Free Rein

Eight months into the course and we're kind of on our own now... just a tutorial for feedback on our portfolio next week, and three tutorials with Colin spread over the summer to monitor progress of my screenplay.

I feel ready, I know I can motivate myself, but I will miss the day-to-day interaction with my fellow prof. writers. In three weeks I'm moving back to Somerset, leaving behind me six years of Cornish life, love and friendship. Not only have I got emotional attachments to this town, but I've also picked up a lot of material baggage. I hate baggage, but I have to cart it back with me for when Luke and I move into our own place.

I'm looking forward to a summer of hard graft, with some hard partying sprinkled into the mix. First thing to look forward to is the Screenwriters' Festival in Cheltenham, a two day event for new writers which I've been lucky enough to get a bursary for. South West Screen are paying £143 of the fee, so I'll only need to put in £60 plus accommodation. I'm going with two Prof. writers and we'll no doubt get into some mischievous shenanigans. We all intend on pitching our screenplays, which by then should be in the second draft stage, and probably worth a look...

There will be an array of producers, directors and other industry professionals to approach, who knows - one of us might get an offer! I'd be happy with a few more contacts to add to my collection, but, you know - if they want to make my movie...

Then a week after the festival it's off to Serbia for Exit Festival. A European road trip with my sister, boyfriend and friends, followed by a music festival set in a fortress - what more could you ask for?

I also want to carry on writing features, the Julien Temple idea at the forefront of my list of course. I'm in the process of trying to sell two other features, but the BBC Homes & Antiques feature editor is on holiday for two weeks and the Red editor hadn't read my pitch when I phoned yesterday. I don't know if I can wait two weeks, so I might sell the sixixis idea to another design mag. There is also a script editor in Bristol that I would like to interview for www.bloc-online.com.

I found out at the weekend that The Times Culture mag also ran a feature on Tim McInnerny - what a coincidence! I pitched my idea to them at the same time as The Stage, so maybe my pitch spurred one of their staff writers to follow suit... the content is not identical, but I can't help feeling cheated somehow.

For those of you who didn't pick up a copy of my piece in The Stage, here it is in PDF format.
file:///Users/hollywicks/Documents/Clippings/McInnerny_Profile%20.PDF

I could only find three copies in Falmouth, my parents couldn't get any in Bridgwater or Taunton, so it's lucky the editor was willing to give me the PDF copy.