Wood For The Trees
I’ve been tweaking the first draft.
Some scenes had to be rearranged, moved about. Others were made longer, some shorter. The dialogue needed to be snappier - I’ve lost count of how many locations there are - far too many no doubt. My dialogue to action ratio is healthy (see previous post). I’ve read the script aloud, doing all the voices (my Dixie is pretty good, my Harry just comes off as Frank Drebben). Now I can’t see the wood for the trees.
This is when I know it’s ready to send off to my editor. Knowing when to stop working on a script can be a difficult call, this is the first draft after all - things will change a lot before my story is on the screen wedged between the lottery and some reality show phone fest… I find deadlines incredibly useful and the quick turn around you get in TV writing as opposed to Theatre writing I find an exciting driving force.
And now there’s Holby! I’ve been commissioned to write another Holby City in October - I expect story documents to start clogging up my inbox pretty soon. Then I’ll be in meetings at Elstree pitching more guest stories and writing more treatments. I’ve also been invited along to a Holby story lining conference. This is a two day event in a smart hotel with writers, editors and producers. Storylines are pitched, thrashed about, slagged off, bigged up and cheered on. It’s also a great opportunity to get out and meet other people! The writers often have that bleary eyed look about them, lack of sun and too much caffeine.
I’ve a feeling that work on the two shows shouldn’t overlap too much, hopefully I'll be well on the way with Casualty before hunkering down into Holby.
But I am running out of working space - literally. I am fortunate enough to have a writing room, it is separate from the house and my commute to work takes all of 30 seconds, at least I do get some fresh air and that sense of ‘going out to work’. My writing space is in-fact a customised metal shipping container pitched up in the garden and worthy of a full colour Sunday Supplement spread. It is a roomy 10 X 8 ft, has heating, lighting, internet access, large picture windows and glass door. Bliss. It is also getting rather full of paper. My shredder recently went into melt down when I tried to spring clean the place.
The BBC will send out story documents by post on request (saves me the cost of ink and paper), I try to print stuff off on recycled old documents and scripts - warning, this can cause endless confusion. I’m loathe to just dump stuff in the bin. This is all confidential material you understand! My first story doc from Eastenders arrived in my inbox pass worded - I had to phone my editor to get the password to open the document, such is the sensitivity of the contents! It had CONFIDENTIAL and warnings written all over it. I refused to discuss its contents with my family, my lips where sealed, the country’s early evening soap secrets were safe in my hands - I wasn’t going to allow anything to fall into the hands of the Soap Mags. It amused me greatly then, that my completed Eastenders shooting script was sent to me by first class post - oh how the lads down in the sorting office must have had a ball, passing around episode no 1224 before it hit the screens, spreading the word about Dot’s goings on and my ‘confidential’ cliff hanger...
So, ankle deep in A4, I need to make more room. I also have a little gallery on the window ledge in front of me. It’s here I place the little publicity cards of the various characters I’m writing for - you know the ones with the cheesy grins that get autographed. I have a clutch of Casualty faces smiling benignly down on my keyboard, now I must make some room for the Holby characters - soon I won’t be able to see out of the window. Then there’s the ground plans, I have Casualty ED blu tacked to the wall on my left, where on earth am I going to put the plans of Keller, Darwin and AAU? I can’t move my Casualty scene by scene A2 wall plan I lovingly constructed in coloured felt pen, because I’m using it … some writers I know work in the British Library, I’d have to a take a suitcase of stuff with me if I did that. I am a visual learner. I like visual cues.
I could never use a Blackberry for example - file something away electronically, like an address, and to me it’s gone, ceases to exist, I won’t remember to look for it. Write an address down physically in a book or a post it note and I’ll remember to thumb through the book, look for the note, visualising the colour of the ink, the day I wrote it ..
I’m digressing. Obviously time to have a last read of the script then send it off into the ether.
I have a script meeting on Thursday with my editor and producer in Bristol and I do love train journies - essential reading time. So that gives me a few days to shred some more paper, worry about what I’ve written and start thinking ‘Holby City’.
