I Propose a Challenge

It is now March, 3 months into a new year and I’ve been nowhere as productive as I’d like to have been. At the beginning of last year, hardly a day went by when I wasn’t writing and by the end of April I had completed 2x sitcoms, one feature, and had blogged 3-4 times a month. So far this year, I have done a lot of reading, even more thinking, but very little writing; blogging has also slowed down drastically.

I've always worked better to deadlines and without any in sight, I have decided I need a challenge. To all of you out there who need the extra motivation, I propose the “A Page A Day Challenge”. 

It is very simple and is exactly what it says on the label: write a page a day.

I realise one page a day doesn't sound very helpful, especially for those of you who aim to write 4 pages or more a day. How often though do we procrastinate the writing because we don't have the time, only to find that we've spent half an hour on Twitter or Facebook instead? However, if you do sit down thinking just one page, chances are by the end of the page you'll be in the zone and just carry on without even thinking about it. See what I've done there?

It's like when you sign up to the gym and never go; the minute you've passed the barrier of actually getting there and changing into your sweats, you might as well work out for an hour rather than 10minutes and it's always really invigorating.

So, if like me you need a challenge, just follow the link A Page A Day Challenge and join in the fun - because writing is fun! 

Happy New Year!

It’s been too long since I last posted on this blog and I am fixing that right now.

As much as I’ve been eager to write for the last couple of months, life happened and writing just didn’t fit into the madness.

Thankfully though I’m back. A little late to the game, but January isn’t over yet, so my writing goals for this year start now.

My goals:

• Keep a blog – even if it’s not a script, it keeps my mind thinking, keeps me ticking and most of all, keeps me writing
• Finish a sitcom – I got some very constructive feedback on Dead End Job last year but never got a chance to re-write – that needs to change.
• Film a short – I think it’s finally time to focus on one short and take it to the next level.
• Write a feature – After completing a feature last year during Scriptfrenzy, I am looking forward to doing it all over again, but this time with a little more prep and a better outline
• Plan out a webseries – possibly too ambitious to fit this into the year, but I’ve got an idea that’s been brewing for over a year and need to get at least a draft and a plan down on paper.
• Collaborate – not only would I like others to get involved in some of the above, but I also hope to get involved in other people’s projects. The one thing I have already done this year is read other writers’ scripts. I plan on doing a lot more of this and getting involved in filmmaking.
• Read more – scripts, books, articles, anything. Just keep reading, learning, getting inspired
• Dream on – whilst I still have the power of imagination and am able to with simple thoughts create intricate and fantastical worlds in my mind, anything is possible!

Overall, I aim to have fun and enjoy my family and as long as we’re all still laughing together, everything else can always be, in true writer fashion, procrastinated.

What are your goals and what are you going to do about it? 

Collaborating

Writing to me is a very personal and private matter. I cannot think of anything worse than having to write or type with someone else reading over my shoulder. My thoughts shy away immediately and I'm left staring at the screen.

When I was therefore asked if I wanted to write together, my answer was a very loose yes. To me it was a future possibility, but I had no idea what we could write together. I had many ideas for features and shorts, but they were all mine. I knew some of them inside out, how could I let someone else into that? Even if that person was my husband.

The reality is that our scripts are never really our scripts. Sure, we are the ones who give it life, create a whole new world with what we believe to be extraordinary characters. We open our minds and let it all pour out. This is our baby, we give birth to it, but as is the case with any child, you prepare them for the world and before you know it, they are influenced and moulded by others. Who they are to become won't be dictated by one person alone.

Every time someone gives us notes on a script, whether it be a friend, family or a professional, the final draft is becoming less 'ours'. It becomes a collaboration of thoughts and opinions, hopefully turning it into a better stronger piece. If it then becomes optioned, produced, directed, yet again there will be a series of re-writes influenced by other players. Never mind if it gets sold, then there is no telling how many different voices those pages will contain.

Considering all of the above, the idea of co-writing shouldn't be so absurd, unless like me, you are a control freak. I realise my way of doing things isn't the only way, and possibly not the best way either, but it's my way, so deal with it.

The first thing I had to do was learn to let go. It wasn't my script, it was our script. From the moment we agreed to write together, we had to write together. I confess having trouble understanding that. Before we even had a chance to talk about an outline I had a draft ready and would send it to him for a re-write. If he then gave me positive feedback, I would get upset that he wasn't taking it seriously, if he actually re-wrote it and replaced my words - how dare he. That was project one.

Next, we worked on our first pilot for a sitcom. This was a huge learning curve and it's taught us both, hopefully, how we work together best, and worse. I was still writing, and my partner re-writing, but I was a lot more open this time and welcomed the changes and opinions. We openly talked about what was working and what wasn't and together tried to work around the problems. We actually made the time to sit together and talk about it. After all, we did live together, why was it so hard to actually talk face to face about a script? 

Our current project is another pilot and we are doing things differently. Before putting anything to paper, we've talked about it, where we each see it going, what our thoughts are about it, the series potential, the focus and who are the main characters and their motivations. Next, we did a rough outline, also together.

I am now in the process of writing the first scenes and we have both realised that we need to sit down and talk further about the scenes and get a proper beat sheet done before we move any further. 

To me, it's a slower process than what I'm used to, but hopefully it will save us time in the long run and re-writes will be easier, if there is such a thing as an easy re-write.

The main benefit to me in co-writing is having someone else know the story inside out, together we are able to edit and re-write possibly faster than solo as one can spot different weaknesses than the other. If one has a writer's block, the other can offer suggestions. You get the gist. Two minds work better than one. I have also learned to let go, share, and well, work together.

Finally, co-writing doesn't mean you always have to co-write. I can and should have my own separate projects, which I can work on in-between the co-writes and can make it as me as I want and can be as selfish as I want about it. Even if these turn out to be not as good as the others, at least it's something that's my own voice.