LCWF packing

By RosieNo Comments
It's a last-minute packing job for the London Comedy Writers Festival! If you're at a loss this weekend, I believe there are a handful of tickets still on sale! So, what's in my bag? - BUSINESS CARDS! Two full boxes of funky designs ready for eager hands to steal them away. - One pagers. I have two - one for a series and one for a feature - ready to dish out to those whose interest is piqued by my project, as per the recommendation of Laurence Timms. May have a slightly unusual presentation... - Delegate Handbook, printed hard copy and saved to my Dropbox for phone access - Two notebooks and a stash of pens, just as Oli Lewington suggests. - Glasses! I need to see the presenters and read back my notes. And leave without a blinding headache. - Some clothes and stuff. Might be an idea. - Laptop! Unfortunately, I haven't scraped together the time or the cash to buy a new netbook, so the...
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One to one-hundred-and-ten pages

By RosieNo Comments
I went on an excursion to Bristol to visit a friend. From Pads, it's about ninety minutes, so I left the laptop at home and took the hard drive (for TV catch-up) and the iPhone. I do my best writing on trains. But would that hold true without keys beneath my fingers and the ability to do more than one thing at a time? Turned out pretty well. I opened up my scripts in Celtx and fiddled about with them - the major downside was not being able to copy and paste long sequences, as I overhauled my final fight scene in Steampunk Assassins. I also looked up an old draft of the script using Dropbox to see if I still had an old scene that may get reworked into the finale sequence. The other project I worked on was my entry for the Laugh A Minute competition, which is inspired by Lucy V's call for sex. Unfortunately, nobody actually has sex, but...
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December Deadlines

By RosieNo Comments
Happy Advent! Today, I change job description and work hours - hence, why I'm awake at this time of the morning. Ugh. It's also a month until my self-imposed deadlines kick in: two polished specs. As TBSR reminded us yesterday, it's all too easy to miss those targets. And I am two spec scripts down. One needs another draft and polish, and the other needs an overhaul draft. I need a Nano-style to get those done - but the holiday season also brings train journeys! (One day, I'll set up a carriage in my living room). Anyone else falling short on their deadlines?...
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Square One

By RosieNo Comments
After all the pressure of competition deadlines over the past few months, I've gone back to the specs. Having finally transferred all my work to Celtx (even if I haven't resolved all my formatting issues quite yet), I've set Steampunk Assassins and Military Monster down to rest for another week. I've also actually written an outline for the Asylum pilot, because stumbling around Military Monster led to some bad creative decisions and a lot of words I had to unwrite and I like to dance to some kind of beat. I have another long train journey tomorrow, so hopefully I'll drum something out and flesh out my characters. Then, for the journey back, I'm going to pick up Steampunk Assassins and tear that thing to pieces. I really need to learn to love editing - writing is rewriting, after all. ...
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Hop across the Pond

By RosieNo Comments
I'm going on holiday to the States for a week. As you may recall, I absolutely love writing while travelling - could be very productive! I'd also like to boost the signal for Circalit's Screenplay competition (via Phill Baron): Get an Agent with Circalit and the London Screenwriters’ Festival! The London Screenwriters’ Festival have teamed up with Circalit to offer screenwriters a chance to get representation. Screenwriters are encouraged to enter the free competition at www.circalit.com. The winning writer will meet with a top London agent, get £100 and free tickets to the London Screenwriters’ Festival! The competition will be judged by the executive team at the London Screenwriters’ Festival and is free to enter. The deadline for submissions is October 15th. Creative director of the festival and Oscar shortlisted film director Chris Jones commented, “We’re very excited about this competition with Circalit. Circalit’s unique style of competitions don’t just give writers the chance to win prizes, but also to share their work,...
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These Things Take Time – And Sometimes They Don’t

By Rosie3 Comments
On Wednesday, I opened up a couple of old files on my hard drive and had a look. One was a set of notes in Text Block Writer (my software of choice for screenplays, making Blake Snyder's Board digital) and the other was a plain old Word file. The notes catalogued some disconnected beats of a Victorian Assassins movie that I scribbled down about two years ago. This idea first came to me in Summer 2004, when I was staying at a jungle hotel in Sri Lanka and my mind was alive with the Indian Subcontinent and ninja assassins. Obviously. However, when I ran it past my cabal of writing friends, they tore it apart. Where was the motive? The character development? Leaping from rooftop to rooftop was all very well, but where was the substance? I thought about it for a couple of days and decided to rewrite it, adding a new love interest and changing the dynamics of the piece. Which...
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Travel and the pen

By RosieNo Comments
Today, I have fourteen hours of travel via two connecting flights to get me to London. I love to travel. I love the new experiences it brings me and the new sources of inspiration it lands at my door, but more than that, I love the quiet uninterrupted time to write. There aren't many things to do on a plane. Sure, there's food and drink, and now movies on demand and a hundred different kinds of music, but there's also that wonderful quiet time when everyone's trying to sleep and those of us unable to rest while travelling can write with abandon. I have no idea why writers like to work late into night when more sensible folks have turned in - maybe it's the peace, or perhaps just getting so caught in the flow of your work that you completely forget the hour. Trains are even better for writing. Of course, you usually don't get the sleeping phase (at least not in...
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