Been a bit quiet on here recently. The reason being my CBBC script.
I found out a lot of useful information at the Q&A last Monday but didn't intend to submit anything for the competition (none of the ideas I had were appropriate).
Nearly a week later, on Sunday night, I watched John Carpenter's VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED. You know which I mean - the one where all the women are knocked out and knocked up then give birth to those blond alien, psychic kids who make everyone do things they don't want to (such as put their hands in boiling water or light themselves on fire).
Anyway, those kids are damn scary! After that, I watched the season finale of SUPERNATURAL (which was awesome by the way). I was expecting to see evil demon Lilith possessing that freaky kid, but alas, it wasn't to be.
That night, I couldn't get to sleep. Instead, I lay awake thinking of a show about a bunch of psychics. Then I thought they could have different powers. They could be kids. They could spend every episode saving their school from other (evil) psychic forces.
So I woke up on Monday morning and started making notes. I usually like to have an idea in my head for a bit before I jot anything down - give myself chance to ponder on who and what the story's about. But I didn't really have time if I wanted to submit it the CBBC competition (deadline is a week today)
So I took the page of scribblings I had and started to write the script. I spent most of the day writing the first two acts, then stopped for a break. I restarted at 11.30 and carried on until 1.30am (keeping myself going with a mixture of soft mints and smarties).
Yesterday was spent getting people to read through the script and redrafting. Today I fixed all the typos, plot holes and dialogue shittiness that comes with every early draft.
The script is done now. I still need to check (again) for typos and print it out. Then I'll bind it and post it off to CBBC tomorrow. I don't expect to win - there are plenty of better, more experienced writers entering. I'll be absolutely thrilled if I managed to get shortlisted in the top 20. Here's what's potentially up for grabs:
Good luck to everyone else entering the competition and happy writing :)
I found out a lot of useful information at the Q&A last Monday but didn't intend to submit anything for the competition (none of the ideas I had were appropriate).
Nearly a week later, on Sunday night, I watched John Carpenter's VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED. You know which I mean - the one where all the women are knocked out and knocked up then give birth to those blond alien, psychic kids who make everyone do things they don't want to (such as put their hands in boiling water or light themselves on fire).
Anyway, those kids are damn scary! After that, I watched the season finale of SUPERNATURAL (which was awesome by the way). I was expecting to see evil demon Lilith possessing that freaky kid, but alas, it wasn't to be.
That night, I couldn't get to sleep. Instead, I lay awake thinking of a show about a bunch of psychics. Then I thought they could have different powers. They could be kids. They could spend every episode saving their school from other (evil) psychic forces.
So I woke up on Monday morning and started making notes. I usually like to have an idea in my head for a bit before I jot anything down - give myself chance to ponder on who and what the story's about. But I didn't really have time if I wanted to submit it the CBBC competition (deadline is a week today)
So I took the page of scribblings I had and started to write the script. I spent most of the day writing the first two acts, then stopped for a break. I restarted at 11.30 and carried on until 1.30am (keeping myself going with a mixture of soft mints and smarties).
Yesterday was spent getting people to read through the script and redrafting. Today I fixed all the typos, plot holes and dialogue shittiness that comes with every early draft.
The script is done now. I still need to check (again) for typos and print it out. Then I'll bind it and post it off to CBBC tomorrow. I don't expect to win - there are plenty of better, more experienced writers entering. I'll be absolutely thrilled if I managed to get shortlisted in the top 20. Here's what's potentially up for grabs:
A shortlist of 15-20 writers will be invited to a masterclass in July 2009. The final 8-10 shortlisted writers will then be selected and spend an intensive residential week developing their work, improving their craft and pitching to CBBC in September/October 2009. The final shortlist will receive CBBC mentoring from the development team and a £300 bursary.The shortlist will be announced on 10th July - which just happens to be the day after I get my uni results back for year 2. So it could be either a very bad week or an amazing one. Let's hope for the latter, yes?
Good luck to everyone else entering the competition and happy writing :)
3 comments:
well done Neil! Whatever happens it's great experience. And you just never know... good luck!
Don't you love it when a story comes together like that? I wrote two scripts for CBBC and binned them both because I wasn't excited about them.
The third story came out of the blue. It took me a few hours to work out the plot, a few more to work out the beats of the script. After that actually writing the thing was a breeze. Relatively.
Best of luck with yours.
Thanks guys. It's not my best writing to date but you never know.
Love it when something develops so fast - gives you a lot of confidence.
Best of luck to you too Timms :)
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