Nothing to do with scriptwriting...

As part of my daily routine of procrastination I usually check out The Astronomy Picture of the Day.

A new picture each day. Stunning stuff. Awe-inspiring, in the true sense of the word. And huge - images of entire galaxies, or starscapes showing whole clusters of galaxies. Wonderful. And really helps put any minor problems I might have into perspective. All in all, I treat it as my own personal Total Perspective Vortex.

Anyway, today's image is not on quite the same scale. It's relatively close to home. This picture shows barchan sand dunes on the surface of Mars. I just think it's beautiful.

Er...

Nothing much to say.

Just checking in, really.

Busy, busy, busy on that Holby script for the last few months. Draft #5 is currently with the head honcho. Fingers crossed.

Looks as though I should have entered the Red Planet competition this year - they seem to have given free passes to almost every blogger who applied*. So, they're all into the next round, and the knives will come out. Now we'll really see just how supportive the blogosphere is when the chips are really down! There can be only one.


I told you there wasn't much to say.


* Rapid edit and grovelling apology to anyone who might conceivably have taken this the wrong way - I wouldn't want to suggest in any way or form that those who successfully got through didn't do so entirely on their merits. I'm delighted for all of them and share in their excitement. Really, I do. Honest Injun.

Dear Danny,

RE: The Red Planet Productions Prize

Danny, Danny, Danny, you obviously didn't read my submission carefully enough. Did you get what it was about? Maybe you didn't realise it was mine? You did read all of it, didn't you? Would it help if I sent you the rest of the script anyway, just to give you the context for those first ten pages? It was the formatting wasn't it? That actually is standard industry formatting for BBC drama, you know? Did you have a problem with the title? That can change. I'm not wedded to the title - or at least, not to the order the words come in - obviously all the words have to be in the title, of course. But I can be flexible. And we don't have to set it in Cardiff. It could be Edinburgh or Belfast. Though, obviously, Cardiff's better. Are you absolutely sure you actually read it? I mean, it might have slipped through the cracks somewhere - you did have all those problems with the submission process, right?. Maybe my script got lost. You couldn't just double-check for me, could you? I'm just wondering whether it might have gone over your head - some of the sub-themes were intellectually challenging, and they're not fully explored or explained until later in the piece. Look, why don't I just send you the rest anyway? You can look at it (I am a mate, after all), and if you like it (you will!), then you can just slip it into the pile and pretend there was a cock-up somewhere along the line and it should have been there all along. We need to sort this out, Danny, because it's going to really embarrass you one day. Did you know that Tony's a good friend of mine, actually? I didn't mention it on the application because I thought you were bright enough to see which way the wind was blowing, but maybe I should have spelt it out a bit better. No hard feelings. We can sort it, yeah? Drop me a line.

Yours affectionately

Paul

It's all coming together

Well, three weeks in and apparently we now know everything there is to know about structure, character and dialogue.

As far as I can tell, the remaining ten weeks involve doing it again and again and again until it becomes second nature.

Some people might call it brainwashing. And maybe they're right.

But it seems to be working. And I don't think any of us show signs of turning into clones of John Yorke.

Tomorrow's Wednesday. So, it's a long day of homework.

Then, on Thursday, we have the honour of being addressed by Mr Tony Jordan (EastEnders, Hustle, Holby Blue... and Eldorado) - buddy of Danny Stack, and the man behind the Red Planet Prize. I wonder if he liked Obadiah Morgan!

2000 scripts orbiting Red Planet

This from Tony Jordan on the Red Planet website...

'Thanks to all who have entered for your interest and enthusiasm. We've had around two thousand entries to the competition, which is daunting but shows how much talent there is out there.'

Well,... no. But it does show how much desperation there is.

Anyway, the odds are looking good. A 0.05% chance of success.

I don't think I'll hold my breath.

Red Planet

I've been a bit tied up recently.

With this Academy thing starting soon, I'm trying to fill the coffers by working as much as I can at the FSA until then. I'm actually working a full-time, five days a week stint. I can't remember the last time I turned up at an office for five days in a row! Frightening.

Anyway, not much writing getting done as a result. But this weekend I did polish up the first ten pages of my old friend 'Obadiah Morgan' as my entry for Tony Jordan's Red Planet competition. Entries had to be in my the end of this month.

Good luck to anyone else out there who's entered. May you come second!