Write-off final

It's here at last, the final of Write-off - a jousting tournament for creative writers, which has pitched several East Midlands clubs against each other over the last couple of months. The competition has a knock-out format and tonight we are left with the final pairing.

I do have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, a fiercely fought competition is not necessarily the best thing to bring writing groups together in a spirit of harmony. On the other, a bit of friendly rivalry often brings the best out of everyone.

My hope and expectation is that tonight's performances of new work by the different clubs will be an uplifting and impressive display. And more than that, I hope that everyone will find themselves making new friends from across the region. In which case, we'll all be winners.


On a different subject - I've been working some more on that film treatment. And last night I had a chance to have a phone conversation with one of my collaborators. It's given me new things to think about. My collaborator pointed out that one of the characters is a shade too passive in my first treatment of the film. And when I look at it again, I find that he is correct in this.

If I'd been writing the story as prose, the character would not have been too passive, because we would have seen the inner workings of her mind. But as a screenplay, the only thing you can write is what can be seen. Hopefully in a week or so, I'll be in a position to tell more about this exciting project.

Now, I'm off into Leicester to facilitate the WSL advanced workshop for a couple of hours. It's going to be a busy day, but hopefully a good one.