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Reflections from York FoW part 1: How many storylines can you fit in a Story?

4 Apr
Screenshot of intertitle from Life on Mars © A...

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York Festival of Writing, organised by the fabulous Writers Workshop (www.writersworkshop.co.uk) has been and gone for another year.  It was an amazing weekend full of inspiring sessions and workshops and a tremendous buzz – the like of which you can only get when you put 300 or so authors, agents, publishers and writers-aspiring-to-publication in one place.

So now, a week later, I’m ready to put my reflections on the three wonderful days into words.  In this post I’m reflecting on the first workshop I attended, the Screenwriting Masterclass with Ashley Pharaoh, creator of Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, and other ground-breaking shows.

Firstly it was a fantastic session, delivered in a wonderfully down to earth way by someone who obviously has a huge amount of passion for his craft.

There were a few lightbulb moments for me in this session:

Conflict: if conflict is inherent in the story set-up it makes for tension from the start

Scene design: start as late and leave as early as you can from the scene – it cuts out the boring bits!

How many storylines can you fit in a story? As a novelist I feel pretty chuffed if I’ve got four running through the story.  But when we looked in detail at the first six minutes of an episode of Life on Mars, by the sixth minute we found there were seven, yes that’s right, SEVEN storylines in play.  Pretty cool stuff!

I left the session inspired to put into practice the things I’d learned in my own writing.

Screenwriting looks and sounds really interesting too.  Maybe I’ll have a go at that once I’ve finished my novel!

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Cut the Waffle: polishing my pitch

19 Mar

 

Filming!

So the Festival of Writing at York is nearly here – Yippee!  This time next week I’ll be at the gala dinner, schmoozing with all the other writerly types.

 

But before I go, I still need to polish up my pitch for the agent sessions. And it’s nearly ready.

As I practiced in front of the mirror – making sure I could remember the words without too many pauses – I remembered a filming session I took part in last summer.  It was for a training film, and I had to deliver about ten lines to camera whilst walking along a pathway.

Sounds easy?  Was it heck! Believe me, as a total rookie at talking to camera (not to mention having the director, camera person and sound person watching me!) it was so much harder than the professionals make it look.

Firstly I had to remember words.  That was fine, until I had to say it to the camera.  At that point I either talked too fast or walked too slowly.  Or, just when I’d nearly got to the end of my lines, I’d forget a line.  So it would be straight back to the beginning to try again.  I think it took eleven takes in the end!

But the thing that I learnt from the whole experience – which was actually pretty exciting, even if rather nerve-racking – was that the script had to be ‘tight’.  The words had to be pared down to the minimum.  And that when we’d got the sentences polished down to the minimum, uncomplicated, straight-forward lines we could, then the piece had the maximum impact.

And so, as I’ve been polishing up my pitch, which is now only two sentences long, I remembered the three words that my colleague said in reflection of our whole filming experience:

Waffle is Bad!

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Business Card Facelift: The ‘Tweetcard’

10 Mar

My business cards have arrived!

But there’s something rather different about them.  When considering my options for business cards to give out to the people I meet at the York Festival of Writing – organised by the fabulous Writers Workshop http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/festivals/index.shtml – I discovered a new and exciting option – Tweetcards!

They’re like business cards, but funkier.  Instead of the usual stuff like name, address etc, these cards have your Twitter name, your blog and your email address on – all the stuff a modern writer needs to communicate.

I knew the moment I saw them that they were exactly what I needed.

So, I signed up immediately via GoodPrint’s – www.goodprint.co.uk – speedy online service and less than twenty quid and a few days later my Tweetcards arrived.

Not only do they look awesome, they’re cute, to the point, and colourful.  Absolutely perfect for all that networking I’ll be doing with other writers at York.

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Secret Weapons for the Nervous Networker: Fabulous Shoes

8 Mar

I hate networking!

That unpleasant taste you get at the back of your throat and the herd of elephant-like butterflies that hurricane around in your stomach as you step into the room filled with people you don’t know. And the indecision – who should you approach, and what should you say when you get there? Yuk!

 

vintage 1980s BETTY BOOP Polka Dot Heels - sz ...

It’s not that I don’t want to speak to them.  I love to meet other writers and share experiences about writing, books, and all the stuff associated with becoming an author.  It’s just that making the first move always seems so, well, nerve-racking.

 

But I’ve discovered a secret.

A great way to break the ice and strike up a natural, easy conversation is to notice something about the person, their choice of session, or a book they’re carrying, and ask them about it.  Nothing too personal, obviously, but a nice, neutral topic to get the conversation started.

[Just in case you were wondering, this is where the shoes come in …]

And this could work both ways.  By wearing fabulous shoes (a gorgeous bag, natty tie, fancy notebook, or electronic gadget could be substituted here depending on your personal preference) I’d be giving fellow conference goers an easy conversation starter with me.

So, at the York Festival of Writing in a couple of weeks time, I’ll be wearing my black and white polka-dot shoes with the red bows on the front.  If you see me (believe me, in these shoes I’ll be hard to miss!) do come and say hi.

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