Tag: writing

Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer – September Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
In August, I received notes on my Troy script and have entirely changed the beginning point of the story as a result!

I have also signed up to a new Improvisation course starting in a few weeks’ time, and will be going to the TV and Film Meetup in London on 14th September.

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
I have the extract of my film script set dring the 1665 plague lockdown ready to submit to the BAFTA Rocliffe competition. I just need to check over all my corresponding materials and put them in the correct formats before submitting.

I finally got round to redesigning this website! Now have my own domain name (see above) and am slowly adding pages such as my new CV page.

The showreel page is still very much a work in progress and not yet live, but will be added to the site in the next few months.

In the meantime, proof-reading requests can be sent to me here. I really wanted this to be a pay-what-you-can service, and am still working on how to make sure this is set up correctly. So don’t feel like you have to go through the PayPal section to get a message to me. As long as I receive a message, I am able to work through any requests.

Have also finished Draft 1 of my Gold Rush script, and have plenty of time to edit it before December for the BBC Writers room.

Things Learnt:
Am still very much trying to save money for various life reasons at the moment, so won’t be able to update any of my software before Christmas at the earliest.

However, have begun to build myself a profile on Upwork in the meantime and will make the profile live later on this month.

Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer – August Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
In July, I performed in an improv play in Brighton as part of a course I was taking. Also signed up for a longer film course than the ten-week one I did earlier in the year – which will start in September.
I am planning on submitting to the BAFTA Rocliffe competition this September. The BAFTA competition works on an alternate-year basis so this year is film scripts. I am going to submit my script set during the 1665 plague lockdown in London, so will be spending August re-editing it as it’s been a while since I last looked at it.

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
Have plans to redesign this website in August by putting in my latest CV and (once I am able to buy a microphone and editing software in a few months time) put in a showreel page of sound recording and video editing I have done.
The Trojan War Diaries edits are still happening; each new draft does tell the story better than the one before. Though I am really looking forward to being able to actually write episode 2 one day!
The Gold Rush script is coming along too, but probably won’t submit it to competitions before BBC Writers room in December as have enough other scripts to submit to various competitions before then so will focus on re-editing instead.

Things Learnt:
Turns out before I can buy the video-editing software I want and Final Draft, I have to save up to buy a new computer first (this one is a hand-me-down from my brother). However, I should be able to afford one this Christmas so my new year’s resolution will be to train myself on my new software!

Freelance Journey

How to Become a Freelancer – June Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment


Intro:
In May, I finished the first edit of the screenplay about two sisters. The title for it is still a work in progress, but think it will be a good script for competitions once these edits are complete. Plus I have finished the first draft of my screenplay about an alternative version of the Napoleonic wars where women were allowed in the Navy. However, I think that screenplay needs to be left for a while before editing, as I discovered during writing that I didn’t really know the story I was trying to tell yet. I am also up for a promotion in my day job, so have spent this weekend preparing a presentation for the interview!

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
Am still dealing with a lot of admin tasks in all areas of my life, so the podcast drama is still on the backburner for now.

The pilot script of a re-telling of Troy is ready for submission! The deadline for the Scribe Lounge competition is the 14th of June. I always give myself a few extra days for competitions as I have a tendency to panic when I submit, so knowing I’ve got extra time calms me down! I really like how this pilot has turned out, with good introductions to the characters and the tone I want, going forward, clear from the get go. Plus, I have blocked out the plot points for the rest of the series, so if anyone was interested I can talk at length about the scripts I haven’t written yet!

Things Learnt:
Due to the busy nature of my life at the moment, everything I’ve learnt this month has been about the importance of staying on top of admin. Something which I have always struggled with! One thing I’ve found that helps is speaking through forms with people as I fill them out to make sure I’ve not misunderstood questions. What tricks for staying on top of your life admin do you find useful?

Freelance Journey

How to Become a Freelancer – May Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
In April, I wrote the first draft of another screenplay. This one is about two sisters. The story for this one was relatively easy to write, so when I edit I just need to put the scenes in order, as it currently jumps around in time a lot. I also need to make sure I’ve got the timings right as the story also involves a baby. I think the baby might have become one year old in the space of six months! The two I finished in April are in the process of being edited. The Puritan England story, especially, should be ready to be read soon.

I have also rewritten various versions of my CV for editing work and freelance work respectively, as well as applied to an opportunity within the company I already work for.

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
Still have not been able to secure a podcast studio for my audio drama, mainly because the month of April was extremely busy in generally all areas of my life, so that had to take a back seat. I’m unsure if I’ll have time to find a studio in May, but should be able to if things quieten down. Though I have started taking an Improv course in the evenings so things don’t look likely to start quietening down any time soon…

The pilot script of a re-telling of Troy is going well. I’m looking at it at least once a week at the moment. I received some feedback last week that allowed me to finally see how to write a problem scene. I can now see how to get across to the audience what I need to within that scene without having my characters say the plot out loud to each other!

Things Learnt:
Have written a draft query letter and found various resources online of good query-letter examples, such as this one on writersstore.com. However, I am currently trying to decide if I want to wait a few months before sending the letters until I hear back/get rejected from the various competitions I currently have scripts in!

Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer – April Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
During the course of March, I have finished the first draft of two new screenplays and am now trying to edit them into some coherent form. One is about witches. It was only at the end of the first draft that I realised why in fact my main character is accused of being a witch. Before that, there was no logic to the story whatsoever. Not even 1600s Puritan England logic. There is now.

I have also signed up to the website the-dots.com which lists all kinds of jobs in the industry from sound production to video editing and more. I haven’t found anything I want to apply for yet, but am looking on a regular basis.

I have realised, as well, that in terms of editing-assistant work there is in fact a surprising amount of transferable skills with my current job of working with rare books. Editing assistant work often involves labelling shots, putting them in order, syncing sound and so on. My current job involves making sure all the information given to me by the valuer matches the book I have in front of me: from title and author, to edition and value. It is the same thing only with words instead of video and audio. All I need now is to make it clear in my CV that these are transferable skills!

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
Have not managed to do work on my audio drama this mont. I will research budgeting for a podcast studio for a few days in April and I hope to be able to book one in May.

Also in April, I will have another read-through/edit of my screenplay about actors in the 1665 plague lockdown. I try to read through my work out loud every few months, just so I am not abandoning any works before anything is done with them! Plus, if I leave the work for a few months, I’m more likely to notice mistakes when I go back to it.

My pilot scripts of a re-telling of Troy, and time travel are now back in my hands and I will re-edit them in April. The Troy script is the one I am hoping to submit into the Scribe Lounge Elevate competition, so editing that will be my priority between now and June.

The time-travel one is still submitted into another competition that I am waiting to hear from.

The draft 0 of one of my three different screenplays is now complete. The arduous task of editing has begun! I am making progress with the one about a con-artist in the Californian gold rush – I just can’t seem to work out the ending it needs. Also, as mentioned at the top, I have had a break-through in the one about the Puritan witch trials (It’s the water!) so need to go back through and make sure that doesn’t just randomly come up at the end, but is laid down from the beginning. Finally, am still working on the draft 0 of an alternate re-telling of the Napoleonic Wars where women were allowed in the army and navy in the 1700s.

Editing for my two other scripts is still ongoing. The screenplay about two actors both up for the same role might do with some time being ignored in a drawer before I go back to it, but I’m still editing it at the moment. The pilot script about vampire highwaymen now has a one-page pitch for it! I am hoping the pitch will make it clearer how I can set up what is quite a lot of lore. I have been ruthless, however, and cut out an entire main character as I realised the story would be better without them. I was only keeping them in because I liked them. You really do have to Kill Your Darlings in editing!

The short film I wrote for my film course is shot and edited! Just under three minutes long. I’m very proud with how it turned out.

Things Learnt:
Have been doing research into some agencies as I want to start sending out query letters. I have been doing research into who I want to submit to and have a list.

I have a tendency to get very overwhelmed with these sorts of things – when anything becomes official I want to run a mile – so, to make it less overwhelming, I am giving myself the whole year to submit these query letters. I have 14 agents I would like to query overall. As long as I average two a month, I’ll be done by the end of the year. The worst that will happen is I don’t hear back!

Finally, I have been hearing a lot recently about the benefits of going to production companies over agents first as that way you can approach an agent by saying you have a production company interested already – making their job a lot easier. I am unsure if this is the right fit for me, but provided I don’t get overwhelmed, maybe in a few months’ time I can have a separate list with which I can approach both at once to see who bites first.

What are your thoughts on the ‘production companies versus agencies first’ debate?

Freelance Journey

Writing To Budget

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

As part of the film course I’m attending, we get the opportunity to film two short films – up to three minutes in length.

Naturally, I jumped at the chance to get a script made (Even if only three minutes) and happily mine was one of the two selected.

The lecturer for the course liked my idea because of its simplicity.

The short film only needed one actor (and a spider or fake spider), could be filmed all in one room (with a sound effect of someone rifling through kitchen cupboards needed at one point but done out of vision) and really that was it.

The script originally took place in an old cottage with multiple rooms, but seeing as there’s only one living-room set available, I did some re-writes so it could all take place in one room.
The lecturer noted that a lot of the scripts received are too ambitious for the budget of £0.00 that is available to students and it made me think.

I have often been told in screenwriting not to worry too much about how things are going to happen. If you need a fiery tornado in order to tell your story, then put in a fiery tornado in order to tell your story. How the fiery tornado gets made and put into the story is a problem for the director, editors and special-effects crew to actually make happen.

But what if that’s not an option to begin with?

Re-writing a script multiple times is something that writers have to do on a set. Re-writing scenes so they take place in different rooms if one isn’t available, different characters if an actor isn’t available. So surely that might also include taking out the fiery tornado if no-one can make a fiery tornado?

Re-writing the script so it can be done in another way, with fewer characters or suddenly take place in one room instead of three is an interesting exercise and tests my ability as a writer.

Sure I might need a fiery tornado to tell my story, but without one what will happen? Will the characters see the tornado outside the window, but it will be invisible to the audience? Maybe we hear about it on news segments or we simply see its aftermath?

It’s made me think that in future this will be a useful exercise to try with all of my scripts. How many ways can I think of to tell the story I need to? Therefore I can learn not only which approach works best from a writing point of view, but which one works best from a camera operating/directing/editing point of view, too, and they might not always match up!

Besides anything else, we discovered that the best way to film the (fake) spider falling into a mug of hot chocolate was to tie thread around it, put it in the mug in the first place and slowly pull it out of the mug from out of shot. We will then, in the editing process, reverse this footage so it looks like it’s falling in. Which means I have given everybody on the course the chance to learn how to reverse footage as a bonus lesson!

Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
It may have been nearly two years since I last wrote something on here, but that doesn’t mean I can’t start up again now.

I am not a freelance writer. Yet. But it is where I would like my career to get to. I have a special interest in scriptwriting and can also do proof-reading, fact-checking and general feedback.

Wanting to be a freelancer is all well and good, but it’s a difficult thing to actually get there. The idea of not making the exact same amount of money each month so as to adequately budget and not starve/get evicted etc. is a frankly terrifying one.

So what is the best way to go about it? Right now. I don’t know, but I am trying my best to walk towards it and a monthly update post on what steps I’ve made towards that goal seems like a good way of keeping track of those steps and keeping this blog updated at the same time.

Each month I will write an update of where I am at with each of the scripts I am working on, what I have submitted in places, things I have learnt that others may find useful and other (AKA things I can’t fit in the other three categories).

Scripts Update:
Currently I have six finished episodes of an audio drama, that I am working towards making as a fiction podcast this year – children’s medieval fantasy is the genre. I just need to work out how to book a podcast studio and pay some actors and I’ll be off on this one!

Not currently submitted anywhere ( but has been in competitions in the past) is my screenplay about actors in the 1665 plague lockdown.

My pilot scripts of a re-telling of Troy, and time travel are both submitted into a competition and waiting to hear any news.

The time travel one is submitted into another competition also.

I am currently working on my draft 0 of three different screenplays: One about a con-artist in the Californian gold rush. One about the Puritan witch trials and one about an alternate re-telling of the Napoleonic Wars where women were allowed in the army and navy in the 1700’s.

I am editing another screenplay about two actors both up for the same role and another pilot script about vampire highwaymen.

I have also written a short (3 pages) for an evening class I am taking in film-making. Where I should get to make the short as part of the course. This script is about a spider.

Competitions:
Haven’t heard back from any competitions I’ve submitted to in the first two months of this year, but I am taking part in the Scribe Lounge Elevate competition where the deadline for submissions is June.

Things Learnt:
Have learnt the importance of budgeting, but am not yet very good at actually doing it…

Plus as I mentioned before, am taking a short course in film-making, and though I do have some knowledge of editing, I didn’t have any knowledge of actually recording film. The course has been fascinating from this aspect thus far. I have learnt that technically, film isn’t really moving – it’s just a bunch of photographs taken really really close together and then put next to each other, which our brain interprets as movement because of how we see – this can be demonstrated by just waving your arm up and down in front of a mirror, you see your arm at the top and at the bottom, but not really in the middle; in the middle, it’s a blur and your brain fills in the gaps, creating movement where it can’t see it.

So my scripts currently submitted to competitions might be creating movement that I just can’t see yet.

weekend writing exercise

Made-Up Job Offer

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

This week’s writing exercise was to write a made-up job offer for a job that does not exist. If there really are any ducks who are scared of water, then I can only hope soprano singing does soothe them, though sadly my own singing voice is contralto, so Florence The Duck would not be soothed.

Dear Christy,

I am delighted to inform you that your application for the role of Receptionist at the Duck Sanctuary has been successful.

May I take this opportunity to say how impressed we all were with your ability with the ducks, especially Florence, who, of course, is scared of water.

Though your role will be based mainly at the front desk and you will see very little of the ducks themselves, you will of course have to walk past them everyday so your ability with them was significant in our offering you the role.

We have just one question to ask, can you sing soprano? We only ask as we know this soothes Florence when she must be washed.

We hope you will accept this offer and we look forward to discussing the role with you further if you so wish.

Yours sincerely,

The Duck Sanctuary

stories

Twelve Short Stories of Christmas 4: Frozen Rose

Christy.E.S1 Comment

To read day three click here.

The rose was kept in a perfect temperature controlled climate, watered on a schedule and kept safe from insects by a glass case that surrounded it. In this way the rose could never die and would stay in bloom forever.

Mandy went into work in the morning, taking off her gloves as she came from the cold winter air to what she hoped was the warm air of the laboratory, but inside she could still see her breath in the air. Puzzled, she switched on the laboratory light and gasped. All the plants were dead. The only plant that had survived what must have been a power outage overnight, was the rose. It was still encased in its glass case, but even so there were small droplets of water that had frozen into ice on the petals.

She carefully lifted the glass dome and picked up the frozen rose, carefully brushing the ice off the petals. One of the thorns pricked her finger, but as the blood welled up from the cut she could see that her blood was already starting to freeze in the cold.

 

 

 

 

stories

Twelve Short Stories of Christmas 3: Goblin King

Christy.E.S1 Comment

Yesterday’s story can be read here.

Today’s story is inspired by Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak

Saida just wanted the baby to go to sleep. He had been crying all night and most of the day. She had tried walking him round the block and up and down the stairs. She had tried rocking him, telling him stories about goblin kings and fairy queens but he still kept crying. She was singing to him now. She decided she was going to let him try and calm himself down. She finished the lullaby she was making up as she went along as she backed slowly out through the nursery door, “I’ll be sure to serve you, when you’re goblin king, but for now I hope they hear what I sing,” and she clicked the door shut behind her.
The crying stopped instantly. She was so relieved she sat down in the hallway, but she wanted to check if he had gone to sleep or was just sitting calmly in his cot. She opened the door and went back over to the cot. The ice baby left by the goblins was already starting to melt.

 

stories

Twelve Short Stories of Christmas 2: Tree Fell

Christy.E.S1 Comment

To read day one click here.

The woodcutter had finally managed to knock down the fir tree in the forest. The tree fell  and the sound caused all the birds in the trees to fly up and away. He started his long walk back to the village with the tree dragging it by the base through the snow. The tree left a trail that covered his footprints behind him. As he walked into the village, another tree in the forest fell down. It hit another one and the next and the next, but the birds had all flown away and the woodcutter couldn’t hear over the sound of the tree dragging through the snow. There would be no forest left by morning.

Uncategorized

NaNoWriMo Week 1

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Week 0 here.

So as of today my word count is 15052 – which makes me exactly on track to finish NaNoWriMo – I am neither behind nor ahead of where my word count should be.

That being said, this is one of the first stories I have written where I am finding myself wanting to switch between narratives whenever I get stuck. This is fine and even encouraged during NaNo, but usually I prefer to finish the chapter I am on before starting another and that does not seem to be possible for me with this book. Does this mean that the book will still be unfinished at 50,000 words? Possibly but that’s why I spend December editing everything I’ve written in the previous month.

It may be that the best way for this book to be written is precisely like that, with the narrative switching back and forth between the past and the present as the mystery from the past will not be solved until almost 100 years later – the book involves a fire in 1911 the cause of which was never discovered – though I am also finding that the cause of the fire may not be the only mystery that needs solving in the book.

With NaNoWriMo I think it works best if you do not think of the book as your first draft but instead as your zero draft. That is the story is in there somewhere, now when you edit it you get to go in, find the story, fix the plot holes and make sure all your sentences are well written. This is a story that I am looking forward to editing in December and I don’t think the same way about all of the stories I have written for NaNo, but the editing process will be a lot easier if all of my chapters are completed first!