BBC rejection

Well not quite.

I got a big envelope back which had everything I sent off in it. Turns out I hadn't put enough postage on. So that was a wasted 6 weeks. Going to send it again tomorrow.

Trying to write a short just to send out to a few directors. Maybe someone will like it enough to make it. The way it's written now is too big budget, but I'll fix that in the next pass. Of course I have to finish the first pass first! Also at the moment it's silent. Not sure if I like that or not. It's one character. I thought I should add a second character to give the first someone to talk to, so I could explain what she was thinking and feeling but I suppose it's to have less dialogue and do as much of the story telling as you can visually. That's what all the books say anyway.

Tried to get back into university but they weren't having it. There's nothing to be done for me funding wise and I'm on the bones of my arse as it is. Been talking to my promoter friend about doing some new nights but that's just a waiting game for me with the ball in his court.

I know people question the merits of a screenwriting MA but I feel I need that structure to force me to write at the moment.  I find it hard. I over-think and never get anything down. Also having already done a year I owe those years fess. If I don't finish then that's half the fees for nothing.

Plus I want to be able to give my Mum that picture of me in the cap and gown. I think she had high hopes of me, so did I, but I've never really amounted to much of anything. She seems to be falling to bits. Arthritis and other pains. There is probably more wrong with her than either she has told us or she knows herself (between the drinking, smoking and her having been overweight most of her life - she'd kill me for putting that online!). She keeps on at me about wanting to see me have a kid before she dies. A request that seems to be being made more and more frequently.

My Dad was in the Navy when I was younger so was away a lot. My Mum raised us on her own. She also used to foster other children and we frequently had other people living with us who she had taken in. Throughout all of this she went back to University. She was doing the Open University for a while. There was some kind of scheme called "Second Chance to Learn". Given her working class background growing up in the 60s, betterment was never really seen as an option but come the 80s my Mum did something about that.

Then she went to Liverpool Polytechnic. It's now John Moores University. I think the buildings she used to attend are now closed, no longer part of the University, even if they still own them. I remember going once to sit in her class. It was some kind of protest to get a creche provided. The idea was we'd be as much of a disturbance as we could be to annoy the Uni into providing the facilities. From what I remember it worked, which I'm not sure is something I should be proud of. I have 2 memories from the day. One was doing an enormous burp after drinking a can of coke and having to leave the room I was laughing so much and another was being in a sociology lecture and listening in thinking it was a load of rubbish and just stating common sense. When the lecturer saw me listening intently he tried to be funny and ask me what he was talking about so I told him. Put him in his place and impressed everyone with how clever I was haha.

This all got a little more personal than I would usually blog! The point is I'd just like to be able to show her I achieved something before she dies, whenever that might be. I want her to be as proud of me as I am of her.

Back to blog

Not blogged in ages.

I'm going to try and get back to it more frequently. Try and help me form a writing routine.

On the writing front I'm trying to get back on my MA course. i couldn't afford the tuition so had to drop out. the course has a rolling intake of once every 2 years so this year I can start the second year again.

Pitched a story to Com X comics. Eddie Deighton said he liked the idea. I'll be sending the treatment once I have it. Hopefully they'll want to publish it. He didn't say anything about them specifically wanting to pick it up at Com X but here's hoping.

I have a script off at the BBC. That sounds bigger than it is. I sent a script to The Writer's Room. They promise to get back to me eventually. Not sure how long it's been now. Hopefully something will come of it, even if it's just a contact who thinks maybe the script isn't right for them they could see something in me worth working with, offer to let me do a trial script for something or other. I have a sitcom for the BBC I'm "working" on which I'll send as well once I have it.

Last of all I've been putting writings up on tumblr. At first they were just little ideas I had and wrote straight off the top of my head. Sort of horror themed but kind of funny. I have a few longer stories I'm still working on to go up.

They're on www.crookedfiction.tumblr.com if you're interested.

I'm having a tough time writing an actual screenplay. I just don't think any of my ideas are any good. been reading a few more professional scripts and honestly, most of the ones I've read are no good. I'm convinced I can come up with something better... if I could just come up with something better.