writing competitions

Well while literally contemplating the inept self motivation I have and wondering if I'll ever get up to the 7 am alarm-clock to dive into writing, I received an email from Gordy Hoffman. Well, not personally for me, I signed up for a newsletter but still. In Gordy's post he speaks of how important writing competitions are. Now after having spoken with Andy questioning their use, (as it seems to me they buy your script for you entrance fee and then can do what they like with it afterwards!), Gordy had some well needed advice. 

Writing is a lonely business, in the real world at least. When you do get that fabulous idea you are obviously not alone but accompanied by the characters you build up and the world you are creating. which can be an amazing experience. My only finished short I did in one day!

Writing can be lonely and it is difficult, I find, to be your own boss. I tend to be the boss I had always wished for, I have tea breaks when I want, my lunch hours can be whole afternoons and if I need to pop out to do my weekly shop that's fine too! But it shouldn't be, if you are to get writing done, you need to be disciplined and that means being the boss you hate, the one that is always right and makes you feel guilty when you want to dash home to catch that spin class or the one who agrees you can make your important appointment but reminds you the work is still due in tomorrow!! 

OR......you can do what Gordy Hoffman suggests - enter writing competitions. Okay so you have to pay to enter and then the terms and conditions must read well enough you don't feel you are being shafted.  But it is a fabulous idea, there is your new boss.

He has terms and conditions that are clear, he wants the work in at a deadline, but you can hand it in at a later deadline but you'll pay for it. Simply he'll help you get things done. Now it is 5 days until the first BlueCat competition deadline. I go to Dubai to watch Andy play in the Sevens world cup in 6 days....so if I can write an 18 minute short in one day I can finish a feature length in 5, just have to decide if I'm going to go with the thriller or the drama?! hmmmmmm!

ash x

I'm back

Hey folks, sorry for the radio silence. I have had a week with a friend and a week over in England and not found time to write in between. Bad I know, it won't happen again I assure you.

It was great to be home and see friends and family but there is something special about coming back to Italy, our new home. Living somewhere in which you have to mentally make effort in order to communicate with people is very fulfilling. Most of us rush through lives and find ourselves saying things rote, things run off our tongues before we have really even given it a moments thought. But I have to say living in a different country and speaking a different language makes each experience a little more interesting, purely because of the attention you must give it. I appreciate more what my friends say to me and I choose my words carefully when speaking with them. I don't swear in Italian which goes very well with my new years resolution that is not doing so well in the old mother tongue!

I am off to the last day of Venice Carnival tomorrow with friends and this is just a mid week trip. It's really exhilarating with every day becoming a new experience with lessons to learn and opportunities to grow. I shall post some pictures later this week.

And once again I must remind myself (don't know why I'm telling you,  but go along with it) I am here to write. To take advantage of my very fortunate position and write away until I come up with all the masterpieces that are going to make me successful. I mustn't get distracted with how wonderful each moment living abroad is, don't worry I am aware at how sickly I sound. I'm really enjoying rubbing it in though! Only kidding, well.........

Ciao

ash x

Queuing

I know it's our age old tradition in Britain. We like to queue, there is something nationally precise about our queuing etiquette.

Here - Italians hate queuing. They have to have a system that dishes out numbers so that everyone can stand along the front of the meat counter and not feel like they're in a queue, although they have to wait until their number comes up.

Now in some shops this means your entrances to vicinities can be strategically chosen. For instance, this week I went into our local baker, 200 metres away (I love that), and I chose to enter through the door that was closest to the ticket dispensing machine. This turned out to be a stroke of genius because - I was next. There was no question about it, the place had one old lady in there before me and nobody else, so I took my ticket, no. 66.

Now old ladies love taking their time in bakers, despite hating having to spend any time in there if they're not the one ordering! So there was ample time for two women to join me and stand right in front of the glass as if they hadn't even seen me. So, the third lady who had entered protested that she was the rightful next customer to be served once the old lady had finished. Well, just as my blood was boiling I said in my best Italian:
'Sono prima',
that means 'I'm first' and as the lady looked as me as if to say, 'Oh you're really going to take me on?', the bakery lady asked me:

'What number does your ticket say?'.
I said '66'.

And then she asked the other lady:

'What number does your ticket say?'
and she said 'Well 67'.

Ha ! Sooooo not only did I take her on, I beat her at her own pseudo queuing game. Oh and the lady who hadn't taken a ticket at all, well, she was completely screwed!

There are serious queuing issues for old people here. It seems their desperation of running out of time is really brought to the surface when faced with a supermarket queue. I don't know if they're thinking they're wasting what time they have left but I do know there are some definite rules as to how to get in front of the cue.

Rule 1. Annoy the person in front as much as possible in the hope that you annoy them enough to get them to move to another cue altogether.
Rule 2. Count and inspect the produce the people in front are buying as if to say 'Well I have a third of what you have so why should I waste my precise minutes for your greed!' This can also be accompanied with a look of disgust - it's pretty effective.
Rule 3. Stick close. You can really get on someone's nerves if every time they take a step forward your breathing down their neck. (Having said that most old ladies are really small here, so it's more like breathing down their backs?!)

Anyway those are the ones I'm aware of, and they seemed to be used to good effect!


Ciao