Major update...

I don't wanna start doing that thing where I start telling my life story again every time I don't write on my blog for long periods of time. But there are a couple of things that have changed in the last month or so...

I am now a resident of Manchester.

I have a routine, FINALLY.

I passed my probation at work.

:D

But worry that I'm getting a little bit of an attitude that I always bitch about with other people and that I always never wanted to have. So I need to pull my socks up a bit.

I've started doing some serious planning on a comedy TV series for the BBC/Channel 4.

And one of my older brothers is getting married.

XD

Started crying when I found out.

LOOOOVE.

Photos of my beautiful house and sexy Gok Wan specs from work to follow.

I'm ashamed...

Absolutely gutted. I know that I hadn't written anything in my blog for a while but for TWO WHOLE MONTHS?!

I'm a little bit disappointed with myself. In my defence, I am out of the house for twelve hours a day five days a week - travelling to and from work on trains and buses, blah blah blah... And one of the last things I wanna do is set up my laptop downstairs so that I can get the internet on it (our home computer is overrun with viruses and we don't have wireless, unfortunately...)

:(

Of course, that doesn't excuse anything.

SPECSAVERS

Life at Specsavers is going well. I think I know enough now to feel comfortable in doing any task that anyone's asking for me to do for them. People are starting to trust me with doing different jobs around the store. But I still haven't finished my three month probation though. Everyone tells me that I've got nothing to worry about but I can't help it. It'll be the biggest weight off my shoulders ever.

I've read one of the shittest books in the whole world. 'No Time for Goodbye' by Linwood Barclay. I bought it because it was a murder mystery and I never read them. And this book made me realise that I never read them for a bloody good reason!

I've put down a deposit for a house to rent in Didsbury in Greater Manchester and will be moving in on Tuesday. Ecstatic. I feel like I've been waiting for this day all my life. Can't wait to have my own little personal space again where I can start writing properly, hopefully.

And I've also walked in on my younger brother snogging his chavvy girlfriend on the settee on Valentine's Day Evening over a bottle of wine, some beers and a toffee cheesecake.

The bleeding romantic.

Not a lot has happened really. I've just been working my arse off at work and not been very social at all. But as soon as I get my arse to Manchester, that's going to change.

List of things to do on arrival in Didsbury:-

--- Get fit and healthy (I'm actually craving healthy food and reeeeeally wanna join dance classes and the gym),

--- Pass my probation period at work,

--- Start writing properly again,

--- Start planning a holiday (preferrably to New York or Las Vegas or any other phenomenal city in the US)

--- Generally be a happier human being and a general breeze of fresh air for everyone around me.

I haven't been the happiest bunny of late but that's all soon to change.

To be continued...

P.S. I need another hair cut.

XD

I miss writing...

I miss having writing bursts that actually inspire to 'carry on' the story after 100 or so words.

I miss having the time on my hands to call myself a writer, where I can just sit and write for hours on end.

I miss Matthew Meadows. And owe him a sincere apology that I don't have a fuckin' clue how to start his story.

I miss writing for the hell of it, instead of having to worry about craft/layout/publishing needs/target audiences.

I miss having people who actually want to read and critique my work.

I miss being around other people who wanna be writers too.

I miss reading other people's stories.

:(

'Any Human Heart'

There's some pretty damn good shit on the box at the moment.

It all kicked off with 'Downton Abbey', which I am still ever so slightly mind-boggled at. Then I sat through 'Pillars of The Earth', Channel 4's slightly raunchy adaptation of Ken Follett's medieval tale of regicide and conflicts over power. Now, I'm watching 'Garrow's Law' on BBC 1 and there's something distinctly Sherlock-like about the smart lawyer who takes centre stage, albeit with a bit of a dodgy voice... Though he still doesn't top Benedict Cumberbatch.

;)

Now, I've just watched the first episode of 'Any Human Heart' on Channel 4OD. And I don't think at any one time in my life have I watched so many single one-off drama pieces that I've actually enjoyed too. 'Any Human Heart' is based on the novel by William Boyd and is shaping up to be another brilliant novel-adaptation from Channel 4.

Furthermore, I've finished writing the first episode of my own little TV mini-series for ITV, hopefully. Maybe mine will be on TV sometime soon too.

:)

It wasn't a waste of 3 years after all...

My three years at university were, most probably, the best three years of my life. I've met some of the most fantastic people I ever though possible and learnt so much in regards to my own writing that what I wrote four years ago is nothing to what I write now.

Now, I'm my worst critic. I always try on being the best of my abilities in everything that I do... But I'm not pompous. It's a quality that I think makes a lot of people very vulgar and ugly. So, let's hope that I don't sound too much of a hypocrite here...

I attained a grade 2:1 at university. And regrettably, I was disppointed. My final portfolios were the best I'd been able to muster. The weekend the final Media and Writing assignments were in, I probably had a total of approx. seven hours sleep over three days. I was in the computer block on campus every day for two weeks, becoming part of the furniture myself. My lack of sleep left me horribly forgetting my friends and 'upgrading' them with doing final pieces of work on my portfolio. I was bleary-eyed for ten days, pale-skinned from lack of seeing the sun outside and therefore, didn't want to see those portfolios back for the rest of my life...

My 2:1 grade was greeted with half-hearted smiles at the bus stop where my mum had brought it down to me, she was eager to see what I'd got. On being phoned up by other course friends, I wasn't very talkative on my grade, which led to lies on both halves of being 'too boggled and modest' to brag about it.

But at the time (and for a good few weeks after), I believed that I had been cheated. I should have got a 1st. I should have got top of the class. All my life I've been in second place, I was getting myself into debt for this chance to come out with a 1st!

As you can tell, it all got a little dramatic. I was sick of telling people that it was only a 2:1 that I'd got, it should have been a 1st...

But months passed.

On Monday, I headed back down to uni to meet with an old tutor and recieve back those two dreaded portfolios that I'd handed in on my last EVER day of uni. And, after hot chocolate and coffee, I'd sneakily hid in the campus library and spent an hour leafing through the portfolios.

It was only then that I'd understood and appreciated the measures of which I'd gone to achieve that 2:1. And I accepted it.

Looking through the folders, I was soooooo proud of what I'd done, how much work I'd put in. I could feel the weight of it on my shoulders as I walked with a friend to his for dinner, a long-overdue catch-up. And I was soooo grateful that I was, and still am, that hard-working.

That 2:1 deserved a much better greeting on opening that envelope what seemed like years ago. I'd put my all into it but it was just meant to be.

I'm now very inspired and proud of what I've achieved in those three years at university and ecstatic that I have a few very excellent folders for editors and agents to read upon their request.

:)

The Writer's Handbook 2011

I've never got one of these books before and I was in the White Rose on another interview with The Disney Store when I wandered into WHSmiths and bought it.

And now, I'm ashamed to say that without these books, I don't know how the hell I've been able to cope!

I stayed up reading through the magazine section for a good hour last night, jotting down which magazines I should email for future publications, and I didn't even make it to the end of the section!

It's earned it's very fair right to sit on my bedside table for some light reading and inspiration...

I can't wait to read about some of the festivals that are going to be around the UK in the coming months.

I strongly advise all writers, serious or not, should get this book.

:)

TV or Film?

In my second year of uni, I 'found' Kerry Rawlinds, a career-driven young 25-year old, with an equally career-driven father and a wickedly vicious mother. Funnily enough, she, by far, wasn't the most popular character in a workshop with my other peers in class. Her parents are divorced and her mother is with a ridiculously kind young man called Martin, an apt Clark Kent. So I can only assume that while the women in the class simply adored him, the men were notoriously jealous of his good-nature and gentle suaveness.

:)

Anyway, the last couple of days, I have been developing her story into what was initially going to be a 'This Is England'/'Cashback'/any-other-really-good-British-Drama-you-can-think-of style 90min film. However, I am 30pages in on Final Draft and my crucial hook hasn't happened yet - other film writers will know that in stereotypical terms, your hook should occur 15-20mins from the beginning of the film.

So, I've been thinking about maybe extending it to a four-part series, 60mins each way and am now wondering if the BBC or ITV or even Channel 4 would care to get their hands on it.

Who knows?

All I know is that it's all I can write at the moment, and I need to be writing something!

Mmmm. Tricky...

xXx