Madness

Hi all

As I suspected, last week was a furious furore.  I don't have much time to dither over posts this week either, but in a nutshell:

Short re-write.

Feature Outline magically writes itself overnight.

Read magic Feature Outline, decipher writing, type up.

Short re-write.

Put magically written Feature Outline in drawer. Adios amigo, for a while. Dust - do your worst.

Travel to Darlington to attend The Story Engine, brilliantly organised by Ian Fenton.

Work in hotel bar, socialise with blog buds, Le Arnopp et Le Turner.

Attend first brilliant day of aforementioned festival.

Sh*t hits fan via email.

Tear apart Short film idea.

Huff. 

Drive Producer up wall.

Return to Festival seminars.

Lose all form of concentration.

Drive Producer up wall.

Return to hotel, take long shower.

Stomp around a lot like a child.

Tear apart Short film idea again.

Drive Producer up wall. Again. He's now on ceiling.

Network on a microcosmic basis with aforementioned blogbuds, joined by Chris Parr, Le Moran & Le Lemon and their prettier halves.  

Return to hotel room and work solidly until about 4am.

Breakfast before 8.15am telecon to Script Editor. Couldn't eat. Wasn't hungry anyway.

Absorb Script Editor notes.

Get ready to return to Festival & seminar I'm late for.

Decide to watch TV instead.

Kick self up arse.

Check out of room & carry on working on new beat sheet in bar (it was closed, I may add)

Make decision to quit festival whilst I'm on a roll - Simon Beaufoy will have to wait to meet me another time.

Return to festival for lunch, have quick chats & say goodbye before heading to the station home.

As leaving, start conversation with Really Interesting Bloke who agrees to be the subject matter of a long term Feature Documentary me & WorkGalBud are pulling together. F'cking A.

Leave for home with a spring in my step.

Work like a possessed demon on the train home.

Batter commuters out of way in haste to get home and charge MacBook.

Work like an even bigger demon, flat out all weekend.

New beat sheet, new character breakdowns. New, new, new everything.

Realise my rib is very sore after just being a bit sore last week, and trapped nerve in leg is getting worse.

Find out I have two ribs out of place - have them realigned. Trapped nerve eased with painkillers.

Weigh myself - have lost 7lbs in a week.  Joy.

Carry on with new new new everything.

Wait with bated breath.

Realise it's all good.

Onwards and upwards.

Laters, sweeties.

And The Beat Goes On...

Well hello there, m'dears.

It has been another very busy week here at Tenacious Towers. All go - I tell you, all go.

Earlier in the week I had my first DigiBytes meeting with my charming Script Editor. We had a really constructive first meet and discussed enough to get my ass totally in gear for development mania.

In a way, I was dreading the meeting, in case I had to go back to Absolute Square One with the entire script, but as it happens I felt all the notes given were - and are - completely do-able. On reflection, however, I suppose I will be going back to the beginning again as I need to reassess the beats in order to clarify a couple of things along the way, thus making the final reveal and plot twist pack even more punch than they do at present. 

Under any other circumstances (or perhaps another of my screenplays) I would possibly be feeling a little bereft in this situation but thanks to a lot of what my Script Editor and I spoke about (and more than likely his professional diplomacy), I was immediately alerted to the issues at hand: a long while back, during a mass page count purge I had managed to remove 50% of one character's arc without realising it. Well, ok - maybe not as much as 50%; let's say 20% for arguments' sake - but enough, all the same. I am still mulling over various angles in my mind before I set myself on to the task, but having slept on it now for two days, I still feel perfectly positive about it all - which must be a good thing, right?  

All I have to do now is locate my VIP (Very Important Pile) which contains the earliest drafts and character assassinations...I mean, outlines...of this screenplay. I know the VIP is somewhere in the Tenacious East Wing Attic but I have acres of square footage to cover amongst all the old taxidermy, cobwebs and dustsheets - and only one pair of hands. Perhaps I will take the hounds up with me for a search and retrieve mission? It would be so much fun - all that dust and their wagging tails; 'Mrs D', the domestic, would have hours of huffing, puffing and tutting with her feather dusters come Monday. 

Have a superb weekend, dears, and keep warm.

Onwards.