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Out of the woods
Read more: Out of the woodsFinishing the first draft is disconcerting. For a hundred or so pages, you’ve been picking your way through the woods. Dropping breadcrumbs, fleeing bears, getting lost and retracing your steps. Realising that every side of the tree is mossy, and none of them are a reliable guide to North. Trying to find another way across the damn river. Staring down the precipitous bluff of the page 60s across to where you think page 75 or thereabouts should be, convinced that there’s no way there from here. For some writers, it helps to bring a map (this time I did, usually…
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Structure and Surprise
Read more: Structure and SurpriseI always had real trouble with music produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. You’ve probably heard their work. Hugely successful through the ’80s, they produced Kylie Minogue’s early tracks (the ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ era), Mel and Kim. And if you’ve ever been Rick-rolled… (You know where it goes) I was almost allergic to them. Not just an ‘Oh that again – change the station’, but a more visceral ‘Get that out of my ears NOW’ – as though someone were scraping fingernails down a blackboard. And I could hear them coming – if I heard a Stock Aitken Waterman…
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And the category is… Structure
Read more: And the category is… StructureIn screenwriting, we hear a lot about three act structure. There are different breakdowns – some writers talk about sequences – some writers have more acts – some writers have specific moments they try to hit at certain points in the screenplay. All is lost. The call is refused. Cats are saved. Use it if it’s useful to you. Don’t if it’s not. Though working out what’s useful and what’s not is easier said than done. But there are other places to find structure (aka a framework) for your story. And a lot of the time, the story’s subject will…
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Wilted Lilies Adaptation
Read more: Wilted Lilies AdaptationDelighted to announce that I’ve been commissioned by Tim Gordon (dir. BLOOD AND CIRCUMSTANCE) to adapt Kelli Owen’s novella Wilted Lilies into a psychological thriller feature. I’m really enjoying digging into the characters and working out how to bring them to the screen! Tim contacted me after reading my woman-in-peril/survival thriller DUST ON DIRT (available for production or as a sample – head over to my screenplays to request a read of that or one of my other scripts). I am available to work on original screenplays, adaptations and rewrites – so do get in contact!
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Spot the Pro
Read more: Spot the ProDelighted to have a page featured in an upcoming episode of Spot the Pro, Nathan Graham Davis’s series in which amateur screenwriters are pitted against professional screenwriters, with a panel of regulars and guests having to guess which page is which! Here’s the most recent episode: The series offers a wealth of screenwriting advice from seasoned pros about how to connect with readers and get them absorbed in your story world so they keep turning those pages.
WORDS AND THE SPACES BETWEEN THEM 