Screenwriting: What have I learnt?

‘The biggest challenge, especially if you don’t have a deadline, is finishing something. I admire anyone who just sits down and completes. Not many people manage to maintain the motivation to get from having an idea to finishing a draft.’ Jane Goldman, screenwriter of Kick Ass and Stardust.

The screenwriting part of the challenge was by far the most challenging part, and the part where I learnt the most. It was an area that nobody could help me and if any obstacles arose, which they did then I could only battle against myself to get through it.

So what did I write? I finished writing a web series, wrote 2 shorts for a friend, a one off piece for TV, a 6 part TV series, a 2 hour film and restarted a film idea I had 5 years ago. The themes have been sport, futuristic and even sci-fi.

The two challenging aspects which I found with screenwriting were keeping up momentum and writing when I couldn’t write. Life happens and it gets in the way and takes turns you don’t expect. So from April till July I couldn’t write at all due to getting over a break up which took way longer than I thought it would take. 4 months of no writing meant I had 116 pages to catch up on. Whenever I wanted to write my mind would either drift or the characters I wanted to write about were coincidently going through similar things. And during those months I couldn’t think of an idea where I could be completely distracted from what was going on in my life. (More on this in my previous screenwriting post.) That part was tough, especially coming into September I still had an awful lot to catch up on and it was the one time I was scared of not completing the challenge.

But then I created strong plots which got me through and kept me distracted. Platinum Heaven was easy to write to begin with, but got a bit more challenging towards the end. And with Marathon Money it just flowed and at times I struggled to keep up with the ideas I was having.

They say you should write about what you know and for quite a few pieces that was true. The web series and Stuck on You were stemmed from one of my ex’s. Marathon Money used my small amount of knowledge I had on running in sponsored events and pole lessons which I took. I used a lesson that a lecturer taught me about thinking of ideas for articles; what if this happened? How you can change the angle of a story that had been written time and time again by simply asking one question and making it different. So Platinum Heaven, Stuck on You and If We Aren’t Married all came from that question in a way.

Through the lows of the year I gained an emotional tool kit which means any future characters I create can have some depth to them.

Going forward writing is definitely going to be a regular thing, as it’s been about 7 years since my interest in screenwriting began and I can’t stop and restart again. Although I may not write 29 pages a month, I’ll definitely write something every month.

So what’s the plan now? I'm going to finish If We Aren't Married. After that I have 3 ideas that I’d like to complete. One I have already started writing and has a beat sheet written out so I know how the plot will develop. It’s called Somebody Else’s Dream and that is my next film to complete. I’ve also got another screenplay idea called ‘2 hours You’ll Never Get Back’ which is another futuristic film, and has the potential to go in lots of different ways, so that will take a lot of work. And the final is a comedy series. I’m also interested in seeing how it would work if I write with someone, so I might explore that also.

People have asked me what am I going to do with Marathon Money now I’ve completed it? Well I’m going to write the other pieces I stated above first and then I’ll go back and make notes ready for a second draft. I feel if I have a break from the characters, not only in Marathon Money but also Stuck On You, then I can come back afresh with new ideas. I also feel that if I do a second draft too soon, then I’d become too attached to the characters and would find it harder to change things. I may get some people to write and make notes on what to improve, although that’s a scary prospect. I’ve only just opened up to the idea of people hearing my ideas to begin with.

Jane Goldman also said: ‘Allow your first draft to be crap and just focus on getting to the end. Then go back to improve it.’

So the next chapter of writing is all about improving.

New screenwriting #12: Restarting

Around 5 years ago I went to Birmingham to see the Question of Sport Live show with my friend Chris. We’ve been friends since the first year of uni and while we were travelling to the show we jokingly said about how we would be each other’s back up plans if we didn’t get married, as we both like cricket and could spend days at Lords making our way round the ground with Zimmer frames!
The following day my friend Humaira took me to a spa for my birthday and we chatted about the conversation I had with Chris and it was there I got the idea for a screenplay called If We Aren’t Married.

It’s about 3 pairs of male/female friends who have all agreed at some point that if they aren’t married by a certain age they will get married to each other. The question is do any of them actually go through with it?

So after that spa day I set about creating a plot and characters. I did character backgrounds, wrote out each narrative strand for each couple and set about writing it. To help visualise the characters I actually had pictures of people from magazines as the characters, so I could imagine them better. I wrote 13 pages straight off the bat and then just stopped. For some reason I couldn’t write anymore, even though the plot was laid out for me. I remember my friend Jas reading the synopsis and she stopped before the end as it got too sad.

It wasn’t until this challenge that I thought about restarting the screenplay again. However when I wanted to restart it, I was going through a break up and weirdly some of the things I was going through, I said the characters were going through….even though the plot was written 5 years ago. Restarting it around April time was just too raw, I got upset every time I was reading the plot as things could relate to me, and I just wasn’t in a good place.

Months have passed and what I’ve figured out is this. 5 years ago relationship wise I hadn’t had much experience. I think at that point I had been out with one guy for 3 months and another for 9 weeks. Fast forward 5 years and I had a 2 year relationship, saw one guy for 4 months and another for 6 in addition to pre 2010. And there have been some near misses along the way. With all the highs and lows, it’s actually given me an emotional tool kit which I didn’t have before. All I had really was a chick flick view of life and not real life.

And the tool kit is great for writing; it can help me add depth to characters that I didn’t have before. For the challenge I added another 18 pages and one of the main challenges I initially had was combining 3 narrative strands together. One morning I had lots of different elements to the narrative strands spread on the living room floor trying to combine them all equally into one main plot.

Another challenge is whether when writing I write in order of the main plot, or just write each strand separately and then combine.

So going forward from the challenge, this is the screenplay I’ll next complete. And what am I going to do with it once it’s done? Send copies to Chris and Humaira who were there at the start of the idea forming, and to Jas to see if the piece makes her cry. If it can bring out any emotion then I know I’m on the right lines.

Screenwriting #10-11: My sister

When I was at the Radio Times Festival I told my dad Bobby a bit more about Platinum Heaven and the land I created and one main character I hadn’t mentioned before. I have an older sister called Gemma, who I have never met. She passed away when she was 3 months old, and the reason in the simplest terms was because her muscles were too weak to feed herself. She would have been two years older than me. My sisters and I have always known about her and her grave is at Hitchin Quaker Meeting where we used to go every Sunday growing up.

The great thing about screenwriting is you get to create characters, create new personalities, and maybe combine traits you like from people in your everyday life. Writing Platinum Heaven allowed me to think what Gemma could be like if she was alive. I’ve made her out to be a bit of a ball buster, but someone that cares a lot about her family at the same time.

Upon talking to my dad about Gemma and my writing I explained Gemma’s role in the series, in that she was a meet and greeter for new arrivals. He thought this shouldn’t be the case as he said she was smart and would have a better job than that, one that would use her intellect. I asked how he knew she was smart, and he said the nurse said that when she was born she recognised my mum and dad straight away.

So in the final episode I incorporated that view; was she deserving of a better job? And she does get an opportunity by Steve Jobs and Jim Henson no less. But an unexpected twist means that the audience don’t find out whether she takes the opportunity up or not.

The second view point my dad had was he accepted a few of the entry points into the land but couldn’t accept A-List and asked why they deserved to enter. So to add a bit of conflict episode 5 explores exactly that, and how after so many years the entry requirements may finally change. There were some characters willing to fight the system.

I’ve always been scared to tell people about my ideas, only a few people know about them to be honest as I think that people will laugh at them. Yes Platinum Heaven is whimsical and complete make believe, but how often do you get to really use your imagination fully on a regular basis? It’s fun to create something completely from scratch.

Screenwriting #8-9: The film finish line

This past week I did the unthinkable, I finished writing a full length film. The last time I blogged about screenwriting I had written 71 pages of Marathon Money. Originally it was going to be a 90 minute film and I got to 90 minutes and realised I still had lots to say. So it ended up being 120 minutes, which is 120 pages.

It was still easy to write although at the start of the week I did stall a bit. Even though you invest time into the characters they can’t always distract you from real life and I got a bit hurt. And it stopped me, but then I realised that I still needed to write and I still needed to finish the challenge. So I controlled the hurt, I let it control me for me 15 minutes, had a good cry and then powered on through and wrote.

With Marathon Money being about the marathon, towards the end I did struggle a little and I guess I had it easy the majority of the time writing. I then remembered the advice that author David Nicholls gave me; think of a film you want it to be like, watch it if you can or think of a beautiful piece of writing. So I thought of a film it would be similar to, and combined with putting my ipod on shuffle and get inspiration from different bits of music I got through the temporary block and finished the screenplay.

A few people have asked me what I’m going to do with it now that its done. Well I’m going to let it rest a little, and then go back and read through and make notes before I do a second draft. I haven’t got to the second draft stage so I’m a bit nervous about that stage!

Screenwriting #6-7: I can sleep when I’m dead

With the Hea-Van series coming to a finish I decided to work on another screenplay. I have two screenplays I wanted to work on, one that I started five years ago and one I had an idea for a few months ago. I will finish both but have put a concentrated effort into writing the latter first.

I have started writing what was to be a one off TV piece called Marathon Money and it’s about a woman in her early twenties called Jenna. In short she is going to be running the marathon and has got a charity place. But with charity places you have to raise a certain amount of money, and although she finds this easy in reality it’s not.

She’s exhausted all options of fundraising and then realises that an unconventional way might be the answer. Jenna had been going to pole classes for a few years and got quite good, so she takes an evening job at a pole club in order to raise the money. Obviously there are obstacles along the way and while the marathon is at the forefront of the screenplay, the real focus is whether she can raise the money.

This by far is the easiest screenplay I’ve written, for some reason the words have flowed out onto the page really quickly. The second evening of writing I wrote 23 pages and was questioning how long I could stay awake as I couldn’t stop writing.

I guess its true what they say, write about what you know. And while I don’t have any experience in doing pole at a club (well as a paid job) I did go to pole classes for around 3-4 years. And although I haven’t run a marathon, I’ve done several races and challenges which require sponsorship. For me the training part wasn’t the problem for the challenges, it was getting a person to sponsor me which was the tricky part.

The timing of me writing this couldn’t have come at a better time as all over Facebook I’m seeing friends who have applied for a ballot place in the marathon to be told the outcome over the past few days. Others have been toying with the idea of a charity place, but many are put off by the high amount that has to be raised.

Over the weekend I went to a fitness weekend and somehow between classes I managed to write an awful lot. I’m now on 71 pages! So with plenty more still to explore, instead of a one TV piece, I’m making it a film. I’m heading for 90 pages, but I reckon I could do 120.

I hope the rest of the writing will be just as fast. Question is how much sleep do I really need?

Writing 29 pages of a screenplay per month #5: Big Screen Legends

The latest screenplay I’ve been writing is a 6 part light hearted series called Hea-Van which is about Platinum Heaven, the next step up from normal heaven.

The last time I did some writing on it I had written episode 1 and half of episode 2. Now I’ve completed all of episode 2 and episode 3. Each episode is 20 minutes in length and a minute on screen is one page. Episode 2 explores another area of Platinum Heaven called S.A.O. which is Signs and Opportunities. This is where people in the land can go in front of a panel to create a sign or an opportunity for a loved one back on earth to make their life. The panel I created for the episode consisted of John Lennon, Elizabeth Taylor and Amelia Earhart.

The problem I’ve started to have with some elements of the series is I have ideas for this new land, but once they are down on paper they don’t last as long as I think they should, so that’s proved a challenge.

Also sometimes when you write, even if you have everything planned out in your mind what you want to happen, it go in a different direction. Which is what happened in episode 2. I put Heath Ledger in the first half of the episode to play off one of the main characters, and I created a good rapport with him and the other character that I did a second longer scene later in that episode. I've already got ideas as to how Heath Ledger can feature in the series finale.

The third episode was all about reunions and big arrivals. For this episode I focused on the arrival of Robin Williams and how people would react. I focused on the friendships that would be reformed. John Belushi and Christopher Reeve were best friends of Robin Williams, and Belushi passed away in the 80’s and Reeve over ten years ago. So it was interesting to think about how it would be to have a reunion with someone I hadn’t seen in over 10 years or even longer.

For a couple of characters which I’ll discuss in further detail in another blog post I had to create a very emotional reunion, so out came the sad music and I found one song that got me in the right sad mood. So I had to play this one song which was the Glee version of Pure Imagination on a loop until the scene was written and yes you've guessed it, it was stuck in my head for the rest of the next day! 

Writing 29 pages of a screenplay per month #4: What happens after life?

It’s been a while since I did some screen writing. I wanted to restart one of my old screenplays but upon reading the plot which I developed 4 years ago, I realised it was a bit too close for comfort in terms of what was happening to me personally.  So I decided to develop a 6 part TV series instead based on something light hearted.

Thanks to 5 years working in an old people’s home I've often wondered what happens after you die and in my mind I developed a place called platinum heaven. My Grandma lived to 101 and thought she would be up in platinum heaven which is for people who live to a grand age. She would spend her days in a casino beating celebrities such as Paul Newman and Spencer Tracey at cards.

I've developed the idea bit more and created a new world I guess, and the first episode I wrote is about how you enter and what’s available in platinum heaven. Its great fun to do as it really uses my imagination.

I'm halfway through the second episode, which is exploring one of the advantages of being in this exclusive place.

The only problem I have is I do have a few celebrities in the show who have passed away. I've got a character based on my Grandma and she’s ruffling the feathers as she’s winning too much in the casino. Richard Burton isn’t happy, but Katherine Hepburn loves it. And in episode 2 the first half includes four celebrities who are no longer with us. I wonder how this show could be made?

Writing 29 pages of a screenplay per month #3: Working my way up to a film

Evening good reader, hope you are well. For anyone who’s been reading the blog for a while, will have noticed that it’s been quite a while since I’ve done some screenwriting. For some reason a wave of determination hit me over the Easter weekend and on Saturday evening and Sunday morning I finished Stuck on You!

Stuck on You (which is a working title) is about a couple who reunite after 40 years and go on a European road trip with their grandchildren who are 18 and about to head off to university. The road trip is all thanks to a football sticker album completed by the couple when they dated in their twenties, which turned out to be worth a fair bit of money. Its 60 minutes in total, so an ideal length for a TV film.

I’m quite proud of myself for completing the screenplay as I’ve started a few that I haven’t got round to finishing. Of course first drafts are rarely any good, I can already think of a list of things to improve on it. But I’ve finished it and actually sent it to a friend to read which is a first.

It’s funny how people close to you can interpret a plot in different ways. For me it was inspired by collecting football stickers last year. However when I told my guy about the plot, he told me it was semi-autobiographical because of my close relationship with my granddad and my collection of film posters. Both points I didn’t even think about when writing Stuck on You. It’s interesting how stories can be interpreted in different ways by different people.

What I also did differently with this screenplay from other ones I’ve been writing is I didn’t do a beat sheet or develop characters in depth as I’ve done before. A beat sheet is where you write out what is going to happen every minute of the screenplay. It can give you guidance, but undecided whether it stops your mind thinking of ideas.

So I’ve completed one unfinished screenplay, and I’ve got two more incomplete. Time to visit old stories and see where they take me. One is sports based, and the other is about plan b, which one should I complete next?

Writing 29 pages of a screenplay per month #2: Flashback Inspiration

For the screen writing part of the challenge, I thought that I’d try and write a variety of forms, and in December I thought that writing shorts would be fun. I’d only written one before and that was part of a screen writing course. However upon thinking of shorts to write, one of my ideas I realised would need longer time to explore. I’ll go back to shorts during the year, as it’s a type of screenplay I don’t readily watch or read them.

With getting ideas they can come from anywhere, an article I've read or a conversation I've had. Most of my ideas come from the question; what if? A lecturer of mine at uni called John Rafferty was very eccentric and he would say all these out there ideas for articles and didn't make much sense at the time. Some of my course mates thought they didn't learn much. But what I did with his ideas is take one and then ask myself what if I did it this way instead of that, what if this happened instead.

My screenplay ‘s working title is called Stuck on You and yes I know it’s a Matt Damon film. My friend Hayley pointed out the film is a great lesson in green screen. So what is my screenplay about and how did I get the idea?

Before Christmas I was walking over to house of the new guy I am seeing, and I passed a park that I sit at in the summer. I had a flashback to the summer when I was with my ex and we were sorting through his football stickers he was collecting. There was a drunken couple who started chatting to us and said that my ex should hold onto the album as a complete one could be his pension. And so back to walking past the park in the winter I asked myself, what if a completed sticker album could be a person’s pension in the future?

After thinking some more, I thought it couldn't be one person’s pension, so I thought of different things the money could buy. The screenplay is set 40 years from now and is about a grandad and his grandson who after selling a 2014 world cup sticker album, uses the money for a European road trip. Except it’s one with a twist as there is a blast from the past for the grandad.

I've written 31 pages so far, which means I've achieved my 29 pages for January, but obviously haven’t met my November or December targets. But I'm on a roll with writing Stuck on You, and choosing the countries the characters visit make me feel like going on a road trip myself. Hopefully with the current cold weather I’ll get this completed in no time. Also if anyone has any suggestions for a title let me know!

Writing 29 pages of a screenplay per month: Where it all began

For any eagle eyed readers of the blog, you will notice that I haven’t put an entry about writing 29 pages of a screenplay for November. Well I'm afraid I didn't have time in November. Sometimes life gets in the way. So I'm going to roll over the pages. So in December I'm going to attempt to write 58 pages in December. That equals to nearly an hour of film; here’s hoping to being snowed in a few days this month!

So instead of writing about my progress, which there isn’t any, I thought I’d say about my background when it comes to screen-writing. From the age of 5-19 I went to drama club, and below are a couple of pictures of the first play I was in. It was Winnie the Pooh and yes I was Winnie the Pooh! Seeing scripts from an early age means they weren't a daunting thing. So when it came to school, taking part in plays was automatic, and I did GCSE and A Level Drama as well.

When I went to uni I made a decision to stop acting. I didn't get the usual ‘buzz’ from it that other people got, and saw it more as part of a weekly, sometimes daily routine. If I missed acting then I could join the drama society, but I didn't miss it.

I've always been into films and taking Media A Level heightened my interest. I learnt a great deal about the construction of film, in terms of structure, and how every film uses Propp's theory. For example, how there is always a hero and a villain, a princess and so on.

Around my penultimate semester of my journalism degree I realised journalism wasn't for me. I signed up for a 4 day intensive course about screen-writing, and it was here my interest ignited. I started having ideas for screenplays, but when life happens the ideas take a back burner.

A couple of years ago I went to a Raindance film school for a day course and this was a great opportunity to learn about different techniques for screen-writing. Once again my interest in screen-writing reignited.

The ideas for screenplays have been flowing ever since. Now it’s just about making time in my daily routine to write them.

Writing 29 pages of a screenplay per month #1: A sporting finish and may the force be with you

The screen-writing part of the 29 challenge is probably the hardest part for me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy screen-writing, it’s something I've always wanted to do, but it’s just finding the time to sit down and write.  And this month was one week shorter as I started the challenge on the 11^th, so I'm even more pleased that I got the pages written!

This month has been a bit unconventional with writing 29 pages. Around the middle of August I started writing a web series called Team Talk Something or Nothing, which is a sports show with a twist. It’s an idea that I first had at uni, but then the format and title just didn't work, so I scrapped the idea. Years later I start thinking about it again, change the format, the title and style and it starts to flow. Before October I had written ¾ of the series, so it was a case of writing additional episodes and extending others to meet the page limits I set. Of course nothing is perfect on the first draft (except Erin Brockovich, which the version they use in the film is the first draft), so I'm going to leave it a month or so and then look at it again with fresh eyes. I’d already started making notes on how to improve it, but I thought if I keep tweaking it, then I’ll never get a first draft complete.

The second part of the screenplay writing this month is for one of my uni friends, who will discover in a few days that I have written a couple of short scripts to do with Star Wars. Why Star Wars? Well my friend shares his name with an up and coming actor who has been cast in the new Star Wars film. 

The actor is also in the series Girls, so whenever that show is aired, my friend gets more twitter followers. With references from our uni course, and an unusual travel guide I'm sure my friend will find it entertaining.