AARRRGHHHHHH! (In a good way!)

[Danglyspider]

Sorry for screaming, but I just have to get this off my chest - my first screenplay/treatment/tv series concept has made a special mention in one UK competition, and will be featured in a program presented to lots of BIG production companies/networks in London at the end of the month, and then it's also passed the quarterfinals of another competition in the US, which had over 1000 entries! I don't know how many entries are in the quarter finals this year, but last year there were around 60, so I'm quite excited. It'll be another two weeks until the next round, but I've got loads on in the mean time - DD going to uni, work and uni myself, so hopefully I'll manage to stick it in the back of my mind. I didn't want to boast about it on sm, but thought you lot might understand the squealiness! :D

[JBFletcherismyaunt]

Well done Dangly! That sounds fantastic. You must be over the moon. Have you ever written anything before that's been on tv?

[Danglyspider]

Nope - nada. I know things can go tits-up at any point in the process, and that very few things get made, but it seems to be going fairly well at the moment!

[SukiPutTheEarlGreyOn]

Brilliant! What a fantastic achievement. Wishing you all good things for the future, op.

[schmalex]

Amazing news! Well done!

[Knittedfairies]

How exciting!

[TippetyTapWriter]

Wow well done and good luck!

[buttybuttybutthole]

This is so exciting! I wan to know what it's about 😬

[Danglyspider]

:D Wish I could tell you, butty!

[buttybuttybutthole]

Hopefully I will be able to watch it one day! It's a massive achievement for you!

[Danglyspider]

Thanks - it would be amazing for someone to pick it up and run with it, but we shall see! I'm redrafting to update it for the next round - fingers crossed it gets through, and then not long after that the other pitching event will happen, which might spark some interest. Failing that, the producer I'm working with at the moment has another producer contact who's done some work with the BBC and Netflix, so once they're free from their other commitments, they might look at it. We'll just keep pushing and redrafting until we get there!

[Witchend]

Wow! Well done!

[TippetyTapWriter]

Fingers crossed for you! Can I ask how you got into screen writing? I've got a couple of ideas floating around that I think might work better on screen than a book, but no idea where to start.

[Danglyspider]

um, it was just by chance, really, although I've wanted to write since I was a kid. I was reading some articles on the #metoo movement, and thought how there needs to be more films and tv series with more opportunities for women, and I remembered reading things on here and online about how many women have contributed towards history over the ages uncelebrated.
A few years ago I wanted to write something about Mary Wollstonecraft, but I didn't gel well with the century. So I googled something like 'famous women who haven't had movies made about them', and discovered an amazing story that just spoke to me, and then I started researching, read a few books, and just went for it. I'm not a historian, but I'm so into the story of these women, that I've bought maps to work things out with, done family trees, and tried to fill in gaps that the books didn't provide. Of course, there's a lot of creative license being taken, but I like to think that it's all logical slight leaps, rather than massive stabs in the dark!

[mzterry]

excellent news, congratulations

[TippetyTapWriter]

Thanks dangly that's really interesting! Sounds like a brilliant idea with a lot of passion behind it. I guess those are the things that can't be taught! Really good luck with it. It's definitely time to see more women and women's stories on the screen.

[Danglyspider]

Thanks everyone! A couple of things are happening at the moment - the pitching contest is publishing an interview on their blog and across sm on the 'Special Mention' projects. I've done some interviews before, but one was on the family, and one was on a project I was working on, so it wasn't really about me, iykwim. So it was a bit strange (but exciting) to answer questions about me and my creative ideas!
The other thing happening today is the announcement for the semi-finalists of the distribution competition. I'm quite nervous because following the pretty-good-but-not-amazing scores from the first round, my producer and I thought we'd redraft the treatment and script for this round, so it's quite a different style and layout of document they're judging this time! It could obviously go really well, or really badly!! As the competition is working on PST though, I don't think the announcement will be made until 5pm at least, so I'll be spending the day trying not to think about it, trying not to gnaw my nails off, and trying to get all the other shit of daily life done. So I thought I'd ask for a bit of a hand-hold - not really drastically, heart-rendingly emotional stuff, but still, it would be good to get to the semi's! Has anyone got any tips on distraction techniques?