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Yippee, the blog has had over 600 hits in nine days! I am delighted by that, it feeds my writer’s narcissistic need for an audience. Being a Luddite I still have no idea about feeds or links or have been able to enlarge and upload a copy of the Pub Quiz poster but still many people are reading or have read or glanced at the blog. There’s not been that many times I can claim a writing success but I insist that this is one of them, so three cheers for me and a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my poorly punctuated ramblings.

More good news, we have an Asram. I’ve not met him yet but hear good things from Psyche. I have looked at his photo and agency details and he looks the part, can’t wait to see him what he brings to the play. (more soon)

Unexpected bonus of the workshops and development process of Pub Quiz has been the improvement in the scope and ambition of my new play ideas. I have three new ideas for plays sketched and a couple underway. Having Pub Quiz developed has been a real shot in the arm for me. I am hoping that interest from Pub Quiz if it does well, (oh please, dear God above) will mean another commission from somewhere. I am lucky in that all my theater commissions have been commissioned from a synopsis and have been developed in-house and that’s how I like to work, with guidance and input and a sense of who I am writing for. I think it would be hard to polish a theatre script without collaboration from the director and the company who plan on staging it but if nobody bites, that’s what I will have to do.

So for the time being I am feeling confident which is good but it won’t last and I will continue to balance precariously between self belief and doubt. I believe that a writer needs to be their own harshest critic and biggest fan. You have to write with confidence and the belief that you can and will pull your idea off better than anyone else but be critical enough to listen and filter (even reject) feedback and to work on your own to improve, rewrite and polish. As a writer you commit to working on your own, largely unpaid, on ideas that might never see the light of day and yet you have to tell each of those stories with as much compassion and commitment as if it had a mega bucks production deal attached. In short, you have to have insufferable pride in what you write.

I once heard that a script is not finished but merely abandoned and despite eight drafts so far, I know that the production process will continue to highlight failings in my script and improvements that need to be made, but at some point you have to say, enough is enough.

Right now it feels very much the calm before the storm. The final draft was finished months ago and apart from a few tweaks the script will be signed off for rehearsals. I always listen to actors reading my work with one eye on changes and my hand on the red pen of doom. Yes, I feel positive now because I think that this is the best script I’ve done, the time and input it has been given to develop and all the great strengths that are being brought to the script to get it off the page has made it good. Once in rehearsals and in production I will become painfully aware of everything that falls short of the mark. I hear each badly structured line thud to the floor, every lame gag belly flop, and cringe as my subtext prances around the stage flashing its nether regions. I will want to make more changes and improvements, it never ends and yet it must.

Writing is mostly a thankless task and also a compulsion. On a regular basis I note that I have suffered enough humiliation and rejection to last a lifetime and swear to give it all up, but like a grubby addict all it takes is one more hit of encouragement, one more promise of fulfillment and you’re wired up enough to go back to touting your bargain basement wares. So if anyone is reading this who is holding a sack load of commissioning money and who wants to make my day, I have three corking ideas outlined and ready to go. Don’t be shy…

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Tags: commissions, ideas, plays, playwright, Pub Quiz