The highlights of catching up on Week 7 have watching ‘The Detectorists’ and finally getting some feedback on the 2nd draft of my screenplay.

‘The Detectorists’, which will be the focus of a collaborative writing exercise, I found to be a reasonably enjoyable watch. I found the pace a little slow and the writing a little on the nose but the strong cast make up for it. Watching it it did bring to mind the difference between UK and US comedy. A show like this would never work in the US, it’s too meandering and not punchy enough and you can tell it’s written by one writer.

Receiving feedback on my screenplay was nice for 2 reasons.

The first being that the feedback was very positive and it’s not a steaming turd of an idea. Phew! Two classmates however rightfully identified the 3rd act was underdeveloped and needs a clearer resolution. I also had a 1.5 hr long chat with the course tutor talking through the strengths and weaknesses of the idea, which was really useful, and gave me lots of food for thought. Have committed to altering the structure of the intro, reworking the 3rd act and writing the next draft as a ‘comedy pass’.

The second reason was that, having fallen behind, this was the first contact I’ve had with my fellow students. I’ve not felt that connected to the course and so it was great to get some interaction. One of the main reasons of signing up to do a masters was to connect with like minded aspiring writers so if this first 8 weeks is my season 1, my character has learned that falling behind is shit and that in season 2, I’m going to need to learn to manage my time better so I stay caught up…