With my direction corrected, I left the last story behind and set to work on a new one. I decided to create a feature (film/movie) from the bones of a story I had written but never published.
   Back to the drawing board.
  Let me tell you, screenwriting, is an art form for the succinct. You have less than 120 pages to get the whole thing down. Much is made of what is implied but not shown and even more is shown but not told. But confusingly for the novelist, in the long run, this is a team effort. The actors get to decide HOW to portray an emotion and the set designers get to decide how it will look. The producer/director/casting agent get to decide who stars in it and how it will be shot and in the end all you can decide on is how the story goes and what words should be said. And even that may be changed in the end.
   And don’t get me started on your slim to nothing chances of selling a script or getting it produced. Film/TV writing is all about networking and knowing the right people and when you live in the back of beyond in the UK and not in London or LA, the chances seem exponentially worse. But, we soldier on, because if you write well enough, you never know…
   Anyway, script 2 finished, I found some lovely film people to read it for me on a place called Stage 32 – a social network for film and TV creatives. Both had opposite ideas of what worked and what didn’t, but made me realise I still had a LONG way to go before I should let anyone influential read it.
   So I read three more books on the craft and took a breath. This is not going to be a quick process. It will most likely take years before I’m ready to put myself out there and chance the market. So this time I decided to start completely fresh. For a few weeks over the summer I read and watched films to decide what I like and what I don’t.
   So here I go again with a new idea, one I am working on with all my new insight into the craft. It’s like a long set of stairs ahead of me, but and I’ve lifted to tread one.
   Wish me luck. I’ll keep you posted.

Welcome to my journey into the world of screenwriting. I’m 9 months in at the moment and thought if there was anyone like me just starting out, they may be interested to hear how it’s been.
    At the beginning, I just read. I read probably 4 text books cover to cover to learn the basics. I also bought an old copy of Final Draft – the industry standard for formatting, as without some sort of software to do it for you, you’d go mad; it’s hugely complicated. The usual cost is however BIG and money is tight, so I bought an old edition for around £30 on EBay, which it turns out gives you the ability to update for far less than the standard price. I haven’t felt the need to as yet, but I may still.
   After completing an online screenwriting course and reading much much more, I felt I had a grasp of the basics. In a bid to take the ‘coming up with a new story’ out of the equation, I adapted one of my own novels, just to get the hang of the layout and style.
   Now I’ve always been a pantser. Always afraid the process of meticulous plotting would spoil the story for me. But in screenwriting, you pretty much have to. It’s hugely structural. And I can tell you, even when the story was already known to me, this proved to be a massive challenge, one I wanted to run from several times.
    I discovered my weaknesses, and they were plentiful! Things I had known and been told over and over again and thought I understood suddenly made sense for the first time.
    Finally, to see if I was in the right ball park, I sent a finished draft to a script consultant and got the equivalent of a C+. A ‘not bad, but could do better’.  It showed me the flaws I was afraid of but didn’t want to confront, but also, happily that the weakness (structure) I had been working hard on, was now a strength.
     So I got to work again.
                                                   To be continued!

​Well what an 18 months it's been since I last published a book. I've been deep in the land of doubt, scaled the mountains of excitement and possibility and slid back down to earth again. What is the upshot of all this you may ask? Lord knows, but for now, I’m taking my time and learning.
   To that end, I have decided to stay indie for a while so that I have the flexibility to venture further into my new endeavour, screenwriting. It’s something I began last December and the whole process has been such a rush. So different from writing novels, but I’ll tell you more about that another time, if you’re interested. For now, let me introduce you to my new novel coming out in just a few days. It’s called A Piece of my Heart and it’s a love story between two customers in a hospital café.

​A PIECE OF MY HEART
The hospital café – a place they could go to feel human again
 Having discovered her boyfriend is cheating on her, cake-loving Emma decides she needs to lose weight and get fit to become more attractive to men. But her ill-fated plan soon lands her in hospital where she spots the enigmatic Matt, visiting his son.
  Matt thinks of her as his guardian angel - a hot one. His rock to cling to in a world of lies and doubt. She is his grasp on normality, as he is hers. But normality cannot last.
   She never meant to deceive him. She simply wanted to make him smile.

​Watch this space for its release.
 
I hope you enjoy it.