Tag Archives: night class

Oct 18 2017
6 Comments
Daily Life

The First Draft of Anything is S***

scriptThese immortal words by Ernest Hemingway have been my ongoing mantra this past week.

I’m taking a scriptwriting evening class at the local University, in the hope of learning a shiny new skill; I like writing and I like telly.

Excellent.

First lesson learned – it’s nowhere as easy as it looks. Second lesson – I need to watch more telly (bonus).

Sadly though, I won’t be watching for fun. I’ll be counting the scenes, looking out for important close-ups (C/U’s!)and listening to dialogue really, really carefully. In short, it’ll be endless homework.

Speaking of homework, I have to present my pitch in class tomorrow for a ten-minute script. In front of 16-odd other people who know every obscure writer/film/technique ever. And I can’t even count scenes yet.

Anyway, I threw myself into it – I have to get a great story, believable characters and short, punchy scenes into a measly ten minutes. Nothing too art-house, so my idea of a middle-aged woman contemplating the fragility of life while standing in a chip-shop queue might not translate that well (totally not based on my own experiences).

I wrote and deleted countless ideas. I watched more telly. I dipped in to tv scripts. I googled. And I still don’t have a pitch for tomorrow.

What’s most interesting about this course is the idea of ‘conflict’ and ‘journey’ – from conflict to resolution – according to the book I’m reading, scripts should present a way of conveying chaos/conflict and the character’s journey through it, back to order again.

Hmm. In short, my blog, over five years? Chaos to acceptance? Does this mean I’m The Hero? Can I start to undress in a telephone box without being arrested?

I doubt it, but it’s definitely food for thought, along with the popcorn I haven’t eaten for fear of missing vital scenes. I still haven’t completed my homework, but this course has definitely opened my eyes to how we portray real emotions, real passions and real conflicts. If I could only transcribe them, I would be happy:

INT: very attractive 40-something, seated at table, pen to mouth. She is obviously extremely talented and yet somehow doubts her innate abilities.

HANDSOME MAN: Wow, what you’ve written is amazing!

V. ATTRACTIVE FEMALE: (bats eyelashes, looks down shyly at reams of paper)

Oh, you know …

HANDSOME MAN: Seriously, it’s incredible. Let me make a few phonecalls. Baby, you’ll be a star!

V. ATTRACTIVE FEMALE: Shucks, it was nothing!

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Jul 13 2014
2 Comments
Emotions

Not Dressed Up, Nowhere To Go

cougarSomething disturbing happened the other day.

I was out with a friend, dressed casually, sipping a glass of wine with two hands in one of those faux-bonhomie wine bars with ‘ironic’ artwork and staff with obligatory piercings/sullen expressions/selective deafness. But I digress.

Two couples entered, both women in spray-on dresses, dazzling white teeth, teetering heels and big, big hair.

After looking longingly at their heels (sigh), I clocked that their partners were much younger. Nothing wrong with that. After collecting their drinks from the bar, they perched on the chairs next to us, so I couldn’t help but do a nosy.

The men (boys) seemed unable to sit still without squeezing the women every five minutes, in, ahem, not-totally-appropriate places. I’m no prude but this was seriously interrupting my fascinating conversation about my new Gorgonzola and steak recipe and I quickly lost my thread.

So we bar-hopped to the next place. Five minutes later, the same couples came tumbling through the door. To cut a long story short, I found myself in a place surrounded by eerily similar-looking twosomes, like some kind of weird parallel zone. ‘Yell at me if I ever get like that just to get a man when I’m that old’ I remarked smugly, casting my beady eye around the mayhem.

My former friend choked on his drink and said ‘they’re our age, look, that one’s got a ‘Still Flirty At 40’ badge on and that one’s definitely had Botox. They’re all in their 40’s. Like us.’

He was right. I sulked the rest of the evening, lying awake later that night pondering my Sad Single Situation. Is this the only way to date in my 40’s? As if it wasn’t hard enough being divorced with a grumpy Teenager, a rude cat and to top it all, MS, does entering my fifth decade condemn me to a life of body-con crash diets, hair extensions and laughing politely when my date burps the Welsh national anthem?

The only alternative seems to be joining an evening class in the autumn, perhaps signing up to Very Hot Indian Cooking, in the hope that I will find my soulmate over some poppadoms and mango chutney. I reckon the powers that be in adult education should start a brand-new class for ‘peeps who want to meet other peeps but have to pretend to be interested in Very Hot Indian Cooking or Yoga for Complete and Utter Numptys’. Heels and hair extensions preferred, but not essential…..

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Oct 02 2012
2 Comments
Work and Studying

Back to school

It’s Autumn, it’s night class season and I’m ready. Tonight will be my third week back at school. I spent hours carefully selecting a new course, paid my money and filled a trolley at Staples. New notebooks, new pencil case, lots of pens, paper clips, highlighters, folders but managed to stop myself from buying a Hello Kitty school bag to put it all in.

I have a chequered history of night classes. A couple of years ago it was knitting, in a bid to join a Stitch and Bitch class in the local cafe. In my fourth lesson, the lovely teacher looked at my homework, sighed and shook her head sadly. Last year I tried a one-day course instead, learning how to make my very own Christmas wreath out of locally-source willow branches. Along with ten other eager beavers, I grabbed six foot lengths of the stuff, ready to bend it into a circle but ended up poking a rather serious-looking woman in the eye. My finished wreath was a square of twigs, held together by an awful lot of thread and withered on my door after only a week.

This year will be different. I have moved on from crafts and have chosen something scarily academic – a new language. Which is kind of ironic, as my first major relapse involved me losing the ability to string a sentence together (The Teenager still does a great impression of me). Ever the optimist though, I am determined to master it. So far, I can tell native speakers that I enjoy coffee and swimming and hockey (!), and there’s still 28 weeks to go.

I am a bit of a swot, always keen to get my homework done and learn new words, and have got into the habit of sitting in the car during The Teenager’s rugby training listening to a downloaded course. Note to self though – must get out the habit of sticking my hand up in class. There’s only four of us, I am in my thirties and the teacher is probably younger than me.

The best bit though, is that there is a Starbucks on site, so I can sit for a while before class, supping on a large double-shot Americano, checking over my notes and polishing an apple for the teacher.

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