Month: January 2011

Weekend Wonderfulness

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After a few weeks of complete madness – just tooooo much to do – this weekend it’s been nice to chill. Not that I’ve really chilled in the typical sense, but I’ve felt chilled because there aren’t deadlines breathing down my neck. I got the latest OU assignment in on time on Thursday, despite spending more time at work than I expected to, completed the most urgent paperwork for work, and sent off my submission for the ‘100 Stories for Queensland’ book (albeit a little late).

On Saturday I had a really enjoyable OU tutorial in Cambridge. Once again, considering there are about 24 people on this course in what must be around a 25 mile radius, there weren’t that many of us, but it was great to see familiar faces and a couple of new ones. Caron Freeborn is not only a good tutor, she’s also an interesting person with a great sense of humour. Must remember to buy her novels and have a read 🙂

We had a lot of fun with one of the exercises – we voted on a setting (I was quite chuffed because it ended up being an opera house which was my suggestion!), did some descriptive work, and then Caron made each of us pick a Secret Slip of Paper…this was the character we had to be in the monologue she asked us to write. And of course, the challenge was for everyone else to listen to it afterwards and guess who you were meant to be!

A really interesting exercise, but I was a bit unnerved, as I found it disturbingly easy to write as my character – ‘a 40-year-old alcoholic woman in need of a drink’! Lovely to spend a few hours with fellow writers though.

And today was pretty great too, because thanks to a tweet from Simon Whaley, I found there’s a longlist (well, more of a shortlist!) up for ‘100 Stories’. And – yay! I’m on it. Very chuffed.

A Book That Changed My Life

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p> Countryside road

A Book That Changed Your Life

Such was the challenge laid down by Plinky recently… so, here goes.

Paul McKenna’s ‘Change Your Life In 7 Days’.
I borrowed it from a friend just before she moved miles away 4 years ago, and have repeatedly forgotten to give it back (which isn’t at all like me – honest – but these days I’m normally on my summer holidays when I drop in & visit her, and I’ve forgotten to pack the book in all the excitement!)

Anyway. The book. It did change my life in 7 days – and that’s without using the cd. Perhaps I should go and do that now…

It changed my life because it freed me of the guilt I felt for wanting a happy and successful life. At the risk of sounding all deep and meaningful here – heaven forbid! – I had been brought up with the ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it – and be glad you’ve got it, because that’s all you can expect and you certainly don’t need or deseve any more’ rule.

That rule stinks.

In reality, a far better rule is ‘if it’s not broken, but it doesn’t work properly – or as well as something else would – then for God’s sake sort it out before you’re too old to truly appreciate the result.’

In the words of Captain Sensible:

You’ve got to have a dream

If you don’t have a dream

How you gonna make a dream come true?

Within a short time of reading that book I had signed up to restart my degree with a creative writing course, and had put my house on the market. A year later I had moved 100 miles away.

That book really DID change my life, you see…

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Old MacDonald Day

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On Friday there was a meeting – not of minds, but of both my jobs. We took our preschoolers for a session at ‘big school’, where I also work. It was Old MacDonald Day so everyone dutifully dressed in jeans, boots and checked shirts!

Even though it’s only a few  minutes walk from one to the other, we were drowned by the time we got there. Of all the days for the heavens to decide to open with a whoosh! But the children had a lovely time – they made animal masks, went on a farm animal treasure hunt in the hall, dressed up as animals, made funky horse masks, coloured in farm pictures, and of course they played with the toy farm as well. Oh, and sang Old MacDonald whilst learning the Makaton symbols for the animals. Lots of enthusiasm!

In a rare moment of relaxation (although it kind of crossed over to writing work as well) I finished the Writer’s Tale 2: The Final Chapter by Russell T Davis and Benjamin Cook. Great entertainment, lots of laughs, a behind the scenes look at Dr.Who and an insight into Russell’s writing – who could ask for more?

Personally I think he served an OBE just for the book, never mind ‘services to drama’! Reading it was like sitting ion the midst of a cosy chat – it’s all emails, save for the ocassional text message, so it really feels like you’ve just pulled up a chair…
The downside is, I had that really bereft feeling you get when you come out of a ‘book world’ you’ve been so comfy in.

Never mind. Thanks to my lovely husband, supplier of all things Christmas-booky, I have already betrayed the memory of Russell and Benjamin, and floated into Mr.Fry’s Chronicles. Armchair, anyone?

I have a horribly busy week ahead, and the playscript is still not finished. But I’ve made progress today, and the back is feeling a bit better. So there’s hope for me yet!

Steve is back!

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If you were mourning Steve, fear not. He has returned!

Having listened to Jane Rogers talking about film adaption – and thinking back to the minimal dialogue approach discussed by Mark Ravenhill – I completely redrafted the beginning of my play, getting rid of a whole clunky bundle of exposition by dramatising a small scene in the main character’s past. It really helps with the set-up and feels far better.

I must be turning into Russell T Davies, because until I was fairly happy with the start, I couldn’t concentrate on  the rest.

Hopefully now I can get on and write the Steve scene – his dialogue can now be succint and important. Although I should warn you, I may go back to calling him Pete, as he was in the original story!

I’m part way through Linda Seger’s excellent Making A Good Script  Great, and just got her The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film. Which means I have no excuse to turn in a bad assignment. Oh no!

Things I Never Thought I’d Write

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So this Advanced Creative Writing course I’m on. It has made me try Something New (how very dare it!). Play-scripts! Aargh.
Not just scripts in general, oh no. That would be too easy, and after all, as we hapless students are often reminded, it is an Advanced Course. So, after some generalised work on the concept of script rather than story, we’ve had to learn the subtle differences between writing for radio, stage and screen.

Of course, I’ve written play-scripts before. With 8-10 year-olds. Who have learning difficulties.
Worryingly, I get the impression my tutor is looking for something rather more sophisticated.

My current assignment requires me to adapt the short story I wrote for my first assignment, into a play. Gulp. It’s been trickier than I expected. Just as scary is the prospect of, once again, writing a commentary on why and how I wrote what I…er…wrote. And rewrote.

But that isn’t The Thing I Never Thought I’d Write. Oh no. That thing occurred in the process. It’s a scrawled note to myself from this morning, and I’m left wondering what people will think if I ever, heh heh, become famous, and my notebooks are studied for posterity.

Because just before I dashed off to work, I wrote:

DO WE NEED STEVE??
could back-refer + swallow into Dan

Perhaps I should put that in my commentary. <Interesting how I always use the royal ‘we’ when I scrawl these notes. Perhaps it’s a subliminal desire for a co-author.>

(BTW – I rewrote the scene and Steve in now gone. Poor Steve. He is now only referred to, and has indeed been swallowed ‘into’ Dan. Which sounds dodgier every time I write it).

The London MCM Expo

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So here’s a post that’s sat in my drafts for nearly a month, waiting for me to fiddle with photos etc.
But there was too much for one post anyway, so here is the first instalment of my witterings about the London MCM Expo (MCM = Movie Comic Media).

Those of you who used to grace my Writeous Indignation blog may recall I went to the May Expo, and missed seeing the cast of Stargate Universe due to a late train and no timetable for the shows (gnashes teeth at memory). Techie Husband and I go for the sci-fi and movies, Arty Daughter goes there for the – er, art. And Constructo Boy goes along for anything related to Dr.Who and Star Wars.

Arty Daughter brought along her best friend this time (we’ll call her K the Cat – you’ll see why in a mo), because she has infected her with the Manga Madness too. Poor girl. They had a fantastic time and dressed up, because this is The Thing To Do. K was…a cat, kind of, and Arty Daughter went along dressed as Misa from Deathnote.

For comparison, I give you: Misa

Below: Arty Daughter and K the Cat – a but fuzzy I’m afraid (blame TH, he took the photo!), and Arty Daughter isn’t smiling – not because she is going for the moody look, but because this is just before we left, and her black lipstick had wandered on to her teeth by that time…

Arty Daughter (right) and K the Cat.
Arty Daughter (right) as Misa, and K the Cat.
And yes, K the Cat did have a tail, which attracted strange looks at Stevenage train station 🙂
This time we made sure we were there early, so TH and I caught the interviews we wanted to. Haven, Eureka, Warehouse 13…more on them soon.