Category: Writing Page 16 of 24

And I Have Promises To Keep (Part 2 of 2)

In this post, I mentioned the 10 Word Crime Story Competition that was being held as part of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, and priomised that, if I didn’t win, I’d share my entries with you lovely people.

Well, I didn’t win (though oddly I can’t seem to find the page with the winning entries, which is strange – I’ve seen it before), and so here are the 10 word crime stories which I submitted (you were allowed to enter as many times as you wanted):

– Corpse! Gun! Locked Room! How? Oh, hang on – a suicide.

– The corpse floated to the surface, ruining the swimming gala.

– Gone With The Wind Murder Mystery? Rhett Butler did it.

– Invite old lady detectives to dinner, and someone will die.

…I only realised after submitting the above that you were allowed/supposed to give each story a title, so I can only assume that was the reason I didn’t win, as opposed to any kind of deficiency with the entries themselves. Ahem.

And I Have Promises To Keep (Part 1 of 2)

Back in June, I promised that if I wasn’t a winner of the the Waterstones ‘What’s Your Story?’ competition, I’d post my entry here on’t blog.

Well, as you can gather from the fact there’s a picture above these words, I didn’t win, and so I’m sharing (if you click on the image, it’ll be more easily legible).

You can find out who did win by clicking here, and while you’re at it, why not order a copy of the book version?

All the profits go to charity, and as well as the winning entries it features not-published-anywhere-else material by writers like Neil Gaiman and Joanne ‘J.K.’ Rowling.

Go on, it’s only a fiver…

Tell Me The Truth About Love (Actually, They Seem Keen You Submit Fiction, Probably For Legal Reasons)

Don’t know if this has been more generally announced, but The Times is currently running a short story writing competition.

It doesn’t seem to have a specified name, but the feature it springs from is called ‘Brief Loves’, and the entry requirement is that you write a 300-word love story – examples of stories by established authors, and the invitation to submit your own story can be seen here.

They don’t give a closing date, and the prize seems to be publication in the Times, but it’s only 300 words and you can e-mail your submission, so it’s not exactly a lot of hassle to enter.

I think I’ll have a go – what about you? Do let me know…

Clearly, They Don’t Know Jack

After my comments about how The New Yorker is noted for its lack of errors, I was rather disappointed to see the mistake shown here, on page 133 of the issue in question.

It is, as many of my fellow Limey readers will immediately realise, Jack Davenport, aka Miles of This Life or the voice of Mastercard. Tut tut.

Still, the Tomine cover is still just as pleasing as ever, so I’m not really complaining.

(The danger of a post like this, of course, is that in it I make some horrible typographical or factual error, and thus find myself open to criticism for exactly the same reason. Still, that’s what the Comments facility is for, I suppose…)

Now That’s What I Call Proper Journalism

My friend Danny recently entered the Guardian Development Journalism Competition, run by The Guardian in association with the Department for International Development.

The brief was to write an article about the issues and challenges facing the world’s poorest countries, and as Danny’s a very talented writer (not to mention director, but that’s a topic for another time), and has always been much more informed about international affairs and politics than I could ever be, I was pleased to hear that he was amongst the 40 semi-finalists chosen from 400 or so entrants.

His entry’s available to read online, and I heartily recommend you have a look at it – it’s a topic which gets little coverage, but it’s extremely timely and important, and I think Danny’s written a good solid article. I have to say, more journalism of this level in actual print newspapers would make me far more inclined to read a paper on a regular basis.

You can read the article here, and I strongly urge you to do so, it’s very good.

I’m Going Down To Liverpool To Do Writing, All The Days Of My Life

Oh all right, the above isn’t even remotely true, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to refer to the song by the Bangles – in which, rather mystifyingly, they sing about having a UB40 in their hands, which I doubt would do them any good, them being non-UK citizens and all.

Anyway, the point is this: you may already have seen it here, but if not, there’s a writing-related event from the BBC taking place in Liverpool this week.

Auntie Beeb is sponsoring a couple of events – and they’re free of charge – at the Everyword Festival in Liverpool. Specifically, on Friday 25 July (yes, that’s this Friday). The sessions are:

From 5:00pm – 6:30pm, there’s a Q&A session on ‘Writing for BBC Television’ with Hilary Martin (Development Executive), Ellen Taylor (Producer), and Daisy Coulam (Writer), talking about what it’s like to develop drama series, and also about plans for BBC North to develop links with talents in the Liverpool region.

And from 7:45pm onwards at the Docks, there are nine plays being presented – three each from writers in London, Liverpool and Newcastle, which are apparently going to be inspired by the ports in each of these locations.

More information and details on how to book can be found here.

I probably won’t be going along (what with living a couple of hundred miles away), but if you do, let me know if it’s useful.

Nice, I think, to see that writing-related events are taking place in what is, after all, the official European Capital of Culture 2008.

Soundtrack : Opening Of ‘Mars’ from Holst’s Planets Suite

Last year, I got a tad overexcited when I entered the Red Planet Writing Competition. Granted, I didn’t win, or even make it to the second round, but it was the first full-length screenplay I’d written, and it was a useful learning experience.

Well, prepare for more blog posts of a similarly giddy nature, as they’ve just announced the 2008 Red Planet Writing Competition. As with last year, the prize consists of £5000, representation by a literary agency, and a script commission from Red Planet (makers of Holby Blue and Moving Wallpaper)> It’s not all the same as 2007, though – there are a couple of changes.

This year, the requirement is for entrants to send in the first ten pages of “a 60 minute pilot script with television series potential”, along with a one-page outline. Last year’s theme was more on the lines of a screenplay, if memory serves, and this year it sounds more like something for the small screen. Fair enough – especially as there’s no specified requirements in terms of genre or subject.

On a practical level, the scripts for this year’s competition are to be submitted by post, not e-mail. Like many people, I sent my entry last year and received an e-mail saying that the mailbox was full, which was a bit of a worry at the time, though kindly Danny Stack (who was involved with the competition) provided reassurance to me and folks in my situation to let us know if the script had been received. This year, it’s hard copy only (to be accompanied by this downloadable form ) – I suspect that Royal Mail may see a leap in their profits around the closing date of Tuesday 30th September as I, and no doubt many other folks, invest in Recorded Delivery or similar to make sure our entries actually arrive.

Anyway, I plan on entering – I have a vague notion for a TV show idea which I’ve been semi-mulling over for a while, and I think it’s a question of actively seeing if I can shape into something more definite with, as I believe they say, ‘legs’. Anybody else planning on sending something in ?

(I realise that posing a question like that, and possibly getting no replies, looks kind of tragic. On the other hand I like to think that this post might alert a few people to the Red Planet scheme who might otherwise have missed it. Which makes me feel socially useful, and assuages any sense that I might just be whistling into the wind. At least for now.)

Why Don’t You … Switch Off Your Internet Connection And Go Out And See Some Writers Talking Instead?

This week, many people will be going to the Screenwriters’ Festival in Cheltenham. I’m not going for time and money reasons, but if you are going along, do have fun, and try to bring me back some freebies.

For those of us left behind, there are still events of writerly interest taking place, and here are details of a couple which might be of interest…

Thursday 3rd July, 6.30pm : Sharman Macdonald In Conversation

Sharman Macdonald has written plays and films, and indeed her latest ‘The Edge Of Love’ is at a cinema near you right now, starring (unless I misremember) her daughter Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys. She’ll be talking with Kate Rowland of BBC Writersroom (who I’ve seen doing these things before, and I think she does a good job of keeping it informative to the would-be writers in the audience), and there’ll be a chance to ask questions afterwards.

It’s free to attend, though you need to get yourself on the list – which you can do by clicking on the link above and following the instructions, or by sending an e-mail to writersroom@bbc.co.uk.
It’s being held at the BAFTA building on Piccadilly in London’s glittering West End.

Saturday 12th July, 7.45pm : Alan Moore And Melinda Gebbie

I’ve sung the praises of Alan Moore here before, and this is a chance to see and hear him talking (something he does very eloquently and amusingly, in my experience), along with his wife and co-creator Melinda Gebbie, about their recent work Lost Girls.

It’s being chaired by Roz Kaveney, who I know as an editor and writer, and is being held as part of the London Literature Festival on the South Bank (specifically, in the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall).

Comics as Literature, eh ? There’s progress in terms of critical acceptance – one day, it’ll be taken for granted to the extent that there are none of those ‘Pow! Zap! Comics Grow Up!’ headlines in the papers, but I’m not sure we’ll see that in my lifetime.

I’ve just realised that this post might actually prove useful or informative to some of you, and now I worry that I’ve set a dangerous precedent. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll be back to being facile soon.

Very, very soon.

What I Did On My Not-Holiday, By John Aged 37 (And A Bit)

Well, it’s been a rather thin few days in terms of content, but I plead a sudden surge of activity in the paying job (leaving me several shades of knackered at the end of the day) combined with a lot of writing stuff to do. To summarise, then :

BBC Sharps
I didn’t hear back from Writersroom on Monday, and unless they sent me an e-mail headed something like ‘Free v1agr@’ and it got diverted to my Spam folder, I guess that means that I didn’t make it through to the next round. A pity, but doing the script was actually rather fun, and it was something of a learning experience, so I don’t feel it was wasted time on my part.

One change I might make to it, though, is to amend the name, as in an attempt to be clever and show it was purpose-written for the BBC Competition, I called it ‘Sharpes’ (after the pharmacy where the action took place), so I should probably re-name it for any future use. Then again, maybe that was part of the reason I didn’t make it through, I may have built the expectation that there’d be a number of characters for Sean Bean to play, and the first ten pages offer nothing of that nature.

Waterstones ‘What’s Your Story?’
My entry’s still on the gallery for this (page 13, last time I checked, or you can search by my surname), and given that over 4000 people have entered, the odds are rather against, but it was a fun thing to do (and my method was like something from ‘Take Hart’ or, for the younger amongst you, ‘Art Attack’), and who knows, I could be one of the two over-18 winners. I’ll probably post the jpeg of my story after the results are announced, so as not to dilute or jinx things, as it were.

Regardless of that, the book of all the authors’ postcards (plus the three winners) is for the dually worthwhile causes of Dyslexia Action and English PEN, and as it’s a mere fiver, I strongly urge you to go here and order a copy. Go on, it’s a good thing to do. You know you want to.

10 Word Crime Story
I didn’t have time to post about it here before the deadline of 5pm on Monday, but I managed to get a couple of entries in for this. It was a fun thing to do, and the small wordcount made it pleasantly restricted in terms of what you could write about – my usual logorrhoea was very much held at bay. I think the results are due in a couple of weeks, so I’ll share my entries after that, I suspect.

…So, as you can see, I haven’t just been doing nowt and making token gestures at posting here. But anyway, the hectic period seems to have passed, so we should be back to the usual frequency of posting (and probably the usual kind of content – sneering at adverts, book covers, and dodgy journalism; the very heights of sophistication) now.

Anyway, enough about me, how have you been?

Sharps Update

Waiting to hear if you’ve made it through to the next round? Me too… but take a look here.

Two hours, then.

I recommend a cup of tea while waiting…

Page 16 of 24

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén