On The Hunt For The Lesser-Spotted Agent

I realise I've been neglecting my readership - (that's you guys!) - in pursuit of my '60-day Write And Sell A Screenplay' challenge. One week to go and I'm almost there. What I mean is, I've finished the first draft of my masterpiece. I now realise it was an unrealistic goal to include the "selling" bit as well. Sixty days is plenty of time for working out your premise, cast of characters and motivations . . . and I'm really pleased with the story and much of the writing, only, it's not what I think that counts. I'm going to do some revisions next week and then send the manuscript to the Writers' Workshop to get some feedback.

I was intending sending it to the BBC Writersroom (they spell it like that), but I feel it's important to get some professional input at this stage and see if I'm on the right track. The closest I've come to scriptwriting superstardom, was to get shortlisted in a BBC Radio new talent comp a few years back. Let's see if we can do better this time.

And what about an agent? Is it possible to get an agent without having something optioned? is it possible to get your screenplay optioned without having an agent? Watch this space . . .


Best, Kaz

PS Something entirely unrelated: just headed off to Yahoo! Groups to see if there was one dedicated to Lesbian Crime Authors. There wasn't. (Maybe I should start one?) Closest match came back as: 'I Was A Teenage Jehovah's Witness.' Huh? Am I missing something?

Say "hi" to Corrie's newest scriptwriter!

I am indebted to Joanne Salt at How To Books for sending me the latest edition of William Smethurst's "How To Write For Television." I confess I've had my head stuck in it all weekend - only coming up for air, food and Match Of The Day.

And this book is proving a big hit with me for several reasons. For starters, it's written it a witty, engaging style that is easy to follow. As well as leading you step-by-step through the process of writing your first script: story; style; plotting; dialogue; characterization and so on, the author introduces us to the various genres: Sitcoms; Drama and of course, Soap Operas. Did you know, for example, Hollyoaks currently pays £6300 for a single script (including omnibus repeat fee)? I didn't. There's serious money to be made in this industry that's for sure.

But what I'm really interested in, is where to send my "Calling Card" script. Again, Mr Smethurst provides plenty of sound advice, as well as a wealth of industry resources and contacts including writing courses, grants, agents and the Internet, naturally.

A really impressive calling card script can open doors, you know - even for the likes of newbies like me it seems. You can even use it by way of an introduction to your favourite Soap's script editor. So watch out Jonathan Harvey, cos I've always fancied writing for Corrie. My storyline of Gail falling for Eileen is bound to be such a big hit with the viewers . . .

Pleased to note that Katie "Jordan" Price has issued boyfriend Alex Reid with an ultimatum. Either he quits making violent porn films, or she will dump him. Disappointed to note that it's for entirely the wrong reasons.


Not because Reid's films abuse and degrade women - oh no. But because when he's acting out his rape scenes, as per the latest sleazebag production, he's cheating on her! Huh? Talk about skewed mentality. I don't know which of them is more warped.

40-Day Breakthrough Challenge starts here!

I’m not going to lie to you.

I had a fleeting thought about coming on here and telling you how extraordinarily well my 60-day ‘Write And Sell A Screenplay’, Challenge was panning out. But the truth is, come Day 21, and I’ve barely made a start. You see, I've allowed myself to become distracted by another entirely unrelated project. Something that wouldn’t have happened if I’d been one of Jurgen’s students I’m quite sure.

And it’s nothing to do with the fact I’m not committed to my screenplay idea, because I’m crazy about it – particularly my lead character, Meredith, who I’ve got great plans for. My distraction was simply to with business – something I couldn’t turn down, but . . . I fully intend to make up for lost time, starting today – this second.

My 40-Day Breakthrough Challenge starts here, guys . . .


Best, Kaz


PS If you’d like to read Rainbow Reviews’ write-up of my latest novel, here's the link:
A Warped Sense of Uma by Kaz Jordyn

Day 7 Of 60 (already!)

Hmmm, well . . .

how quickly a couple of hours can turn into a whole week of brainstorming . . . particularly when one has been up to one's gob in Lemsip the past few days.

Following our weekend BBQ in Surrey, which left everyone sozzled and soggy, not to mention bloody bad tempered (frankly, there were more screaming hissy fits amongst couples, than a whole class of toddlers on their first day at nursery), Yours Truly developed something of a nasty head cold (I'm not a bloke, so I'm refusing to call it Swine Flu). Hence I haven't got nearly as much done on my screenplay as I had hoped for.

However . . .

My premise is sorted (well and truly) and I've got a pretty neat cast of characters who are becoming more real to me by the day. I'm really looking forward to getting to grips with my main character, Meredith, who is out to settle old scores.

I've had Julian Friedmann's acclaimed tome, 'How To Make Money Scriptwriting,' in my collection for around four years now and I'm hanging my head appropriately, because previously I'd not ventured past the introduction. So this weekend I'm really going to get stuck in, except, as I've just been reminded by The Girlfriend, Chelsea are on the box on Sunday afternoon and we're having people round tomorrow night. As I reminded TG, every artist has to make sacrifices for her craft. "Fine," she said. "Just popping out to buy the wine for tomorrow night and the beers for the match."

That's settled then. Good. Meantime, Mr Friedmann's wisdom awaits . . .

Day 1 of 60

Well here we are. Day 1 of my 60-day Challenge to write and sell a screenplay. Having just this second peeled the wrapper off my first pack of 'cue cards', I'm raring to go. But there's the small matter of planning to be tackled first.

To those of you - in particular - contributors to the Writers' News Talkback forum, who have been wishing me good luck with the venture, my grateful thanks, as always for the support.

And to Mel G, who thought I was attempting a 60-a-day challenge, as a lifelong anti-smoker, let me assure you, taking up a fag habit is nothing whatsoever to aspire to. Still it gave me laugh anyway.

So here goes. I intend spending the next couple of hours brainstorming ideas for my plot theme and character motivations. And along the way, I'll be getting some input from writers and producers who know precisely what it takes to achieve my goal.

I hope over the next 60 days, you'll be attempting your own challenges. Do please let me know how it's going.

Best, Kaz

My 60-day Breakthrough Challenge!

It's all Jurgen Wolff's fault.

Jurgen is a well-known motivational coach and writer and author of several books, including 'My Writing Coach.' I recently received an email from Jurgen telling me about his latest project. He was looking for 30 people to take part in his 60-Day Breakthrough Challenge, with Jurgen providing all the motivational tools (free of charge) to enable his students to achieve their own pre-set goal over the two-month period.

Frankly, who wouldn't want in? Jurgen informed me this morning, that unfortunately he received my application too late for it to be considered. But he did suggest I go ahead with my goal anyway and he gave me some key tips to get me up and running, which I will share with you. Over to Jurgen:

THREE KEYS TO SUCCESS IN ACHIEVING YOUR GOAL

1: Have confidence that you can do it.

The best attitude to have regarding your goal is “I know I’m going to reach my goal. Now my job is to find out the easiest, fastest way to do it.”

I’m not saying that in some Pollyanna-ish way. Presumably you have chosen a goal that is reasonable and achievable. I’m guessing that many people have done it before, in a similar time frame if not faster. Why shouldn’t you? The only thing that may be missing is knowing how to do it, and then committing the time and energy to complete those tasks.

In my case, millions of people have dropped 3% body fat, organized their offices and kept them organized, and probably hundreds of thousands have created useful information products. I can’t think of any reason why I can’t do it, too.

With more lofty goals you may be challenging yourself against the very best and an element of realism can be useful. Lots of people have run the four-minute mile, but I can think of several good reasons why that wouldn’t be a realistic goal for me (age, genetics, not enjoying running…). Similarly, while I’d love to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, that wouldn’t be a good goal to set—aside from any modesty about my writing prowess, it’s a goal that is entirely in the hands of a small number of other people, the committee that chooses the winners. But getting my novel published? How many hundreds of thousands achieve that in even one year? Enough to make me confident that I can do it, too (especially if I have a Plan B of self-publishing…).

So if you have chosen a goal that is reasonable, now is the time to stop devoting any energy to concerns over whether you can do it and put that power into finding the best way to do it.

2: Be flexible.

When people try something and fail, they remember what they were taught as children, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

So they try the same thing again.

And again.

It still doesn’t work and they give up.

I wish we could teach children, “If it first you don’t succeed, do something different!” That should be your mantra throughout these sixty days (and beyond). When you encounter a wall you can’t get over, figure out how to go under it, through it, or around it. There is always a way.

3: Take advice from people who have done it

I’m not suggesting that only a coach who has won a gold medal can help someone else win a gold medal but for sure the best coaches have a solid knowledge of the event, probably have participated, and add to their experience a way of giving valuable feedback. Yet often we ask our friends or relatives what they think of our goal and get discouraged if they react negatively—which they will do much of the time. If you want to prove this to yourself, try this experiment: mention your goal to a random selection of ten people over the course of the week. I’m willing to bet that you will get mostly one of these responses:

“Really? Isn’t that awfully difficult in today’s climate?” (or “if you’ve never done it before,” or “unless you know the right people,” or…)

“Oh, interesting, that’s great.” (In a tone that might as well be accompanied by a pat on the head, followed quickly by their latest bit of news.)

“Good luck—I tried that (or something similar) and it just didn’t work out.” Or “I’d love to do that, too, if I had the time…” The implication being that either you’re doomed to failure or that you’re undertaking something anybody could do if they could spare an hour or two. Both are de-motivating.

It seems easy to laugh off or ignore this kind of negativity but actually it’s insidious. It plants seeds of doubt that in time can undermine you. The moral is to keep your own counsel and discuss your goals only with people who you know will be supportive and those who actually have (successful) experience of what you are trying to do.

If you follow these three guidelines, you hugely increase your chances of success.

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling energised and up for this challenge. It’s a well-known fact that we are more likely to achieve our goals when we write them down. Not committing our plans and ideas to paper is a form of judging them not to be good enough. And when we tell others what they are, apparently we have an even greater chance of turning our goals into reality. So here goes.

My 60-day challenge is going to be . . . (drum-roll please) . . .

Write and sell a TV screenplay.

It's something I’ve never attempted before. I’m pretty sure I can get the thing written, but selling it as well, that’s a whole different ball game. Maybe I’m aiming too high – who knows?

So far I’ve come up with a premise and a working title, and that’s about it.

And I’ll be recording my progress right here every couple of days or so. So why not join me? If there’s something you’ve been wanting to do for a while now, don’t put it off any longer. Stop thinking about it and start doing. Commit some time and energy to your project today. And we’ll kick the whole thing off officially on Saturday August 1st.

And please do write to me here at the Treehouse. Or you can email me: kazjordyn@yahoo.co.uk and let me know what your Breakthrough Challenge is going to be for the next 60 days, because I’d love to feature your stories on this blog. Come on guys, we’ll crack this thing together.

Best, Kaz