Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Body bashing

I have taken myself off to the beach for a few weeks to get my groove back. And so far, so good. It's amazing what a couple of body bashes in the ocean can do for the soul.

Took me a couple of days to settle in but so far I have written about 23 pages of my screenplay, have started work on a new play, and have read The Gathering by Anne Enright which was fabulous. I have also taken my poor uncared for body on some long walks on the beach and am generally having fun doing not much at all.

Of course for this privilege I had to engage with the family for a couple of days in brisvegas which was, you know, enough for me to know why I live two states away.

My new play is a children's play – yes, I know, what the … (can't swear in children's plays which is quite offputting) and it is unabashedly commercial and hopefully will earn me at least a few dollars. So far it has fairies, dragons, and a girl with a firm attachment to a whistle. How can this not be a winner?

I have also started reading The Raw Shark Texts by Stephen Hall which is fabulously whacked and has me with a confused and intrigued look on my face as I read it.

And that is all the news fit to print.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Dave Hour

I've been reading The Vertical Hour by David Hare. I read the first half in the bath a couple of days ago and haven't been bothered to read the other half. I don't think it recovered from the second scene when the student Dennis tells his lecturer Nadia "But I'm in love with you. Surely you have noticed". Where do you go from there? Certainly not to the countryside to talk about the Iraq war. I'm unbelievably disappointed in this play. David Hare did some brilliant things in the past few years with Stuff Happens and The Permanent Way and now he seems to have lost the plot. What's the problem Dave? Do you want to talk about it? I'm here for you Dave. Really, I am.

And …

I've also got to go see Kindertransport
here at some point over the next few days before I head off next Friday to the homeland and see the family.

Thinking

I'm also thinking about writing some children's plays. Just a thought. I think it would be a happy experience. I'm probably wrong but that is what I'm thinking.

Fine lines

So I've got Act One finished fro the new play Good World. I just have to get Act Two done by Monday so I can send it here so that I can go to Canberra in July to work on it in freezing cold weather. It's a fine line because they want a draft that is ready for workshop but not a draft that is ready for production so I have to make it good but not finished. Fine lines ahead people. Act accordingly.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Pacing

I'm also up to page 21 of my script for this and it's all going quite nicely. I think I'm going to use the whole month to write it so I do about 7 pages every 4 days or so. It's quite nice to pace myself. It's actually quite odd for me. Of course as soon as I started I came up with a great idea for a play which I really want to get started on but am satisfying the impulse by making notes in my moleskin notebook.

Unemployed and loving it

Well, I had two mental health days off from work on Tuesday and Wednesday from the crappy cash job and was told late yesterday afternoon not to come back. I mean it's only a temp job and they ARE allowed to fire me within the hour but still that's freaking brutal. Good thing I HATED the job and didn't want to go back and my mood has gone from my life is slipping away from me and I will never achieve anything I want to - to - WOO HOO! Life is great and all is well with everything if only I could solve the Tibet problem.

On my mental health days I was working on rewrites of Good World which I'm hoping to have a new draft done by Monday. And on both my mental health days it was like pulling teeth – I couldn't find a way in, I didn't think I knew these characters and it all seemed a little much. But then last night sans job it all started to happen. I started writing some new scenes and I gave them a new space to work in and things started to get going.

Good World is about two sisters who have succumbed to their fear and how they can turn terror into fear and then fear back into hope. The first draft turned out a lot funnier than I thought it would which I really liked. This draft is looking a lot darker but I'm hoping I can keep some of the humour. Onwards and upwards people.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Trawling

This I'm finding is making my day at the cash job go quicker. Go through the archives. He proves that most men can be liked and hated at exactly the same time.

Next

As mentioned previously, I've signed up to here for the month of April. I was also signed up last November to the write a play in a month thing and then I didn't write a play in a month. Although, in February I did write a play in 3 days so maybe these things are just in the wrong month for me.

But I haven't quite given up on writing a screenplay in the month of April. I've been coming up with ideas for screenplays in the last few months and I have one that I really want to do. It's a tight ensemble piece that is set over a weekend (and no, all references to The Big Chill are not needed or wanted thanks) and I think, I think … Well, I better get my money's worth out of the groovy software I just bought.

I'm going to spend this morning trying to put finger to laptop and see where I get. What else is there to do on a Sunday morning?

Update

Quick update post.

  1. Finished the rewrite/putting together of The Cleaning Station and got it off to here for their competition. It's not as good as I need it to be but it's all in one piece.
  2. Have not managed to do much else since I finished that on Thursday.

Have signed up to here for the month of April and have not managed to get much done at all. (Are you starting to spot a pattern here?)