Exploring All Forms of Writing
I was offered my first professional writing contract in the 1980s – a two novel deal writing ‘bonkbusters’ for a major publishing house. It was in the days when vanity publishing was frowned upon and only traditional publishing gave an author credibility. This was long before Amazon invented Kindle.
I thought I was made for life.
I bought myself a very early model of a word processor, stocked up with stationery and spent every hour when I wasn’t working for a bank earning the money that paid the mortgage writing.
50,000 words into the first book, disaster struck. I fell off a stool cleaning kitchen windows and broke two vertebrae. I underwent medical treatment for nearly two years, three months of which were spent in a hospital bed.
You can’t write a novel with a lined pad and pencils lying flat on your back. Sadly I had to break my contract, and although the publishing house was very understanding, my confidence hit rock bottom.
I stopped writing novels.
Fast forward to the Noughties. Our kids had grown and were successfully supporting themselves. Suddenly our most precious commodity – time – was flowing gently with us instead of like a torrent against us. We travelled extensively and experienced so much.
It gave me time to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life – retire early or make the move into creative work. I started attending many different adult education classes. That’s when I spotted the notice for a one-off opportunity that was being offered by the local arts trust.
A well-respected theatre director was running a two-day course on scriptwriting. I’d not written any scripts since I was at school, but I already knew writing was my future.
The course was exhausting. I felt like the tiniest toddler at nursery. The attendees were asked to prepare either film or TV scripts, or radio or stage plays ready for review by Justin Ukrainski, then a coach with the great British TV screenwriter and producer Paul Abbott’s production company Abbot Vision.
First, though, we had to pitch our ideas to him. In 90 seconds I had to get him excited by a six-part drama series aimed at prime-time (8pm BBC1 Sunday evenings) and have it approved. My pitch was for a series aimed at women, based around a drop-in lunchtime club for the elderly, both funny and dramatic. The series is called The Monday Club.
A month later I had written the 90 minute pilot script, Justin approved it, and I entered it into a prestigious writing competition, BAFTA Rocliffe. Six weeks later it was shortlisted, one of the final three which were going forward to the UK Scriptwriters Festival.
Again, I thought I was made! How wrong can one be! It didn’t win, but it did open so many doors.
I had suddenly found a form of writing in which I excelled. I had always, before, maintained my dreams of one day writing that epic novel little realising that the more technical form of screenwriting would suit my storytelling skills better.
A script does not just interact with one person. It is a blueprint that is centre to every production. Within every script are instructions for the director, actors, the CGI artists, designers, graphic artists, location mangers, continuity, costumiers, gaffers – you name the trade, they are all part of the team which extrapolates instructions from the script.
More importantly, the producers raise the finance based on it. Professional productions are extremely expensive to make so a script must have commercial appeal.
Scriptwriting is a technical form of writing which follows a set pattern, and the script is one of the series of documents including one-pagers, outlines and treatments that all get productions made.
More competition success followed. I networked hard and it was at a networking event in Poole, Dorset, nine years ago, that I first met my now business partners, Tim Clague and Danny Stack. In 2014 we came together to make a live action family film called Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg?
We formed the production company Nelson Nutmeg Pictures Limited and suddenly found ourselves on a conveyor belt that saw the film having its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in 2015, and subsequently selling internationally, even into China.
Tim and Danny were already well known within our industry, but I had to learn on the hoof – and the greatest lesson I learnt is that storytelling is key, so finding a story’s natural medium is critical.
You cannot attract an audience without a great story and memorable characters told well.
In April 2017, as I was waiting for our next script to go through its many processes, I found myself with four weeks on my hands. I’d already had an idea that would be better told as a contemporary women’s novel, and in October 2017 Normal Dating was self-published. Self-publishing now has a strong, and well respected, market.
Even better, self-publishing gives me the freedom to combine and control my two, very time-consuming, roles.
I’d finally come back full circle. It may be thirty years later than I expected, but my first novel, from its sales, is already entertaining a lot of readers proving my choice for this particular story was right. I even have high hopes of one day having it adapted into a RomCom film.
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Jan Caston lives and works in Jersey, Channel Islands, relying on every aspect of modern technology to handle her very busy days.
Normal Dating – the first of The Normal Series trilogy – is now available via Amazon or on order from Waterstones from April 2018.
If you would like to know more about Jan’s work, click:
For books: www.jancaston.com
For film production: www.nelsonnutmegpictures.com
For Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg? (PG 2015) www.nelsonnutmeg.com
Love is in the air at Olivia’s boozy dinner party. Who is this Ambrose everyone’s talking about? Vera can’t even remember him being there.
She can remember people moaning about how difficult it is to meet someone nice nowadays.
And why is Olivia, normally the Town Gossip, being suspiciously silent? Is it her love life, or something far more serious?
When Olivia comes up with a crazy plan to open The Normal Dating Agency to save the dress shop she runs with her sister, Angelina, from bankruptcy… and persuades Vera to run it, none of the three friends anticipate where love will strike next…
… but that’s what happens with NORMAL DATING.
Category: How To and Tips, On Writing
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