Well, inspired by Jez Friedman I just happened to glance earlier today at when I published my first post - and guess what?! It was a year ago to the day. So, I thought I'd better take a few moments off packing for a week's trip to the Edinburgh fringe to mark the occasion.
This time last year I'd just finished my MA at Bournemouth, and I have to admit that I haven't made quite as much progress with my screenwriting career as I would have wished. I took redundancy last August, so I've been establishing myself as a freelance writer and editor since, which has meant occasionally taking on too much work to allow for adequate screenwriting activity.
However, despite not promoting myself a great deal, I have been working on a couple of chunky projects that are quite a way ahead of anything I did before my MA (pilot script for drama series and new feature-length script), so there should be promising fruit from those particular shrubs within the next few months. I'm also waiting to hear back from a couple of agents who requested my main MA script after I sent out a few query letters.
I also (finally) picked up a copy of Adrian Mead's book How to Make it as a Screenwriter * this week, and was pleased to find that I'm already on the right road with some of the strategies he suggests for getting up that slippery ladder.
When we get back from Edinburgh I'm going to start knitting things together into a cohesive approach - including revisiting the stuff I wrote before doing my MA. I'd pretty much written it off, but some of it got quite a good reception, so hopefully I'll be able to attach the jump leads to its pink bits and give it a new lease of life.
So, that's Year One out of the way. I guess that trying to maintain the blog occasionally ate up time that could have been better used on more directly writing-related activity, but it's also encouraged me to try and form critical opinions more quickly about stuff I've seen.
Thanks to anyone who's commented or emailed over the past 12 months. My Year Two resolution - not to sound like such a tedious old stoat in my blog posts.
* If you haven't already bought and downloaded Adrian's book, you really should. It's a detailed and direct guide to what you need to know and what you need to have assembled in order to make a push at establishing yourself as a professional screenwriter. The testimonials on the page speak for themselves, but if you need any further convincing, the proceeds go to ChildLine.
1 comment:
happy blogoversary!
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