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

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…

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!