(64) WRITING UPDATE

Apologies to my fan, but I've been neglecting the blog lately.Further sincere apologies to the rest of the scribosphere as I haven't been whizzing round that either for a while checking on all your most excellent adventures. How are you doing? Don't how James Moran finds the time (and energy!) to write for nearly every top new show (see his blog) and write a blog (see his blog) and answer questions/comments/posts!

Well, I do, really.
He has a keyboard surgically connected to each finger (and two spare ones for blogging connected to each thumb for the blogs).
And he has the eerie, super energy of the insane from all those evil thoughts of slaughtering yuppies.

Sowhatcha been up to Sheiky? I hear you ask.
Or perhaps it's just the voices in my head. Again.

Well, I had a great "meet 'n' greet" with real, live pro writer ! In real life! Not a cyber webby e- cafe thing. A real one in a real cafe just along from a real theatre! Showbiz!
I must admit I felt a bit of a fake. Me, the wannabe, using up the valuable writing time of a real, professional, earn your living by your witty words, Scriptwriter!
But she was really nice, we had arty - farty speciality tea and coffee and a very pleasant hour or so chatting about our art. ('ark at me, OUR art!)

She gave me loads of advice, one of the main ones being keep up your contacts. People naturally move about a lot in this biz, and unfortunately she's lost some of hers. She also gave me a few pointers on play writing, as she has quite a few produced plays under her belt, or rather, on her CV. Basically, casting; few as the story will possibly allow for a professional (non west end) theatre and conversely, as many as you get away with for am-dram, so everyone can get a part.
We're staying in touch and I'm looking forward to meeting up again next month.

I'm walking to work now for new job. A fast 15 minute each way which keeps me fit ( or at least slows down the body fat build up) and gives me some subconscious plot/character/dialogue thinking time.
It's also quite funny seeing peep's faces when this fast walking madman (me) suddenly stops mid stride to whip out his note book and lean it on the nearest wall to make a flurry of furiously scribbled notes before he forgets them.
And I most probably have a strange, or at least pained look on my face when I try to decipher the garbled Sheiky shorthand. What on earth did I mean there...d/f runs to g/f etc???

The play's bubbling along nicely on the stove, now. Will add more spice, and probably a bit more meat in the re-write. I always like to finnish a project first through to the end before too much rewriting - yeah, I know - I have rewritten the beginning of this one again already - but that's different, because...

a) rules smules - they're there to be broken - we're creatives, don't tie us down!

b) the old beginning stank like a dead fish

c) and it was boring!


Have also been doing mucho research in presenting and writing up to a pro standard my spec quiz/panel game idea. Many thanks to Dave for the sites he sent over for me to trawl through.
It's gonna take quite a bit of time to do it right. As with everything, it's rewrite, rethink, and polish, polish, polish until it shines. Then the sun will reflect off the top notch shiny spec and it will burn it's impression onto the commisioning exec's cornea. He won't be able to forget it's wonderful precis and therefore will buy it. For the big bucks. That's how it works, friends. Something like that, anyway.

So, quiz/panel game to the back burner for a while, as I must finish the play. Even if I miss the deadline - if it's not polished enough, at least it will be more ammo in my writer's armoury.
And agent's pack...
if any agents are reading this...

Hi, my name's Sheikspear and I'm a scriptwriter...