Dangerous Liaisons

School's out and it's lunchtime. I've two teenage boys munching on the sofa, playing MBA as they eat. One pipes up 'I just poked my eye' and I said 'You wouldn't think a sandwich could be dangerous!' to which erupted a veritable cavalcade of laughter. But laugh as you will, it can and is if it's a sandwich of; browsing social media, checking your e-mail and faffing about for cups of tea and fodder.

Yup, the dreaded procrastination can be a downer as a writer.

Some days I can write ten, maybe even fifteen pages if I buckle down to an idea, not that all of that will get kept, obviously. In saying that, it's better than the days you stare at a blank page and then think I'll browse 'fat cat' pictures and two hours later you're no further on and are curled up on the couch like one of the aforementioned felines. (The one below is actually ours!)

Often it takes someone, or something to pull you up by the bootstraps to make you assess your goals and see where you are at. For me, this was both LSF and a post in Bang2write called 'This is how to create your writing career' which I've attached the link to for your browser.

http://www.bang2write.com/2018/09/this-is-how-you-create-your-writing-career.html.

The premise of the post was a writing pyramid that @LucyVHay/@Bang2write who wrote it came up with. It had what she classed as the main types of groups of writers. I knew I wasn't a 'Newbie' as I've been writing for about six years but I got a bit of a shock when the next category was 'Seasoned' writers and I didn't fit that either.

Seasoned writers, according to her post, had had success at festivals, or had a short either optioned, or made. The next category was 'Breaking' and it proceeded from there. Several of my friends were 'breaking' who started around the same time and it dawned on me that I was in a purgatory of somewhere between 'Newbie' and 'Seasoned' and had stuck there as I had no solid goal and was, more or less, hobby writing for fun. (That's why I made my previous post about goals and decided to set some myself.)

My goal for the end of 2018 to the start of 2019 was to enter a few competitions and get some laurels to boost both my ego and have something for my author's bio, to get a short optioned and to maybe get an IMDB credit. It perhaps seems optimistic but for someone with heaps of scripts and writing lingering on the laptop, I thought why not give it a go, after all, they can only say no and I'll be no worse off than in the position I start.

As competitions are expensive, I've never been one for entering much but I discovered the 'Deals' section on filmfreeway.com and have made an effort to take a punt. I entered the 'Genre Celebration Festival' in Tokyo that was on an 85% discount and low and behold, my script 'Blind Faith' got selected and then nominated for 'Best Short Screenplay', my second set of laurels this year.

Off the back of my win in Berlin in August I got talking to a lovely chap on twitter who was looking for shorts. It worked out he was a producer and whilst he was interested in one short that he's keeping in mind, when we got talking I told him about my micro-short too. He agreed to take a look, we discussed it on Skype and the next thing you know it's optioned for twelve months as an Indie and there's a high likelihood it gets shot in March next year!

So, from no goals to some goals, it's given me the push to move from that dark place between 'Newbie' and 'Seasoned' writer, so I actually feel like I belong in a category. Having an idea of where I am, has helped me set realistic goals to where I want to be.

Most of us will never reach the echelons of the Hollywood writer but a few months ago, I could never have dreamed I'd have accolades from Germany and Japan, have a short story in a book (Twisted 50 - Volume 2 out on Amazon today), or have a short film optioned with a producer. It's all steps to where you want to go and often, when you are at the point of thinking, 'Is this worth it?', all you have to do is step away from the blank page and think what you want to do and where you want to be.

Success only comes hand in hand with hard work but if you can give it a push in the right direction then why not?

At least, like my boys sandwiches, I can now say I'm well 'Seasoned'. My next step is to aim for the chocolate which is definitely 'Breaking' with, or without, the writing. Mmmmm.