getting feedback from a writing group

Sometimes feedback is so spot on that it's almost funny. Amongst positive responses to the writing style of my short film script, the following elements were picked up: that there was a key scene that was too reminiscent of a particularly striking advert a few years ago (everyone in the group remembered it, and so did I once it had been pointed out - I think they call that unconscious plagiarism) and that the two main characters were written at different levels of character development and complexity and almost belonged to different films. This was really funny once I saw it. What had happened in the frenzy of writing the whole thing straight off was that I had started writing a funny, snappy five minute film, featuring the first character, and then once it became clear to me that the film was more like ten minutes long, I had allowed the second character to steal the show. He was a warmer and more complex character and elicited more audience response.
I got the feedback a while ago and have left the script aside for a while. I came back to it today and, with the help of the detailed feedback, I think I can take it back to a five minute script and work a bit on developing the main character. What a privilege it is to have a group of people giving such astute feedback. It could have taken me ages to notice all the things they picked up.

short film script

It's such a good feeling when you get on a bit of a roll. I sat down today and wrote the first draft of a ten minute short film, straight off. I'd been jotting down notes for a few days after getting the idea last week, and now I've sent off a whole draft to a few trusted people for comments and feedback (which helps me to put it aside for a while so I can see it better myself). When I say 'a few trusted people' maybe I should point out that I'm in a writers' group that meets regularly for feedback and discussion of whatever work we are doing - so I've sent it to them. (I was going to say 'a small writers' group, but that conjures up quite the wrong impression.)
I know I'll regret sending it out as such a rough first draft when I see all the inconsistencies and jarring, clumsy over-written stuff. But if I didn't send it today it would be too late for the next group and I'd have tinkered with it so much I might have abandoned it by then. All this is irrelevant to me at the moment because I'm just so pleased to have got in the zone again. There were a million other things I should have done today but instead, once I got writing I just couldn't stop (heaves deep sigh of contentment).
Not only that but, thanks to the delights of frolicking in my private blog and the happy coincidence of talking to a director/actress /friend who wants to do a one-woman show, I have also had a great idea, complete with title, for a one-woman show, all full of light and dark and all that, and I've been writing daily snippets towards that with suspicious ease.
Long may it continue.

new online screenwriting course

I recently found an anonymous Google video version of 'Feis' (a 10 minute film I wrote) that's totally out of synch, sound-wise, and pre-dates the final grading. No big deal, but it's prompted me to get a better copy out there. If you're interested you can view it via this link on my sidebar.
Feis is also to be included, amongst several other short films, in 'The 'Craft of Screenwriting' online course to be run by New Writing South, tutored by Julie Everton and accredited by University of Sussex. The course, that provides support for writing a short film script, is in two modules and starts this October. I went on the 'live' version of this course some time ago at Lighthouse and this is where 'Feis' was first developed with the lovely, helpful Julie as tutor.
There's lots of useful material in the online course, including different drafts of the scripts and original ideas, to compare with finished products. I found it really interesting to look back at my own early versions - very different from where it ended up.