First Week of 2010

I've just finished my first script of 2010 and submitted it for a new competition via Talenthouse.com. It's a 5 minute horror short but will depend on votes as to whether it goes any further to being judged. I think. Still getting my head around the site and how it works.
Lot's of fun to do though! I must admit to really enjoying dabbling in the horror thing, although my stuff is pretty tame and not particularly scary. All jolly good fun though.

A good way to start the year I think! I already feel that I've achieved something which must be good.

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Can't imagine what put this question into my head but: any New Year resolutions? And have you broken them already?

Hehehe! A superb question sir! My New Year resolutions begin tomorrow. They are..

Write more.
Drink less.
Lose 1 stone in weight.
Get organised.

So far, I haven't broken any! Go me!

Ask me anything

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I was being a bitch wasn't I?

Not at all! ;)

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Why do you use Twitter?

I use Twitter because it is such a wonderful, open and friendly way to get to know new folks! I love it and have met some amazingly brilliant people! (Including the chap who asked this question!)

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If you could wake up as anyone tomorrow, who would it be?

Tomorrow, I would love to wake up as.... ME! I may not be perfect and I may not have everything I would like to have, but that's OK - I'm happy :)

Ask me anything

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Do you actually mean, re. VS admin, he decided we weren't worth his time/money and left us? :p

Not at all. He devoted a lot of his time and passion to us however when the time was right, he moved on with his life :)

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What happened to that wonderful previous Vote Saxon Admin bloke?

We kidnapped him and stuck him in an unused WW2 bunker in a secret location where he now lives on gruel and endless re-runs of a certain well known British Sci-Fi series.

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Farewell 2009 - Hello 2010

Only a few hours to go until this decade grinds itself to a close and a bright, shiny new one begins!

What a year it's been. This time last year, I was just about to begin an exciting, scribbly new adventure and thought I would give writing a serious try.
Since then, I've written six scripts for practice. I wrote a trial short story and was thrilled to get an Honourable Mention. I've won a short script competition but didn't make the grade in two others - and however disappointing, hasn't put me off! Tis all part of the experience (the majority of it by everything I've learned from other and better writers!
Through the wonderful interwebbyness, I've got back in touch with some old friends and made some lovely new ones.
A few months ago, I was given the opportunity to write a short story for an amazing new RPG game which will be published next year and I shall insist that you all buy it as soon as it's available or else I shall personally come over and taunt you. YES YOU!
I even got off my beloved sofa and made my way to Dundee to attend one of the BBC Writer's Room Roadshows - and that for such a lazy bugger as myself is quite an achievement, I can tell you!

So, next year who knows what will happen?

Plans so far include:

• Get more disciplined and write tons more stuff till I've got some decent material to try and convince some hapless agent to take me on. This includes rewriting and polishing things I've already done.
  
• Increase my contribution to a couple of sites that I've shamefully been a little tardy with.
• Enter loads more competitions.
  
• Bombard the BBC Writer's Room till they either flee in terror from me or take me on!
• Watch loads more telly - I mean *cough* 'Research'.
  

Have a tonload to learn but I plan to enjoy every, scribbly minute of it!

Hope you all have a most fab and fluffy New Year!

Short Stories

I finished the second draft of the short story today. Yay! I also wrote out the descriptions for two illustrations that are going to be included with the story in the book! How exciting is that!!!!
I used to dabble a little in drawing and painting myself and that was what I had always seen myself as doing, unfortunately I was a little bit rubbish at it, so I didn't really get anywhere with that!
It feels a little odd really, knowing that someone else is going to do some pics for my story!
Each of the pieces that will be included in the RPG book will get two illustrations so I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished product!!! So I await with quivering anticipation to see what it's all going to look like!

Roadshows, Toilets and Warm Wine.

I had a great time at the BBC Writer's Room Road show with surprisingly few bothersome moments. I'm not going to mention the astonishment I felt at the obvious forward thinking of our local City Council with the introduction of uni-sex toilets in our train station at the very beginning of my epic journey. They were all shiny and modern and I'm not ashamed to admit I was getting all excited about the sparkly luxury of them until I realised I'd ended up in the Gents by accident. Last time that happened at least I had a decent excuse - it was dark and one wooden toilet block looks very much like all the others in the desert...

Moving swiftly on but with the recent memory of being unable to locate the correct gender facilities burning in my brain, I did manage to get on the right train, which was a considerable relief, as I had half expected to end up in Inverness rather than my destination of choice. Not that there's anything wrong with Inverness, far from it, just that it would have meant me travelling in the opposite direction than intended which would have resulted in a major travel fail.
Following on quickly after that dizzying triumph was the fact that I didn't fall asleep and miss Dundee station either (yes, I know many would regard this as a failing.) Just joking Dundee - I love you to bits!

I arrived in good time, with just over an hour to spare before the Road show began, so my plan was to find somewhere all nice, writery and intellectual where I could pose around, look cool and have some food. However after getting unexpectedly trapped in the Overgate Shopping Centre for about half an hour, I skulked into a Pizza Hut I discovered just around the corner from the Caird Hall and ordered my usual pepperoni with extra cheese. The waiter returned shortly after to apologised that the white wine I had ordered was non-chilled. I think I shocked him slightly by my unashamed defiance of convention and told him I didn't mind just get me the wine! NOW! (Actually I just smiled sweetly and he seemed happy in the knowledge that I was some uncultured wine-heathen probably too desperate to sue in the face of my need for some good old Dutch courage.) "But Magz, why didn't you just order a cheeky little Red?" I hear you cry. Well, I'm glad you asked as the answer is simple. I didn't want to run the risk of the dreaded red lips and having Auntie Beeb think I was some alchy writer wanna-be. One must try not to advertise these things for the sake of one's possible future career. When I have made my fame and fortune then I shall be more than happy to prance around with vino stained chops.

I was quite amazed and to find the Caird Hall roughly in the place I was expecting it to be - thanks to the wonders of Google Streetview. Before leaving the house, I had carefully studied my route from station to destination, however, for some reason loads of cars kept honking at me as I carefully and religiously followed the big white line down the centre of the road as per the onscreen instructions.

The Road show itself was very good and consisted of general advice on what the Writer's Room looks for in the scripts they receive, as well as what they are not looking for! The presentation was informative and friendly and had a good attendance with lots of serious looking writers which made me want to scamper away and hide. It also covered the 'Scotland Writes' competition, with a good amount of time for questions and answers to follow. At one point, one of the chaps from the Beeb (I do apologise for forgetting your name sir!) mentioned a similar event with RTD (Russell T Davis) and I only narrowly prevented my inner fan-girl from leaping around and doing embarrassing things. Twas a struggle though.

I arrived back at the station with about 20 minutes to spare before the next train was due, which turned out to be from Plymouth. Not that that has any relevance whatsoever, I just felt the need to add that delightful little detail for you, my dear reader. Yes - for you! So what else could I do but partake of a nice glass of wine, chilled this time you will be relieved to know, from the station bar while I waited? I decided to accept the offered receipt in the pretence that I was a grown up on a business trip and not just desperate for some booze.

All in all, the event was friendly and useful, even though it did send me rushing home to do a rapid re-write on my now meagre-seeming and feeble competition entry and apart from waiting for about 45 minutes for a bus home after I left the station, it was a jolly splendid little outing!

On Track...

I'm off to exotic Dundee tomorrow for the BBC Writer's Room Roadshow.
I've got my train tickets and I am really really going try to remember to take them with me.
Assuming I manage to get there and back without incident, I shall bore you all with the details of my epic journey in a later post, in all it's grim detail. (What do you mean you don't want to know what type of sandwich I had or how long it took me to find the Caird Hall! Twill all be the most gripping stuff you know!)
My original plan was to take along my shiny, finished and polished script for the 'Scotland Writes' competition and hand it in in person. However, after having given long and careful thought to that plan I decided it would be better to wait until after the Roadshow. I would like to make it clear that it has nothing to do with the fact that I may or may not have failed to have finished, let alone scrubbed and polished it yet. Honest. *cough*
Anyway, if anyone else is going along too, please come over and say hi!
(I'll be the one not wearing sunglasses and looking lost and bewildered in the corner.)

Heating Up

Had a really good week. I sent off the first draft of a short piece of fiction I'm doing for a really cool new RPG Sourcebook - can't say what it's about or anything yet - but the whole thing is great and when it comes everyone and their budgie MUST buy it! I have a few little tweaks to do to the story which won't take long and will hopefully improve it.

I got some really good and positive feedback for one of my short scripts 'What Laura Wants' from Graeme over at Beautiful Train which really gave me a huge boost. I'm really grateful to him for taking the time to read it.

I've also been invited by the guys over at Scripped.com to write regular articles for them! I mean how exciting is all this?!!!

Also ticking away is both the spec outline and series outline for 'Swings & Roundabouts' which I'm entering into the BBC Scotland Writes competition. Which reminds me, I still have to book my train tickets for the BBC Writer's Room Roadshow thingy. Must do that. In fact, I must really get on and do all those other things too!

Took some time out yesterday to go to the RAF Leuchars Airshow which was SO much fun. Unfortunately, I didn't anticipate the sun shining and it being warm and I now resemble Lobstra - the giant mutant city-stomping Lobster. There's nothing quite so awe-inspiring as seeing a Lancaster bomber escorted by a Spitfire and a Hurricane as they fly amazingly close by. There were also loads of hot pilots wondering around too when they weren't doing really cool flying stuff.

The Vulcan bomber was jaw droppingly graceful for all it's enormous size - truly astounding, not to mention all the hot pilots there were, sitting casually on their massive bombers.

I took loads of photos but most ended up as completely dull and plane-less blue skies, or just little black blobs in the distance.

And there was pizza. And planes. Oh and did I mention all the hot pilots?

I'm going to have a lie down now.

Mmmmmmmm hot pilots......

Back to Work!

After all the recent excitement of the last week, it's time to buckle down again and get working on the BBC Scotland Writes competition. I've now got about 90% of the outline done and am now fleshing it all out ready to get onto the actual fun stuff!

I've also had my place at the Dundee Roadshow confirmed so must now remember to actually book my train ticket....

First Dose of Critisism.

I just read a rather less than encouraging comment about my script. The author wasn't being particularly nasty or anything, but did severely criticise it, saying it wasn't worthy of even an honorary mention, let alone winning.

I felt really horrible when I read it and it really brought me down from an otherwise really happy time. However, it did start me thinking that this is another aspect of this whole writing thing that I realised I hadn't actually been prepared for.

I have long been prepared for rejection and having work returned, but to be honest, I hadn't really thought about people outwardly criticising what I've done.

I realise that it's all an important part of the job as it were, and although I personally would never speak ill of anyone's work, I guess it's just something that everyone who embarks on this sort of career just has to accept and deal with.

Not easy though.... it's obviously something I'm going to have to work on :)

Gosh! I feel like a proper writer now!

Fame!

Ohhh!!!! I'm tremendously excited!

Look! I made the front page of Lalawag today!!!!