Characters Locking Antlers

I've been pressing on with the White Angel screenplay over the last few days. There have been several long Skype consultations with Ivory, which have progressed our understanding of the story and the characters. There are some very interesting power relationships developing (the characters, not us!) which are providing another layer of interest.

I realise that in describing this process, my language has become woolly - this is something I try to avoid in the blog, as I want to be as open and transparent as possible. But in this case I can't spell it out because the story needs to stay under wraps for the moment.

However, I can say that when a story serves up events that come as surprises, but at the same time we know they are right - this is a sign that things are working. I feel we have reached that stage now. I keep getting little kicks of pleasure at discovering the way the characters will react in the situations they find themselves.



At the centre of the story is Ellen Carter - award winning writer of the biographies of murderers. At the end of the first film she was imprisoned for the White Angel murders - though she was innocent. In this, the sequel, she is in prison and in contact with the notorious Kiss of Death killer - who has a million dollar story still to tell.

It is the relationship between these two characters that lies at the centre of this story. That is what I am wrestling with now.

Using Skype for team writing

The White Angel sequel screenplay is pushing forward again. This morning me, myself and Ivory had a two hour Skype consultation which has resulted in pages of notes. Mostly these are small modifications to Act 1, but there are also some real revelations (to us, at least) about the nature of the different characters, their power relationships and their motivation for different courses of action.

I plan to spend the afternoon transferring these notes to the screenplay itself. Then I'll e-mail it to Ivory for her to review this evening. If all goes well, we'll be ready and set for another Skyp consultation tomorrow morning.

All well and good. Especially as we are not using video conferencing. I look distinctly crumpled this morning.

It is the school holiday at the moment, so I have retreated to the bedroom in order to have this Skype call in privacy from the rest of the family. Half a conversation about the motivations of serial killers must sound very odd indeed.