BenPaddon.co.uk

Michelle recently reminded me of The Importance Of Planning. Planning definitely isn’t what I would call one of my talents, or at least it isn’t something I’ve been particularly good at in the past. But that’s something I’m changing. I’ve gotten off of my arse to do a lot of important things recently. One of the most important things has been getting the ball rolling on learning to drive, something I thought I’d done before I went to England but it turns out I booked an appointment to renew the Drivers License I don’t have yet, so a week ago I booked my new appointment.

That’s not what this blog post is about, though. No, this blog post is about my writing. Michelle reminded me of the importance of having a portfolio of writing samples (she and David have been asking me for writing samples for about two weeks now, as there’s a chance I may be writing an episode of ./shutdown at some point), which is something I have always wondered about - do I need to write a bunch of full-length screenplays? What goes into a writing portfolio? My research yielded few results, but Michelle (she’s smart, is Michelle) tells me that a writing portfolio really only needs a handful of scripts maybe 3 or 4 pages in length that act as examples of my writing.

Well, I have a ton of short scenes I’ve written. They’re just not in script format.

Last night I sat down and started adapting some of my ficlets into screenplay format. It’s an interesting process - not everything I’ve put across in the (admittedly minimal) narrative can be just transplanted over, so I have to somehow set the same tone, send the same messages without necessarily using the same words or (in extreme cases) the context. Writing screenplays is, i think, more about writing what you can see than what you can feel.

Or possibly that’s bollocks.

I’m enjoying taking these teeny-tiny stories I wrote and adapting them for a different medium. I’m not doing all of them; mostly I’m focusing on dialogue-driven stories, but I did flesh out Ottoman’s Treasure a little (renaming it “Bard” in an effort to make it sound less like a Nicholas Cage movie). That was interesting, because it focuses more on crushing disappointment than on humour, so it’s very different from my usual shtick.

I was originally planning on only adapting six of these ficlets. I think I may benefit from adapting a few more. It couldn’t hurt, right?

I know a couple of other writer-buddies occasionally read my blog, so any feedback or suggestions you guys could give me about what else should/could go in the portfolio would be great. I’m planning on including the latest version of the Jump Leads pilot script, and possibly the Writers Bible too. I could include some of my ficlets in their original form as well - probably best not to use the ones I’m adapting, though. What do you think?

When I went to San Diego for Comic-Con last month I was lucky enough to find some great accommodation at a perfect price - free. Michelle and David were happy to put me up, even though they were in Europe for the first two days of the Con. They were very much there for the weekend though, and we had a fantastic time hanging out. We were all thinking the same thing - “Why don’t we do this more often?” - to which the response is “Well, what’s stopping us?” Last Monday (the 11th) happened to be Michelle’s birthday, and she planned a karaoke night on Friday. So on Friday I went into work for three hours, and then hopped in a taxi to Burbank Train Station and, from there, caught a train to San Diego. Twice in the space of a month. Crazy, eh?

What a weekend, though. Karaoke, Tropic Thunder, Rock Band, and spending time with people I don’t see nearly enough of. I just wish I could do it every weekend.

Perhaps the nicest thing one person can say to another is, “Have you lost weight?” And it’s something I’ve been hearing on and off for the past month or so. Michelle asked me if I’d lost weight when we had lunch back in July about a week or two before Comic-Con, for instance. A couple of people at work have commented on it as well. Most recently was this weekend, when Michelle flat out told me that I’ve lost weight.

After months of not really looking at myself in the mirror for fear of what I might see, I had a proper look last night before I went to bed. And I was not as disgusted as I expected to be.

Now I’m sure there are people out there who’ll think to themselves, “But Ben, you’ve always been very tall and kind of thin. Did you really put on that much weight?” - the answer is, “No, probably not.” I put on a noticable amount of weight, but I’m not gigantic. I just started to get a bit of a spare tyre around the midriff. The last two times I’ve gone back to visit family in England they’ve made a point of constantly reminding me that I’m a little tubbier, though, with Westy in particular making a very conscious effort to crush my spirit and leave me an empty husk of a human being (his excuse was “If I make fun of you it’ll motivate you to lose weight,” which is bollocks). Similarly the first thing my Mum said when I visited her back in March was, “Oh my word, look at the size of you!”, which was… well, not nice. In fact the only person to say anything nice about my physique was Patrick, who said I had broader shoulders (which was probably a more polite way of saying “You’re fat,” but he was nice about it so I’m giving him points anyway).

It’s another example of England making me feel inferior, and playing on my insecurities. I’m better than that, and I’m going to prove it.