Tuesday, December 23, 2008

About that act one pile

I often wonder how good my screenwriting is.

It's reassuring when I look back at random scripts in my act one pile, because at least I can say: 'It's better than it was back then!'

Frankly, some attempts are earth-shatteringly awful.

Case in point is some type of underwater epic. Scene descriptions that are fit for a novel and enough 'we see' to keep the world stocked up forever *shudder*.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Help me, I need irony!

Okay, forget the "dark conflict driven" screenplay I talked about in my last post. Before I could start I stumbled across and old script in my rather large 'act one pile' (we all have those right?).

Anyway, the short version is I've taken it into the midpoint of act two and *BLAM!!!* writers block.

Now the help part:

I need as many ironies, or ironic situations as you can come up with for a hit man. Anything, no matter how absurd.

Please, please, pretty please with sugar on top.

Thanks in advance

Chris Parr (ukscriptwriter)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

New Screenplay

I think I'll change tack with my next screenplay and write a dark conflict (of the mind) driven screenplay that I wrote a basic outline for 18 months ago.

It shows how a career long soldier's view of war changes over the years, and how that impacts a hostile situation he is thrown into. It may not sound very exciting, but if I can pull off on paper what I've got running around my head, it should be really good.

As usual, time will tell.

'Casualty of War' is the current title.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Where's the sofa

I have finally bitten the bullet and sent Only in Dreams off for review.

I am not expecting good news, so you will find me cowering behind the sofa until some time next week.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Definition

By reading this you are taking the role of my virtual shrink.

I think I lack definition.

Who am I and what do I do?

If you go by my job title I'm a Software Engineer.... no, Software Development Team Manager (got a promotion; w00t!), but that isn't what I mean.

I could say; husband, father, carer, lover.... but I don't go in for that romantic crap. I want to be defined as something beyond my day job and family (and let me get this in up front before people complain; I adore my family), but I want to be defined as something else. If it's going to be my job title, I want a different job.

What do I do, what have I done, or at least had a go at doing?

- I used to play the guitar (perhaps that's a matter of opinion)
- I've written songs
- I'm constantly trying to learn French
- I've raced sailing boats
- I've played volleyball and hockey for my university
- Written screenplays
- Started to write books (never finished one though)
- DIY (does that count?)
- Tinkered with cars (just put a written off car back on the road)
- I blog (on and off)
- I now tweet
- And last night looked into the process of making enhanced podcasts
- plus lots I've probably forgotten

With the exception of one or two on that list you can conclude the theme is 'creativity with a pinch of competitiveness'. I will override that conclusion slightly (because I know me) and say "Creativity with the desire to achieve".

Given the above list can I define myself as a creative person? I really don't know.

Anyway, if you are still reading this, I thank you for putting up with my raving nothingness. In years to come, perhaps this will manifest itself as a mid life crisis. As you may have guessed, I'm in a bit of a funny place at the moment, and this may be nothing more than frustration at myself for not putting enough effort into writing. After all, that is what I want to do for a living (alongside other things).

words of encouragement are welcome but not expected.

I promise the next post will be a lot more light hearted.

Regards

Chris Parr (ukscriptwriter)

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Where on google am I?

I'm drawn to post today for a strange, nay, probably sad reason.

I typed my name into google to see if I came up. The first reference to my name was around result 40, and that was my linkedin profile. 40! I must have put enough random mess on the interwebnet to be worth a better position that that.

So I restrict the results to searching the UK only. Even worse (in fact I gave up looking around rank 150)! I found that a bit strange as I live in the UK, but I suppose the world of the Internet has no borders.

Search for ukscriptwriter and I'm all over the place, but I have a name goddammit! My name is Chris Parr, and do you know what? There are about 3 other Chris Parrs' that have made it in the world of screenwriting! Is that somehow ironic, or just a slap in the face?

I am now on a mission to get me up the google rankings, but I have no idea how. I've changed my blogger profile from Chris (ukscriptwriter), to Chris Parr (ukscriptwriter), and I'm hoping writing "Chris Parr" enough in this post will help ("Chris Parr", "Chris Parr", "Chris Parr", "Chris Parr"), but I doubt it.

I have a vague recollection that link text will help, so I would be grateful if you could all create a link in a blog post, or on your web page to this one using the following snippet:

<a href="http://ukscriptwriter.blogspot.com/">Chris Parr</a>

Let google index away and pull me up the rankings.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

Help me people!

Regards

CHRIS PARR