Cold Turkey

Right. Can I write this blog post before my chilli con carne is cooked? I've got 13 minutes.

Go!

After finishing the last draft of "Stuck Between Stations", I decided to take a week off writing. That and the day job were starting to take their toll. But, already I'm jonesing for scene headings and transitions.

Must go stir rice.

This has been compounded by the fact that, last night, I received a nice email from somebody. Well, the fact that he emailed was nice, the contents were not. It appears that this gentleman had inadvertently been sent my BBC Writers Room feedback. And it wasn't good news. He's putting it in the post to me. "Oh, well," I thought. "Another letter for the pile." and I went to bed.

But, this morning, I woke up and discovered I'd taken it really quite badly. I was in a quivering blue funk all through the drive to work. Even though I've got a proper prod co interested, who can take it through other channels to the Beeb, I really thought this bad boy was the one to pique the Writers Room' interest. 

While the prod co are having a read through of the new draft of "Stuck..." (already got some notes back. Could take things in a really interesting direction), my mind has returned to 'Four Horsemen" and, naturally, now I'm full of righteous indignation, the ideas are flooding out for that one, though I've promised myself I won't touch Celtx until next Monday. 

Still, I also said I wouldn't touch the fags again and I've bought a pack of those. No chuffing will-power. Still, my father didn't raise a quitter. 

Chilli and blog. Done.

Must go and save the burning rice. Love to you all. 

So Very Tired And Celebrity Spotting

Been up stupidly early these last two mornings. I keep thinking of jokes at about half past two in the morning and not been able to really get back to sleep until I've got up and written them into the script. Stupid jokes about Van Morrison. Well, they make me laugh...

The meeting yesterday went well. The producer is going to give me some notes for "Stuck Between Stations" (and he got the reference in the title. Always a good start) and I'm going to try a re-write. He also seemed pretty interested in "Four Horsemen" and wants to read that when I've got a half decent draft available. Don't want to say too much as I don't want to jinx things. And he might read this.

It's really pathetic that I still get little frissons of excitement when I see famous people in the street (and I've had lunch with Alun Armstrong, donchaknow?) Saw Rhy Ifans going into Quo Vadis and, later on, saw the Don himself, Richard Curtis. Unfortunately, he had gone before I could get to ask him whether he'd like to start being funny again. But I'm sure he's busy with Comic Relief...

HTML And Me...

I've been fiddling with the site again. Every now and again, my geek tendencies bubble up and I have to get busy with HTML. 

It's all a bit shifting the deckchairs on the Titanic, but hopefully it works better. Does it look a bit too cluttered? I wanted to try and get 3 columns on the page. Let me know what you think, it would be greatly appreciated. I've only looked at it through Safari, so please let me know if it's all gone horribly wrong in Explorer/Firebox.

Busy day on the writing front. Have found out that my day-job employers are putting me on a different project from the 23rd, so it's more hours and the commute will take twice as long. So I want to get the first draft of "Four Horsemen" finished this week. Exactly half way through at the moment. 

And the Screenwriters' Diary Newsletter Part Deux will be winging it's way out tomorrow, so please sign up if you fancy it snuggled in your inbox, whispering sweet nothings to your other unopened emails...