Why do we do it?

When I say 'it' I mean write.

I can't speak for you, but for me it's a desire to get lost in a world that isn't reality, or at least my reality. It's a desire to create what I don't have, to live out those 'what if' moments. Maybe that's why very few of my ideas exist in the realm of science fiction or horror. They are all situations that could happen to the every day Joe when he walks out of his front door tomorrow morning. I want to write those stories that, when the credits start to roll, leave you with that 'nice' feeling inside. The feeling where the credits snap you back into the real world, the corner of your mouth curls up and you feel pleasantly warm and fuzzy inside. You're sad that your brief journey into another existence is over, but it was worth it.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I am very happy with the life I have. I wouldn't change a bit of it. Well, perhaps a bit more money in the bank, but who would say no to that (probably some rich person)?

When I ask myself if I write for the right reasons, I know I do. I often stumble across posts on writing forums where naïve newbies want to sell their killer idea for six figures. Those are the wrong reasons. If all you are writing for is the money then I'd say there are easier ways to earn the stuff. Oh I'm sure once in a while someone will fluke it and make it big, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

Maybe one day the credits will roll on a film I have written and someone will smile, feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Or maybe not. Who knows?

I'm just happy writing as a hobby. If one day I experience the side effect of a sale, then so be it ;)

I'm sure I'll write another pointless post soon.

Later

C

Be Kind Rewind? Be Kind PRESS STOP!

I had several options at the cinema the other night, but the only one that would get me back to the hotel in time for the football was 'Be Kind Rewind'.

I read a couple of reviews that painted it in a good light, so I thought I'd go and see it. After the film I started wondering if I had found the ONLY two reviews in existence that painted it in a good light, because what I saw was dull, dull, dull. I don't even recall laughing once.

What they have taken is an interesting idea, but it is quite clear that the execution of it was way off the mark. I can imagine the pitch, the meetings where ideas flew back and forth, and how everyone thought it couldn't fail, but when the script came along the project should have been taken out to the shed and put down without hesitation. The end product just didn't live up to what could have been.

I think the director realised this as I'm quite sure he tried to get a little 'arty' (and failed miserably), by doing some sort of silent movie thing towards the end. Or maybe I'm just not getting it. Some people may like it for bringing back a little nostalgia when they recall parts of the movie the characters are re-shooting, but nostalgia isn't enough to carry a movie (although I'm sure people will quote examples).

It was just silly in places: The whole neighbourhood liking these crappy remakes and then being taken in saying they have to buy this little chip to view them as a DVD (or whatever excuse they used)? Come on! That just isn't plausible.

2 stars out of 10 for me (it would be too harsh to give only one as I managed to stay awake).

Later

C

The Big ?????

So, if New York is 'The Big Apple', is London 'The Big Avacado'?

Does London even have a nick-name?

Anyway, that's where I'm off to as I type this, sharing a very slow (but free), wifi connection with about (I'm guessing) 100 other people on the train. Major project slippage to deal with today, people to interview in order to save the project tomorrow.

I'm staying in the Holiday Inn Express on Finchley Road. It's clean and tidy, but very basic. I don't mind that at all, however in the summer it seems to become a youth hostel with teenagers keeping you awake until the eraly hours of the morning (hey, I'm getting older - deal with it!). We have an order at work that you must try to get the cheapest hotel. This on is number one on the list at £85 per night. I'm always happy during summer when it is full and I get to stay at the Marriott.

Anyway, on my last trip I found out that you get loads more sushi for your money if you get take out from Yo! Sushi, rather than eating in, so I may load up and retreat to my hotel room and do some writing. Projects that are kind of avtice at the moment (I'll update the progress bars later):

1) An untitled fiction book that I'm writing for my daughter (yes, I'm branching out).

2) The next draft of Only in Dreams.

Anyway, I'd better answer some emails as I guess I am supposed to be working, but before I do, and for no aparent reason, I'll leave you with this question:

Why?

Answers on a postcard.

Later

Chris

The Big ?????

So, if Ney York is 'The Big Apple', is London 'The Big

I'm hard I am!

22

Click on the image above and have a go yourself.

What is it that really makes a good film?

I ask the question because I have just finished watching a film I really enjoyed.

You know the type. The credits roll any it's not that you're sat there gob smacked at the twist you didn't see coming, or blown away by the big budget CGI. No, you're just sat there happy with that nice fuzzy warm feeling inside. The feeling that you get when the rest of the world has been shut out for an hour or two and you 'get' the ending.

The case in point is Say Anything. Now I remember this film fondly. I was entering that phase in life and there was this actress in the film (for the sake of this story we'll call her Ione Sky), and just let me rewind my mind some 18 years (crikey, I'm getting old) and say; Fwwwwoooorrrrrrrrr! Suffice to say I watched the film a lot and remember it foldly.

Fast forward 18 years and I watch the film with a big smile on my face. I watch the part where Lloyd Dobler sands there in the park after being dumped by his girlfriend, holding his ghetto blaster (yes this film is old school) above his head playing 'their' song at full volume so she can hear it in her bedroom, and think "wow, no one can ever write that again without getting the label 'copy cat'".

I spot great writing everywhere right up to the final second there the fasten seatbelt light goes out with a 'bing!' and we are told everything will be okay.

The thing is, I turn to my wife and she says "well I suppose it was okay!"

What!

Just Okay!

Burn her!

But does she have a point?

Do I only like the film because I simply remember having a crush on Ione Sky when I was 16?

Someone out there please back me up and say this is actually a good film showing off some good writing.

Please, I beg you!

Later

Chris

BOO!

Cough, splutter… Bloody hell, it’s dusty in here and the Dyson’s broken. I’ll just have to take a good old fashioned duster to the cobwebs.

So why post after such a long time (crikey has it been that long)?

Well I received an email from Jason that said (amongst other things) “Write some blog! we miss you”.

Gosh, ‘we’.

Who is ‘we’?

My ego may say “THE WHOLE WORLD MY DARLINGS!”

Reality may dictate one, possibly two people.

I’ll go with my ego for now :)

What I usually do after letting the blog slide is launch into a long drawn out promise about how this time next year I’ll be churning out a screenplay a month. Well not this time – I’ll leave that for my next post ;) For now I’ll leave you with random nothingness:

Canapés

I’m working in the London office this week and after work today I went for Canapés in the Executive Lounge of the Regents Park Marriott. It turned out to be hard boiled eggs with mayonnaise, and cream crackers with Philadelphia. Well it sounded posh to me.

The London Paper

The London Paper is a handy little publication. It has some good Sudoku puzzles, good reporting and the most important of all: You take the first one you are offered and carry it in plain sight so that the other gazillion people handing them out don’t bother you.

That works in most cases apart from with the woman who stands at the O2 Centre side of Finchley Road tube station. I walk down the street and I see her. I hold my copy of the paper out in front of me for the world to see, just like Delboy would with a file-o-fax (apologies if that means nothing to my American readers). I’m sure she sees it. I can see her glance down at it, but SHE INSISTS ON SHOVING ANOTHER COPY IN MY FACE!

WHY! I don’t need a spare. If I loose the copy I have, all I will do is shrug my shoulders and say “Shit happens!” What I will not do is kick myself for not taking that second copy from her.

I’d have said anyone could do well in a job handing out a free paper that most people want, but let me tell this woman something: “Get another job, you’re crap at this one!”

Sometimes it’s the small things that bug you :)

Gazillion

I didn’t think ‘gazillion’ was a word, but the spell checker didn’t seem to mind. Spell checker! I hear you exclaim. Well I got an E in English at school so I think spell checkers are a gift from God. Deal with it!


Sushi

I’ve developed quite a taste for it. I don’t know where I can get it where I live so I make it myself at home.

When I’m in London I’ll always eat at Yo! Sushi in the O2 Centre on Finchley Road. I spend quite a bit of money, but the company is paying. I was going to eat there again tonight and then go to the cinema, but someone made me feel guilty about not blogging for a while!

Instead I decided to go back to the hotel to write this….. With take out from Yo! Sushi :) I discovered you can get about three times as much sushi for your money if you buy their set take out boxes. I’m writing this feeling very bloated indeed.


Fancy Mobile Phones


I have a Nokia N95. As well as the ability to make calls and send texts, it has a 5 mega pixel camera, an mp3 player, wifi internet capability, a calendar, a 3D graphics engine, built in GPS with world maps, plays DivX movies, plus a tonne of other stuff.

All I do with it is call my wife at lunch time. All the fancy stuff on it is wasted, but I still want an iPhone.

I’ll stop there and leave you with this:

Be excellent to each other!

FADE OUT!

Sorry about the complete lack of posting, but I don't have much spare time on the computer at the moment.

With the above in mind I've been a good writer and rather than blogging I've been screenwriting. So without further ado; I am pleased to announce that last night I managed to type "FADE OUT". Woohoo!

I've already been through it and written some of my own notes, so if I can show discipline I'll see if I can start the tweaks tonight.

It's a good feeling typing "FADE OUT" :)

Review: Shoot em Up

The most fun I've had in the cinema in years!

Simple as that.

Later

Chris

One story at a time please. Not two at once!

I've never attempted one of those screenplays that tell two or three stories at the same time. I'm not talking about a plot and sub plots, but a screenplay with many characters (a family or group of friends), where they all seem to be the protagonist and all have their story to live out. So perhaps before I bitch about one I've seen I should have a go at writing some good examples, but I believe if I can't make money with crap, no one should!

I fondly remember a film called Parenthood with Steve Martin and a load of other well known actors. Now, I'm not going to watch it again after writing this in case I spoil my memory of it, but I remember it working well. There were many characters all living out their own story (many were complex stories), and when it came to the end, all had been resolved and I remember a balanced film (but I think a lengthy one - I could check IMDB but...).

The other week I watched Trust the Man.

What on earth was that about?

Advertised as a Rom Com with Mr X Files, I sat down to watch to it and found myself confronted with that (minus the 'com') with another story running in parallel. Yes, it tried the many story model. The writer probably understood it is difficult to pull off so only went for 2, but God it was painful to watch. The stories were rushed (to be fair that could be the director's fault), and I guess there was some 'Rom' but the 'Com' was so out of place it seemed unnatural, and what did exist was a poor attempt at bad verbal slapstick (unless I invent a word that's the best description I can come up with).

I'll put my soap box away before I get to the ending, but it missed 'Romantic' by three solar systems.

I think that there isn't enough room in 90 to 120 minutes to tell more than one story well (unless you are a writing God, but there aren't many of those and they know a tough job when they see one), but I guess people will always try; and produce stuff like this.

I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!!

Hmph! Rant over :)

Writing and a Software Update

Not much to report of late but Jason prompted me to post in a comment, so in a desperate attempt to hold on to the people who take the time to read this blog I'll give you an update.

During my trips to London I have been plugging away at 'Only in Dreams' on the train. This has involved some re-writing and some new pages and if I gauge things correctly, it should pan out at roughly 85 to 90 pages long. Currently I've got 55 pages (not continuous) putting the script at about 61 to 64% complete, so in short; I'm getting there.

I'm really not sure if what I've got works any more. It's something I've had running around in my head and on paper for such a long time that I don't think I can see the wood for the trees. I'm afraid that if I stop and take another step back I may never get it finished, so if I carry on to the end, I'll at least have something complete to fix.

In other news I've been participating as a beta tester for the new version of Movie Magic Screenwriter. After trying others I always fell back to MMS and I can say that this new version (version 6), is a vast improvement on version 4.x/2000, so users wanting to upgrade won't be disappointed. It brings into the software some basic outlining features. Up to now I'd been using another piece of software for that so I'm quite happy, plus it finally shows misspelled words with a red underline. For a bad speller like me I find that much easier as I can correct on the fly without having to fire up the spell checker like I did with the old version. I don't know where you can buy it in the UK (I haven't looked), but you can buy it on Amazon.com.

Anyway, I'm off to London again next week so the page count should creep up some more.

Later

C

The rusty screenwriting cogs slowly start to turn

On the train to London yesterday I actually added to one of my screenplays.

Not much as I had to re-read what I had to make sure I was up to speed with where I left it, but I added to it all the same. Only two pages, but the scenes I wrote smashed their way through a big brick wall that previously I couldn't break through.

I'm taking the train home this afternoon so I'll see if I can build up some momentum.

Later

Chris

Anyone on Facebook?

I joined about a month ago and have found it great for getting in contact with friends and family that I really don't see as often as I should.

Just wondering if anyone else in the scribosphere uses the site, or am I now a cybergeek :)

Later

C

Walking 1000 miles

Hi all,

Sorry, yet another non writing post but an important one all the same. Please read on.

I have a friend who had been travelling around the world with a rucksack and a laptop. He is about to finish his adventure and rather than just jumping on a plane to come back home he has decided to walk it (approx 1000 miles) from Monaco to Newcastle all for charity.

The charity is The Blue Dragon Children's Foundation www.bdcf.org which takes care of street kids and children with no other chance in life in Vietnam.

The blog for his charity walk is http://www.iwouldwalk1000miles.me.uk/.

Sponsor, donate or just support by giving the walk some publicity on your blog or in your workplace. He is a genuine guy and I personally vouch for him and that this is for real.

Thanks for reading

Chris (ukscriptwriter)

Dry Spell

I have no idea why, but I have no motivation to write at the moment.

When in London I found other things to do and haven't put finger to keyboard on a script since. I have said before that blogging comes in seasons, so perhaps writing is the same. It could be the weather because let's face it; when it is raining outside and has been for days, it can be difficult to find inspiration.

Anyway, things will pick up soon (my glass is half full) :)