Weekly Post

For some reason, I am currently only managing to write one post a week. How strange. I will endeavour to write more regularly in future.

However, despite the inactivity of this blog, I have been very active in terms of my own writing, though I have to confess that IV still isn't finished. "Almost" is all I can really say at the moment. Nearly finished draft 1a, and then it's on to draft 1b, before the fun begins with the second draft. Oh joy! Isn't it weird though how, even though I'm trying to concentrate on writing this one thing, other ideas keep popping into my head, pleading with me to write them instead. The Dorcas idea is practically wetting its pants with desparation, but that has to wait til November. And I've had a few ideas for short stories, and for turning play ideas into short stories until I get round to writing them as plays. So at least my procrastination is productive.

I got a short but sweet rejection email from 'Podcastle' for Lupus, which could be due to the fact that it's not quite fantasy enough, or its too rude, or too short, or its just not their cup of tea. Oh well. Still haven't heard about Calypso yet from the other place. Two weeks and counting. I am so not a patient person.

I went to see Chess in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, which was really brilliant, though was annoyed that Svetlana has an extra song in this production than she did when I played her. Josh Groban, Adam Pascal, Kerry Ellis and David Bedella were amazing. Marti Pellow was not.

Sumo review

Well, the thing on Saturday at Sumo went quite well I thought, though I'm not sure how much money they must have raised, as everyone seemed to be there for free. Oh well.

My mono seemed to go well - the whole room was silent listening, so I took that as a good sign. Cat, my actress, was really good too - I'm going to have to write more stuff for her, as she's great! Drank too much and spent a small fortune; I must learn to manage my money better. Still, we were there for 7 hours, so it was a bit inevitable that we would drink too much. We all went for Japanese afterwards, which was the perfect end to a pretty successful evening.

I won a book on the raffle about feminisim during the first world war (how random?!), and have taken it as a sign that I should really get to work on my 'Munitionettes' story, which is about ... feminism during the first world war.

However, need to get Inter Vivos out of the way first. Going to go work on it now, like a good girl.

Shameless Plug

If anyone out there isn't busy on Saturday (1st September 2007) and are in the Leicester area, feel free to come down to Sumo for the Ladyfest fundraiser that I'm involved with. There's going to be readings and short sketches and extracts from plays and specially written ten-minute performances, as well as live music from a number of different bands, from 4:30pm onwards. An actress friend of mine is going to be performing Lupus for me, which should be good (fingers crossed!). I think she's just about gotten over the fact that it's 'rude'...
Anyway, it costs £4 to get in.

Back online again

After my holiday from work and the bank holiday weekend, this is my first day back at a computer with an internet connection, and after going through the 57 emails I had received since Wednesday (most of which were spam), I've just gotten around to posting on my blog. It's been a busy few days. I'll try to recap here what I've been up to.

Wednesday: Awoke with acne (I'm 26 for Pete's sake!). Had to catch an early train to Beeston, to get to Nottingham University for the first day of the Momentum Festival. I attended a workshop by some people attached to the Royal Court, which was ok - basically there was a Court writer there called Alex and we had to read a couple of scenes from her published play and then write our own version. This struck me as a bit egotistical on her part and a bit embarrassing on mine (what if she was outraged by what I had done to her play?). Anyway, that was all ok. And then there was some lunch (thank God for Boots) and then there was the 'Script Slam' session where everyone got about ten minutes with the director and two pro-actors and they basically performed the extract of your play for you. Mine seemed to go well; the director was really good, and the actors kept saying they liked the extract (the male actor kept reading lines from my script at inappropriate moments saying he liked the language, which I found a bit embarrassing, though I guess it was a compliment). Then I even got to act in Sabrina's play, because she needed three actors and the director designated me the 'confident person' to do it. That was weird, receiving professional direction whilst being pulled about by two actors. So all in all the Script Slam was great. I have more of an idea of what to do with Hoodies now. I knew before that I needed to rewrite the Naomi and Jase scenes, and the Mouse=wood glue thing is so cliche it's ridiculous. But now I also need to figure out what happens to Brick and Sandie too, and what their journey is. After that, it was time to jump on a train back to Leicester, and then into a cab (with the world's slowest cabbie who didn't know where Fosse Park was) to go to the Short Story awards thing, where I received a 'commended' certificate and met loads of cool people (including my secret blog idol). I was a bit disappointed about not winning, seeing as it would have meant I could paid off some credit card and afford to have a haircut (finally), but I didn't really expect that I would win. Glad I didn't have to read my story out though, as it's quite rude.

Thursday was a bit less manic, and acne had mysteriously cleared up over night. I attended a presentation about the development of a short film, led by EM Media, which was really interesting. I've never really thought about getting into film before, but the process of pitch to finished product was really inspiring. There was also a session on promenade, or site specific theatre, which again was really good, as it's sort of like the opposite of regular theatre writing, and you're really encouraged to think big. So I spent the afternoon setting the myth of Echo and Narcissus in the grounds of University of Nottingham, which was good (though I think I was a little too bossy, sorry Alex!).

Friday: Early start again, but only because we felt guilty for skivving the 'Bottomless Coffee' session on Thursday. Attended a session held by the Gob Squad about performance art and installations and about generating ideas, which was good, and then a really excellent session by Jack Bradley about how to structure a play and about finding your story and the elements of a play you should really consider. I think this session is going to help loads when I come to redraft Hoodies. Also went to see Dec's play, which had a professional performance in the main theatre, and it was really good, so much better than the first draft. Well done!

My weekend was pretty lazy. I met up with Cat to talk about the event at Sumo (she will be performing the story I wrote for the Short Story awards at the Ladyfest fundraiser event at Sumo on Sat 1st Sept), and had barbeque, and made some really lovely double chocolate chip cookies which I'm now wishing I had bought to work to munch on this afternoon.

Rehearsals for Witches of Eastwick are going well. I'm a bit nervous because we're running act two on Wednesday, and we've not practiced my solo bit in the gospel number and so I'll be doing it for the first time in performance-like conditions, and I'm not really sure what note it starts on!

So that's about it really. As you can see, I've also figure out how to do that link thing in my blog, so you can reference anything I've written about. Well, I think it's cool anyway, but I have a feeling I'm easily pleased!

Busy

Well, I've decided that the only way to get stuff done is to give myself 'Daily Writing Goals' so that I actually do something every day and don't get overwhelmed by things.
So this lunchtime, I'm going to figure out what the Hell I'm going to do for Sumo, as not only is the deadline looming and the others are all wanting to know what I'm up to, but my actress is also apparently getting a bit arsey over the fact that she's not seen a script yet. If she's going to go off on one, I might just do it myself. But I'd rather not, obviously.
On my train to rehearsal, I've set myself the goal of planning what is going to happen in the chapter I'm trying to write for Inter Vivos, as I think that's what's putting me off actually putting pen to paper. So I shall plan it on the train, ready to write tomorrow.
It's the awards thing on Wednesday for the Short Story comp, and I'm not sure what to wear. I know that's a really dumb thing to worry about, but I'm going straight there from Momentum (where an extract of my play is being workshopped with a couple of pro-actors), and I don't want to turn up in soggy jeans and a jumper when everyone else is wearing ballgowns and dripping in diamonds. I don't really have any options, but I'm taking Alex with me, so at least I won't be the scruffiest there! (only joking, honey!). I'm sure it's not a black tie event, but even so, it'd be nice to make a good first impression and not look like I've literally been dragged through a hedge backwards. Oh well.

Wow, I'm Famous!

http://leicesterbooknews.wordpress.com/short-story-contest/

Dilemma

I received a letter in the post on Saturday morning letting me know that I'd been shortlisted for the Leicester/Leicestershire Short Story contest and was invited to go to some sort of awards do at Borders on 22nd August. This is really cool, and I would be really excited and ranting about what shoes I should wear, etc, except that this is also the date of the one-day writers' residency for Momentum in Nottingham (yes, and my diamond shoes are too tight!).

I can probably make both, if I leave the Momentum day early (which would mean missing Declan's play), though there's no guarentee that I'll make it there on time to the do, and I'd probably be covered in grass and mud and half eaten pork-bears. Alternatively, I could give the do a miss and stay in Nottingham, as I've got a 50% chase of going home without a prize anyway. But it would be good to go and meet some new people, plus I've never been inside the Borders in Fosse Park before. Oh, decisions, decisions!