The Word Cloud

Splurge Writing should have been titled 90 Pages 4.

Despite a horrifying week at the day job I've managed to find the time to type up my sitcom notes into the fastest written pilot I've ever produced. I now plan to let it sit until the read through is imminent, and then do a quick polish. I want to know what people think of it in it's current state; largely unpolished and with few writery flourishes. To be honest it's little more than a conversation which (hopefully) exhibits similars peaks and troughs as a more action oriented script. I genuinely don't know, all I know is that I like it and it's fun to try something new.

So, with that out of the way I can concentrate on the musical, and it has really been brought home to me this week how much of a pain I must be to work with. Because I tend to write alone I have built up my own method whcih involves writing down every idea that occurs to me and slowly paring back to the essentials. But this is somewhat problematic when you have a partner trying to write songs which I keep cutting/moving/completely changing the meaning of. I am now sending regular updates to my composer so she is kept apprised of what is going through my head, which may not be useful but will at least prevent me from wasting more of her time.

The songs are getting under way now and we're trying a couple of methods of writing. I'm writing lyrics for one of the songs which she will set to music, with another I'm providing detailed notes on what the song is supposed to be saying and she will write both lyrics and music. At this stage it's very much trial and error to see what works.

The story is in place but I am now unhappy with some of the early scenes, they are too expositionary. Were it a film I would edit away the problem but onstage a scene needs to be a certain length. I need to give the scene more of a direction and then filter the necessary exposition through it. At the moment the lead comes on, he is told some stuff to take him into the next scene and the scene ends. That won't do.

Some of you will have heard me talking about a film I have in developement called Wake Up. Well, unfortunately it is now on hiatus for at least the next year, it's subject is deemed too close to Philip Nolan's Inception and a low budget film can't hope to compete so the production company does not want to risk it. And they're right, i don't want my story (which is infinitely superior to Nolan's!) to be thought a poor relation, or worse still an attempt to cash in. It sucks, but I'm happy to wait if it means getting the film right.