe one of them.

However, as a method of idea-building, I don’t think that anything can beat the humble mind map.

Darling Goals of May

Having returned from a relaxing break away from my day job and my tech, it’s time to knuckle down and return to work.

Script Frenzy and Realm Production Meeting are over. The screnzy script is in a drawer and I’ve knocked together some audition sides for the Underwater shorts.

So, what now?

These days away have been great for percolating ideas and five brand new plots sprung fully-formed from my thigh…I mean, brain. But, like fine wine and decent cheese, these ideas need some time to mature.

Therefore, my goals for this month are:

- Final draft of The Greenwich Project, ready for sending to a comedy prodco
- First draft of new children’s tv project Origami Stories
- Penultimate/final draft of horror short

And now I’ve declared them, so I’m trusting the internet to hold me accountable.

Finally, one more May resolution: do not attend production meetings before drying hair. Especially around sneaky DOPs. Evidence in video below:

[Also, there are some awesome people talking about a breath-taking series of shorts - let them distract you from my dreadful hair.]

Script Frenzy 2011

Yup, it’s official – I just signed up to Script Frenzy!

What it is, do you cry? The challenge is simple: 30 days. 100 pages.

I completed two NaNoWriMos back in 2006 and 2007 and, though they’re still sitting unedited on my hard drive, the sense of drive and camaraderie was amazingly intense.

Also, I write much better to deadlines. Cases in point: Red Planet Prize and Laughing Stock.

My Script Frenzy is a romantic comedy feature and goes like this:

The Local – When a Welsh village pub is threatened by a ruthless construction company, the villagers and their new English doctor must put aside their differences to protect their way of life.

As an Englishwoman who’s adopted Wales as her homeland, this story strikes a chord with me. I’m hoping I can do it justice in just one month.

Wish me luck!

A million different doors

Firstly, congratulations to the exceptionally talented team at Realm Pictures for winning the Pepsi Max It competition. You can see their award-winning entry here and the production blog for their next project here.

So, with all this talent exploding just down the road, surely I should be drawing some inspiration and cracking on with my Next Big Thing?

Obviously. Which is why I’m updating my blog.

I finished my entry for Laughing Stock and then…what? There’s my Baking Lawyer rom com feature that I started to plot – then realised it was only half-baked (*groan*). I struggle with the “Fun and Games” parts of the scripts – the fun, trailer set pieces. I much prefer my turning points and my dark times.

Then there are a couple of short to medium length shorts that I have brewing in my brain. I wonder if they might be a better use of my time – and have a little more flesh to them already.

There’s also a novella and a comic book that I’ve sounded out to a couple of people, as well as doing a final pass on Steampunk Assassins.

In short, I have absolutely no idea in which direction to run.

So I’m standing still.

Power to the Procrastinators

I got let out of work early today, so nose to the scripting grindstone, right?

Put the washing on. Wash wash wash. Tipped some guy’s boxers and shirts out the dryer (there was a basket, they were dry – acceptable laundry etiquette) and set mine to spin.

Just spent an hour messing around on Twitter, checking the e-mails and catching up on Google Reader.

And now I open my storyboard.

Oh, but I don’t have a playlist yet!

There’s another hour gone then.

Along the byway

Of course, it’s the time of year for summaries and conclusions, personal achievement counting and reflection.

I have finished Steampunk Assassins. By which I mean it’s with my beloved director and editor friends and I suppose there might be One Final Draft to complete.

I have made a start on The Greenwich Problem for Laughing Stack 2011. I ran the logline past my director, extrapolated the plot of the pilot and shaded in the main characters’ traits and tics. He was very enthusiastic – and, as I trust his tastes, this pleases me greatly.

I’m also going to try my hand at a Rom Com feature spec – we’ll term it Baking Lawyer. That has a beat sheet but nothing else at the moment.

Military Monster needs a complete overhaul before it can have anything going for it. I need to take a step back on Asylum and write a beat sheet for the pilot before I sink further into the intricacies of plotting Season 3 (it’s a very large shoe).

And, in the interests of quieting my ADD, the other projects are all on permanent hold until I can get to grips with my current workload.

Now, enough about me.

I hope 2011 beings you new ideas, fresh perspective, 3D characters, patient agents, eager producers and gifted directors. I hope your specs sell and the Beeb commissions your pilots. And I hope you find time for friends, family, and really good wine.

Happy New Year.

Multi-tasking

It seems to be quite difficult to write a rom com beat sheet while watching a horror film.

However, when the horror flick reads like a bad romance, it just serves as a What-Not-To-Write.