How DO prodigiously creative people do it? We all have the same hours in the day. We have the day job, the lovely people in our lives and then maybe stuff like making music and art and enjoying other people’s! Rather than wonder / despair and feel inadequate, the only way is to see myselfContinue reading “Buzz In & Out”
Tag Archives: writing
Make Work. Bring something into existence.
It turns out I am writing a novel. The first such attempt in maybe 13 years. I had forgotten – hiding in my scripts and what they demand of me – that this process plays a different instrument inside. I hear a different music. Another thing, quieter and much, much stronger, is happening. And IContinue reading “Make Work. Bring something into existence.”
“The Pitlochry Play” #2: ‘Skin in the Game’
Due to some unexpected cancellations in the diary, and some jiggling about of other stuff I am a major over-achiever: October’s expenses are begun, there’s mugs soaking in the bubbles, and here I am. I’ve just sent another thank you letter to one of my funders for the “Pitlochry Play”, and as I wiped theContinue reading ““The Pitlochry Play” #2: ‘Skin in the Game’”
The Pitlochry Play #1: the sound of water
I’m here in Pitlochry, land of Pitlochry Festival Theatre and much, much more. Today’s day 3 of my playwrighting residency at the theatre and I’m rolling around like a pig in poo at the luxury of all this writing space and thinking time. I’m not here to share anything about my “process” with you, but I can’tContinue reading “The Pitlochry Play #1: the sound of water”
Wanted a Genie, found a Muse
Lovely news – I’ve just been awarded a writers’ residency at the fantastic Pitlochry Festival Theatre to start work on a new play. And it all started because I couldn’t get to Mull and in the (relatively) short time my child was away with relatives. In July, I’d been facing the standard single parent dilemma:Continue reading “Wanted a Genie, found a Muse”
Glittered Knickers…
I love it when a plan you never knew you had comes together. An old friend up at Bath Uni decided we needed an International Women’s Day entertainment night in Widcombe. It’s over 20 years since I did one of these, back at the students’ union, so when she said, “Want to do something forContinue reading “Glittered Knickers…”
A Song & Dance for your details…
A much-loved but unproduced theatre script, A Bit of a Song & Dance, made the BBC Drama Script Room long-list! They had a record number of entries, and a phenomenal amount to read, so I’m especially pleased – and grateful! As all writers out there know, there’s subjectivity in all of this, too, so I’mContinue reading “A Song & Dance for your details…”
1 year on; 3 new screenplays & a magic cauldron
Ha, make em laugh, eh? More like, make yourself laugh. I just spotted an old post from a year ago: The Awful Art of Unwriting. It’s a confessional, where I admit to not having done a new spec screenplay (as opposed to a play) for about 5 years. In the last year, I’ve written three: one comedyContinue reading “1 year on; 3 new screenplays & a magic cauldron”
9 1/2 weeks. OK, 12. But I couldn’t resist.
If you were born after maybe 1975, you might not get it. But if you’re roughly my age (a grand forty-four and a half) you might now be hearing a dodgy John Taylor* theme tune and getting memory-whiffs of a tousled, sweaty Kim Basinger staring in a confused fashion at all the identical rows ofContinue reading “9 1/2 weeks. OK, 12. But I couldn’t resist.”
Fingery-Pokery – The Artist’s Way
I heard about it. I saw it in a friend’s vast personal library. He said “Here, take it.” It sat on my shelf for a year. I started it. Wow. I’m reading / doing / taking / following The Artist’s Way. It’s a course in a book. I’m fed up of feeling my work isContinue reading “Fingery-Pokery – The Artist’s Way”
Gill Kirk, scriptwriter 