Oh boy, critiquing one of my own plays. You may have noticed that the articles analysing our radio plays stopped at “Voices” a few weeks back. This is why. Talking about my work feels like driving nails into my feet. But long-time followers of the blog know it is supposed to be a reflective journal. Self-critique is a way to improve my writing by thinking about writing. So, I can’t get out of this one. What was right, what was wrong, and what was interesting about Mine?
Just in case you haven’t listened to it yet, here’s the audio link, the iTunes link, and the YouTube version with subtitles. Thorough, aren’t we? This article has mega spoilers for Mine, so I’ll see you after the break.
A lot of people scoff at Science Fiction. They think it’s all spaceships and silly robots.[i] But writing Science Fiction can make you a better writer, because it encourages you to consider elements of your work that are more easily ignored when writing straight fiction or other genres. This article, which is adapted from an email I sent to the writing team developing next seasons productions for Little Wonder Radio Plays, describes three key reasons why you should try Science Fiction to become a better writer.
I’m stupendously busy. This is a good thing for a writer. Part of the reason why this true will come out in a blog post tomorrow (exciting!) Another is that I’m writing about five different plays at once and my head is exploding. That’s ok, I can do this, but I’ve run into a problem: at least two of the plays must be comedies, but for me everything starts with drama. So, what the hell to do? How do you make a funny character when you have exactly 30 minutes writing time before you have to switch projects? Fear not – this guide will show you one approach to understanding what makes a character funny. Read on.
Who we are and how we feel about things drives what we write. Narrative perspective isn’t just about character point of view and verb construction, it’s about the author sees the world.
This is particularly important when we write about gender and sex. Our sexuality can empower our stories, creating vibrancy, passion and authenticity. But it can also lead to bad writing, dreadful stereotypes and hackneyed characterisation.
To show you what I mean I’m going to share a series of my own drawings, based on images from Frank Miller’s marvellous Sin City graphic novels. I will use them to demonstrate a technique that will help you to shake up your own biases, and energise your stories and characters. (more…)
This article contains my submission for a screenwriting exercise from the Aaron Sorkin Screenplay Masterclass. The objective is to take a famous (public domain) short story and adapt it to the first ten pages of a screenplay. The story I chose from the list provided on the course was “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe.
I have tried to adapt the story so that a) Vincent Price could not possibly be envisaged playing a part and b) it wasn’t just another story about the protagonist fridging the only woman in the story and then experiencing a lot of man pain.[i] I’d really like to know if it worked out!
I have never written a screenplay before, so I’d appreciate feedback. Don’t feel you have to be nice or lie to spare my feelings, but do remember Bill and Ted’s maxim.[ii] Yeah. I’m dead nervous about sharing this. Here goes:
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Oh boy, critiquing one of my own plays. You may have noticed that the articles analysing our radio plays stopped at “Voices” a few weeks back. This is why. Talking about my work feels like driving nails into my feet. But long-time followers of the blog know it is supposed to be a reflective journal. Self-critique is a way to improve my writing by thinking about writing. So, I can’t get out of this one. What was right, what was wrong, and what was interesting about Mine?
A lot of people scoff at Science Fiction. They think it’s all spaceships and silly robots.
Are you too busy to be funny?
This article contains my submission for a screenwriting exercise from the 