What's happenin'

Haven't posted much recently. So, what's happening on the writing front?

I've been working on various ideas for Doctors. Several rejections, but a bit of promise on a couple of story ideas - one in particular that might go places. It's a bit off the wall, but not impossible.

I bounced a few radio ideas off my friendly independent radio producer. And she bounced them straight back at me (very nicely, though).

And I accidentally missed the deadline for Channel 4's "Coming Up" competition. Oh, well. Didn't really want to enter it anyway!

Best progress at the moment is on one of my TV series ideas, "Bloodline". My agent's happy with it and it's about to go out there. If you're a producer and it lands on your desk, give it a read.

To do...

The weather's turning warmer. My daughter insists that she wants to wear her summer dress to school. Must be time to review those New Year's Resolutions and see how I'm doing...

1. Inundate the BBC with story ideas for Doctors, so that they have no excuse for not giving me more commissions. Hmmm. Well, my inundating was going OK, until my script editor left (familiar story?). So, there's a new script editor in town. He seems a nice chap. But it's a question of starting from scratch. And, it is so difficult staying enthusiastic about a process which, nine times out of ten, results in several days work being rejected outright. But, there was a reason why this resolution was #1 - Doctors is the only show in town for writers of my level of experience, and, until I build up a decent portfolio there, nobody else is going to take me very seriously. Probably. So, more work needed there, Paul. More inundation, please.

2. ... get at least three more commissions for Doctors over the course of the year. Yeah, well, not so much a resolution as a wish. And it won't come true unless I put the work in (see above).

3. Apply for (and be accepted into) the BBC Writers' Academy. Nothing's happened yet in this department. No word from the BBC about whether or not the Academy will continue, but I'm watching all 4 BBC continuing dramas on a regular basis now. This one's still my main hope for the year.

4. ... and, as a result, get at least one commission for Eastenders, Holby City or Casualty. Naturally. But now I'd like to add The Bill to the list. Nothing to do with the BBC, of course. But I attended an excellent TAPS course on writing for The Bill and it has whet my appetite.

5. Get my radio play commissioned by BBC 4 for The Afternoon Play. Well, that didn't happen. I had the usual nice words, but no banana. But there's another submission round coming up soon, and I have a few ideas which I'll be discussing with my friendly independent radio producer shortly.

6. Get at least half a dozen TV series ideas to my agent, and have her hawk them around the industry. I have been promising this for so long now, it's becoming embarrassing. But I am one step forward at least. I have done some work on one of them, Bloodline, and my agent thinks it has promise. More work to be done there, and then repeat the process for the other ideas.

7. ... and get at least one meeting out of the process. That would be nice.

8. Go to the Cheltenham Screenwriting Festival again. I think so. They've just announced the dates (3-6 July), and I think I might go for the Thursday and Friday. Anyone else care to join me there?

9. If the Film Council ever get around to running another 25 Words or Less, apply for it and (this time) win the £10,000 (rather than just getting within sniffing distance). No word from the UKFC on this one.

10. If the UKFC don't run the scheme again, work up at least one feature film concept, write the opening ten pages and get my agent to hawk it around (including to the Film Council). Yeah, right! Well, once I've finished my inundation of the Doctors' team, and written up 6 TV series concepts, then maybe I'll turn my hand to this hopeless cause.

11. Make some money from writing. Income from writing this year so far - £0.00.

12. Have fun. Well, this one's easy. It's still a lot of fun. And I got see my name on the screen for the very first time this year (see screen shot, above right).

'Bombay Girl' Spurned

The thing about New Year's Resolutions is that they should be resolutions. And resolutions should be about things that are within your control - I resolve to achieve x, y or z.

Many of my resolutions this year are more like... er... well, frankly, a lot of them are pipe dreams.

One of them was to get my radio play, Bombay Girl, commissioned by the Beeb. Well, it's just been rejected. (It was a very nice rejection, though)

So, does that mean that I've broken one of my resolutions already, or am I allowed to blame the BBC?

Anyway, onwards and upwards. The independent radio producer I have been working with is still keen to maintain the relationship, so I'll be working something up for the next submission round in May. I don't know what it'll be yet. Any ideas?

New Year's whatjermecallits

Resolutions, resolutions, resolutions. So difficult to make, even harder to keep. This year, the most important resolution is to keep all the others. And here they are...

1. Inundate the BBC with story ideas for Doctors, so that they have no excuse for not giving me more commissions.

2. ... get at least three more commissions for Doctors over the course of the year.

3. Apply for (and be accepted into) the BBC Writers' Academy.

4. ... and, as a result, get at least one commission for Eastenders, Holby City or Casualty.

5. Get my radio play commissioned by BBC 4 for The Afternoon Play.

6. Get at least half a dozen TV series ideas to my agent, and have her hawk them around the industry.

7. ... and get at least one meeting out of the process.

8. Go to the Cheltenham Screenwriting Festival again.

9. If the Film Council ever get around to running another 25 Words or Less, apply for it and (this time) win the £10,000 (rather than just getting within sniffing distance*).

10. If the UKFC don't run the scheme again, work up at least one feature film concept, write the opening ten pages and get my agent to hawk it around (including to the Film Council).

11. Make some money from writing.

12. Have fun.


* It's a good job I wasn't blogging at the time when I got shortlisted. It was very frustrating, and I might have been tempted to say something very indiscreet.

Back soon.

OK, so anybody who's been bothering to turn up lately has had to blow the cobwebs off first.

Guilty as charged.

But then this blog is supposed to be about my writing career, and I haven't really had one for the last few months. Money earning has been the name of the game - earning some money so I can afford to try to earn some money writing.

Anyway, the current contract comes to an end at the end of this month, and then I'll be back at the PC, screenwriting away like anything.

Actually, it's got to start a bit sooner than that. The man from the BBC quite likes my idea for a radio play (see the previous post from way back when) - it got through to a shortlist, and then survived a live pitch (not by me - by the producer). Now it needs to be officially submitted.

Exciting news, eh? The only problem is that I now have to put together a more detailed treatment - overview, character outlines, storyline and some sample/illustrative scenes by the end of the month, just when the day job is reaching a crescendo of long hours and ridiculous deadlines. But I shall find a way.

And another wee bit of writing news to end on. A letter arrives in the post today telling me that the BBC has paid me an additional £432.15 for my episode of 'Doctors'. It's the 'Public Service Fee', apparently. I've no idea what it means, but I don't think I'll send it back.

Another go at radio

I've just successfully pitched an idea for a BBC Radio 4 "Afternoon Play" to an independent producer, who will now pitch it to the man at the Beeb.

I'm pleased that she likes it, but the question is, "will he?"

He liked "After the Quints", which we submitted to the last round, but then decided not to commission it.

So, it's fingers crossed that he likes "Bombay Girl", and that (this time) he remembers that he likes it when he gets around to the actual commissioning.

Back... sort of.

Well, I don't seem to have said very much recently. I don't imagine I've been missed!

I had two weeks very enjoyable holiday in South Devon with the family. Sand, sea and sun much appreciated by all of us.

Then back to the real world with a horrid jolt with the news that a close friend from university has died. I don't want to write about it, so I won't.

Much better was the family wedding, followed the next weekend by a family 90th birthday.

But, if you add all that to a horribly busy time at the office, perhaps it's not surprising that, frankly, I've almost forgotten I'm a writer.

I must remind myself every morning when I awake, "I am a writer. I am a writer. I am a writer."

Mind you, I did get some confirmation of that status because the BBC have paid the second half of my fee for Doctors. They've accepted my script, and they'll be shooting in the not too distant future. I seem to remember promising that I'd give a run down on how the whole process went. I'll do so in the next day or so.

But, having made such a successful job of the episode and worked really well with my script editor, I discover he's leaving and heading off to Casualty (the show, not the hospital). Good luck to him, I say (and can I come too?). But it puts me back a step or two with Doctors and a new script editor. She seems very nice, but it means starting from scratch all over again. And, with a new man in charge overall, I suddenly find myself without any stories banked. So, right back to square one, and, until the new man decides what he wants to do and where he wants to take the series, there's no point even thinking about new story ideas right now.

But what I do have to do is sort out some more radio ideas, because it's that time of year again. A nice little commission for a radio drama would be great. I've got the idea in my head, it's just a matter of finding the time to sit down and get it onto one or two sides of a piece of paper.

Talking of which, there's at least four TV series knocking about in amongst the little grey cells too. And I've been promising them to my agent for far too long.

But I've got to go the office tomorrow. And it's going to be another long day.

This writing thing would be so much easier if I didn't have to earn a living at the same time.

Up and Down

One of those days today.

My script editor at Doctors got back to me with comments on my first draft. He likes it. Lots of small suggestions, and it needs cutting down a bit, but no significant structural changes. Excellent!
2nd draft by the middle of next week. So much for doing the housework this weekend.

Then the independent radio producer I've been working with gets in touch to say the BBC don't want to commission my Afternoon Play. Curses!
The only good aspect to the latter is that I got quite a good write up. Their feedback was "The script is well written, but it isn't quite distinctive enough to cut through as a single in our view. A writer to encourage. "
So, I suppose I should feel "encouraged". Not entirely sure I do.

Submitted

Well, the producer liked it.

It's now in the hands of the Gods (sorry, the BBC).

Radio Play - sorted

It's done.

Well, the first draft is done. And I'm actually quite pleased with it.

I've just sent it off to the producer, and she'll probably hate it! If she likes it, then the BBC's deadline for this round of submissions is tomorrow. Fingers crossed thereafter.

It's been a bit of a slog this week.

Coming along nicely

This first radio play is a very different experience.

It's fun, actually. Much wordier than my usual stuff. But I'm quite enjoying the experience.

I did quite well today. Churned out 8 pages despite my daughter being off sick. It did help that my mum came up for the day - thanks, Fran.

I'm reasonably optimistic I'll make the deadline for submission (15 May) without having to resort to sample scenes and an outline. Fingers crossed.

Busy busy busy

I've been putting together a proposal for BBC Radio 4, for the Afternoon Play, working with an independent production company. All bids have to be in by 15th May, so it's going to be tight.

I'm hoping to get a first draft sorted. Otherwise it'll be an outline and a few key scenes.

I've been outlining, planning and researching all week. I spent today working on the opening scenes and, though I say it myself, it went pretty well. Of course, I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, but the quality felt alright. Tomorrow morning it will probably look very different.

Radio's so different to TV or Film. I keep wanting to give visual cues. All that screenwriting training about showing, not telling - well half of it goes out the window when you can't show anything. I feel like I've been given a licence to be loquacious, so I'm having to fight the urge to go on and on and on in the dialogue.

Back to Doctors

I have three script ideas officially "banked" with the Doctors folk in Birmingham.
And, one of these days, they're going to give me a commission to write one of them. They will.
In the meantime, the more ideas they have, the greater my chances, so I've spent today working on a couple of outlines. I only got one down on paper, in draft, but it feels solid. The other one will have to wait a bit.

I also spent far too much time sorting out the correct formatting for a radio play. I have my fingers crossed for a commission in that direction, so I'm listening to a good few examples of the genre, and sorting out what they look like on the page. That way, when the commission comes (ahem), I can get started immediately.

"Coming Up"

Spent most of the day trying to come up with something bold and contemporary and youthful for Channel 4's "Coming Up" scheme.

Failed.

But I did come up with something that might work for Radio 4. So, not entirely wasted.

And I did decide that something I worked on before might usefully be resurrected for Coming Up. In fact, I think it might suit rather well. Deadline's 18 April, so I've got a bit of time to polish it up.

fine-tuning

Today's tally?

Mainly a whole load of polishing and fine-tuning. My spec features a tall crane - so how tall is a tall crane? About 120 feet if you google the experts. And what rank should my police officers be? Detective Chief Inspector and Detective Sergeant, I think, having queried various police websites. And where should I add something to build on the budding relationship between two of my minor players - still working on that one. etc. etc.

So, it's been a day of fiddling really. But the spec's much better for it.

Tomorrow's a day with my daughter. A bit more fiddling on Friday and it should be in a good enough state to be shared with a few trusted folk. Then the nail-biting begins.


A little bit of good news today. An independent radio producer has read some of my work, seen some of my ideas - and likes them. We have a meeting next week some time to discuss submissions to the BBC.