In case the link I provided to the screenplay for The Dark Knight wasn’t to your tastes, or it merely made you want to see more scripts, answer me this: how would you feel about access to PDFs of the scripts for the films fighting for the Oscar for Best Original Sceenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay?
You’d like to see them, you say?
Why then, clicken sie hier, meine kleine leser, and once again wander backstage at the magic show, and get a few insights into how it’s done.
You might have seen it last night, but if not, I can heartily recommend the latest edition (3/6) of Charlie Brooker’s Screen Burn, doing the rounds on BBC Four.
It’s an extra-length episode, and instead of his usual incisive (and frequently rightly abusive) commentary on TV and media, Mr B chats to a number of high-profile writers, specifically:
– Russell T Davies
– Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
– Tony Jordan
– Paul Abbott
– Graham Linehan
So, I think you’d agree, people who are worth listening to when it comes to the business of writing. They talk about ideas, dialogue, characters, and give a few bits of advice.
If you missed it last night, fret not! Tis repeated on BBC Four at the following times:
Friday 5 December, 11.45pm – 12.35am
Sunday 7 December, 11.30pm – 12.20am
And if you’re all tech-knowledgy and have access to the BBC iPlayer, you can probably access it right now (if you inferred that I haven’t installed iPlayer yet, you’re quite right).
Definitely worth a watch if you have any kind of interest in writing for TV – or in writing generally, really.
I try to avoid writing about dreams I’ve had on the blog, because… well, mainly because it’s usually rather dull hearing about other people’s dreams.
I invariably find that my dreams are just a tangle of events and fleeting thoughts from the day, as the mind winds down and shuffles its papers like a newsreader about to knock off for the day, but I thought I’d share the following. If nothing else, it’ll give you an indication of the shape of the inside of my head, as unhealthy as it might be.
So: I dreamt that I was attending a writers’ meeting for the TV show The West Wing, where we were all called on to pitch storyline ideas for the forthcoming season. Of course, since I have no idea what the majority of the writing staff look like, the other writers and the showrunners were depicted by members of the cast – as the head of things, Aaron Sorkin was played by Martin Sheen, and so on.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that although I think it’s one of best-written shows in recent years, because Channel 4 burned off their episodes of TWW in all manner of strange places (different channels) and times (post-midnight at one stage, 8pm at another), I haven’t actually seen it beyond the stage when John Goodman comes along. So the storylines I was pitching were all being put forward without any certainty as to whether they might already have been done – though as I was also aware that Mr Sheen, like Mr Sorkin, was not in the boss-chair towards the end of things, it was as if I was pitching at some point in the show’s past.
Anyway, I woke up, and was amused by the fact that I had, in the dream, been pitching pretty good ideas at a moment’s notice (I suggested one storyline for Will Bailey which had Joshua Malina nodding as if to say he understood), bewildered at the way that my mind had chosen to depict behind-the-scenes folks with on-set equivalents, and reminded how I’d promised myself that, once I’ve completed the Christmas shopping this year, I was planning on buying myself the West Wing DVD boxset by way of reward.
And then, less than an hour later, I opened a magazine and saw an advert saying the boxset is now 75% in certain locations.
All right, Mr Subconscious, I get the message. No need to hammer it home.
Well, I gather people have started hearing if they’re through to the next stage of this year’s Red Planet Prize.
I haven’t heard anything, so I guess no news is bad news, right? But maybe it’s a case of ‘not heard yet’, so I’ll just keep clicking F9 to refresh my e-mail Inbox for a few more hours yet.
I know David has made it through, any other folks heard good news? Congratulations if you did.
UPDATED TO SAY: They sent an e-mail this afternoon, which is good, as it stops me wondering if I’d missed a vital e-mail. A nice touch, I think, as whether it’s yes or no, it prevents me waiting needlessly.
Just a quick note to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving – if you’re reading this, after all, you have access to the internet, in what I presume is a safe location, and you probably know where your next meal’s coming from, so indeed you (and, being in the same position as I type this, I) have much to be thankful for.
Have some roast potatoes for me!
Penguin Books have made the first chapters of a fairly impressive number of books available for free download, under the name Penguin Tasters (presumably a poetry will soon do a similar range called ‘Poetasters’… hmm, maybe not).
Anyway, they’re available here – they’re PDF files, but if you have an eBook reader or similar, you can download eBook versions here.
Incidentally, if you do have a Sony eReader or Amazon Kindle or the like, what’s it like? Every time such an item is launched I see various reviews and promo pieces, but I don’t think I know anyone who’s ever actually used one. So, a first-hand report would be interesting – anybody? Anybody? Bueller?
In case you hadn’t seen it, or had forgotten that the deadline was looming, just a quick note to remind you that The Guardian Six Word Memoir competition closes on midnight on Sunday.
I’ve entered it (though I don’t think I can provide you with a direct link to my contribution, the site seems slightly oddly set up), and I found it fun, though it is actually slightly challenging – though it’s tempting to put something irredeemably flippant (which, some might say, would be in line with my life as lived so far), I also felt slightly as if I ought to try to do it properly… whether I succeeded in this, I guess others will ultimately decide.
Anyway, if you haven’t had a go yet, why not do so?
(Link swiped from Laura, I should confess.)
If you want sex – good sex, hot sex, steamy sex, the kind of sex that makes your insides tingle and your brain feel like it’s been squeezed tightly by an ice-cold hand, well… well, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is only a blog, after all, and it’s early on Sunday morning.
What I can offer, though, is Bad Sex. Well, details of this year’s Bad Sex In Fiction Award, anyway.
You want it? Then put your ‘pointer’ here.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to roll over and go back to sleep.
Well, after much promising and even more delaying, the new version of My Website is up and running. I won’t pretend it’s a state-of-the-art cutting-edge site, but hopefully it’ll prove useful for people who are trying to track me down or scout me out for writing purposes.
More exciting, though – and certainly much prettier to look at, with pictures and everything – is the news that my friend and wedding photographer Toby has had some of his pictures made available for sale online. For a very reasonable fee, you can buy a royalty-free image of one of his photos, and use it to your heart’s content.
Toby’s stuff can be seen and bought here, so if you’re looking for a good picture for whatever reason, it’s worth a look. In fact, if you’re looking for a photographer for whatever reason, I can heartily recommend Toby – he’s a friend, yes, but that’s because he’s friendly, as well as being very skilled with the lens. You can contact him via the above links, I believe, and please do tell him I sent you.
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