Writers Need Readers.

I took Midnight to my screenwriter's group and received some useful feedback. As always I have got carried away with my dialogue. Too much and too long and maybe at times just a little too much exposition. Action was a little too long and failed to reflect the alien Texan environment through the eyes of my young English-man from the West Midlands.
I was asked if I wanted to put Americans in a bad light. Nothing could be further than the truth. Yes there is a sub-culture of ne'er do well youngsters, but the SHERIFF turn's out to be a great support to my protagonist NORMAN. I need to be careful of that, because my own personal experience of Texans was that I was overwhelmed by their warmth, hospitality and good manners.
Overall they thought it was an original premise, so I'm going to stick with it. It's only the first
ten pages, and I wanted to know if from this first draft there was enough in there to engage an audience.
A useful evening and I'm grateful for their expert help.
I had Ushabti critiqued by a professional script reader who attends our group. She has encouraged me to approach theatre producers as she believes I would do well to pursue a career as a playwright.
Lots to think about. My dream would be to see my work performed. Give me some actors and give me an audience and the venue could be a scout hut and I would be happy.

Midnight At the Alhambra Opening scenes.

At last Midnight is underway. I have posted the first 10 pages. Please feel free to criticise.

Buenos dias from Mexico

Ola. Nothing inspires me to write more than travel. I'm a little too old to make my own way around the world backpacking. Besides I have bills to pay and need to keep my job. But even on a package I soak in the regional history while others soak in the sun.

I went to Chichen Itza which is home to one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. It wasn't a sight-seeing trip (you can see sights in books and the web). It was, for me, more of a sight-feeling trip.
Speaking to the Mayan indians and learning about the culture and the left me almost breathless. I will never claim to be an expert on the indiginous people of the Yucatan peninsular. Indeed I could spend several years at university studying the Mayans and still not achieve expert status. Perhaps expert status should be reserved for the Mayans.  But a little bit of Mayan has entered my soul. Now I can write from the heart.

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Another grand day out.

I have been on my travels again this weekend and this time I went to a TV screenwriters event at De Montfort  University Leicester. An excellent day with successful writers and producers giving us an insight on how to apply good structured  drama that suits the needs of today's broadcasting market.
The event was entitled 'Elements of Drama' with guest speakers covering the core elements of a drama series, the 'Drama Landscape' points towards the current commissioners and developing executives at the centre of drama commissioning, horror writing, and sit-com writing. With lunch and drinks available at the end of the day there was plenty of opportunity to network and speak to the people who know.
Watch out for this event next year. Its not to be missed I assure you.
I've had to put 'Midnight at the Alhambra' on the back burner for a while for two reasons.
The day job has been rather hectic lately, and I've written a final draft of Ushabti and submitted to an agent.
Only one agent? Yes well its a start.
I'm off on my hols this coming weekend for two weeks. I might just send this blog a postcard.

A Grand Day Out

Twelve miles west of Central London lies the beautiful leafy suburb of Sunbury-on-Thames, home to the Riverside Arts Centre the venue for  Jan Etherington's Comedy Writing Course - Spring Workshop (click on the link for details).
Jan, a successful comedy screenwriter who has penned many sit-coms for ITV and BBC, and her associates Frankie and Heather ensured everybody had a warm welcome and was made completely at ease in what was an intentionally small group.
Small is beautiful and because each one of us were able to get personal attention from Jan and her invited guests,  television actor John Bowler and Comedy Screenwriting agent Dominic Lord.
Jan gave us a useful talk on the ingredients necessary to construct a successful situation comedy.
I had submitted part of my script Ushabti prior to the course and this was superbly brought to life by a reading from members of the group. I can't describe how it felt to see my main characters brought to life for the first time, an experience I will never forget. This was followed up by a critique from members of the group and from the people who know, Jan and Dominic.
I found the day inspiring motivational and most of all enlightening for me in how to pitch and who to pitch to.
A grand day out and I most certainly will return. The next spring workshop is on May 15th for anyone who is interested.

More on Structure and Motivation.

The 'journey' I used to have, until recently, during my unstructured writing days, which I firmly believed was an exciting mystery trip has not been lost. It has been enhanced by the use of my beat sheet and story board. 

I said all this already, in my previous post on this subject. However, I feel I must update my blog now that I am a little further down the line with my new project "Midnight at the Alhambra".

The feeling of waking up in the morning wandering what is going to happen next? in my story is stronger still. Why? Because I can see my scenes at a glance. Answers to what happens next are more evident now I do not have to backtrack though huge clumps of text. My creative momentum is maintained and does not drift off into limbo for days on end like it used to.

I have rewritten my beat sheet since the earlier post. Its no big deal. The beat sheet totals 6 pages, and yet it is the whole story for a 90 minute feature. The index cards are in place...all forty of them each representing a scene. If the scene does not arc and there is no emotional change then the scene will be taken out because there is no point to it. 

My characters are now clearly defined. I feel like a concert pianist having shuffled my sheet music, I am poised at the keyboard ready to play my heart out.

FADE IN

Wish me luck x

The Wall

The Wall
Leave a message on the Wall. Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust
http://www.lauracranetrust.org/thewall/