that and this and that

Writing is still on hold here until the long summer holiday finally draws to a close at precisely 8 am on Wednesday 16th January - when my daughter and thousands of others start a new school year and I can finally get back to the desk - yippee.

'Write every day' may be the mantra, but an enforced period away from the desk is often just as productive. Time to set ideas sailing and see where they go. Lately I seem to have replaced writing with swimming (with the upshot that I'm now contemplating something set in a pool - ha!) On my writing 'to do' list for 2008 there's:

a fragmented family TV mini-series thing - pivoted round an absent father (have a title but not sure whether I completely like it yet)
a new SA story - for which I have a perfect title and pitch - and which has been percolating gently for several months now, and
WF (a UK/SA thing) which has been in the top drawer for ages but is missing some vital ingredient - probably needs more mulling over
Let's see.

There are also the 2 SA scripting projects from last year still under negotiation but my feeling is that if things are going to happen - then they tend to happen quickly. Hmmm..

Plus there's one (or two) schemes I'm excited about here and there - mainly there ;)

Laters.

PS: regarding the 'script with legs' - am in less of a quandary and have made up my mind to wait...

Heads, bodies and legs

A good title don't you think? Must use it sometime - so if I leave it up here on the blog to stew awhile maybe the script will come too. Actually I just googled it and came across this - an internet version of the drawing game. In the 'Sky Stories' children's series I did a while back - there was one Australian story about the 'Ungambikula' who carved out the first beings from different body parts.

Anyway after clearing the decks (or desk) last week for the 'powers-that-be', I find that the 'rewrite' project that was simmering away quietly on the back burner is now boiling up on the front again. Plus I'm aiming to get a new script written (in response to notes) by mid September.

That's about it for now. Onwards.

Titles

I'm in the odd position of having two (hotting up) feature scripts that both have the same noun in the title. For karmic blog purposes, let's suppose this word* is 'rabbit'. (N.B. There are no rabbits in either script) So let's say one script is called Blue rabbit and the other one is called Rabbit and me. Whereas Blue Rabbit is about a self-styled rabbit who is not really a rabbit at all but exhibits the airs and graces of a rabbit, Rabbit and me is a slice of life, biographical story of a real live rabbit. Still reading? I'm just hoping I won't start confusing them in emails etc. *This same word features in the title of a major US TV series so clearly is in the ether at the moment.

Maybe my repertoire of titles is drying up. I hope not. Each title was right for that script. I always think that the title is often the key to writing the script and works best when it sums up the essence of the story. Most of the time I can't start writing until the title is there. Recently I changed a title - (even though the script came 2nd somewhere.) There was a naff word in the title that I was never happy with - but as I hadn't managed to come up with anything better - it stayed. However when I reworked the story into a radio play, the emphasis changed and suddenly a gloriously simple and apposite title appeared. Perfect.

Anyway titles or rabbits - what do you think?