Last night, as I was preparing to send out feedback to non-longlistees for the Little Wonder competition, I encountered an IT disaster which basically ruined everything. The discs on which I had the data were corrupted, and I lost thousands of files – the scripts, the notes, recordings, work-in-progress, two of my own plays, and, perhaps most painfully of all, more than 50,000 words worth of feedback to writers that did not make the longlist. To be honest, I’m still rather in shock. And I’m very, very sorry to everyone that was hoping to receive feedback[i].
Like all the best errors, this was a mixture of a hardware and software problem. Thanks to the excellent “recuva” (made by the same guys who do CCleaner) I was able to recover some files (most importantly the spreadsheet of all the entries), but most were corrupt beyond the ability to save. Please don’t bother leaving comments on things I might try to get the files back. I’ve tried them.
Not only have I lost the feedback, but I’ve lost the notes on the plays and in most cases the plays themselves. This means there’s simply no reasonable way I can go back and start again (not without cancelling everything else I have on between here and Christmas.) Also, if I’m completely honest, the thought is just too depressing.
So, here’s where we are.
What I do have is my pile of general notes and early plans for nine articles, currently titled as follows:
- Don’t build to a crescendo: start with a band.
- Waiting for an interview in purgatory (how to be original)
- Another guide to formatting a radio play – this time it’s serious(ly simple)
- How long is my play and what should happen when?
- Casting and the importance of Cast Lists
- The Delights and Dangers of Deliberately causing Offence
- Preaching to the Choir is Boring for the Choir
- How to Earn your Ending
- How to and how not to write Dialogue
The notes for these articles come from the feedback I wrote (and then lost, sob), and so there should be something helpful in it for everyone. Instead of painstakingly re-writing the feedback while listening to the Cure and sobbing into my mascara[ii], I’m going to crack on with these articles and release them over the coming months.
Once again, I’m sorry to everyone looking forward to individual feedback. I really wanted to make it work, and I’m still a little stunned that my computer ate itself. I was up late trying to fix it (again, thank you to the guys who made recuva) but the data is gone. In the words of Blackadder: Bugger.
A last note, this will in no way effect the progress of the competition. The progress towards a shortlist is going fine, everyone longlisted had their feedback, and we’re very much looking forward to showcasing the shortlist soon. I wasn’t storing stuff on the cloud this time because of privacy concerns: I think, perhaps, my computer has taught me a lesson. I did not punch the computer, so I hope that means I’ve grown as a person. Thank you for your patience.
[i] Because I’m a lawyer, I’m compelled to add that the competition rules only promised feedback to the people who made the longlist. I was trying to give extra feedback because I know how hard it is to get someone to tell you what does and doesn’t work in your script. But it wasn’t a promised part of the competition. Instead, I’m now going to try and give general feedback in the form of articles.
[ii] I don’t wear mascara any more. I look too much like a bear to wear makeup. If someone has makeup tips for bears, I’m interested. Just don’t tell my wife!
