Lights, Camera… Action?

Today I watched Thor: The Dark World and loved it. I highly recommend it. Yes, in 3D – I’m one of those people who actually likes 3D. That higher framerate thing didn’t do it for me when I watched the first hour of The Hobbit, though.

 

Well, it’s been a while since I had any serious news to share here, but today is the day to end the dry spell.

I recently went to Sydney, where I had a meeting with my Australian agent, Tara. She had something rather interesting to say, and it’s ultimately changed my focus as a writer somewhat.

Everyone who’s ever tried to get published knows that it’s very hard. It always has been, but recently, with book sales down by 30% across the board, it’s become even harder. So at this meeting Tara asked me if I would consider going into screenwriting.

As it happens I majored in screenwriting at university, and as regular readers will know I go to the cinema almost constantly. It’s one of my favourite things to do, and I adore film in general. And though I don’t watch much television I’ve recently started getting into various series on DVD – Sherlock and Breaking Bad are two favourites (I swear, not knowing what really happened at the end of Season Two of Sherlock is driving me mad). I had played around with scriptwriting in the past but had never seriously considered it as an option. But when Tara said she thought I might be suited for it, I decided to give it a shot. I’ve now written a film adaptation of The Dark Griffin, and was surprised to find that the format actually did suit me quite well. Next I’m going to try my hand at writing a television pilot, and though there are no guarantees the whole thing has me very excited.

One of the best ways to make your life worthwhile is to find a dream and chase it. I once had a dream to publish a novel, and I managed to make that dream become a reality. But I have always dreamed of something else as well: that one day I would see something I wrote on the screen. Previously I assumed that one of my books would eventually be picked up and adapted, but now it might be that I’ll be writing the script myself. It begins here, with a notebook full of scrawled handwriting, but it could end in Hollywood.

I’m aware all this sounds a tad grandiose. But if you aim high you’ll try harder. Before you can do something, you have to dream it.

Wish me luck! I’ll post further developments here, naturally.

~KJT, dreaming grand dreams and sporting a horrible sunburn

Neato text ornament here