Notes are suggestions...
My schedule has gone out the window this week. I’ve only just sat down and watched last Saturday’s Casualty (goodbye Josh, I’ll miss you). I’m not beholden to some fancy Soap tracking device that reads my mind and tapes my progs in my absence, I have to load the disc burner and remember to programme it. Now back at my writing table I have two separate piles of papers vying for my attention. Holby need my guest pitches in, Casualty need to see my finished draft 3. So I’ll watch some telly instead…
The Holby guest pitches are almost done. This is a very delicate stage of the CD journey - I have to want to tell these stories and tell them in a novel way, they’ll need nurturing and encouragement (tiny seeds into big strong oaks..). My editor does this job incredibly well, he enthuses and suggests tweaks that will merely strengthen my ideas, not change them irredeemably (it’s an art, this ability to illicit changes whilst leaving the writer in no doubt that it was her idea in the first place...).
These guest stories are going to have to play well against the serial element in the episode and support and illustrate the regular’s dilemma/journey. It’s no use me pitching the fascinating medical story I’ve been burning to tell for three years if it doesn’t help the serial storyline. Tough. These shows are by and large, about the regular characters - Charlie, Harry, Tess, Elliot, Connie et al. Their story arcs are largely out of my hands unless I have some input in the story conferences that happen a couple of times a year. Other people write these serial stories - I illustrate them through my particular episode with my particular voice. It’s not an easy thing to do.
If the guest stories grow organically from reading story document, and a theme raises it’s head to connect all parties, then I’m usually on to a winner - the writerly part of me knows what has to be done and where the story should go. Sometimes it can be a real struggle, especially if your subtle and clever story is remarkably similar to one broadcast last week..
My Holby guest pitches will hopefully be signed off this week and I’ll be asked to write the Treatment.
Casualty feels almost done. My draft 2 was scrutinised by many bods in the Bristol Warehouse and as a consequence I had a nice bundle of notes to sift through to get to draft 3 stage. Some notes are simple - a suggested line change or cut (most often from the medics who know better than to call a piece of medical equipment an oojimaflip..). Whilst other notes take a bit more deciphering - just what is this person trying to tell me?
It’s important to remember notes are only suggestions, I don’t have to act on them. Any of them. And all changes are open for discussion. It’s important to have integrity and do the right thing by my script. If a writer is being pushed into a particular direction with a story and every sinew of the writer is resisting, then something is wrong. Sometimes a writer and her script has to part company if things are going badly awry for either parties. I haven’t yet been in this position, but no doubt it’ll happen one day.
Have I mentioned the Mac / PC page count discrepancy? I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I love it when a plan comes together - like for example submitting a script 98 pages long when the suggested script length is 100 pages. So why were all the editors asking me to cut .. cut .. cut ..? More cuts please, you’ve come in ‘over’. It was doing my head in (although to be honest, there are so many variables - page count is merely a guide…).
Typing a script in Final Draft on a Mac is ever so slightly different from typing a script in Final Draft on a PC, about 10% different apparently. For every 98 pages I produce on my Mac, once on a PC it will translate to 108 pages. Aarrgh! Now I have to incorporate maths into my script writing ..
I had to cut 6 - 8 pages from my Casualty 2nd draft.
This. Is. So. Hard.
When every line counts … when all the stories wrap up so nicely … when every joke is the best one yet …
I managed it though, and boy - was it satisfying!
Ok blog readers, now’s your chance to see some work I’ve penned. My (first ever) episode of Holby City will be on your telly boxes next Tuesday 13th November 8.00pm. Enjoy.
Comments
Thanks. I found this post really interesting. I have never noticed that the patients stories reflect the main characters stories!
Also thanks for the tip on the Mac/PC page change. I have recently started using a Mac and had no idea there was a difference.
Dear Abi, Mac to P C page count difference sounds like a font style fluctuation.
Nodrog.
hi, i read and i found the post very inresting, i was just searching through bbc, and found writers blog. i am happy to fine you guys. i am from Aghanistan and i am writing short stories in Enlish.