Clocks go back, writing goes forward

It’s a good thing I had today off. After a busy week at work I went straight into volunteering the London Screenwriter’s Festival, which was brilliant and exhuasting.

I found as the weekend progressed I imagined  Regent’s College as a literary biodome (not the Pauly Shore version, of course): in a tiny pocket of Central London there was a localised atmosphere where talking to strangers is not only allowed, but encouraged,  and the high ceilings of the beautiful rooms were collecting the billions of words spoken by the delegates, speakers, staff and volunteers. Some animating person much cleverer than I could really have fun with the image of scribbled words floating like renegade balloons to high ceilings where they would float there, trapped. There was also a feeling of inter-connectivity which was encouraging, which I’m convinced wasn’t the Delegates’ Network, a brilliant idea of which I’m only now starting to take advantage.

My personal highlights were somewhat similar to last year; the volunteers were, without exception, engaging and talented folk whose own projects were just as interesting as some of those featured on the schedules – and with some even after 12 hours in their company I felt I’d known them for months.

The speakers were very generous with their time; a personal highlight was being a body shield for Tim Bevan first thing on Friday after a marathon 2 hours of structured talk and more informal “script chat” afterwards – obviously he’s a sought-after man!

This year my personal timetable didn’t focus so much on the sessions; this was partly a facet of the role I had and partly a choice – but those I did I was really impressed with, particularly one which focussed on being a freelancer as well as a parent – not having any children myself, it was a surprisingly rewarding session! I was also lucky enough to have a speed pitching slot t0 gain feedback on the sitcom idea that I have been working on with my writing partner for the past three months. This was a fantastically useful experience and I feel that in doing so, as a developing writer myself, was my best example of Chris Jones’ request to “put yourself outside of your comfort zone”.  If you had told me this time last year that I would have done that yesterday – successfully – I wouldn’t have been disbelieving, but it wouldn’t have made me any less proud either. On that note, as a helper on the Speed Pitching sessions, I was so impressed by the way that Gemma and Mike dealt with all the curve balls that were thrown at them with last-minute changes to the schedule and negotiating problems as they arose. And I’m sure that next year’s will be even better and bigger!

So now the clocks have gone back and given us lighter mornings and an extra hour’s lie-in on Sunday, my thoughts now go forward to the coming year: writing, script reading and maintaining all the relationships with my new-and not-so new friends too.

Just in case you were wondering, can I please do it again next year?

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