I'm putting the finishing touches to my latest Holby 1st draft. The deadline is today which can be a little arbitrary - today first thing? Today end of? I used to be under the illusion that the sooner I got the script into my editor, the sooner notes would come back to me, the quicker the whole process would become .. not so. We're all dependent on everybody else's windows of opportunity.
I've been doing a fair bit of writing in the garden, the weather having been nice recently. My workspace (worthy of a colour supplement spread as I've said) is in the garden and I can look out over the lawn to my blooming peony next to the plastic pink flamingos. I've taken to lying on the grass with my laptop, I have to weary of bugs mind you. This has made the whole writing process very pleasant. But then I often find writing the 1st draft good fun, ignorant of just how many pages of notes it is going to generate - it all still feels fresh and exciting.
Ask me how I feel at the end of draft 7 - when the prospect of rewriting the same scene for the 7th time makes you want to gaffer tape the laptop shut and go shopping for the day.
I went to hear John Yorke give a talk about 'Life After Continuing Drama' at the Writers Guild a few weeks ago. It was illuminating, especially the notion that there is no conspiracy amongst the ±«Óãtv to ignore good writers. Good writers are in demand. This must be so - look how many episodes of each CD show are broadcast each year, hundreds of them. Not to mention the Spooks and Waking The Deads of this world.
I reckon it's useful to have a good agent, an agent with their ear to the ground - I'm out of the loop when it comes to who's commissioning what for whom, I'm too busy writing. My agent lets me know when he's putting my name 'out there', phones me to ask if I'm still happy doing what I'm what I'm doing, we chat about the previous nights' Eastenders. We rarely meet up to face to face, it's not unlike Charlie's Angels, his is the disembodied voice on the end of the phone, lining up my next mission.
I know he likes the way I write, he 'gets it' and that's really important. Of course some writers are happy without an agent, they get jobs word of mouth and are rarely out of work. Whatever works I say.
I have a good support system, if I'm flagging I'll email other writers for support. If I'm stuck for ideas there are a few 'ol buddy books I tend to dip into, this usually kick starts my writing again.
If you're writing for Holby and Casualty then there are two texts that are a must :
"Blood Sweat And Tea" (Real life adventures in an inner city ambulance) by Tom Reynolds and "In Stitches" (The highs and lows of life as an A & E doctor) by Dr Nick Edwards. Both books are laugh out loud funny, both may make you think twice about visiting an A & E department - for various reasons.
For CD writing generally, you can't get much better than Ed McBain who penned the 87th Precinct cop series. He is the master of the hook and the cliff along with subversion of expectation - great fun to read. "Non Fiction" by Chuck Palahniuk is another book that has me crying on tube journeys (funny, as opposed to tragic) and always gets me writing again.
I am in the daunting position of writing two shows almost at the same time.
I didn't plan it this way - scheduling is the monster that skulks in the in - box, then hits you with an email throwing you into hysteria. My next Casualty episode was intended to dove tail neatly into the final stages of this current Holby, but date changes have made this less likely. The hardest bit is not the amount of writing ahead, but making sure I don't have Connie walking into the ED putting arms in slings or Kelsey on Darwin tackling coronary embolisms.
Casualty are musing over my Guest Story pitches as I write - I wait with bated breath. A lot of work goes into producing these Guest Story documents. It's not merely a case of standing before the exec producer saying "Imagine Titanic meets Only Fools and Horses - there's this guy..." I would feel gutted if I had to shelve characters I'd nurtured into a medical crisis.
Tuesday 27th May at 8pm I have a Holby on ±«Óãtv1. Great casting I might add, my 'A' story yoof has done me proud. It's nice when a plan comes together.