Frank Mc Court said, to have a miserable catholic childhood was one thing, but to have a miserable irish catholic childhood was much better – well okay, I paraphrased the great man. But he is right in scriptwriting terms. When my scriptwriter teacher learned that I had lots of experience of death, she was delighted, and experience of a friend in Australia with an eating disorder; she was over the moon. So when I mentioned I had experience of suicide she was speechless.
Apparently that means I have a mine of information to dig from. Lots of scriptwriters leave college at 22 after growing up in safe suburbia, with no life experience or personal trauma. So to have experienced life in all positives and negatives is a massive advantage. When all the crap was hitting the fan through my twenties – I should have revelled in it, safe in the knowledge, that one day it would make a great script 🙂
Every piece I write from now on, is going to end in death from one cause or another. Or as Robert says, where the Irish feel most comfortable talking about – death.
My script is almost finished – I had to write a 20 minute script on any topic – yes, there is death in it, but its a black comedy and quite funny I think. It signifies that I have almost made it to half way in my masters. Which I feel, is a huge event in itself.
Without redundancy, I would never, NEVER, have contemplated having the ability to write a script. Now rest easy, you won’t see my name on the credits in Casualty just yet – but I have achieved something, in writing one for my course.
