This is a good sign, I’m sat at the computer within half an hour of getting up with coffee brewing in the caffetiere at the side, Stealing Beauty soundtrack playing in the background (Portishead’s Glory Box at present) and through watery eyes I am making my way over to the play currently known as Bones. Along with every other conceivable title I have given it. I haven’t so much as given it the time of day of late but merely thrown small stones at it to see if it still lives. It does, just.
Having seen my first play of the year last night, Martin Crimp’s The Country at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington, I gave Bones the honour of time and attention until 3am this morning. Thanks must go to Tim Fountain’s So You Want To Be a Playwright? which I acquired from a charity bookshop in Palmers Green a few days ago. I never know whether to stay away from these kind of ‘Self Help’ guides or not – preferring to allow myself to find my own way through this, develop my own ‘voice’ my own way with the odd bit of guidance here and there. There must be something in this one, as I sat in a coffee shop in Crouch End yesterday afternoon under what I could only describe as ‘stage lighting’ (a dimly lit bulb at the back of the store) and rewrote the scene I am working on; and hereby breaking one of Mr Fountain’s rules in the process: never go back to what you have just written, always keep moving forward. If you don’t know what you’ve already done, why are you writing it in the first place? Well, let’s see…
Prior to my last encounter with the work I have been molding for the past three months, I have a day job and have endured the Christmas and New Year holidays. I’m currently on my first two week break from work in nearly two years and spent most of the past week dealing with payroll problems and none payment of wages. As any writer may tell you, it’s amazing how ‘real life’ ™ can take over your life en masse.
Sometimes a break is what you need; a bit of clarity is often a gift worth receiving. I wrote more last night than I had in a long time and have the impetus to now get this thing completed. I already have ideas for the next one brewing and by the time I get to the end, hopefully it won’t have turned into a stale cup of coffee.
