tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47476499526127436372024-03-13T21:45:21.111+00:00Writing In RealityA blog attempting to navigate through the abundance of contradictory advice when it comes to scriptwriting. Warning: opinions, ranting and bad jokes may follow...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747649952612743637.post-57950242864802737022012-06-27T19:37:00.002+01:002012-06-27T19:38:23.480+01:00Pep Talk: Trust your potential.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Writers:
Pep talk time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘Return of the Sporadic blogger!’ I know. I know. Autographs after the post. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why blog if
you have nothing to say, and better yet, why blog when you should be writing?
Which is exactly what I’ve been doing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">The reason for this post is, I spent some time analysing prolific writers and their lifestyles (not stalking, 'analysing'), and comparing them to innovative thinkers and people who brilliant in their fields.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Interestingly, these ‘successful’ people share a group of
qualities. And one quality trumps the others.Some writers are night owls, others write in the day, some are methodical and slow, and some can type up a decent draft within a few days (Kevin Williamson, Scream 1).</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What’s
this got to do with being a brilliant writer?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Know thy
self</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">.
Know what time works for you, know the place, the mood, even the mental state
you have to be in, in order to write. With me for example, no matter what room
I’m in, the door HAS to be shut and the blinds must be closed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I need total isolation. Whatever works for you, do it. Do it
without apology. If people don’t get it, screw them, because their opinion isn’t
going to spend endless hours typing at the computer. No. That will be all you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So grant yourself and your talent enough kindness to write on <b>your</b> terms. They mock you now but
someday they’ll regret it... (evil laughter, anyone?)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Write
what you love. </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This is a tangent from the infamous ‘<b>Do what you love</b>’. When a writer writes
what they love, it shows. Everything in these scripts is somehow real, vibrant and
human. The writer gives their best because they adore the characters they’re
writing, or perhaps they want to explore a topic and do so, via the characters.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I find with me is, there’s a hunger to finish the story.
A race. Of course, if you’re not careful the project goes stagnant and you lose
the race per se. But this never happens if you’re writing something you love.
You experience a pull when you’re not writing, you gravitate back to Final
Draft without reluctance, boredom and general apathy. It’s like magic. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So all you folks, if you’re writing something that costs you
time, then please, <b>write what you love</b>.
The end result will be far better than writing anything else. Passion is
contagious. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Your script is similar to going to the park to play with your
friends. You want to wake up in the morning saying ‘Hell yeah, I can’t wait to
see them again!’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But if you’re waking up in the morning and saying, ‘urg, not
again.’ That’s a bad sign. Unfortunately this seems to be a common occurrence amongst
fellow writers, and in answer to that I’d say, give it a break until you
remember why you loved it in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trust
your judgement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a tricky one, because it’s about moderation. I’ve
often been given advice from people I trust with my projects, and I’ve made
rapid changes to the script. The second I hang up on those people and look at
my script, it’s a stranger looking back at me. This is very bad. It shouldn’t
happen. I’ve learned to wean out those who help you chisel at the clay of the
script to enhance what you’re trying to express with it, versus those who
instead impinge <b>their</b>
message/style/version of your script on you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Caring too much about what others think during early stages of
the script, is dangerous. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What were you thinking when you started writing the script?
What were you feeling? Where was it going? Go back to that. Always go back to
the start if you’re afraid you’ve wondered off into the woods with no way out. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No one knows what you’re trying to say as intricately and as
particularly as you do. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The trick is, choosing your friends & confidants wisely,
and trusting their knowledge base, knowing their strengths and weaknesses and
allowing them to know yours as a writer. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also, let’s not forget, those words on the page are <b>you</b>. Those words, that style, that
voice and that universe is all from your fantastic mind. And very often, the
small quirks in a story and the thematic elements are what makes <b>you</b> the writer you are. Writing is
essentially selling yourself/your product. It’s holding a mirror up to you. Why
you? Why is your script different? What are you as an individual bringing to
the table? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is why, ultimately, you must trust your own judgement and
stay true to what serves the story best. A good reader will call you on it,
when you’re missing the mark. The same way going back to your script with fresh
eyes and then comparing it to the logline you have will help. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘Did I say what I set out to say?’ <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And then there's the most important quality...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trust your potential.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>This sentence is THE make it or break it one for me. It's so easy to lose faith, get tired, get dragged down into the mundane day-by-day reality, but when that happens, have heart. Trust your potential. If you don't have faith in yourself and your craft, how can anyone else?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you're smart enough to create an entire world by rearranging a few words on paper, then you better be brave enough to see it through the best you can.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Successful
people (by which I really mean people I admire, such as Steve Jobs, Seth Godin,
Walt Disney, Henry Ford and many more) </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">knew themselves, did what they
loved without apology, and trusted their own potential.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Writers are barely acknowledged in the industry. It’s almost embarrassing.
The only people who can change that are the writers of today and tomorrow. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'd hate to get all deep, but...Give the industry a reason to love us. Like BRILLIANT scripts, and exception, transcendent tales of human struggle, victory and loss etc.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My current rules are:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have a presence. Don’t be an asshole. Have big plans. Makes
changes now and never forget how much you love what you do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s a long and winding road to being a brilliant writer, I’m not
even half-way there. But the key is to start by making changes. Let your
actions reveal who you are, let your work speak for you and let everyone else
stand in awe...or vote to have you put into an asylum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No, I will not include a poll for you guys to vote. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thank you for reading. I hope this motivated some, and perhaps even nudged a few of you to consider making small changes that will benefit your careers as writers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yours Re-writtenly,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">DJ</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">@dodgyjammer</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747649952612743637.post-5986546469661547032012-02-22T11:38:00.000+00:002012-02-22T11:38:30.679+00:00Has your Idea got legs?<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Has it really though?</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0szDvt67T7TWVau-AjMEeZ9fEVDLXSHp13jBruYnaa3Hia65JAHawcRkvRwD3dJLiL4FcUtL3EkSLFVQqU5Qk0t50lDhmeH1LSsnhaC5WRM1rk5htNRXZWLUDAV-p34xqLmZ2ZdCF8AEs/s1600/legs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0szDvt67T7TWVau-AjMEeZ9fEVDLXSHp13jBruYnaa3Hia65JAHawcRkvRwD3dJLiL4FcUtL3EkSLFVQqU5Qk0t50lDhmeH1LSsnhaC5WRM1rk5htNRXZWLUDAV-p34xqLmZ2ZdCF8AEs/s320/legs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When I hear people asking writers this question,
it usually that suggests the idea is underdeveloped. However, when I hear writers
asking me this question... it suggests they should run. Like hell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Has it got legs? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The idea is just an idea. The
question is, have you, as the writer, got the will power and ‘legs’ to see it
through? There is no such thing as a bad idea...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Okay, allow me to be more accurate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In the world of
writing, there are very few bad ideas. Figuring out if your idea has legs
requires a lot of back and forth between the writer and the idea. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">You need to figure out, whether your idea is
enough for a film, a television series or a short? Or would it work better as a
scene of something?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I have read a lot of scripts that are entertaining, despite
having a very simple premise. Often, one bad idea launches an entire film, like
when a family member suggests a road trip. We all know where this leads, yes we
do. Or when that goon says, ‘come on, one last job. How hard can it be?’ And
let’s be honest now, when you have pins and needles, but stubbornly believe you’ll
make it down the stairs just fine...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My point is the writer is the only person who
knows how much they are committed to their idea. How far are you willing to take the idea? Essentially, it’s a matter of finding how and where an idea works. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">All ideas can have legs; writers just have to dream them up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747649952612743637.post-10079757169359872592012-02-10T14:04:00.000+00:002012-02-10T14:31:23.349+00:00Part 2: Why writers are like Superheroes<br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Writers:
So you have a superpower, now what?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In
part one I talked about those defining moments when discovery of your ability
takes place. So, you SuperWrites, ScriptMan, RewriteWoman-esque superheroes,
this post will discuss having the courage to use your ability, discovering your
voice and what gives a superhero that staying power. Also, be warned, I’ll use
superhero and writer interchangeably. Deal with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Where
was I? Yes, I was staring at my very own Gotham from the horizon. I had come to
understand this intrinsic need/impulse I possessed to write. The next step in a superhero’s journey is how to reconcile their new found ability with their existing
lives. My instinctive response was, ‘I must quit my degree and everything that
isn’t film or writing related and pursue this and this alone!!!’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Of
course, this was a rookie mistake. Keeping your feet on the ground even though
you’ve learnt to fly is at times, the utmost important thing a writer can do.
You’ll know when you can quit your day job. You’ll know, because at that point
you’ll have robots who will type up your script as you speak. I mean, think
about it, did Clark Kent quit his day job? Hell to the NO! Did Peter Parker
quit his? HELL TO THE NO. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> "Hi, its Clark, I won't be in today, I'm not well *cough*"</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I
know this is far easier to say than do. I made all the rookie mistakes by not
embracing balance: The balance of writing and juggling your daily life. I
wanted to write completely. All the time. I wanted to escape from the ‘fake’ identity
I had in reality. In fact, I did exactly this during my three year Psychology
degree. It was at the end of my second year and just before my final year
began, I took the summer and literally opted out of my daily life and wrote all
the time. It was almost obsessive, I loved it. But it consumed me. I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was,
when upon emerging I discovered the people I considered to be my friends had
moved on with their lives because I hadn’t made the effort to contact them and
cancelled a few social events (yes, that’s all it took). This hurt big time. I
had awoken to a reality where I’d lost five friends with no hope of winning them back, but in
hindsight, because they didn’t stick around made me realise they probably weren’t
very good friends. Refreshingly, a few keepers did stick around. They
understood. The problem was, I had become so consumed by the writing side of
life, that I had completely let my responsibilities etc slide. At this point, I
was to complete my final year of a degree I didn’t want to do. Final year
counted as 80% of my overall grade. Writing that year seemed ludicrous. And
once again, I stopped. Completely. And we all know where that leads...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So
begun my darkest (and most-unsuperhero-y) phase, I accepted the chasm between
writing and reality. Hollywood, publishing, films, and dreaming were a far cry
from who I really was. And who I really was, was a third year student
completing their final year, without the nerve to handle writing, my job and my degree.
I finally reached an all time low. I had crashed and burned and yes, I hit rock
bottom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I
was burnt out, and all of this was because I couldn’t balance writing with my
degree, or my job or my responsibilities, and don’t even get me started on my
social life. I was handing in the towel. I was a mess. I find it hard to
believe how dejected I had actually gotten. I was ready to ... give up. Something
I had never considered before. Something I had never believed to be possible,
and I was doing it. I was giving up. Oddly, even while giving up I secretly
hoped for a sign. I don’t know what kind of sign I was looking for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But
I sure as hell found one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The very next day, I found myself having
lunch with Paul Haggis, discussing writing and ideas. It was ridiculous. It was
preposterous. It was, in my mind at least, a screaming, dancing, yelling sign
that writing was the path for me and I had to continue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Seeing
the world anew, I began writing, reading and researching scriptwriting more and
more, in hopes of teaching myself the craft I had been learning at a sluggish
pace previously. I was on fire. This time however, I was wary of my knack for
diving in and burning out. So instead of thinking about the rules, the dos and
the don’ts, I began doing them. I made changes, some dramatic some small. I
applied to do the MA in TV Scriptwriting, I’ve been working as a freelance
copywriter, I’ve been creating detailed pitches for all the TV pilots and
features I </span><i style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">will</i><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> write. I’m even
writing a novel, and have an animated short in production. I’m essentially a
Ninja-Me today. I’m not a success story yet, but I am turning it around.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">These
are the changes I made:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I
identified my <b>VOICE</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Everyone
has it. I believe it alters slightly depending on what genre a writer is
writing, but all the same, every writer has a voice. They have something to say
and a way of saying it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Know your
voice</span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">.
And if you don’t know it, then read through everything you’ve ever written and
ask yourself what it’s about, what does each piece of writing convey? What
themes recur? Within those pages is your voice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
quote that I reread when I lose track of this ‘voice’, or I lose track of what
the project is about:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“I saw the
angel in the marble and carved until I set him free”- Michael Angelo.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">All
writing is a work in progress. At times it won’t make sense to you, you know
there’s something you want to say, but you just can’t put your finger on it. Don’t
commiserate. The voice, the heart of your story is spread within the words you’ve
written. It’s in there. Sometimes, this means to stop obsessing, and then
return to your project with fresh eyes and read through it. Think about why you
wanted to write this idea in the first place, what’s within this idea that compels
you to write it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">DISCIPLINE<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This
is something it has taken me months to develop. I dared myself to write every
single day. Length of what you write doesn’t matter. It’s the quality of what
you write. I would often struggle because sometimes, I just wasn’t in the mood
to write a suspenseful horror. How did I tackle this? I simply began other
projects, after creating detailed pitches and outlines. I now have projects in
a variety of genres so I’m never bored. I’m never ‘not in the mood’ to write.
Even if I write three paragraphs, I’m happy. As long as I do some writing every
day. At times, I do just one paragraph of a project, other days I do three
different projects for hours on end. The key is to <b>do</b>. It is so easy to delay, but thinking about writing won’t get
your projects ready for competitions, producers or agents. They all want people
who have completed work, a portfolio of sorts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Thinking
isn’t doing. Doing is doing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Michelle
Lipton (@michellelipton, <a href="http://michellelipton.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #0084b4;">http://michellelipton.wordpress.com/</span></a> ), an award
winning writer who is currently writing for Hollyoaks, recently paid us a visit on the MA degree. She said a couple of things that really bring the
point home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">Don’t leave
the desk</span></b></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">Writer’s
block isn’t an option</span></b></li>
</ol>
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<b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Point
1 is simple. It’s from the ‘finish what you start’ school of thought. Once you
sit down to write, yes, you happen to notice the window sill needs a clean,
while you’re at it turning on the television won’t hurt... Don’t. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Stay
put. Only get up for toilet breaks, coffee/tea/food top ups and if a krispy
kreme’s salesman is at the door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Point
2 is controversial between writers, but as far as I’m concerned, writer’s block
doesn’t even exist. If you’re a writer, you will write. It may not be the
project you want to or need to write, but you will. If you’re a writer with a
deadline, you will write and you will finish. In the world of soap-writing
there’s no room for writer’s block. Its a fast-paced environment where you’re
working on future episodes while baring in mind what’s currently on air, while
receiving notes for your last script while writing a new script. Yes. It’s
insane. (Kudos to Michelle and the other soap writers out there!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This
is the kind of environment a writer needs to train themselves to write in. I’m
not saying become a soap writer, not at all. What I’m saying is, the skills,
the determination and bullet-proof imagination needed for soap-writing reflect
what, in my opinion, real writers are. Endlessly creative, adaptable and
hard-working.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By
being hard on yourself and defenestrating the concept of ‘writer’s block’, you’ll
soon find you’re making progress and the more you exercise the imagination
muscle, the stronger it gets. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Everyone
knows their limits when it comes to pushing themselves, but sometimes it’s
healthy to push those limits ever so slightly, just give them a nudge and see
what you may be capable of.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Disclaimer:
I take no responsibility for nervous breakdowns that will occur as a result of
the above statement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps
I’m cocky, perhaps I’m naive, but when people say ‘don’t be too hard on
yourself’, I think, ‘STOP UNDERESTIMATING ME’, and I hammer on. This could also
be due to the next key issue...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Time
Management<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This
is the one thing I have found most difficult, being all or nothing is hardly constructive. I've been changing my habits as a writer. But oddly, time management happens to be the
hardest thing for a writer to nail, all that managing of your time, making time, keeping time,
working to deadlines etc, its hardcore. The key here is the more you write, the faster and more
efficient you become as a writer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Write
every day. It doesn’t matter what you write. But write every day. I have a folder full of
‘writer-bursts’, which are pages filled with fiction, nonsense and some cool
ideas. Things I’ve just written to exercise my writing skills and imagination
muscle (NOTE: Imagination isn’t actually a muscle, but you know what I mean) even when I wasn't in the 'mood' to write.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Time
is the one thing you never get back. It is something I’m almost obsessive
about. So much time is wasted and it’s in fact the most expensive thing in
life. I organise my time rigidly, so I can do the whole live, laugh, love etc malarkey
AND (hopefully) build a career as a writer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Time
is like money, you can spend it, you can invest it, but you will never get it
back. I live by this rule. Think of making time to write as an investment in
your soon-to-be career. Manage your time carefully. Networking is important,
but be careful not to substitute networking with being a social
butterfly/seeking social validation and socialising with writers all the time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Writers who aren’t writing aren’t writers.</span></div>
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I’m not saying go live in a cave where only the ocean speaks to you and stuff,
not at all. But prioritise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I don’t attend weekly drinks etc, I don’t even
attend monthly drinks. But I do make time to rest and catch up with dear
friends and family, I use it as a reward system. When I'm happy and keeping deadlines, I can make time to catch up and unwind. The key in time management is balance and discipline. <br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The company
you keep<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Be
around people who know what they are talking about regarding the industry, and
be around people who are supportive and constructive. A lot of writers are
afraid to try new formats etc. Sometimes you might think you lack the know-how
and confidence to write a certain way. Hold on a second... you’re a writer. Of
course you can write. You can write whatever the hell you want, in any format
you want. Yes, you’ll make mistakes. That’s the process. That’s how you learn. However, you'd be surprised how many writers don't switch format or experiment out of fear, fear they have developed as a result of getting little support from those around them. If I announce I'm writing a new format, my mother gets all 'here you go again, starting something new' and assumes I'm some commitophobic. How do you tackle people like that? You finish what you start then flaunt it (so mature, I know). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I have some very good friends, who are honest when they don’t like something in
my writing or they think something doesn’t work, and they’re open to discussing
it. Its constructive and helpful. As the writer, who has rehearsed the idea
hundreds of times in your own head, you think on paper it’s blatantly clear.
That isn’t always the case. We’re privy to more information than our readers,
and at times this is why we fail to execute a certain scene etc. This is where
friends, readers and editors come in. It is important to sample writing for different formats, even if you’ve decided
to stick to one. You can learn so much, and it will only help your craft and increase your opportunities. I make it a point to befriend writers who actually disappear
to write. For me, that’s a sign of a good writer. It demonstrates a writer with
work-ethic. Good habits, like bad habits rub off on people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Batman
doesn’t roll with criminals and Superman doesn’t play singstar with Zod. So many superhero tales are about the individual stepping up and taking <b>responsibility</b> for their ability, and what
it means for them, their life and the people around them. Writers should do the same (look at me, preaching. Pfft...)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The
importance of Persistence<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This
is my concluding point. It’s the one piece of advice that has kept me going. The key piece of advice Paul Haggis gave me was, ‘Just keep writing.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Keep writing</span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It sounds
so simple, it sounds so obvious... but in reality, it’s so easy to be faint
hearted and give up after one, two, twenty rejections. It is so easy to stop,
that it’s almost... too easy. Easy isn’t the path I chose when I decided to be
a writer: a career with a ridiculously unstable income and insanely complex
path to success. You need to be persistent. You need to keep writing. When you get lost along the way, you need to have the courage to make your way back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Always
keep writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For
me, writing is a way of life. Just as superheroes have abilities, writers have purpose.
Where superheroes have villains, writers have obstacles. If you can harness the five things I have
mentioned, sooner or later, you’re gonna make it. It isn’t a matter of <b>‘if’</b>, it becomes a matter of <b>‘when’</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747649952612743637.post-63072486987816538582012-02-06T13:00:00.000+00:002012-02-06T20:55:41.619+00:00Why Writers are like Superheroes<div class="MsoNormal">
Warning: Long sentences ahead, proceed with caution.</div>
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Dear blogosphere,</div>
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Where have I been? Well. I’ll get to that... eventually. This is the first of a two part post about writers, our superpowers and how I'm learning to master mine. </div>
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First, let me tell you about the superpower writers have. Think of it as teleporting meets The Sims. You can literally think yourself away and create a whole new world. This makes us lucky as heck, no matter how ‘boring’ something is, we can secretly be elsewhere. When your mother discusses the dishwasher’s latest antics, or when a friend tells you how hard her life is because the hairdresser got her hairstyle wrong. Yep, imagine a talking Llama and ride off into the sunset to wherever you please.</div>
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Now, the catch. There’s always a catch. </div>
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Possessing the ability and intention to write is indeed a weapon, its a force to be reckoned with. The old ‘the sword is mightier than the pen-’ No, wait... ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ that’s right. </div>
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So now what? You want to write. You love the sight of blank pages. Writing grabs you by your heart and guides you by your imagination through a wonderful abyss of possibilities, at the end of which you hope to have concocted a semi-decent story. You know this, but...seriously, what do you do next?</div>
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I think of this moment as the introductory events in a Superhero’s story. This is where Bruce falls down the well and is afraid of bats. This is where Peter Parker enters the facility, unawares of the spider at this point. </div>
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This is how it begins...</div>
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A writer and their writing, is no different to a superhero and their superpower. </div>
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When I was a child, I was a somewhat haunted soul, constantly having nightmares and being adamant there were monsters under the bed-well, in my case, it was killer puppets. I made the mistake of watching The Puppet Master very young. Yes. YES. I KNOW NOW IT WAS A BAD IDEA. I then went on to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street... (Mom, if you’re reading this. You were right. I should’ve gone to bed.)</div>
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Anyhow, despite having nightmares I was an annoyingly upbeat child and very quickly I started to see the fun side of having an imagination. The adventures Sinbad was having in a vast ocean against the crazy juggernaut monster never failed to entertain me...which in reality was my bathroom sink filled with water, a floating empty matchbox that had been converted into a boat and an action figure in the sink trying to make it back to said boat.</div>
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I adored it. I marvelled at it. And I truly loved it, with all the affection and joy a gleeful child could muster (and I still do). My imagination was my kingdom, it was my strength. Better than that, it was my secret.</div>
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Being writers, I’m sure you’ve all had similar moment. It’s like Spiderman discovering his abilities after being bitten, or Superman learning he’s impenetrable to bullets and that’s why he’ll never quite fit in (oh, and he’s an alien, yeah...). </div>
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Then came the teens, here I did some cringeworthy stuff. I’m talking obsessing over Charmed, I’m talking music videos, I’m talking song writing, and yes... I’m talking poetry. I was learning. I was picking, choosing and experimenting with all forms of writing. Again, not dissimilar to a superhero who tries to harness his ability: Spiderman falling off walls, not quite making his leaps, or Superman throwing that football a bit too far, or losing his temper and tying a lamppost into the shape of a ribbon...I tied my fair share of imaginary lamp posts into ribbons, I still do.</div>
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For me, writing was something that simply was not allowed as a career. It shouldn’t have been an option. It wasn’t ‘sensible’ as the grownups around me put it when I was a teen. Being the wallflower rebel I was, I continued to write in secret. I created aliases online under which I wrote. No matter what I was studying at school, then college, I was writing in secret. By day I was your fast-talking, mild-mannered student, by night I was a writer. No one knew about it. Not even my friends. Writing became my self-soother. It was my go-to activity. </div>
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Whatever the situation, I could simply escape by creating magic with elements derived from conflicts I was having in reality, or the world around me. I could take the bad, the good and the confusing and shove it onto paper and BHAM. Magic. And I still got a kick out of it. </div>
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During my late teens and very early twenties, it was becoming apparent that I couldn’t continue to have these two identities. The person who was sensible, going into a career with stable income and being passionate about their studies etc, jarred against the person I was. The writer-in-secret. </div>
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It doesn’t sound too dramatic when I put it on paper, but let me put it like this. During my childhood we were living in poverty, and it was through relentless hardwork my mother pulled us up and out of hell and into a better place. Coming from a background like that, it’s almost unheard of for someone to turn around and say ‘who needs money, I wanna write.’ If my child said this to me, I’d be certain there was something wrong with them, I mean, hello, had they not seen the life they had as a child? What they need is a stable income so they can hope to lead a comfortable life, because poverty ruins things.</div>
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Somehow, I had seen bad times and still saw the grace and beauty in the world. Something I conveyed within writing. Ricocheting from the conflict of being two different people, I regressed further into my ‘secret identity’ per se. It’s safe to say, I found myself addicted to writing fiction. So much so, that being a writer had become the very heart of me. Think, Spiderman becomes Venom, Superman becomes Bizzarro. I was at my worst, I had pushed everyone away and I wrote. Obsessively. One day, the chasm between who I was and who I was pretending to be grew so large that it was time to pick a side. Give in to society or step the hell up. I opted for the writing route. This caused sensational wars within the house. You’d think I announced I was going to be a mango farmer in Antarctica.</div>
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This was the beginning of my redemption phase. This was the moment Superman mastered the art of flying. </div>
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The idea was great, the freedom of not having to deny myself the right to write, it was fantastic... What came next was a letdown to me and my family, who had no choice but to become reluctant supporters. I made the grave mistake of focusing my superpower at the wrong thing. I focused my writing prowess on writing fanfiction, my justification was crap: I was studying fulltime and working two jobs, this was the easiest way to write and feel the reward. I may have gotten thousands of hits, I may have really enjoyed it, but the truth was I had chickened out at the idea of being me. I liked the idea, but I didn’t want to make the sacrifices it would take. Seeing I was stuck per se, friends and family began helping me in their own way by talking me into the idea of working in a Psychology based job. Perhaps Clinical Psychology, or research. I stupidly agreed to consider it. The writing was on pause, while I dealt with the minor problem of reality.</div>
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And once again, I found myself growing miserable, dissatisfied, more antisocial (than usual) and frustrated. Perhaps it was this inability to feel sad, or ungrateful about life that pushed me to begin pulling my socks up.</div>
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I deleted all my online writing, deleted all my music videos and found myself staring at a blank word document for the first time, facing my canvass which no longer had the cover of existing television shows to hide behind. I now lurked on the horizon of my very own Gotham or Metropolis. It was time to discover my voice...</div>
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Part Two will be up later this week, in which I discuss voice, self-doubt, bizarre twists of fate, taking responsibility for your talent as a writer, and where the hell I've actually been...</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747649952612743637.post-4576953005693089552011-03-19T13:00:00.001+00:002011-03-19T13:08:16.116+00:00Stereotypes & Scripts<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I awoke today, did my regular ‘check my twitter feed in bed’, I know you do it too. Don’t even try arguing.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Turns out, an article by the Guardian was doing the rounds and it went something like this:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘Women, gay and black people still shown as stereotypes in film, says study’ (<a href="http://bit.ly/dIwZMh">http://bit.ly/dIwZMh</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bothersome but not surprised, right?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Very quickly the issue become ‘How are writers supposed to write non-stereotypical/original characters?’ </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Scripts seem to either bank on original characters in a done-to-death concept or original concepts with done-to-death characters. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Very few film scripts I’ve read provide ‘original’ characters. I mean, what the heck do they mean by ‘original’? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">When did ‘original’ become a euphemism for ‘largely run-of-the-mill but with one or two quirks’?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Suffice to say, this is a circular topic (unfortunately). To break into the industry, a writer must construct a script that combines:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a) Giving the industry what it wants<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">b) Being original<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Doesn’t that sound so familiar? Isn’t the ‘be unique yet universal’ rule one writers have heard constantly without fail for years now?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The reason I’m leading you down this path is, if writers need to be original to be noticed whilst being universal/run-of-the-mill, where are all the original characters? Can audiences even relate to original characters?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I find alarming about the guardian study is the notion that, years later we’re still dealing with stereotype-orientated media (sadly). How do we change it? Surely, years ago a bunch of writers realised this too and set out to change it (by donning capes, wearing tights etc and writing brilliantly original scripts), what happened to them?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Perhaps the big guns in the industry are so rigid in their opinions of a ‘sellable script’ that we’ll always be stuck in these revolving doors. Anyone who has had the experience of being stuck in revolving doors will know, it is awful and on occasion, impossible to escape unscathed (a story for another time).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You see, ultimately, film is that awkward zeitgeist which is both a business and an art. The creative side becomes flooded with so many compromises to keep the script ‘sellable’, that ultimately, writers will need at least one derivative aspect in their projects to be able to sell/air it through the film/tv medium. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Teachers say one of two things: An original idea need be taught via derivative manners to make it understandable. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">OR<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A boring/tired topic should be taught in an original manner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This leads me to the conclusion that perhaps...just perhaps... It really is about compromise. It’s better to break the cycle from the inside than the outside, especially with film.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Having ranted about the dark side, allow me to give the optimists a chance and point out there will always be that film channel or that individual who wants to make a change/commission something controversial, so hey, we can count on those guys... Right? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, this reeks of ‘New writers are screwed, but writers who have made it can bring about the required change’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My answer? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Um, no. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;">Why not? Very few of the ones who have ‘made it’ have done so by creating non-stereotypical characters/concepts. I think its up to the newbies to craft work that utilises compromise between commercial and original well enough to allow an agent or producer to then in turn, also compromise and say ‘The characters are so kooky, but the story is SO good!’ And then we can all live happily ever after...atleast until we realise selling one project </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">doesn't</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"> mean we’ve made it, but baby steps. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;">Another interesting idea is the purpose of genres, do they act to reinforce a certain type of writing-isn't the 'certain type' in that phrase the very thing that leads to said stereotypes? </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Okay, ramble over. What do you guys think? <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747649952612743637.post-21054044914001639972011-02-26T17:29:00.000+00:002011-02-26T17:29:36.433+00:00The Writer knows Best, right?<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Feedback. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A word that makes writers sweat like an ice cube in a sauna.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m rather confident with my writing, by which I mean I usually know what is wrong with my scripts, my reason for seeking feedback from friends and readers is to see if they notice the discrepancies I did. Dare I admit it, I suppose its to see how much I can get away with... Which apparently, isn’t much. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My fellow writer friends call me up on lazy writing the <i>instant </i>they spot it which is great and yet a big pain in the ass (You know who you are and I’m not rewriting that scene!).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Having made our characters, constructed the plot and then crafted the script with determination and commitment, its safe to say writers may not be the most objective critics of their own work. I disagree with this by %80, I think its more a matter of writers knowing what story they want to tell but not nailing <i>how</i> to tell it. The writer always knows what is best for their story as they know the style, the arc and what they want as the end goal, yet sometimes, they just don’t hit the mark.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The best way to see if we’re landing all our punches is to get a fresh pair of eyes. Some writers I know scoff at the idea of this, but I have to admit, I use feedback a lot to make sure the reader reacts to what I intended them to react to, and sometimes they react to things you wouldn’t expect. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is only thing more important than getting feedback, and that is, who you’re getting feedback from. Friends just don’t cut it, Unless they’re writers too. This leads me onto scriptreaders... love them, hate them, shave their heads while they sleep, either way, at some point in a scriptwriter’s career, you will consider hiring a scriptreader.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are essentially script technicians. They know the importance of story and execution, sometimes they know it better than the writer themselves. Which, if I’m being honest, came to me as a surprise. I’m the first to say writers know best, but not always. A lesson I learned from the fantastical Lucy Vee Hay/@bang2write (Scriptreader, scriptwriter and all round funny lady). Before using Lucy’s services, I had already hired a few readers for other projects, and frankly, I wasn’t getting much out of it. They would just read me back my concerns and not really be critical, and one of them didn’t bother justifying their advice or backing it up with a ‘why’. Suffice to say, I was starting to agree with the writers who scoffed at the idea of scriptreaders. Twitter, being the wonderful thing it is, got me talking to Lucy. At that point, I was sick of a feature script I adored, the feature I had written was a mess. A direct result of overthinking mixed with lazy writing and a lack of certainty about what the heart of the story was, I’d basically fallen out of love with the script. So, I sent a god-awful draft of my feature script to Lucy. Figured I didn’t have much to lose, I knew it was a mess already and at the very least I’d get a constructive report of where I had messed up, but I wasn’t expecting much. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lucy got back to me sooner than I expected (a nice surprise), I opened the feedback document and was blown away by what I read. She’d picked up on everything I had picked up on, and much more. It was detailed, refreshingly honest and more than helpful. I found a reader who was as critical about my own work as I was, if not more.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I took Lucy’s feedback onboard, and then ignored my script for a month (as you do). This morning, I discussed ideas with a friend whilst rereading Lucy’s feedback, and oddly enough the new plot ticks every box and tackles every problem she highlighted, problems I didn’t know existed beforehand.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I essentially did a U-turn on my opinion regarding scriptreaders & what they can bring to a project. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are various ways people deal with feedback, but that’s bloggery for another day...<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Link to Lucy’s blog & services, etc:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://lucyvee.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://lucyvee.blogspot.com/</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier Final Draft';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747649952612743637.post-61324758192943969552011-02-14T22:00:00.000+00:002011-02-14T22:00:12.983+00:00Role of the Writer<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some of you know me from twitter (@dodgyjammer), and some of you have stumbled across this blog by accident or various other routes, either way, welcome!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I know what you’re thinking, ‘A scriptwriter with a blog, yes, how original.’ I agree. With the ‘how original’ part, of course.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I took up scriptwriting about a year ago, and very quickly found myself reeled into a world of rewriting, extra reading, and coffee-swigging. A lot of friends have been consulting me for advice on their projects, and I realised just how engrossed I’ve become with writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This blog is a place to discuss tips, advice, and the ever-contradictory ‘rules’ of scriptwriting.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now, to the purpose of this post...<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Since choosing to write, I’ve met people from the low of the low, to the top of the top in this industry. All of them have interestingly different views on the importance of a writer and his/her script. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A lot of people see writers at the bottom of the pile. Annoying? Yes. But nothing lasts forever. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The industry changes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The only issue I have with this view, is when a fellow writer (or someone I work with) also believes writers are at the bottom of the pile, per se. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What happened to our pride? Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, William Blake! Melodramatic examples, yes, but they were still writers. These people created entire realities with just a few words on paper. Real magicians.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">People refer to scripts as the blueprint of a masterpiece.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I vehemently disagree; a script alone is the masterpiece. The script is the <b>story</b>, we, as writers, share with the world. Directors, actors, crew; all of that comes in later, in my opinion, and is part of several masterpieces that when put together form a mosaic of brilliant entertainment. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The script is a masterpiece. The script is magic. No one will love our work, if we ourselves don’t. I’m aware of all the technical jargon that accompanies scriptwriting, but really though, it is an art. A craft. A few words on paper can move people and I think it is vital that writers don’t forget, or belittle the power of what we are actually doing when we write. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There’s much more competition in scriptwriting and having a brilliant script is only one of the stepping stones to success. Yet it’s the very first stepping stone. Seems obvious, but crafting the script is the most important task a writer can have. Our work must speak for us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Every role in the production process matters. Directors have a specific affect on the visual aspects of our stories, actors bring their talents to our stories, all along the process people are working to make <i>our story</i> reach the screen in its best form. The key thing here is ‘our stories’. All those films, TV shows, novels, those all exist because someone somewhere took on the challenge of sitting down and writing them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Writers are storytellers, stories are the oldest form of passing on knowledge throughout human history. We’re a part of that. Film, TV, novels, whatever you’re all writing, it is a part of something bigger that withstands the test of time. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A dramatic first post, I know. I just think it’s important we don’t fall out of love with who we are and what we do. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier Final Draft';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3