I’ve been relatively quiet of late about what I’m working on, but that’s because I’ve been consumed with a couple of exciting projects.

You may recall me waxing lyrical about Persona last year, the app-based drama that tells four snappy stories in a month via your smartphone. At the time, I was hoping to write one of the arcs but due to various happenings in the process, that all got swept to one side.

But Phill Barron, awesome guy that he is, kept all us wannabe writers in the loop about what was happening with the drama. So when he sent out an e-mail looking for a writer, I leapt at the chance.

I’ve been working with Cameron King, director extraordinary (you can see for yourself here) on a story that pushes all my buttons and about which, of course, my lips are zipped. Suffice to say, your knuckles will be white as you clutch your phone, aghast. We really hope to bring the drama to this app.

Our story will be part of Persona’s fourth season, due to air around April – no doubt I’ll chew your eat off about it closer to the time.

Meanwhile, January? Pretty freakin’ cool.

So, Dave sold me on five short scripts and we had a brainmelting session on possible ideas for the stories. I lost track of the project for a bit (my day job unfortunately takes a lot of my attention) while Dave and Jon developed the scripts for the shorts from those five initial ideas.

The next milestone in the project was the Production Meeting at the end of April 2011. This brought together the core Realm Pictures team with the talented heads of department needed to make these films a reality. Oh, and I was there. Mostly to drink wine.

Alongside the practical business of how to build a Spanish galleon, we spent a great deal of time working through what makes Atlantean culture and how it could fit in with the actual history and mythology of the Mediterranean. A large potion of this was figured out in the pitch black of a Devon night, while I tried to blindly write it down.

Some of the key notes from that meeting that have lasted through the development process thusfar include:

Pre-Fall: “They lead the world – teachers + philosophers. Like Elves, like Star Trek.”; “Giving culture through missionary – to Crete and Egypt.”

The Fall: Ideology shift – “By conquering, we can enforce our ideals to make the world a better place”; “physical disaster to parallel their idealogical cataclysm”

Post-Fall: “Gondor. Decrepit. Memories of grandeur.”; “decaying situation of a golden past”

There were also three questions key to our further development of this mythology:

1) When do they Fall?
2) What mythology do they tell themselves?
3) What’s the most interesting story?

However, I’ve also written things like “Atlantis is in the Atlantic”. They can’t all be pearls.

I also wrote a couple of audition sides for the short films on that weekend. The most challenging thing about those was that none of the characters speak in the shorts. It’s easier to audition people with lines and the scripts themselves don’t lend themselves to auditioning anyway.

Here’s part of an audition side I wrote for 1208, trying to bring out the emotional range we wanted in a monologue style:

In the next instalment, I’ll talk about the development of the feature script through the use of script retreats.

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

X-Men [Colon] First Class

Out of all the comic book movies released this year, this was undoubtedly my favourite and a good film in its own right. It takes two big characters with decades of history and brings them back to their potential. It shows a complicated relationship develop into the closest of friendships – and then shatters it. The supporting cast enliven the film and the action plot ain’t too shabby. Come for the fights, stay for the characters.

Tangled

After Disney’s recent output, I was nervous about a new film. But the trailer sold me instantly and the feature didn’t disappoint. The first song threw me completely, as I’m now accustomed to Pixar’s style, but the dynamics between Rapunzel and Flynn (who I want to call Gwaine) sold it. Easily Disney’s best film for ten years.

Easy A

I missed this at the cinema, so rented it on DVD (yes, people still do that). It’s a funny teen comedy! With a real heroine! Emma Stone rocks this movie and the other characters are well-realised and engaging. The plot is simple yet compelling – and did I mention it’s FUNNY?

Arthur Christmas

This film was sprung upon me by my friends who wanted some “Christmas spirit” – and we laughed constantly throughout. This modern Lapland vision was populated with a dysfunctional family and an adorable hero, with a simple “coming of age” story that invokes warm Christmassy feelings.

Merlin

The fourth season of Merlin has been the best yet. With the cast extended by a whole lot of knights (one of whom looks just like Flynn Rider…), there are a lot of relationship dynamics in play. The mythos is tied up in knots and broken apart but our heroes Merlin and Arthur, emerge stronger and better at the end. Swords and Sorcery Fantasy on the BBC.

Castle

Also now in its fourth season, this year saw a jaw-dropping end to Season 3 that left me stunned and yet eager for more. I loved these characters from episode one, but they’re just as fresh four years on. With barely one episode off the pace, this show is consistently great detective fare.

The Fades

Sci-fi horror on the BBC? Pull the other one. Geeky horror with a teen protagonist I feel for and a best friend who I want to take home for life commentary? With scary freakin ghosts and a fantastic series arc? Realistic teen issues and not taking the easy way out? Fan-bloody-tastic.

Downton Abbey

I watched this series for the first time this year and I see why everyone’s been raving! The thing that struck me most was the 20+ regular cast members. Developing storylines for so many characters convincingly takes a deft hand, but it was perfectly done. This series proves that good writing trumps set conventions, like “maximum six main cast” rules.

The Dido Kent Mysteries

I picked up “A Moment of Silence” in The Works for cheap. The premise caught me instantly: Georgian heroine solves crime. It’s Jane Austen meets Miss Marple! Including Austen-style letters to her sister and a peripheral romantic interest, it’s a country house murder mystery that provides all the ingredients for solution yet kept me guessing completely. The next two books are equally engaging and well worth a read.

Mistress of the Art of Death

A female coroner in Medieval England? Hells yeah! A fiercely-independent medically-trained woman who solves murders. I devoured these books in a couple of weeks and then discovered, sadly, that the author had passed away. However, while that leaves a terrible cliffhanger, it doesn’t diminish the brilliance of the series as it stands.

Sharpe’s Sword

Another epic reading endeavour this year involved the Sharpe series. My favourite author is Patrick O’Brian (Master and Commander etc.), so I was always going to be inclined towards a military hero. Whilst somewhat formulaic, the Sharpe series is an action-packed, womanising ride, with great friendships. And Sharpe’s Sword, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of the series – where a devastating injury to Sharpe shows the extent of Harper’s devotion.

Some emergent themes are large ensemble casts, crime-solving, and period drama. The unifying feature is compelling characterisation, with an emphasis on Strong Characters, Female.

Things I’m looking forward to in 2012:
- BBC Sherlock (FINALLY!)
- The Muppets (a long overdue return)
- The Hobbit
- The Underwater Realm premiere at Raindance 2012
- My wedding

When Realm Pictures won the Raindance/Pepsi Max MAX IT competition in 2010 (with this moving short), they were given the opportunity to première a short at Raindance 2012.

Initially, we were talking about a ten-minute film concerning this Roman soldier who drowns in battle and wakes up able to breathe underwater. We went through various iterations of the idea, involving everything from a bleak journey across the ocean to that first wondrous glimpse of the city of Atlantis.

I have e-mails from Dave, charismatic director (you can see him talk enthusiastically here on a weekly basis). They go:

“stuck with where to go – thoughts?” accompanied by beats/outline/script

to which I reply:

“How about something more like this:” …with a completely different thing that bears some relation to the original, with a follow-up note like “The major point is that I think the downer bit needs to go after the crazy fun times – the rest was just framing.”

Meanwhile, Jon (producer) writes mood prose to get us all in the right frame of mind and he swaps scripts back and forth with Dave, which I read at intervals and hack up the descriptive passages to be less wordy.

Then I get an e-mail from Dave wondering if we should just write an entirely new short to a completely different treatment. Wait, isn’t that my line?

Which is when, in the middle of a long e-mail conversation about Script Frenzy, Jon says: “BTW Has Dave filled you in on the new Atlantis plan?”

To which I reply: “Did he go through with the crazy idea of the one act with the girl?”

Jon: “Um, not quite. Basically, putting long one to one side, and instead creating 5 viral shorts showing people interacting with Atlantis through history. ie start with a 2 min video about scuba divers finding strange ruins, then maybe a crashed spitfire pilot finding footprints under the sea, then drowning sailors in midst of Battle of Trafalgar etc etc until we get back to Roman soldier seeing the city of Atlantis in distance.”

Me: !!!

Cue three hours of e-mail in which poor Jon makes Dave’s arguments to me and I am both confused and think he’s insane.

Dave calls me up and I prepare to tell him exactly how much of a stupid idea making five shorts is. But he really sells the wonder of the sea stories.

Present Day divers discovering eerie ethereal beauty of the ocean, hints of a strange culture beneath the waves.

A World War II pilot crashing into the waves – a desperate drowning sequence, a half-remembered dream.

A sinking ship, Atlanteans clinging to the side, harvesting from the dead wood.

A stricken medieval young woman, choosing the sea over a life of confinement.

The Roman soldier drowning only to look on his dead comrades as a man who can breathe the sea.

Okay, well, it sounds pretty awesome. It’s difficult to argue against something that sounds that damn cool. We spend an hour-and-a-half talking about all the possibilities and what we can do with these five microcosms of fantasy awesome.

I hang up feeling exhilarated.

Next post, I’ll talk about the initial scripts for those shorts, how our big production meeting in Devon shaped the culture of Atlantis, and writing audition sides for characters who don’t speak.

The ocean. Vast. Unforgiving. Beautiful. Hostile.

Imagine that this untamed place is home to a tribe of people known to the Surface dwellers as Atlanteans. They have touched humanity but five times – this the story of those encounters.

Five short films premièring at Raindance 2012. Shot on RED Epic on location from the Egyptian Red sea to Tintagel clifftops, huge water tank sets to dry-for-wet studio wirework. The gateway to a world ripe for exploration in a feature-length fantasy trilogy.

I can personally attest to the dedication, talent and perseverance of the guys at Realm Pictures. They’re some of my oldest friends and I’ve watched them make an action-packed Zombies B-movie on a shoestring budget, win the Raindance/Pepsi Max competition with an inspiring, hopeful short, and now embark on an ambitious, revolutionary series of shorts.

You can see for yourselves that these guys can deliver and deliver big. So when I heard that they were launching a Kickstarter campaign, I was delighted that the peoples of the internet would have an opportunity to support this fantastic project.

Meanwhile, while funds are flowing in for the shorts, Dave, Jon and I are working on the script for the first feature film to follow these remarkable shorts. We’ve had two intense script retreats and are beating out scenes at present, putting some meat on those bones as we head into 2012.

To reach the feature stage, we need to make the best shorts we can. We want to inspire people to love the ocean and enter our world below the waves. We can only do that with your help.

Realm have put together some amazing rewards for your pledges, so please check out their Kickstarter page. If you’re unable to contribute, please spread the word via Twitter, FB, etc.

I hope you’re all just as excited as I am and want to get involved with The Underwater Realm.

41 chapters with eccentric titles, including “Mama Told Me Not To Come”, “Dial ‘M’” and “Down Corridors Through Automatic Doors”.

956 instances of my protagonist’s name. 580 instances of his partner’s name.

72 “killer”s and 25 “victim”s.

40 “murder”s and 15 “gun”s.

52 “cop”s and 27 “detective”s.

451 “ifs”, 2,538 “and”s and 547 “but”s.

26 “fuck”s and 16 “shit”s.

30 days of heartache and toil and blood sweated.

100% worth it.

Today, I was mired in an audit project for the day job and I came across a fantastic reference guide. I realise that to most people this sounds dull as ditchwater, but it’s actually useful. And, I discovered, pretty entertaining.

I was scrolling through looking for a specific reference when I spotted this e-mail citation:

HornblowerH. (h.hornblower@HMS.Renown.uk) Treaty of Luneville. Email to: Pellew C.(c.pellew@HMS.Justinian.uk) 16 Sep 2005.

Wait, what?

And then there’s these presentations:

Yoda M. Code of Ethics for the Jedi: are they outdated? Presented at the Annual Jedi Conference. Coruscant, 2005.

Solo H. Light speed and prevailing problems. Presented at the School of Aeronautics. London. 2003. http://starwars.org.uk (accessed 20 May 2005).

So, for BMJ-style Vancouver referencing and a bit of a nerdy giggle, I recommend a trip to Coruscant, Southampton.

I’m on 48K of my 80K target for NaNoWriMo, which puts me bang on track. I caught up while working night shifts, despite the upheaval of being abruptly pulled off nights yesterday and thrust back into a day shift today. The neurones don’t fire too good on four hours sleep mid-afternoon.

I’ve also heard back from one of my Speed Pitching contacts from LSF, so I know my script has safely reached the hands of a reputable production company. This gives me butterflies, but We’ll See.

So, tonight, I’m going to kick back and watch Children in Need with an extortionate pizza. Sure, I could eek out another two thousand words of novel, but I have the whole weekend to write and I’ve earned my pizza and my Doctor Who trailer.

When you work a day job, it’s easy to feel pressured to spend all your free time writing. I firmly believe you should write every day, or you should think about your writing and your future writing every day (proper thinking now, not that morning shower contemplation of ‘hmm, what if my hero fought a giant space duster?’).

It is, however, equally important to recharge. Take the evening off. Hell, if you’ve been especially awesome lately and the next deadlines are weeks away, take the whole damn weekend. You can’t write if you’re too tired to hold a pen. You also can’t write if you’re not living life.

This is my anti-guilt letter to myself when I feel bad for taking time out. Let it be yours as well, good writery folk, because we’re nervous types and we need encouragement to let loose now and then.

And who knows? Your relaxed brain may be the perfect nurturing place for that Next Big Thing idea that happens along while you’re doing that living.

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.