Disturbed

My apologies for being so tardy with filling you all in on what’s new with me. Ask any writer and you will soon discover that it is a highly emotional business. When I compare my day job to my writing, I still find it hard to understand how I am so easily upset in my writing life and so cool during the day.
What am I going on about? I have withdrawn my manuscript from the agent that offered me representation.

To receive the letter offering representation was a huge day for me. But now that day is somewhat tainted. To any aspiring writer out there, may I commend at website to visit before signing anything. That website is Writers.Net.

It was at this site I gained my education of what to expect from and agent, and what they would expect of me. Unfortunately the agent that I was in conversation with did not press all the right buttons for me.

Now, I must categorically state that I cannot question the integrity of this agent, but a number of its business practices did leave me uncomfortable. I list them below, without naming the agent, just to make new writers aware of what is, and what is not, the industry norm.

Publishers – Agents will apprise you of which publishers they will be approaching and what the response was after a submission. This agent was unwilling to do so, due to experiences with a former client. If you do not know which publishers it is going to, how do you know it is being sent to the right sort of houses?

Client list – Honesty is the underpinning part of any relationship with an agent. As such, when finding an agent you have to admit what experience you have. In contrast the agent would tell you who they represent and how many books, screenplays and stage plays they have sold. This way you know if the agent covers a similar genre to your writing. This agent was unwilling to share this information.

Communication – The underpinning fundamental of any relationship. The same is true of writers and their agents. Most agents will want to meet face-to-face when they decide they want to represent your work. Emails are normally replies to within a working day. However, this agent did not do this and operated via a PO Box address.

Submission format – Stage plays are very different beasts to novels. Make no mistake; agents are more interested in novels and screenplays. Each of these media has very different norms of page formatting. This agent requested my manuscript in novel format and accompanied by a disk containing the manuscript in electronic format. This is highly unusual. For those of you out there thinking about writing your first stage play (or indeed a novel or screenplay) I must recommend the BBC’s Writers Room (look in guidelines). Here you will find SmartScript™. These are templates showing the approved format for these media. Please remember the way your manuscript should look when you print it out, is very different from the way it would look in print from a publisher.
All of this said, when I requested the return of my manuscript and they eventually acknowledged this request, I received my original submission back at my home address within three working days.

I hope any aspiring writers out there will listen and learn. Don’t let yourself go though this level of torment. It will take me a few weeks to convince myself to resubmit this manuscript.
But now to good news. The rehearsals of Prime Directive are going exceptionally well. The Theatre Club of the Royal Military College of Science will be performing the play on the evenings of 10, 11 and 12 April 03. In addition to this, it has now been confirmed that it will be entered into the RN Theatre Festival 2003. This means that there will be another review of this play coming to this website.

Denim has also been entered into this festival under the category of Best Original Stage Play – so again, wait for the feed back.

And now for the rumour mill… It is alleged that during the performance of Prime Directive, a couple of representatives from a Drama School will be attending, with a view to potential performance. This could be very good news, as it will be performed by future professionals who are consistently under agents eyes. So here’s hoping…

I’ll natter again soon. Just let me lick my wounds for a couple more days.

Flood of Ideas

Now it might appear that the majority of my time has been spent in revamping the site. But his couldn't be further from the truth. The Royal Military College of Science production of Prime Directive is making steady progress. They were extraordinarily privileged to have a professional actor, Mr Jon Kelly, take over the reigns as director for a couple of nights. The input he has had has revolutionised the production. Kate is displayed with the humour required to keep the booing and hissing at bay. Dick now comes over as an Evil dick. Harry is more powerful... I could go on all night.

But more to the point, this is going to be a very successful performance. And the cast and crew are the first participants in Prime Directive: The Production Diary. This companion to the manuscript is a history of what happened at the Auditions, Blocking, Read Through, Scripts Down... all the way through to the Performances and a handy little section, simply entitled In Retrospect.

This will be an invaluable and comical tool for anyone putting on Prime.

But why have I entitled this Ramble 'Flood of Ideas'? With the site's revamp, I was required to under go the pain of posing for a photographer (I've always hated having my photo taken). Thankfully the photographer (cheers Thelma) was a hoot. And I spent most of the session rolling about.

In that one photo call, I managed to define the underlying plot to my current Work In Progress (Now entitled Punchline) and develop the idea for two one-act plays.

Punchline is currently on hold as storyboarding starts on the two one-acts, entitled Folio and Shoot. These plays occur over the same time frame. So they can either be played as standalone plays. Or a company can put both on to create a two-act production. Daring companies can produce them both at the same time... But I'll reveal how that works in a future Ramble.

Why have I started looking at one-act plays? Because of publication. Try and publish a stage play in these times, and after a while someone is going to suggest self-publication (a polite way of saying Vanity Publishing). That's not a road I'm willing to take. But one act plays can be published on the basis of a solitary production. It's not a guarantee, but it's a hell of a lot easier. With a couple of one acts published, agents and production companies look at new playwrights like myself in a different light.

So here I am. New site. New ideas. New production of Prime. All I need now is an agent (Anyone listening out there?).

By the time I make my next Ramble, the production of Prime Directive will have occurred. And I know I'll have a lot to reveal then.