Can't Stop Buzzing - LSF Nearly Here!!!!

Only 5 sleeps until LSF. It will be a busy weekend.

I am going to Pitching Thursday hosted by Pilar Alessandra so she can knock my pitches into shape. I wanted to pitch everything but common-sense kicked in. Better to do a few well than loads poorly.

Next will be Advanced Mentoring Scriptlabs. I am one of six selected for "Creating Fantastical TV" with Steve La Rue. The others are Alexandru Ruchelaru, Amy Amani, Cera-Rose Pickering, David Young and Keith Storrier. We are already chatting to each other. Well they told us to bond. Their projects look really awesome!

I managed to get a Script Surgery session with Euroscript. It is a shared slot with two others but I don't mind that. More input. I need help on my Famous 5 meets Shameless project to make sure my tone is OK for a family slot.

By some miracle I got the pitching slot I wanted. Amazed the LSF servers didn't crash with all those hits but they worked their hearts out to keep it going.  My slot is one of the busiest but I aim to avoid the long queues that can happen when everyone goes to one table. After all everyone is going to be interesting to talk to. Plus, as my kids say, "Mum doesn't do queues."

Oh and I am going for the Elevator Pitch. You have only got the time from when you enter the lift to getting out to pitch to someone interesting. You don't know who they are until you step inside but new people are always interesting.

Squeezed between all of that there are a whole bunch of presentations and discussions. There will be some difficult choices on which to go for. I also need to remember to rest and eat. I still get tired very easily. It won't be wasted time because there will be even more people to chat to there. Yes I do love to chat.

If you are going then I'll see you there, somewhere in the crowd of 800.  I will be the mad hair lady wielding a stick. If you are not going then I will let you know on here what happens and make sure you go NEXT YEAR!!!

LSF is nearly here.

Hmm. Been a while since my last post. So what have I been doing?

Well I have a new profile photo.  I am using it on all my social media sites so you will know when you have found me. I was going to do a fancy pose but that really isn't me so I went for the natural look.

If you haven't noticed there is a list on the left of Sages and Sinners.  Take a look to find a bunch of friendly writing bloggers. Blogging went very quiet for a few years with people moving to Facebook, Twitter, etc.  The lively debates still tend to be on those sites but people are returning to blogging when they have something to say. So do take a look at the interesting people to your left.

Unsure whether I should put my one page pitches up on this site. Some people worry that the ideas would be stolen. Others think it is an easy way for people to find out what you write and if they are interested. Hmmm.  Maybe I will just put up a logline and people can contact me for more details. I shall have a think.


The script reading session at TBTL was last month. This was organised by NCS and Mary Papadima (Assistant Director at TBTL) and the theatre's resident Summer actors.  I submitted the first act of a film script and got lots of feedback from that. Take note, if you ask actors to let rip on feedback they will. It was brutal but constructive. Just as well I am not a delicate flower.

I knew my characters in my head but wanted to see how they came across on the page and their relationships. They clearly needed some more work. However I came away with lots of ideas for developing the script. Really worth getting a script-in-hand reading of your work if you can.

Planned to put a nice picture here but the internet is currently slower than dial-up and won't play ball.  So imagine your favourite image tucked in just about here.  No naughty stuff mind. I will know.

Now to the LSF. I didn't make the final 5 for the scriptangel mentoring scheme but chuffed I got to the final 20. I didn't mope. I got it submitted for a different feedback scheme.

There was a lovely gathering of Them There Northerners in Liverpool. It was wonderful to meet them all in the real world. A really supportive crowd.  Yvonne Grace and Lisa Holdsworth helped us knock our pitches into shape ready for LSF.  They had really helpful advice which I have implemented in my pitches and scripts.

Business cards are sorted and I am narrowing down which PitchFest session I will be trying for. Now it is a case of tidying up my top three scripts and making my pitches as efficient as possible. But they still need to be chatty. I prefer to chat than recite.

Really excited about the event. I am not going expecting to sell a script or get an agent. I going to learn and to network with a lot of lovely people. So. I'd better get some writing done now.