Writing a play is a strange beast.
Every time I sit down with a new idea to start a new script, I always seem to have forgotten how it went last time. If it’s going well I think back to the ‘struggles’ of the last one. If it’s going badly all I can recall is the ease with which the last one came and how I must certainly have lost the ability to write since then.
Sometimes I am writing to a brief, sometimes an idea has just compelled me to get typing.
Often the run up to starting is as fraught as the actual starting – I can sometimes tell I have an idea brewing when I find myself watching my box set of Victoria Wood’s dinnerladies. While I am a huge fan of Wood and she was an inspiration to me when I started out, I don’t write like her so this need to watch her sitcom is pretty odd. But.
Sometimes I get totally overwhelmed by an idea and think about it morning, noon and night. Others, I just sit down with a bit of a thought and start. I rarely know what the end of my story will be as I write the first lines. I can’t settle without a title and, on a bad day, can convince myself that altering the font size and paragraph spacing does definitely count as work.
But why am I telling you this? Well. I am about to start writing a new play for production in April 2011 at The People’s Theatre. I have a brief, I have a deadline for draft #1. I have watched dinnerladies (again) so am good to go!
I have decided to keep a record of the process this time. From first draft to production, providing I have enough to say on the matter.
If no-one reads it, then it’s a useful tool for me to look back on. If they do, it might (I hope) be an interesting insight.
I’ll be as honest as I can – there will no doubt be days when I decide I am a talentless imbecile and days when I think it might, possibly, be ok maybe (the highest praise I am likely to afford myself). One single day might encompass both – it’s a very up-and-down thing, I find.
Right then. That’s enough preamble. I have a play to write.
Wish me luck …
Luck is duly wished. You’ll get there…you always do.
Good luck, it BETTER be great, no pressure
No really, good luck
What a good idea….double whammy….genuinely interesting for us to glimpse ..The Process.. and what goes through that mind of yours….and of course, yet another device for you to further avoid actually writing….result.
Cheers John.
Ah Tim, you know me so well …!