I Like Change

I’ve had a few days to look back at what I have done with my writing career and spend more time than I thought I would writing.

I’ve also been lucky enough to have some feedback from people that I never thought would comment on my work: My father was telling me to push my work more as he thought it should reach a wider audience. And this is the man that would never tell me to do anything that would jeopardise my career in the Navy or the safety of my family. Then my wife’s Aunt spent a couple of evening reading one of my books laughing herself silly – and was all praise.

So, I went back to my publishing contract and have revised it slightly. You can now get a full copy of the scripts I have published a lot cheaper. How? Because I have made them available as electronic downloads.

That way, you can have the entire script in a matter of seconds, rather than wait for delivery, for less than half the cover price.

I have also started writing a new set of scripts, which have an interconnecting theme. So stand by for a new script to appear on my website and on my publishing page for Error of Comedies: Occupation.

Not mush more I can tell you about that now, but I’ll leave a teaser… This is going to be the first of a series!

Plans and Software

So I’m just about to go on leave. I can’t wait – especially as I didn’t take leave last year, owing to the spine operation.

Not that we’re planning to travel the globe or anything, just try and chill out and get a few things done that we’ve not got around to. For my daughter, that’s taking Dad down the park, for my son that’s playing boxing with Dad, for my wife that’s making a few dresses and skirts and for me that’s doing a bit of writing and working out the rehearsal and construction schedules for the panto.

I was thinking yesterday about what I want to write over leave. The two full-length plays I have in progress seem a little daunting to achieve over a leave period as I can do a fair bit, but there is no way that I finish them in the time I have available.

So, my intent is to work on some 10-minute plays. I had so much fun writing Situation Vacant, not to mention that I knocked it out in one evening. I think that I will feel so good about myself if I can knock 2 or three of these out while I’m on leave. It should give me the motivation to do more when I return to work, given that I will be in the routine of writing. Plus I won’t feel guilty about being away from my family and devoting all of my attention to the PC.

But wandering one of my favourite forums, I saw a reference to Celtx. I had often seen references to Final Draft, and people stating that it was the industry standard for screenwriting. Indeed it was rumoured to be slowly becoming the industry standard for stageplays. But at £140 I wasn’t even tempted – not while I have my trusted copy of ScriptSmart.

But Celtx is open source, hence free! I’ve downloaded a copy and I’m starting to play with it. It has a huge amount of functionality (albeit with an American spell checker) and I have a feeling that it could well speed up my script writing process.

Not that I won’t miss ScriptSmart, but it does have its problems (not spell checking stage directions, no reliable undo function, inability to cut and paste…).

I’ll update you on what I think of this application!

Jay the Simpson Character

This was just for fun!

Recorded some more

So now that’s three!

I’ve taken three parts in three dramatic works over at Librivox. To date I have been:

Lodowick – Christopher Marlowe’s ‘The Jew of Malta’.
Lord Antony – Baroness Emma Orczy’s – ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’.
Gabriel – Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘Drama of Exile’.

It’s going to be a while before any of these projects are available as audio books as all the other characters have to be completed and then edited into the final book. But just in case you want to hear what this madman of a play write sounds like you can listen to my 'The Jew of Malta' contribtion; Act I, Act 2, Act 3 and my audio credit.