space

Back to the grindstone. Have received more notes on the 20% of the beats that still needed addressing (seems more like 35% now - but anyway) so will hunker down and do a 10 x 10 (pages per day) now and get the thing re-written. Going back into scripped after ages to see what's happening there. Something that came out of the extended to-ing and fro-ing were name changes (apart from the main character), so hope their technical issues (like find and replace) are sorted there now.

Elsewhere, the first drawing is coming along - nearly finished now. For those who want to take a look I re-posted the latest photo below - see progress. Am also working on a small sketch for the next one (the one with the big legs in). Think there's going to be a swimming pool too - why not?

I'm throwing that one open - so if anyone wants to be included, please email me (address in profile) a photo - preferably of you doing something dynamic (*titter*) and I'll try and accommodate it. The main problem I'm facing is space - the drawings are so huge: 3m x 2.5 m. There's one other clear wall I can work on - but after that I'll be stymied. Maybe I can do one on top of the other - with layers of tissue in between. Could be a bit lumpy... Hmmmm

What else? The jazz book moves forward. One text to edit, another one due any minute and the third still up in the air...

Lara should take note of a full moon tonight in Aries - lovely. Actually I was taking a look at the nearly full one last night and could see a rabbit in it. Rabbit again - yeah yeah, you may snigger but wait and see...

Laters

percent

Was told that my re-beated sheets are 80% 'there'. Hmm. This must be the most arduous and rigorous script re-writing process I've ever been through. First the treatment - which was re-drafted to 17 pages, and finally moved on to script, then script notes and notes back and forth then 10 pages of re-arcing, then more notes resulting in a near spat, then the new re-beats - and all before I've even moved on to 2nd draft. Maybe it's a good learning curve or summat but quite frankly - I think if the results aren't spectacular, I won't be going this route again. I reckon 90- 95% 'there' would be fine. After all you need to cut some slack to allow the magic to happen..

In the meantime, happily cracking on with drawing - down the art shop every morning for more glorious pastels. Banana, ultramarine and peach today. A box of 15 different shades of grey yesterday. (Imagine trying to put 15 different shades of grey into a script - well actually probably not that hard - ha ha ha ha) So am eating up colour right now. Relatives and neighbours keep coming through to take a look; 'Oooh can you do me one with ostriches, please?'

What else? (other than chaos in the whole wide world.) Bought a lovely pair of earrings for my mum's birthday yesterday - mmm wanted to keep them. Still eager to take the first swim of the season. The pool's been open since October 1st, but still a bit too ice, icy cool to take the plunge just yet.

Hope you're well. Stop by.
Laters.

open road

Just peeking in to say 'hello pumpkins!' Nothing much to report at all - but that's the whole point of blogging sometimes isn't it? Good.
So notes on notes on notes. The rewrite is proving a real pain and I'm at the stage where I feel like stepping off completely ('No-oo' I hear some cry. 'Do it!' others murmur.)
The main problem: 'moving goal posts'. Yes that old chestnut. I take aim to find everything's now in a different place. Plus the latest strategy is to get me to incorporate elements of previous scripts into this one. Stuff that! No. Way. However I can be very reasonable if it is worth my while. Cough.

Let's see.
Friday now. Holidays here next week. Time for a glass of PG. Cheers! And what are you doing?

pow wow

This was really supposed to be a post called 'shift' but I don't know what happened to that one - I mislaid it - maybe it got sucked into the recycle bin or fell into a crack behind the sofa. But anyway, things shifted - so it doesn't matter now..

On to work in progress - the weekend pow wow - was basically all about them talking me into doing a massive amount of firming-up-the-story, re-writing work for the next month or so. Unpaid. I know I've blogged about this script, but really it's just been sitting in a drawer for the last while, incubating. Always good to put work aside and think about it in the abstract. And talk brings the story back to life - I can sense how much better it can be. So I'm fired up again.

Each script is different to write - and the problems have to be solved in different ways. Sometimes I draw charts, or lists, bullet points or even 'ballet points' as someone mentioned somewhere recently. I like that idea - ballet to give it 'a light lift.'
But right now I'm arc-ing characters by writing a little summary of where they're at, at the end of each act. It's going to be so good.

Sad news. One of the writers lined up to contribute to this jazz book - John Matshikiza died from a heart attack yesterday, aged just 53. He was a one-off, a perspicacious, snarky wit, tuned into the schizoid intersection of SA life. I encountered his acting in London with the RSC, years before I ever arrived on these shores and read his M&G columns. RIP.

Laters.

tough

Eish this re-write is proving tougher than an old, narky, meatless bone. I can't even bear to look back at the last few posts to see how long I've been supposed to be tackling it. Not dropping yet. But it will. It will. There are the rangy editor's notes - which are interesting but very broad based. Then there's the predilection for flashback to accommodate - that I don't think will work. I'm still waiting for that 'zen moment'. So I've been walking and dancing a bit.

I even wondered whether taking out the script fastener and tossing the entire script up in the air (like in Alice in Wonderland) then re-assembling it in a random fashion might lend perspective..


web ref: http://www.victorianweb.org

Tssk - you can see why I wouldn't really make a good teacher huh? Too anarchic maybe. I did some scriptwriting teaching here once and asked all the students to come up with pictograms for their current scripts, And then they each had to get up and draw them out on the board. One drew a large penis - of course.

Laters.

seeing spots

warning: banal post ahead

The easy bit is typing 'The end', then it gets more and more difficult. To help with rewriting today, I decided to use multi-coloured spot stickers - only because there are packets of them in my top drawer. I started off sticking them in the right hand margin of each page (a different colour for each story thread and up to 4 spots on one page). This was pleasantly time consuming and repetitive.
Then I laid the pages out on the floor - three rows for the three acts. It looked rather pretty - a bit like a colourful morse code or braille. I thought this might make it easy to see where story threads were going awol and it did, I suppose. Then I returned to the much more practical notebook. Just hope I have it all sorted now - just want to get this out of the way.....

Laters.

good, bad and the ugly

Just received another helping of feedback on my script - which this time was apposite, thorough, practical and constructive. It articulated issues which I hadn't been able to put my finger on as well as confirmed that I'm on the right track and was right to follow my instincts. So for now I'm going to do another print off, work out the 'through story' properly and then tackle the last revision.

Getting a critique is a bit like taking a child to the doctor when you don't really know what's wrong with them. Amputation is unlikely to be the best answer.

Laters

19 pages

Well I suppose you could call it feedback - but hacking nineteen pages out of a script and then sending it back - feels more like amputation...

Hmm. But it has sparked some intriguing solutions - so here I am - back at the drawing board. But after this, it's finished and going off no matter what...

Update: have now decided to await feedback from long-standing 'friend-in-scripts' (whose feedback is always spot on.) Have to follow your instincts sometimes - and mine was telling me to put those pages back in!

stealth

Ok have finished off the second act and literally just banged the story out on to the page. Now it's printed out ready for me to shift it all around, pull together and make it work. Much more stealth is needed, and so now I need to work backwards through the narrative. For instance, there's a 'honey-trap' journalist and right now it feels obvious so I'll have to go back and feed her in but this time as potential 'love interest'. There's also a poisoned dog - who prior to being poisoned - hadn't even made an appearance ..
Hmmm

Preciousness

Long rambly post ahead.
What is the point of having a blog if you don't use it occasionally to blow your own trumpet - albeit anonymously (and even for minor successes)? Well my first radio play didn't win anything but was very highly commended in the BBC International Radio Playwriting Contest (reached the top 50 out of 1200 entries worldwide - the names are now up here for a short time). So a pat on the back there. I kind of knew my play was 'busking it' with way too many characters (after a massive culling from the original film script). You were supposed to have only 6 and I think I had 8 and a half.

Plus certain elements had to be completely re-worked for radio. Sex and death probably work better on film. But as a re-writing and craft exercise - turning a film script into a radio play was fairly illuminating - particularly in regard to writing and 'preciousness' (more of which later).

So would I do another radio play? Yes probably but only for a ready opening like another contest - as it seems for Beeb radio drama you have to submit via a dedicated producer. They did re-launch radio drama over here a year or so ago but all seems to have gone quiet in the interim. Anyway there's another half hour radio competition deadline at the end of the year (though it's for 'Africans living in Africa' and I'm unsure whether I fit the criteria - will have to confer with Barbee there - tee he)

So what did I learn from this exercise? That I prefer writing for film and I think visually rather than aurally.
But I settled on a better title for the play. That stays. Thinking about making a story work for radio as opposed to film was a good exercise to hone the story. Now I'll take all the improved story things back to the film script. The key character was originally an artist. This didn't work for radio and was changed. But now I'm going back to the artist. One big plus for radio is that you can convey thoughts. Plus radio has to pack a punch from page 1. The film script has a kind of 'slow burner' opening which I'm going to have to work on.

In the film script there was a key scene where 'a pitched battle ensued' (where did I read that line on a blog recently?). Anyway mine was kind of inspired by that scene in 'Once Were Warriors' when the Maori mentor delivers a Haka and twirls a sword (and the whole audience flinch in expectation.) I wanted to capture that strange energy and the sense of not knowing whether what is happening (on screen) is true or not. Anyway of course this 'pitched battle' - being totally visual had to be severely curtailed for radio.

The main thing I learned from the whole exercise was about 'preciousness'. One key issue for many writers (me included) is a lack of ability to dispassionately assess what you've written after you've written it. We become precious. We hold on to things that should go and are unable to see what doesn't work well which is why we need to hand it out; get it read, do PO3 or whatever.

When I was at art college in Leeds (across the road from the Merrion Centre), we used to do life drawing once a week - our easels arranged in a circle around a large, lardy, naked woman who had perfected the art of smoking without ever dropping the ash from the end of her cigarette.
One day after we'd been busy with the charcoal for about half an hour, the tutor stopped us all. He told us to each take our drawing and hand it to the person on our left. We were then supposed to carry on sketching the life model - working with someone else's drawing. Everyone was stumped. Some were horrified. One girl cried. Most thought 'what can I do with this pile of *?'

Then we just had to stop being precious and get on with it.

Rework

Short post as I'm undertaking a major writing re-jig at the moment including a change of title, format & medium (f>r), conflation of 2 sets of characters, back to fronting, front to backing etc etc. Did 23 pages of re-drafting yesterday and now my wrists are swelling up (but then so are my ankles) so think it is probably down to the change in the weather here (getting damp) rather than RSI. Going to try and do the same amount again today.

Have been thinking quite a lot about the why fors of writing and blogging prompted by Miss cellany. One commenter on her site mentioned something about how, after a while, 'self consciousness' impacts on blogging.

Hmm maybe I'll throw in a bit of code here and there for regulars..
Anyway back to work

Later