Sam and I had our third script meeting today and this time we decided to do a run-through, just to check how much we’d written. We read alternate characters out loud and we paused for ‘stage’ directions in all the right places.
We realised that we had written 16 minutes of our comedy drama. Sixteen minutes! Four weeks ago this script was just a twinkle in Sam’s eye and I had spent a whole six months just considering enrolling on the University of Liverpool’s scriptwriting course.
Unfortunately, due to my constant procrastination, by the time I’d got around to ‘phoning admissions, the course was full, but if you want to consider enrolling for next year, log on to www.liverpool.ac.uk and download the ‘courses in creative arts’ pages.
In fact, there are all sorts of courses and websites out there to support the aspiring scriptwriter – I should know I’ve surfed them all. One website, www.crispthinking.org.uk covers all sorts of creative industries in the North West, not just scriptwriting and is worth a look if you are a photographer, a dancer, a poet or an artist of any description. (Let’s be honest, sometimes it’s a comfort knowing that you are not the only fire-eating circus performer in Cheshire with a penchant for designing your own clothes.)
Last week Sam and I also tackled the character of Louisa, wife of our lead male character, John. We know her as well as we know each other, possibly better. We know that she has immaculate taste in everything except men, that she is a hard worker, very highly strung, has social aspirations above her station, is an absent mother (mentally and physically) and is a stickler for perfection.
“Not like us then,� laughs Sam, because, of course, our immaculate taste does in fact extend to the men in our life. (Oh, if only that was true!)
But Sam’s right, we’re not like Louisa, because if we thought we were, we’d be horrified. Louisa is larger than life and a creation of our imagination and yet in even the most exaggerated of characters there has to be a kernel of truth - as I think I mentioned when we created the husband.
So what is going to make Louisa real? She is nonchalantly cruel to her children, has an obvious disdain for her husband, flirts with unsuitable men, has a tongue as sharp as a razor and a physique as tightly coiled as a sleeping boa constrictor. What then is going to make her human in the eyes of a viewer?
“She runs out of petrol, breaks the heel of her shoe and arrives at an appointment completely dishevelled,� suggests Sam.
And of course that’s it. The situation she finds herself in is totally believable; it’s her over-the-top reaction to the situation that gives it a comic edge.
I don’t know if you agree, but I think we’re starting to sound like we know what we’re doing…
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