Tuesday 24 June 2008

Sharps: Over and Out

Like Oli, David and the rest of the scribosphere, my Sharps entry did absolutely fup all, which doesn’t mean to say that what I submitted was a pile of unmentionables. Everyone who read it and passed comment seemed to genuinely like the concept, and it even made people laugh (intentionally, I hasten to add) - so all round, I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out. OK, so it’s been passed over this time, but there’s nothing to say that it can’t act as a valuable ‘calling card’/writing sample for something else – and let’s face it, thirty pages is much easier for a reader to gaily skip through than that dense 130 page sci-fi epic that you’ve been slaving over for the last decade (my own dense sci-fi epic that I’ve been slaving over for the last decade comes in at 94 pages, so I’m one up on you already. Ha! ;-))

In retrospect, I have a creeping suspicion that the first ten pages of my script did not do an adequate job of grabbing the Writersroom reader by the old proverbials right from the get-go – too much set up perhaps, too much of a slow burn before my cabal of sociopathic MPs went completely off the rails and tried hitching a lift to the nearest star system. That said, perhaps they thought it was shite, but I don’t care – it may sound terrifically arrogant of me, but I like it enough to use it again for something else. And as Lucy says over at her esteemed gaff, this game is pretty subjective – if you write something that excites you and that you believe in rather than what you think people want to read, I think you’re onto something pretty decent. It’s just that what excites you may not be the same as what excites and interests your reader – but when the two match up, that’s where the fun starts. But for the moment, I’m happy in my little transparent bubble.

4 comments:

John Soanes said...

I liked it, so think you're quite right to do so too!
J

Chip Smith said...

Thanks John, you say the nicest things. And don't forget I owe you a read at some point!

Rachael Howard said...

Yep, liked it too. By the was, is this transparent bubble revision 2 of the spaceship?

Thought you would get though on this one.

Chip Smith said...

Thanks for the kind words, Rach – I thought it had at least half a chance, but I tend to go into these things with no sense of expectation at all (i.e., write it, post it, forget about it), which is probably the best way I think. In retrospect, perhaps the ten page sift didn’t really do me any favours – that said, it’ll be interesting to see if they carry out their threat to give feedback to the “top 100”...