Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Pain, actually

I've recently been working on a new draft of a rom com film I wrote about eight years ago. Back then I got the script up to draft five, knew there were still problems with it, but didn't know how to fix them. A couple of months ago I pulled the script out of the metaphorical drawer, re-read it, and thought I could produce a new, relatively problem-free draft in a few days. Ha bloody ha, as it turns out.

The main difficulty lies in recapturing my state of mind as it was eight years ago. Back then I knew exactly who my characters were, how they spoke, how they thought. This was closely intertwined with the way I thought at the time. I've changed since then. This is obviously a good thing -- I pity anyone who stops growing intellectually at the age of 23. But it also means I'm constantly having to stop myself from rewriting my characters into the ones I would create now. If I did that, I'd effectively be gutting the script and starting over -- in which case I'd prefer to work on something fresh.

I'm tempted to put a sticky note on my screen saying, "Write like you used to write, only better!" Easier said than done.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Urp

I've just forked over £423 for the Robert McKee story seminar. That's an awful lot of money that could have gone toward eating and not sleeping under Vauxhall Bridge, but I have it on good authority that I won't regret my decision. Watch this space to see whether good authority turns out to be right.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Any nerd you can be, I can be better


This is what I've been doing rather too much of when I should be writing. Those of you with a similar affliction will know immediately what this picture's about -- it's my character hitting maximum level in World of Warcraft. Yea baby!

Friday, October 13, 2006

Shameless self-promotion, after the fact

My newest writing gig is with Mixt Nutz, Britain's most ethnically diverse sketch troupe. I went to their show last night, and now that I think about it, that was the first time in months I'd seen any of my work performed. The audience was small but appreciative.

I'd forgotten how nice it is when people laugh at your jokes.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

I'll show you mine if you show me yours

What better way to kick things off than with this challenge from Red Right Hand -- publish a page, any page, of script you've written in the last year. No setup, no context, no nothing.

Here you go: