Challenge within a challenge: Getting back on the radar

For any regular readers, you would have noticed I’ve gone a bit quiet recently. I checked and the last time I blogged about any new challenges was back in April! Now when I go off the radar, usually my family thinks it’s because I’ve got a new boyfriend, which isn’t the case here. At the moment dating wise I seem to be going on dates with lots of frogs, but have yet to find a prince yet. But for some reason life seems to have got in the way of my challenges.

I’m still on the never ending job hunt, and then I got a secondment at work, which has meant for the short term I am doing 2 full time jobs at the same time until they find a new me for my old job. Speaking to other colleagues who have been in a similar boat, this arrangement could last for up to 4 months! As a result I come home shattered without much energy for anything else.

With the new role and me being a social butterfly, it seems that the challenges have taken a back seat, and ultimately I haven’t completed them, meaning I’ve failed them.

I think from memory there are 3 challenges I started but haven’t completed: Health awareness, bible reading and writing a book in a month. Not completing these challenges is a good thing, it shows I’m human for one. Nobody is perfect and not every goal you reach for is met. I remember my cousin Miriam asking where do I find the time for all these things and over the past few months time has escaped me.

I will go back and try and complete these challenges as I feel I will get something out of them, but for now with my current work situation I’m going to downsize the challenges I set for the time being.

The next few weeks I’ll use as a catch up to reflect on some challenges I’ve done in previous months that I haven’t shown the outcome of. With July and August I’ll be setting myself one (yes ONE) challenge for each month, both which will be beneficial for my screenwriting.

Now from the outset, these challenges I set myself aren’t life defining in the grand scheme of things. The failure of these haven’t had an impact on my life; I haven’t lost any money, my health hasn’t been effected and it hasn’t impacted any of my friends or family. But I haven’t achieved what I set out to do.

As you may know I love a good quote and I was trying to find ones about failure, but they all seem a bit grand. I did find one which I don’t seem to high and mighty. ‘No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist.’ Chris Hardwick.

So onto the next challenges!

Screenwriting: First lot of feedback!

This evening my friend Coops came round with feedback on my film ‘If We Aren’t Married.’ I was pretty nervous about it and even managed to muck up making mug cakes in the process (I forgot to add the flour.)

But once he started giving feedback it wasn’t that bad and there were even some positives that came from it.

So what are the main areas that I need to improve on? Well for one I need to brush up on writing a synopsis. I gave a paragraph explaining what the screenplay was about and that was it. When I did Journalism at uni I was so used to writing the basic details in as few words as possible, then writing in more detail takes some practice.   

The other area is parenthetical description and it’s an area I was pretty clueless about to begin with, so I still need practice.

With regards to the plot itself there were a few points that were covered. The first one being that the whole idea of the plan of if a couple of friends aren’t married by a certain age then they should marry each other doesn’t really get covered, and Coops points out it’s a concept that hasn’t really been covered before. So I need to explore that in more detail and I’ve got an idea of how already.

I knew from the get go that having three strands of narrative would be tough to write, and ultimately one would be weaker than the rest. And so it was suggested that the Halla and Olly plot would be lifted. I can see where Coops is coming from on that front as the character of Olly, although developed in character development, on the page it just doesn’t show through.

There are pros and cons with dropping a narrative strand, it means that it free’s up more time to develop the other characters and create scenes where you can start to like the characters and see their personalities. I think when you reading screenwriting books, there’s so much focus on the plot and moving it forward with every line that you forget that you need time to grow to actually like the characters.

But then I do like the character of Halla and her backstory. The point was made that she could still be in the screenplay, just as a soundboard character instead of one of the main characters. And although Coops said one of factors as to how the film ends was a bit convenient, I do like how emotional I got writing it, so I’ll take that as a positive even if I go with changing it slightly.

So what happens now? Well Coops really wants to read a second draft and with doing 2 jobs at the moment at work it doesn’t leave me much time for much else at the moment. So he’s given me a deadline of his birthday which is the 8^th September for a second draft to be completed by.

In the meantime I want to get one more viewpoint on the screenplay before starting the rewrite. Any takers?

Challenge within a challenge: Nice day for a white wedding

As I said in my previous post the weekend was a busy one, and on Saturday I went to my friends Kate and Dan’s wedding!

I have to say it was one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to and I think that’s due to the people. Quite a few weddings I’d know maybe 2 or 3 people other than the bride and groom. But this wedding I knew way more, so there were lots of people to hang around with.

I’ve known Kate and Dan for many years as myself, my friend Rachel, Alice and Kate and Dan used to go for nights out together. We also went on a great camping trip together last year as well.

With no boyfriend at the moment I took my friend Ro as my +1 and we had a great time. I can’t remember the last time I danced nonstop. I’d finally found the perfect footwear for a wedding; some nice navy blue wedges that didn’t make my feet achy and I could dance freely in.

But add to the dancing an evening buffet which I ate very quickly meant I was dancing with a food baby. By the time I got back home, after an epic Disney singalong in the car, I was shattered with an achy belly.

When it came to my dress, I got it from Dave’s (as always) for the grand price of £3. The jacket I got on the morning of the wedding!

I asked Kate which charity is hers and Dan’s favourite and they said Cancer Research and RSPCA, so I’ve made small donations to both charities as I wore a dress.

Challenge within a challenge: Reuniting over a good book

With the summer months upon us, and hopefully normal summer temperatures, this means I’ll get to wear some nice dresses. And this means that it will count towards my dress challenge and I’ll donate some more money to charity in the process.

This weekend has been a very busy one, I’m shattered! I went to a wedding which I’ll blog about tomorrow. Today I went to a book signing to meet the great Giovanna Fletcher!

I’m a big fan of her books, well the ones I’ve read. I’ve read Dream a Little Dream, which I thought she wrote about me as the main character Sarah had lots in common with me. Her book You’re The One That I Want I read while queuing up for rides at Disneyland. And on the last few pages my sisters were chanting; ‘Read it, read it’ as I finished the book.

Upon hearing about the book signing on one of Giovanna’s (or Gi as she’s known) YouTube videos I immediately thought of an old school friend called Carly. We follow each other on Instagram and when I posted about reading Gi’s books, Carly commented saying she was a fan of Gi as well because of the YouTube videos.

I sent a message to Carly asking if she wanted to go and we hadn’t seen each other since school, so well over 10 years. And she thought it was a great idea. So we went to Milton Keynes today and had a lovely catch up.

When we met Gi she asked if we were sisters and we explained that we were old school friends and hadn’t seen each since then and that her book signing was our little reunion and she loved that. I also gave her a recipe as she’s a big Nutella fan and I have a great recipe for oaty banana and Nutella muffins.

I wore a little pink dress today, which I bought from New Look years ago, no doubt in the sale. Gi recently did a video about Wrigley’s Extra’s ‘Extra Smile Back Project and the money raised from that will go their chosen charity partner; Action for Children. So I’ve made a little donation to that.

Screenwriting: A kick up the backside

Last Monday I went to another screenwriting networking event run by Industrial Scripts. The talk this month was given by Nisha Parti who discussed her career and discovering Harry Potter and running her own production company and working with Dev Patel.

Afterwards there was networking and having arrived late I didn’t get a chance to talk to anyone before the talk started. Also there wasn’t anybody that attended the previous month, so I had a blank canvas.

There were quite a few people in groups and I find it awkward to begin with standing with a group, and I spotted a guy in a corner of his own and I went over and introduced myself. His name was Fred and was actually a friend of Nisha’s, but had also directed and written short films.

What I’m starting to learn with networking, well screenwriting networking is there are different people you’ll meet who each have a different purpose. The 3 people I met at the first event I went to were supportive, and keen to read my work and knowledge. And Fred’s purpose? To give me a kick up the backside!

With my screenwriting for a long time, since graduation I’ve been saying I want to screen write, but job hunting has also got in the way. But thanks to the 29 challenge it got me writing on a regular basis. Because I’ve been in theory about screenwriting for so long, my goals have been relatively short term. To finish writing a screenplay, to get somebody to read it and so on. Very small term goals.

Fred on the other hand had bigger ideas. I said that my aim was to enter one screenwriting competition. He asked why one? Why not more? He also suggested I’d write and make a short film, and that idea had been on my mind for a short time. And he mentioned the London Screenwriting Festival which I hadn’t heard of before. It’s a place where hundreds of writers, directors and producers are there, and Fred said because I have written several pieces I should go and see if anybody would be interested in them.

I think having people who will give you a kick up the backside is something that we don’t see too often. Or at least I haven’t seen it in a long while personally. I think when you’re job hunting you’re used to hearing either a yes or a no, and no encouragement. And if like me you’re on a contract at work you not really encouraged as you’re there for only a set time and not given the opportunity to develop and grow. I guess above all it’s refreshing to find people that believe in you and your abilities, even if you may never meet them again, that little kick up the backside maybe enough to take things to the next level. Who knows how many levels I’ll go up this year???

Thoughtful presents: Laugh your troubles away

I read that on average a child laughs between 300-500 times a day, and for an adult its only 15 times a day on average. And with doing a laughter journal a couple of months ago, it helped me be aware of what I find funny and what I laugh at on a daily basis.

A little while ago I mentioned on the blog about my friend Charmaine aka Meryl. Her dad was in hospital and she was by his bedside every day. Because of this I got her a hug in a bag which was supplies to keep her going. Unfortunately, her dad passed away, and then sadly on his funeral her mother in law passed away as well.

We met up a few weeks ago and she said that she just wants to start laughing again, because of there being so much sadness. It was a fleeting comment that she forgot about, but I remembered it and it got me thinking of whether there was something I could do.

And this is what I came up with; I created a laughter jar. I got a mason jar and some coloured paper and filled it with suggestions of things that would make Charmaine laugh. Everyone’s sense of humour is completely different and so I asked friends, family, work colleagues and even the local barman the simple question of what made them laugh. So their suggestions were put in the jar as well.

I lent her some comedy DVDs as well in case Charmaine needed to watch something a little longer. She loved the laughter jar and it was so easy to put together. Give it a go if you’ve got a friend going through a tough time, it may put a smile on their face again.

Screenwriting: Getting out there

When I was at uni I did a 4 day intensive short film screenwriting course. By the end of the course everybody had written a short film. The course was great and really sparked my interest in screenwriting.

The tutors gave some great advice and one piece was that if you got to the of stage of meeting with people from big studios or other important figures, always have another piece of work up your sleeve, in case the like one piece of your work and want to read more. So I’ve always kept that in mind, and I wanted to go to a networking event when I had a body of work.

Last week I went to a screenwriting networking event organised by Industrial Scripts. There was a talk given by Alexandra Rossi who used to be a producer at Paramount Pictures. The talk was interesting as I always like finding out how people have got to where they are.
The networking didn’t start off great as I ended up at the wrong networking event. It was in the same place and a guy bought me a drink and then there was an announcement saying welcome to the songwriting networking event. I was at the right venue but the screenwriting was taking place in a smaller room!

Once the talk was over I got talking to a woman next to me called Lucy. We were talking about what we had both done writing wise. And I said what I had written in 18 months….which I honestly thought was the norm. But apparently writing 2 full length films, a 6 part TV series and a one off piece for TV in 18 months isn’t normal. At this point a guy turned around and asked me to repeat myself. And he was very impressed. His name was Uzo and I also got talking to a guy called Clive and another guy who had won a screenwriting competition. Uzo also gave me the nickname of powerhouse which seems to have stuck.

It was a great evening and I really enjoyed talking to people about screenwriting, and finding people that were on the same wavelength, and people who were generally interested in my writing. The people I met and swapped details with really wanted to stay in contact with me which is great, and who knows where that might lead.