August 20, 2008 at 8:20 pm
· Filed under Current Projects ·Tagged nanowrimo, novels, poetry, prose poems, sections, the block, writing
THE BLOCK [novel]
This started as my attempt at NaNoWriMo 2007, and I got the 50,000 words done, but didn’t finish the story. Ultimately it’s a big mess of multiple plots and cringe-makingly clumsy prose that has no real focus and a trillion loose ends. It also has some sections and characters and ideas that I love. Reading it over I’ve discovered a few things:
a) I was trying to do too much at once. Thriller meets Lit Fic meets Coming-of-Age Cheese meets Rom Com meets A Great Big Mess. First step is to decide which stories work best together and put everything else on the proverbial clipboard because otherwise I won’t do anything justice.
b) I can come up with some nice little phrases when I want to, engaging characters, decent twists. This is both satisfying and reassuring. I reckon it’s generally a good idea to be not completely talentless. In fact I think that’ll be my mantra. “I’m not completely talentless.”
c) I reap the rewards of hard work, but also, just maybe, hard work on this whole thing is its own reward.
SECTIONS [prose poems]
The first things to get cut from ‘The Block’, which frees both projects up to be what they need to be.
—
OH, AND…
I love movies. I love them. I love cinema. I love film. I love movies.
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August 18, 2008 at 10:12 pm
· Filed under Current Projects, musings ·Tagged screenplays, writing, musings, teleplays, the centre, poetry, embassy
I talked to my brother tonight when I got home and suddenly I was a person again.
Typing is not natural to me - in writing, that is - but it’s faster, so less is lost, but there’s a barrier. And the backspace key. (Soon to be the ‘delete’ key, once I have my Mac.)
EMBASSY [screenplay]
Haven’t mentioned this yet, huh? Started life as my attempt at Script Frenzy 2007 and was then lost in the great computer crash of that same year. I still like the basic set-up, the protagonist, the themes etc., but the intricacies of the plot are nowhere. I know what I want to see but it doesn’t make sense yet. It’s high concept and dystopian future. In fact who am I kidding, I’m basically writing Children of Men, only not that subject matter. Hmm.
THE CENTRE [screen drama]
Yes, another screen/teleplay, but the story refuses to tell itself in any other way. I have some exciting scenes and vivid characters mapped. Hopefully they’ll stay exciting and vivid when I get further into the thing. I also have a kind-of plot, which is unusual, so maybe this one’s a keeper.
POETRY
Several first drafts of things that kind of interest me. Very clumsy stuff but maybe some sparks, not sure yet.
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August 2, 2008 at 7:21 pm
· Filed under Current Projects ·Tagged screenplays, asylum, writing, esther & jane, fam bio, stories, novels
ESTHER & JANE [novel]
Came back to an idea I’d had earlier in the year while musing on an unrelated character profile. It’ll be a tough one to get right but I’m finding the prospect of managing it really exciting.
FAM BIO [stories]
Lots of events and scenes from family history that lend themselves to fun short stories.
ASYLUM [screenplay]
Came up with some vague opening scene plans and started thinking about interconnecting plots etc.
NOTE TO SELF
Probably a good idea to concentrate on one idea at a time. Or two at the most. Damn my brain.
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July 27, 2008 at 7:21 pm
· Filed under Current Projects ·Tagged arthouse, screenplays, asylum, everyword, writing
Today my mum told me she would not be at all surprised if I ended up making my living from writing, that she kind of expected it to happen. I hadn’t realised quite how much I’d wanted to hear something like that from her until she said it.
ARTHOUSE [screenplay]
Started to rework one of the earlier scenes and panicked about characterisation, heightened dialogue etc. I’d been watching far too much ‘Gilmore Girls‘ and became too enamoured with my snappy, made-for-TV exchanges, instead of allowing my people to breathe and be true and serve The Story.
ASYLUM [poss. screenplay/TV drama]
An idea I’ve had since reading an article in G2 finally birthed onto the page Celtx and in thinking about it more I’ve realised I can merge it with some scenes and characters from some planning I did for something else earlier in the year. Especially excited about this one, though the idea itself… I’m sure someone else must be doing it.
Everyword New Writing at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool
A quick word about the festival - although it’s technically not a writing progress report, which is what this blog is about - because I really enjoyed it and wish I’d taken part in more of it. Found the UK Film Council workshop especially useful, despite the professional Wannabe on the front row who couldn’t keep his condescension to himself, and there were some great performances. Fresh appreciation for theatre and ideas aplenty.
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July 22, 2008 at 5:30 pm
· Filed under Current Projects ·Tagged arthouse, paragon, blog, short stories, novellas, screenplays, stage plays, writing
They’re playing Joni Mitchell.
Screenplay: Arthouse [working title]
Finally got all the scribbled notes re. scene ideas and plotting out of my current notebook - a complete mess of journal and writing ideas - and into my Celtx draft. Almost all of them, anyway. Think I might like the thing again. We’ll see how long that lasts. Some of the notes have notes to go with them, like “Remember: this isn’t fucking Richard Curtis” and “I really need to be working on this on my laptop”. Helpful.
Paragon [working title]
This started life as my 2006 attempt at NaNoWriMo - of which I got about 8,000 words written before submitting to my incurable perfectionist of an Inner Editor - but the idea and world just would not leave me alone and resurrected itself in the form of my (’winning’) Script Frenzy 2008 effort, a script for a three-part miniseries in the style of the re-imagined ‘Battlestar Galactica’. I didn’t finish the script, though I passed a hundred pages, and now I’m thinking it might work better as a series of novellas, or collection of short stories? I could probably stand to finish the script before I look at switching media. As a script, the narrative was getting a bit expositional by necessity, but as prose I could jump around and do the multi-narrative thing so much more effectively. (From the notebook: “And just what is wrong with writing sci-fi? Atwood wrote sci-fi! Kind of. Shut up, I love sci-fi.”) Whatever the format, the story/characters/mythology won’t leave me alone.
Play: [still needs a working title]
I really don’t see enough plays to be entirely comfortable working on one but I’m pretty certain that the idea could only work on stage. Will have a go and report back.
Blog
I started keeping an anonymous, my-random-life style blog. Still wishing I was as snappy as Charlie Brooker.
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July 21, 2008 at 9:06 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged goals, intro, writing
I stumbled upon Diary of an Unpublished Author and decided to steal the idea. You, little home on WordPress, will be my comfort, my solice, my record and my contract. I want to be a writer. I want to write poetry and prose, novels and novellas, stage plays and screenplays. And a column for The Guardian. So I will. Here I go.
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