You don't have to follow me. You don't have to follow anybody!

Denis Lehane, Aaron Sorkin, Tony Jordan...yes you guessed it, some of my writing heroes. But do I really want to know what's going on inside their heads?

The knee-jerk response will of course be 'Yes of course you should'. They have been doing this forever and have managed to make a very successful career of it, so anything they have learned, discovered or invented to make me a good write should be noted and copied with immediate effect. And thanks to Facebook (somewhat), Twitter (big-time) and now websites like bloodsandscripts.com, the brains of these behemoths could not be more accessible.

There are two reasons why knowing the processes of other writers, whether you bow to their superior talent or not, is not such a good idea. The first one comes via Monty Python, or more specifically Brian - 'We are all different.' A truism, I will admit, but it is valid. Basically, if I wrote the way a certain horror writer (initials SK) does, I would get nothing done. Not a jot. Because he writes with classical music playing at Volume 11.
I would, first-of-all, spend most of my time recovering from the daily beating from my neighbours on the other side of the cardboard walls. But, more importantly, with any music on in the background, my concentration levels would be at minus-11. I have to have silence.
Irish romance novelist MB tells us that she does her best work in the pre-dawn hours. Me? Get out of bed while it's still dark? Give me a break.
Another successful novelist (the name currently escapes me) writes everything by pen in a notebook and later transcribe to print. No thanks. I need my laptop. I once scribbled a chapter in a notebook while drunk on an Arran island (I forget which one). I then duly forgot what I had written and lost the notebook. I'm still certain that it was the best thing I ever wrote.

Which leads me on to sunny point number two. And that is that I'm precious. I'll freely admit that. I have spent the last almost-three years (more like eight if you include my years as a part-timer) creating my own writing process out of a combination of circumstance, habit, technology-addiction, caffeine-addiction and procrastination. I'm not saying it's perfect or that it's etched in stone - it continues to be sculpted and honed on a daily basis - but it's mine.

So by all means, hero, write your next masterpiece by dictating while hanging upside-down in a door frame, but don't expect me to follow. I'll be too busy drinking a cappucino.

Mirror mirror on the wall...

It's the New Year and at the risk of being a cliche, time for some reflection.

Twenty-ten was a mixed bag of a year and the highlight, it has to be said, was more a decision than it was an event.

The year kicked off on a non-writing relating milestone (yeah I do have some other stuff going on). I was headlong into my Project Management studies and at the end of January I sat (and thankfully passed) my exams. Only to quickly realise that that there was still no jobs out there, no matter how well qualified I was.

So the decision to be a professional writer was an easy one to make then? Yeah, probably.

It may have looked like I was already being a professional writer since I started writing 'Burning Matches' in 2008, but I quickly realised that one cannot make a career out of just writing novels, even published ones. Not at the start anyway. So certain priorities had to change and actions taken.....and more about that when I have something definitive to report. (But thanks to a certain TV producer - you know who you are - for getting the ball rolling).

The same producer was also very generous in writing me a letter of recommendation on the back of my other pride-and-joy, the TV Drama Series 'Square One'. That went through a bit of a face-lift during 2010 and is now sitting on the desks of a literary agent and a production company (with recommendation letter attached), hopefully with representation and a commission on the horizon.

There were, needless to say, other moments of stress as well, most of them in relation to the aforementioned novel. A chance meeting with another agent brought about a frenetic flurry of a rewrite during the summer. But, if I do say so myself, the book is much better for having gone through it. (Even if the agent wasn't keen and ultimately said 'No Thanks').
I'm confident that it was worthy of the Poolbeg 'Write A Bestseller' competition in which it was entered last week. Which leads me on to the other subject of high stress....that damn synopsis. Two weeks to write one page! One word of advice, people...write the synopsis before you write the book!

So 2010 might be summed up as the 'no-more-messin-around' year. 2011...the 'Rich-and-Famous' year, perhaps? Actually, I'll just settle for 'Rich'...

Nothing wrong with a bit of healthy (Writing) Competition... (Part 2).

As I'm sure you're well aware, the deadline for the Poolbeg / TV3 'Write A Bestseller' competition was last Friday...

And 'Burning Matches' is in!

Yes indeed, the 'masterpiece' was handed in on Thursday after a 10-day nightmare of trying to perfect....the synopsis. Yes indeed, having written and rewritten 460-ish pages of the novel over the last two years or so, I haven't had so much heartache as I had trying to write a 'simple' one-page synopsis. To say I finally nailed it...would be a slight exageration - still not happy with it but, suffice to say, it is definitely better than it was a week and half ago.

Anyway, look, it's done and more importantly, is sitting, with the novel, on the desk of the fabulous, gifted and sexy decision-maker at Poolbeg Publishing (who might be reading this) ...with the 200 or so other novels that I'm reliably informed have also entered. I guess it'll make all the sweeter when I win...

By the way, huuuuge thanks to Margaret, Hugh and Ger for all their help with the previously mentioned synopsis...cheers guys.

Tweet!

Yes, it's true, I'm tweeting. So between Facebook, the website, the blog and now Twitter, I pretty much don't need to speak to a living soul ever again. I'm going to become one of those really annoying people who, when asked any question, gives the same answer.
'Hi Paul, how are you?' 'How am I? Haven't you seen my tweet?'

Okay folks, this isn't funny anymore.

Yes, this is a writing blog but I do occasionally pause to, well, talk about the weather. And to reference the person who is best at defining the funny/not funny status of any situation (Dad), this week's 'cold snap' crossed that line at 2.35 this afternoon.

So, when I was stuck in, what in normal conditions would be an average pothole, I stopped being smug and got down the basic goal of survival. I managed to free myself of the chasm (how much does a new clutch for a Honda Prelude cost, I wonder?) only to be faced with the thought 'How am going to get up the hill into Parkwest?' Half an hour (that's how long it took to travel a quarter of a mile) of considering my options - Do I sleep in my car or battle the elements? Is it really okay to drink your own urine? How long before I resort to cannibalism? - I found myself.....well, at home, to be honest. So much for all that paranoia.

But that's it though, I am not leaving the warm and food-enhanced sanctuary of my apartment until the weather stops being so mean. I wonder how long I can make that half-pint of milk last.

Thanks for lunch Catherine, by the way.

Life's a Pitch...

That's the problem with blogging - at least with me - when there's loads going on and, therefore, loads to blog about, is when I don't have time to do it.

Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I've actually had some paid design work going on which has, admittedly, been taking up most of my time and concentration. But the last few weeks have also been somewhat eventful in my life as a trying-to-be-professional-writer. And, as so often is the case, with the good came the bad.

The 'bad' (let's get out the way first, shall we?) was that, heart-break of heart-breaks, the novel Burning Matches was rejected by the previously-eluded-to literary agent. To say that I had my hopes very much pinned to this possibility is an understatement and so I was...well, gutted .
Yes I know rejection is a part of any creative process blah blah blah but hey, it still hurts when it happens.

And now I'm going to stop talking about it now before I get depressed all over again.

And now the 'good' ...I finally gave myself a 'this-problem-isn't-going-to-fix-itself' talking-to and went and learned how to pitch. Pitching was the one area of my life as a writer in which I had little confidence. Don't get me wrong, I really have no issue with speaking in public. And, of course, I like to think that I know my projects fairly intimately at this stage....but bringing these two together to essentially be able to sell my writing (and essentially myself) to producers / commissioners / agents etc was, to be honest, evading me.

Until I met Sibylle Kurz. With over 20 years experience of being a pitcher, a 'pitchee' and now a tutor, she pretty much knows all the skills, tricks, psychology and pitfalls of standing up in front of a room full of frowning people and convincing them to believe in you, or at least, invest in you.

The 2-day course was very interactive - I had to stand up and pitch to the rest of the group my project (I went for my TV drama Square One). A somewhat terrifying experience, but the reaction I got from Sibylle and from the others was excellent. This, of course, led me to believe that my pitch was 'perfect', which needless to say, in my one-to-one with Sibylle afterwards, I found that it wasn't. But thankfully, she was able to guide me as to where I went wrong and what to do to fix it. Most importantly, I gained the confidence to now be able to face those frowning faces.

Good evening Dragons....

Sometimes it's okay to meet your hero.

Okay, I admit, I didn't realise that Tony Jordan was my hero before I attended his seminar at the London Screenwriters' Festival at the weekend, but I know now. Apart from creating one of favourite shows 'Hustle' (no Paddy, Hustle is not 'shit') as well as 'Life on Mars', he is completely pragmatic, funny, down-to-earth and hardworking. And, crucially, he realises how hard it is for new writers to break into the industry and acts on this realisation, running The Red Planet Prize for new writers through his production company Red Planet Productions.

Anyway, enough gushing. As I said, I was at the LSF at the weekend and it was fabulous (okay, maybe a bit more gushing). A brilliantly-organised and -executed three-day event in the picturesque setting of Regent's Park (Regent's College to be precise). As with all good conferences, there were so many events I wanted to attend that I had to make some sacrifices. But the seminars I did get to were excellent, loads of advice, insight into the various sides of the film and TV industries and, most importantly, encouragement to a) keep writing and b) be bold when it comes to trying to get work produced .

One excellent feature of the festival was the 'Scriptchat' events, at which the speakers at the seminars were available for a 'round-table' casual chat, which were nearly as informative as the seminars themselves.

I did have one scare when, attending the 'Getting an Agent and beyond' event, Katie Williams from Julian Friedmann's agency announced that they would really only consider representing writers located in the UK. Oh no! But, thankfully, at the 'scriptchat' later on, she did concede that this was for purely practical reasons (attending meetings at short notice etc.) and that Irish writers would definitely be considered. Phew!

Speaking of Irish writers, it was disappointing to see the lack of attendance from here (I only met one other Irish person all weekend and you know how we attract each other). Such an event is a crucial opportunity to meet fellow writers and industry professional and to do what all writers love to do...talk about writing! So many doors are slamming shut for us these days (depletion of funding etc.) that we need to take advantage of evvvvery opportunity that comes up.

Right, I'll get off my soapbox now. Damn, I should have put a handrail on this thing.