So I decided my entry for Red Planet was done over the weekend.
I’ve been writing the thing since July; I even have a revised first draft of the pilot and will be doing a workshop with some lovely actors on it in October. David Bishop has given it a veritable script-kicking as only he can “Capital letters, WTF? That word’s wrong! Are you insane, this character is!”, as has Tim “you can do better than this” Clague, JK “You British people are all crazy” Amalou, the gloriously picky Scott the Reader, the divine Michelle Lipton and an offline, real-life friend of mine who mysteriously calls himself Flub for reasons known only to himself and his shrink.
So in all fairness, I think it’s been feedbacked to death. I do anything more at this juncture, it may just spontaneously mutate into a complete different script like those people who got chucked into vats of industrial waste in Toxic Crusaders.
Sending stuff off to contests, producers etc goes something like this with me:
1) Print it out
2) Read it
3) Bind and put it in the envelope – but crucially: DON’T seal envelope
4) Wait approximately 1 – 2 hours
5) Take it out again and read again
6) Decide the margins of a certain page or a word is wrong and can lose you the whole opportunity
7) Print out new page, re-bind
8) Put back in envelope
9) Take to Post Office immediately or risk going through the whole palaver again
My mistake? I printed the bugger out on a Sunday night, so thus could not go to the Post Office immediately: I’ve just returned from teaching this morning and discovered a typo on page 4.
Now I must return to my OCD-induced cycle once more!
DAMN IT!
Good luck with it.
Re: your page 4 typo, I think that a minor error appeases the gods and ensures that there is no larger error in the script that has as yet gone unnoticed. So it’s good that you left it in there, like a little good luck charm.
Thanks Helen!
You know, I hadn’t thought of that re: typos. However the word is “sheep” when it should be “llama”, so I think the reader may think I have gone insane, so I think I may have to reprint…
Ooh! Not too late to change it to Alpaca then 😉
Good luck with your entry. Sounds intriguing.
Cheers m’dear… And now I’ve realised I have to change bloody page one too because I’ve never liked my protag’s first line! WILL THIS MADNESS NEVER END?!
Do you kiss it before you put it into the post? I always pop a little kiss on the envelope once I’ve sealed it, and wish it look.
good luck with the comp!
Yes, good luck, Luce.
Well done for getting it ready for posting. Where did all that time go?
And if you have llamas in there won’t the reader already have decided craziness abounds?
Good Luck
I always find typos immediately after a deadline. /shrug.
I think they do that on purpose. The typos, I mean.
Good luck, Lucy. I think typos like to hide and then come out and do a dance after you’ve printed it off.
PDiddy – I DO kiss envelopes! Lol
Rach: good point, still reprinted tho!
Thanks luvvies!
Yes, tis true. There is something about seeing it on the page that makes these things stand out. Experience has shown me that scripts are the worst for this for some reason. yeah – great news eh! ha ha