Down from the cave, and back to work. I’ve been working at this writing lark for about two years now, so I had a little anniversary think about where I need to improve, my goals, and what to write next
The provisional results are just in, so…
Where I need to Improve…
I need to work on premise more, to make sure my ideas are fully developed, and as original as possible.
I need to plan more.
I need to pay more attention to story, and work on credibility and flow.
I need to focus on character more.
I need to work on making my characters more vivid and rounded (and keep an eye on how the audience see them.)
I need to visualise not verbalise.
I need to make sure my dialogue is not too on the nose.
I need to rewrite, not just polish.
Basically, I need to improve in just about every area! But at least I know that I do…
Goals
Getting a short film made is still my short term goal, so I’m working on my Digital Shorts proposals at the moment.
I’ve decided to try to get into fun-packed world of script reading in the medium term, as a way of making money within the industry. So I’m going on The Script Factory reading course, and I'm going to (try to) read a script a day to develop my reading muscles before looking for gainful reading employment.
I also need to think about getting into TV long term. I probably prefer TV to film at the moment, and there’s more money in it"! But despite this, and despite having been on Adrian Mead’s course, I’ve been too film focused so far. I’m going to the WGGB BBC writersroom event on Sept 13th, which is a start - anyone else going?
What to write next
I’m working on shorts at the moment, but still not too sure what to do after that.
I need to look at writing something for TV, and I need to write a feature spec that producible (ie low budget) , but commercial. And it (obviously) needs to fire me up. Got a few ideas knocking around - one of which is a new take on the 1st script I ever seriously wrote, which may or may not be a good idea!
So that’s where I’m at. How y'all you doing?
6 comments:
I've been doing lots of pondering lately too and I have the same goals as you - get short film made, write low-budget feature. Amongst other things.
Interesting you're thinking of getting into the reading game. I'm not sure how much longer I want to keep doing it...
I should see you at the Writer's Guild thing!
Good goals, Martin. I should see you at the Writer's Guild thing too.
If you have a short film script that needs a review, I'm available now the madness of getting my Red Planet entry is done with. Let me know if that'll be useful.
Lianne - So apart from the tedium and crap pay, what is putting you off reading ;)
I've booked the Script Factory course now, and the first day of the course is next tuesday. Do you know Ludo Smolski?
Stuart - ta, I'm rewriting 2 shorts at the mo, but I'll let you know if I get time for another round of PO3 - Depends how tight the digital shorts dealine is!
see you both at WG, and good luck to both of you (and everyone else) on red planet!
well done on both your round 2s sir
Reading is great, I love it, but I can see why some don't. It's not possible to make a lot of money without working trillions of hours and there *can* be a lot of repetition involved. However, reading others' work (not just the mistakes either) gives you an invaluable insight into what makes good writing and if you work for private clients more than the companies (where there's no interraction generally), you can genuinely feel as if you are helping people. That's what I love and even though I read ALOT of scripts that have similar problems, no one writer is the same and that's what's cool about it.
And I've met Ludo - he worked on Metlab with me. Have you thought about going for that Martin? It's free. More details here for anyone who missed the call:
http://lucyvee.blogspot.com/
2007/07/free-training-course.html
Ta yr realness.
Lucy - I've been enjoying doing power of three feedback, so I'll have to see if I continue enjoying it day in day out (if I can get the work)
Might check out metalab, cheers - not really got anything for it but I'll look into it, ta :)
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