This year has been one big learning curve for me. Having finished my MA in Screenwriting in December 2009, I anticipated that I had learnt all the lessons about screenwriting I needed to learn. But as I stepped into the real world, I rediscovered another school called life and here are some of the lessons I learnt during 2010.
January – Take time out.
Instead of taking a break after my two year course, I powered on to work on a rewrite for my final year project. It wasn’t cool. My brain was exhausted and I couldn’t see the wood for the trees with my project. Sometimes it pays to put the script down, step away and return to it when feeling refreshed and clear-minded.
February – Don’t send your work out when it’s not ready.
I sent my final year project out to a few people. It wasn’t ready and I was so glad I hadn’t sent it out to anyone and everyone.
March – Passing an MA in Screenwriting doesn’t give you a career in screenwriting, writing does.
When I received notification that I had passed my MA, it was a good feeling but it didn’t make me feel like I had earned a career in screenwriting. This academic qualification was just the first step in my long journey.
April – Be patient.
At this point, I started looking back on what I had achieved so far in the year and I couldn’t put my finger on anything. I was hurrying through the year with no focus and as a result my scattergun and panicked approach was getting me nowhere fast. I realised then that I needed to focus myself and be patient with my goals. I needed to apply myself and focus on doing a good job.
May – I can make a short film.
And I did. I edited footage which I had shot the previous summer and the editing took less than a week. The end result was a short film called The Game. It isn’t expertly shot but it’s a fun watch and it’s given me the gumption and determination to make more of my stories real.
June – A holiday is gooood!
Finally after two and a half years, I took my first holiday (weekend breaks don’t count). Sailing in Turkey for two weeks was exactly what the doctor ordered. But of course I couldn’t stop storytelling. If I wasn’t writing, I was carrying my video camera around and this was the result.
July – I am a Screenwriter.
In July, I attended the BBC Writer’s Festival and for the first time in my life I felt comfortable calling myself a screenwriter. To be in a room with the best writing talent in the country and to learn about their journeys was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. It was also a lot of fun! Here are my notes on Day 1 and Day 2.
August – Step out of the box.
In August I set up a Twitter account for my local writing and within a couple of weeks I became a blogger for a local online magazine. In a couple of months time, the blog will be reformatted to become a weekly magazine column and in the meantime, I am gaining a readership for my writing. The online magazine receives 10,000 unique user hits per month and this number is growing.
September – Baring my soul as a writer.
At the start of summer, Alexis Niki offered me the opportunity to submit a real life short story for an ebook she was planning to publish alongside her web series Bitchy Witchy. The submission was for a competition and it turned out to be my favourite writing experience ever. Writing this story from the heart, I discovered that I enjoyed writing prose and that it was important to bare one’s soul as a writer in order to emotionally connect with the reader. The ebook will be released on 4th January.
October – Don’t take your eye of the ball.
Life is full of distractions but it’s important to make sure there’s time to write. A writer writes; that’s it really.
November – I can write a novel.
It takes discipline to write a novel and NaNoWriMo provided me with the best structure and motivation to complete 50,000 words in a month. You can read more about my NaNoWriMo experience here.
December – Script reading makes me a better writer.
Upon reading my final year project (a thriller feature), I could see the flaws so clearly in the script. I also found myself reading my own script objectively as if this script had just landed on my desk. My attitude wasn’t intentional but given my latest experience in script reading for Writer’s Avenue and Braven Films, my response to my script was instinctive. As a result, I ended up asking myself, why hadn’t my own script grabbed me?
Who knows what lessons I will learn in 2011? All I know is that a lesson learnt is another step forward in my journey and a step further into the unknown. I am very excited.
