One Winter’s Evening

It was cold outside, but indoors, where I was, it was warm. I was reclined on my sofa, a big fluffy blanket over me. I had one cat on my lap, another sleeping next to me and the third was in another room having some alone time. There was yet another Christmas movie playing on my television. What can I say, I simply love them.

You see, I was recovering from a small operation and so, being absent from my day job temporarily for my recovery, I found myself with a lot more spare time than usual at this time of year. My plan was simple, to fill my days by watching more Christmas movies than I ever had before. What I didn’t account for was all the additional time I had for thinking.

A glimmer of inspiration…

My brain seemed lit up from all the Christmas lights that I was watching on screen and a creative seed seemed to grow like a towering Fir almost overnight. It started as ideas “I’d love to see a Christmas movie where such and such happens…” and “wouldn’t it be lovely if there was a Christmas film where someone does blah blah blah…”. Soon I had so many of these thoughts that I needed to write them down, naturally I wrote them in a Spreadsheet. But I found this wasn’t enough to scratch that itch.

If this doesn’t exist, and it’s something I want to see, then other Christmas movie fans must want to see it too?

Rather than helping this just fuelled me even further, I realised this still wasn’t enough and I simply had to write the movie, even if no one but me ever laid eyes on it, I had to get it out of my head and onto a page. I moved on to the research phase, a quick crash course in script formatting and software, then I got started.

From beginning to end that script, my first script, took me 3 weeks to write.

I can still remember the feeling I had when I first read it back to myself, pure contentment! Yes this is it, this is what I wanted to see. My wish felt fulfilled. Just in time for me to return to work a couple of days before Christmas.

New year, new me…

Christmas came and went, then New Year, and then my birthday too (yes, I’m a Capricorn). Sometime in late January/early February I was using my laptop and spotted a little icon that I didn’t recognise. A closer look.

Oh! It’s that script I wrote before Christmas! I wonder if I still think it’s as good as I did when I first finished it.

I started on my second readthrough, but this time it was different. With fresh eyes I spotted things like dialogue that didn’t seem natural, a lack of high stakes where decisions were required and scope to make the romance more meaningful. So that second readthrough inevitably turned into my first experience of editing. I found that I loved this part just as much as I had loved writing the first draft. I got to know my characters on a deeper level, I built the world out further in my mind and made it feel more real.

I could literally see the movie playing out in my mind as I wrote.

So I returned to research. What is it you are supposed to do with scripts? Get an agent? Pretty close to impossible without any contacts or prior experience. Pitch it to producers? Well ok… but what is a pitch and how do you get a producer to look at it?

Pitch perfect…

My next task was set, I had to figure out how to make a pitch. This part took longer and was more difficult than writing the script. I knew the pitch had to be brief, I was trying to cram everything I thought a producer might need to know into about 5 pages. But I still didn’t know what I’d do with it once I finished the pitch.

Then I came across an online service that offers feedback from industry professionals on pitches. There was a price tag but I decided that it was worth it, for me personally, to pay that fee in order to get some professional eyes on my pitch and tell me where I needed to improve. The guidelines were that the pitch couldn’t be more than 2 pages. My biggest challenge yet was reducing my pitch to fit within these guidelines, but eventually I did it and I submitted the pitch and waited patiently to hear back.

I decided that whatever feedback I got on my pitch I would implement and then I would scour IMDB for production contacts who were involved in the making of some of my favourite Christmas movies. I then planned to email my pitch out to all of them, hoping that maybe someone would respond.

I have to write this.

I started my second script. Scene after scene flowed from my finger tips until one day, about 3/4’s of the way through something strange happened… I felt bored. The story was boring me. This hadn’t happened last time, and I didn’t know how to deal with it.

I sat with my script and began my first readthrough before I had finished my first draft. I analysed the story and managed to isolate the boredom I was feeling. I was concentrating on the logistical elements of the story to the detriment of character development and emotional payoff.

What a learning experience! And knowing the issue, it became so easy and so obvious how I should go about fixing it. So I fixed it, and then I finished that final 1/4 of the script. I wrote a pitch document straight away, however both of them are now currently sitting in time out for a few weeks longer. I plan to do what I did with my first one and go back to them with completely fresh eyes for editing. I’m looking forward to revisiting it soon!

Third times the charm…

In the meantime I am now part way through my third script. I’d estimate that I’ve pretty much wrapped up Act One and ready to dive into Act Two soon. This script is proving to be my easiest one yet, I feel it is pretty much writing itself and I’m loving the direction its taking.

I spoke with this individual on a video call recently, it was a lovely chat, warm and informative. It felt so validating talking to someone who felt they could really see the potential in my story, who appreciated the magic and the world building, the voice and the characters. The conversation couldn’t have been more positive and ended on a very optimistic note…

I think I will leave this first post there with a request to stay tuned!