Friday, February 25, 2011

Ideas, ideas everywhere...

I've gone into over-creative mode and I haven't got a clue why! Maybe it's my leg injury - physical weakness must make me stronger mentally! Like Davros, or Stephen Hawking (who I secretly suspect are the same person...). Alternatively it could be some complex psychological doo-hickey, due to being at my grandparents house, where I used to spend ages drawing, listening to stories, reading books and playing games when I was young, so some element of that has reawakened, or... I need Derren Brown to explain this properly. (In case you're wondering, the Doctor Who villain I suspect him of secretly being is the Master. Aimon Holmes is a Slitheen, Rick Astley is a Time Lord and wheelie bins are Daleks)!
So, creativity - good! Well, mostly good. When I have too many ideas on the go at once, it becomes hard to keep track and deal with them all! In this rush of new thoughts, I haven't given any thought to the book I'm writing (superhero novel, "Legion X") - in fact I seem to have thought about everything I'm writing and more, except the book! Unfortunately, this also includes new book ideas, which I'm going to want to work on. I know that I should focus on one thing at a time, if I want to get anything published, but now I'm having wonderful ideas of sci-fi and fantasy and writing like the amazing H.G. Wells! Like I said, I have no idea why! Although, for a while now I've been wanting to get hold of Wells' "The Time Machine". There's a whole beautiful atmosphere to older works of science fiction that isn't there with newer stuff. I mean, I love Doctor Who to no end, but there's a whole different style in the original "War of the Worlds". Science Fiction has changed into an almost completely different genre.
Also, I feel like writing something in an older era - maybe a more Dickensian setting, the sort of era "A Christmas Carol" was set in. Or just before WWI. There's certainly a nicer, sometimes much more exciting, atmosphere to these time eras in comparison with modern day. A more stylized feel, rather than cold electronics. For once, I do know where this feeling has come from! It's not so much one source of inspiration, but lots of little things. My recent obsession with Sherlock Holmes, the H.G. Wells books I've been wanting to read, period dramas being fired at us from left, right and centre, the old-fashioned 'steam-punk' style of Doctor Who's last Christmas special and the general brilliance of classical works of literature.
So! After all this, you're either bored out of your mind, wondering why you bothered to read this, or wanting to know what these amazing ideas of mine are! I'm going to imagine you've chosen the latter. In fact, could you please at leasr try to choose the latter?
Now, obviously I hate giving a lot away, because it ruins the surprise (shall I end the post there?), but I shall attempt to say something. This is where I test how formed my ideas really are - I find you never really know how strong an idea is until you write it out. I've been trying to pull together all of these elements I've been talking about into one - something new, creative, science fiction and set in an olden era. I'm particularly drawn to the pre-WWI era, because of a recently-made dramatization I saw a while ago of the book "The Thirty Nine Steps". If you've not seen it, I would thoroughly recommend it - it's action-packed, really exciting stuff! I've never read the book, but now it's another one on my wish list... Anyway, yes, the drama of that is one of my inspirations. "Where does the science fiction come into this diabolical scheme of story-writing which you have concocted?" I hear you ask! Well, I've had the idea of a conspiracy cover-up, probably from listening to my Dad too much (don't worry Dad, I'm sure that indisputable evidence for Global Warming isn't important at all...) and government cover-ups lend themselves beautifully to sci-fi. For example, there are real theories that the Queen is an alien space lizard. No, really...
So, the government are covering up something to do with our little green friends from other worlds. Not so creative and new yet is it? Been done before, you say? Don't worry, I'm working on it! This isn't going to be the same old "UFO Crashes, government stops people from knowing" type storyline. Like all good ideas, this one is taking its time to grow and develop in my head, but I've had a few good thoughts on it. Like I said, I don't want to give too much away, but once some of it is written, or I've got a whole storyline, I may post an extract or a blurb right here on this very blog!
As I said, I am in a very creative mindset and, as if to prove it to you, I have had many other little ideas floating around in the warped labyrinth of my mind. I still love the idea of a Dickensian setting and I'm feeling particularly attracted to a fantasy storyline. Vampires, perhaps? A chance to do Vampires properly, after the saga of "names based on periods of time involving certain stages of the sun and the moon" embarassment. And then there are various ideas of Romance and Insanity on my mind, which will hopefully all be woven into my writing at some point. Also, what do you people of the internet think of the name "Supervillain" for a drama series. It's one of my early ideas for the BBC! My incredible plan is to start writing a script for them now, spend a couple of years getting it perfect and then send it in to the beeb, via their Writersroom website!
Anyway, now I'll have to wrap up this post as it's humungous, I need to knock all these ideas into some sort of tangible shape and order and my brother has just handed me a fez, which I will need to try on. Fezzes are cool!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Holmes is where the heart is...

So! Long time no post, but I'm back - at last! :)

Okay, the biggest news going on in my strange isolated script-writing world is that mine and my friends' Doctor Who series has officially been put on hold. Hopefully filiming will resume/begin during the summertime. The other bit of very big news, though, is that a new series is going into production very soon. Not Doctor Who this time, but, as the title to this post suggests, Sherlock Holmes!
To be precise, a modernisation of Sherlock Holmes, currently entitled "Consulting Detective", which sees Holmes and Watson as students at Baker Street university, currently sharing a room in one of the university's provided flats for students (flat 221b, of course)! The series also stars a range of other detectives, some brand new, some from the original stories, including a certain Miss Adler...
Obviously, I can't give too much away about the series but, if all goes well script-wise, filming should commence this weekend, on episode one - A Study In Black! Unusually for one of the films my crazy lot produce, the script for this one isn't being written by me, but instead, by my friend Adam Lawson, who has starred in and helped write episodes for our past YouTube series. The role of script-editor is the one that has befallen me for episode one, which basically means I have lots of long email exchanges with Adam, talking about which parts get changed, what would work better from the audience's point of view, etc. And I must say it is enormous fun discussing all theses wonderful scripty things with someone!
Little has been decided about episodes three and four yet (except which books they might be based on - but we don't want to spoil that for you!), but three is another of Adam's and, hopefully, we will work together as much as possible on four. Episode two, however, is being written by yours truly! Without giving too much away, think "Sherlock Holmes vs. the EDL"...
Anyway, now I'm going to have to start editing and writing these scripts, like I should be right now, instead of posting on this blog. See you all soon!