Misery Loves Co.

Ok back to the business of my other business which is my writing. yesterday for all intents and purposes we finally finished writing episode 15... and then remembered a couple of bits we needed to slot in there, but all in all... its done, over, kaput.

15 months ago when my writing partner approached me and suggested we try write something together I would never have believed it would ever get to this point, which is to say a complete first draft. especially when you consider the things we had to teach ourselves along the way, not least of all was how to criticise and take criticism from each other, sure we have our moments... but all in all, I can't imagine not working with JJ now.

we spent the first 3 months just trying to sort out characters and concepts and how to write dialogue! dialogue is such a nightmare, trying to get to a point where it actually looks like its coming from a person and not a page, personally i think the key is to relax, and be slightly schizophrenic. so for over a year now I have been meeting with JJ for at least 30 hours a week, sometimes more (way more) with the odd family interruption in between. Bearing in mind that she lives in Australia and I live in the UK... also we have never met, or even spoken on the phone. So 15 months is one hell of a commitment.

Now comes the fun part.... please note the sarcasm. Trying to sell our masterpeice is going to be yet another long hard slog, I do have faith in it, and its something I would really watch... and something I dont think has really been done, I mean its been done, everything has, but not OUR way.

I have joined various screenwriting forums and social networking sites trying to gain some insight into how to sell a screenplay and i can tell you, its about as clear as mud. So we are going the route of politely emailing a bunch of production companies asking if we can send them either a synposis or our pilot episode, so far we emailed about 30... and they all said no. So armed with my copy of the writers handbook we will be writing off to a bunch more, then when they have all rejected us too, its back to the drawing board.

Heres the funny part... I quite like the rejection, its safe, it means nothing changes, it means I gave it my best shot and never mind it didnt pan out. It means I get to carry on living in my little bubble of Katness. But what if someone says yes, I mean its not completely implausable our screenplay is really quite good, and once we have edited it whose to say it wont be snapped up immediately? terrifying!

OK and something else, I'm sick of going through writers blogs and seeing things like, once youve written a screenplay, put it away its probably crap anyway, theres NO way you got it right the first time - dont listen to those people (admittedly this is my 4th screenplay) but who is to say my first one wasnt great (me). If you believe in yourself then the only thing you can do is keep going, find time to write and commit to a project. NOTHING beats that feeling of seeing something through, and even rejection cant take that away from you!