Uh oh.

I got that urge again.

That fiction itching.

Long form. Noveltastic.

Lordy.

Well, I’m not going to drop everything just so I can start work on the next novel. It’d make a terrible clattering noise and wake the children. No, I shall have to train myself to chip away at it a bit at a time.

After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day. In fact, it’s taken just over a million days to build it so far. And if the Huns return it’s going to push the completion date way back.

Thing is, I’ve got tanks waiting to rumble down Oxford Street. They need a page to spring to life on.

How to Write the First Draft of a Script

Notes to self.

1. Keep writing until it’s finished. A half-finished script is no script at all.

2. Write whenever you can. The most memorable line in the whole story might only take you fifteen seconds to write.

3. Carry writing on from where you left off. Stop revisiting what you’ve already written – that’s what the rewrites are for.

4. Stop a writing session halfway through a sentence. Makes it easier to get started again next time.

5. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. Rewrite later.

6. Don’t panic about on-the-nose dialogue or over-long action descriptions. They’ll jump off the page during the read-through. Sort them later.

7. Keep going! Writing the first draft is like warming up for a marathon. The re-writes are the real race.

8. Don’t get too attached. Dialogue, scenes, characters – none of them are sacred. Any and all of them might get the chop during the re-writes.

9. Now put it away. Got to the end of Draft 1? Put it down and walk away. A week. Two. Get it out of your head.

10. Now the fun starts. Ready? Open it up and read it like you hate it. Does it grab you? Does it make you want to keep reading? Good. Now the re-writes begin.

Angling. Splendid.

Everything feels a bit ‘in-between’ at the moment.

I’m like an angler sitting by a quiet river watching the float bobbing away and wondering whether there are any fish left or whether the older, smarter anglers upstream already caught them all.

 

On the other hand I might be about to snare an enormous haddock. Or whatever it is you get in rivers.

Anyway, forget all that old tosh. Watch the Splendid trailer instead. I know I did. In fact, I keep on watching the bit with the sheep. Over and over again.

Jolly good. Now go and check out Splendid director Dan Turner’s blog to get the lowdown on the journey from idea to reality.

A Good Day

Discover talented musician with a desire to get into film work? Within a hundred feet of where I spend my waking hours? Check.

Finally work out the ending for that short that’s been bugging me for several weeks? Check.

Get long awaited positive feedback on other short from respected industry bod? Check.

Discover two film-makers embarking on a funded series of shorts? Who live quite near to me? Who are filming quite near to me? Who reply to enquiries from eager writers? Who really rather like the spec script I sent them? Only bloody Check.

That’ll do me for today.

Oh, if you’re wondering about my recent blogular silence, it’s because I’ve been on holiday.

Not because I’ve had a script taken up by a large production house and been asked to maintain radio silence. Oh no.