5620/18640
I am just constantly surprised by the fact that the key to writing is just to sit down and get on with it. The second Relativity script is the scariest one for me, as I had major plot ideas or situations for the other three, but aside from knowing which family I wanted to concentrate on and the surprise from the ending of episode 1, I didn’t have a clue about what was going to happen. But I just sat down and wrote some dialogue and although I still have many blanks to fill in, this one now feels like it’s possible. I really need to get it done this week, so hopefully similar application tomorrow will get me there.
You’d think Warming Up would have taught me that just sitting down and writing produces some results (even when it’s shit, it’s still better than having done nothing). You’d think that experience of writing scripts for 30 years would make me learn this lesson too. But I have learned nothing.
The dread of the blank page is properly terrifying, which is strange because actually getting something written is amongst the greatest of feelings. I will never get used to this rollercoaster of a job. I knew when I started this blog that just sitting down and doing 2 hours of good writing a day would be enough for me to create dozens of projects a year. And yet still I struggle to do it. The avoidance is perhaps part of the process. Lots of good ideas do tend to come up when you’re doing something else. But I also love the way that if you’re in the right writing state, you just let the characters get on with it. It actually does write itself.
Once again I have no idea where the episode is heading and I do need to come up with an effective subplot. But hopefully the characters will just tell me what they’re going to get up to and as long as I can be bothered to sit down and write it down, then we should be OK.
This is an amazing job, and I guess I a cautious about it because of the pain of all the rejections over the years. But I have to remember that this project is actually happening. It’s getting made. I understand what a privilege that is due to the many worthy (and many more probably unworthy projects) that have fallen by the wayside.
The doorbell rang this evening and I found a nervy looking man at the door with a holdall. He didn’t need to tell me why he was here, but of course I let him. But he started with an unusual gambit, “Don’t worry, I am not here to burgle you.†I didn’t think he was. Most burglars don’t ring the doorbell. I thought he was here to attempt to sell me some sponges. And I was right. But it was an odd opening line, especially as then he revealed he was part of a former offenders charity and was trying to get back on the straight and narrow.
I think his nerves had just got the better of him and perhaps previous substance abuse had destroyed the filter in his brain that stopped him saying everything he thought. But I don’t like any unsolicited callers and you might argue that he said this to let a slight threat hang in the air. Certainly that’s the way a lot of people are going to take it, whether deliberate or not.
I let him show me what he had, but he didn’t have anything that I didn’t own already and I didn’t have any cash on me anyway and the kids were in the kitchen and I needed to get back to them.
Plus I felt annoyed by that possible threat. I am not yet a vulnerable old person, but there are plenty in my village. And of course I felt bad that I wasn’t helping this guy out. And that I was having these horrible suspicions about him. Maybe everyone isn’t as paranoid as me. But if someone tells me that they aren’t going to burgle me, I assume that they are. Because people who aren’t thinking of doing something like that also don’t feel the need to tell you they’re not.
What can I say? I’m a horrible prick. I get it.
If you’re a Dripster or a Badger then the Brian Blessed RHLSTP video is already available to you. Everyone else has to wait til Wednesday.
