Post-Manchester

I shouldn't be allowed to go to the theatre. It's too distracting. I went away to Manchester for 2 and a half days for work, hoping to come back with plenty of Inter Vivos written, and I return with 2,500 words of IV, half a short story on Calypso, and two pages of dialogue for a new play. Well, I say 'new'; it's actually the Munitionettes story, but seeing as the novel wasn't going anywhere (and now that I'm a sci-fi/fantasy writer, darlings...) I am writing it as a play.
The Royal Exchange Theatre was a very inspiring space. It's in the round, with 2 galleries looking down on the stage almost like a telescope. Hoodies, in the way that it is written right now, couldn't be staged there, but if I changed the location of the play from loitering outside of a shop to loitering in a park on a kiddies roundabout, maybe add a swing set, it would look wonderful. It's great how you can take one thing you've felt has gone a bit stagnant and flip it and make it fresh again.
The play I saw on Wednesday, The Children's Hour, was a really good, strong production (though the first act was better than the last). As an aside point, it was also nice to have a play with a majority female cast that didn't make a point of the fact that it had a majority female cast, and the actors weren't there simply as someone's wife/daughter/sister/mother. Sometimes these days it seems like the playwright/director/marketing people are trying to Raise Issues when they do a play with women as the main characters, but this was a good story that just so happened to have women characters in it. Kate O'Flynn was particularly impressive as the manipulative school girl Mary.
So anyway. Theatre = good. Inter Vivos is coming along - Nox has met Thaddeus and learned a bit more about The Maiden, so we're edging closer to the start of the final act. I'm getting close to writing one of the scenes that I've been imagining in my head for the past two years, which is exciting. Aside from my day job being knackering, I'm in a really good place creatively so far. I will keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

To Sci-Fi or Not to Sci-Fi

Saturday was spent productively at the Writing Industries Conference in Loughborough. It's all a little bit intimidating thinking about marketing my book and the long slog I will have once I've finished the damn thing to actually get a book deal (if that ever happens), but I'll worry about all that once the writing's finished.

The agent was a lovely bloke who said he liked my writing, and recommended some Sci-Fi authors for me to read. Yes, dear readers, unbeknownst to me, my story is of the sci-fi genre. "But surely you knew what you were writing?" you may ask. Well, not really. I just wrote the story that came into my head, without really thinking of genres as such. I mean, there are lots of authors I admire, most of which are of the sci-fi/fantasy persuasion, but I'm a bit wary about launching myself into this genre. Why? Well, firstly, because it seems a little bit constrictive to be 'labelled' as one thing. What if Inter Vivos is my only sci-fi book, and everything else I write hereafter is erotica, or western romance, or something? What if sci-fi doesn't sell? Second on my list of doubts is that I don't really know of any female sci-fi writers (or any who would care to admit it). So perhaps the market is ripe for a great female sci-fi writer, or perhaps the market isn't ready at all. Thirdly, I don't really know anything about science, let alone science fiction. As I mentioned, the agent was really nice and recommended some sci-fi for me to read, with the promise to send me names of more authors, so at least this last point is something I can do something about.

I think now that playwriting is not so restrictive as book publishing. I mean, you can write plays about anything, without people expecting your next one to be exactly the same (but different) as your last (think Dan Brown as an example). But if Inter Vivos does get published, then it probably means I will have to write Munitionettes as a play or TV drama instead (not necessarily a bad idea).

So yes, the conference gave me lots of food for thought. Was nice to meet people and hobnob and all of that, and learn more about the 'writing for a living' side of writing and how to go about making that happen. Good, but daunting. Will get the book finished first though, and try to push all of this to the back of my mind until then. (I feel like Scarlett O'Hara with her 'I'll think about that tomorrow' attitude).

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.

Momentum 2007

Well, I received my letter from TWP in the post today - no feedback yet, but I've got an invitation to go to a one-day residency which will include a 'script slam' so that some of my work can be performed by professional actors. I wonder how many people will be on this one-day residency, as it will affect the length of the extract and amount of time we can spend on our pieces. I'm looking forward to the festival though, although a few of the sessions look similar from last year. I've just got to try to get some time off work now.

With the letter from TWP firmly stashed in my bag, it's time for a re-write of Hoodies, I think. I'm not happy with the Naomi and Jase storyline, and so need to rewrite that definitely. Also, I think it's a little flat at the minute, so need to add some more conflict/points of tension to make it more dramatic. Not really sure what to do though. Perhaps having the bits I think are the 'best' read by pros will shed some more light into what's not working.

I've decided that I'm going to turn my Munitionettes story into a screenplay. The novel never really took off, but I think there's enough there to make a really good TV drama or something. Maybe even a film.

Lara's story is going nowhere at the minute, so I really need to refocus on that. I think I'm going to write the 'real' story first, and then add the magical/fantasy elements later. At least then I can make sure the heart of the story is strong.

Lucy :-)

My Own Gothic Princess & A Writing Update

Her name is Nox. As a child, she was the first patient of a new procedure of inter vivos heart donation – basically transplanting a heart from a living person into another living person without the donor dying. As she grows up, the heart becomes a burden, and she begins to act irrational, experiencing mood swings and patterns of erratic behaviour (and basically becoming more and more fucked up). Her parents ship her off to a mental asylum, where she mets an old man, who as a prisoner had his eyes forcefully removed in the first experiments for the inter vivos procedure, and now suffers from visions of the sights his ‘eyes’ are seeing, even though they are no longer attached to his body. That’s all I’m giving away so far about my new story, but I’m really enjoying creating this dark world. I think Nox looks a little something like Angelina Jolie in this picture, but younger (except Nox doesn’t spend all her time sitting on a toilet).

So I’m writing this at the moment (well, doing some character work anyhow), along with finally making a start with the World War One story, which is a completely different genre, and finishing off a couple of plays. It’s really refreshing to be writing properly again. I do sometimes feel I’m a little spoilt for choice with what to work on next, but at least boredom/monotony is not going to be an issue (fingers crossed!!).

Imperial War Museum London

Friday saw my first visit to the Imperial War Museum in London, to research my novel set during the First World War. The museum was relatively easy to find, and the staff were extremely helpful; not only were they courteous and polite but they had also set out a pile of relevant books for me to use in preparation for my visit. I got there much later than I had anticipated (after checking out of my hotel), so didn't get nearly half as much done as I would have liked. In fact, I only managed to read and take notes from two books. Both were very useful however, but I do plan to go back at some point, whenever I am next in London. Just a note to anyone planning on going - take your own pencil and pencil sharpener, as you are forbidden to use pen in the Reading Room, and their pencil sharpeners do not work!!

So, what have I discovered? Well, the First World War was pretty much like the Second World War, in terms of price increases, air raids, rationing, Women's Land Army and Munitions work. What I have discovered is that there was a great deal of mistrust in foreigners at the time, in case they were spies, with German shopkeepers living in the UK being targetted violently by local gangs. There were lots of 'War Babies' as Victorian sensibilites went out of the window and people adopted a 'live for today' attitude. There was a great pressure on men to enlist in the army, and those that didn't were punished, not just by the government, but by the general public too. Working class women had money for the first time and spent it on cosmetics and other luxury items. Women served in the police force, as tram and bus drivers, blacksmiths and in other jobs that had traditionally been classed as 'male'.

So what now? Well, I think it's high time I started actually writing the bloody thing! I think I have enough to start with, so I need to collect my story together, based on the information I have collected here, and make a start on it. I'll keep you posted...

Lucy :-)

Research, Research, Research!

I'm really excited at the minute. Not only am I going to see 'Wicked' (the musical tale of the two witches of Oz) tomorrow, but I'm also going to spend Friday at the Imperial War Museum, trying to find as much information on the role of women during the Great War, the Suffragette movement, and munitions factories as humanly possible!The people at the museum whom I have already spoken to seem really nice and helpful, so I'm planning on having a very productive day. I'm looking forward to reading the diaries by women of the period to try and see what everyday life was like for them during this period of conflict. I've also been informed about the Genesis website, which is run by the Women's Library (which I also plan to visit at some point). This website is a database of all the literature around the country relating to women's experiences throughout history. For anyone who is interested, the website address is: http://www.genesis.ac.uk/.

The Creation of my Novel

Ok, I got the idea for my novel after hearing about some elderly ladies’ magazine’s short story competition, where they wanted people to submit historical stories and were offering £1000 as prize money. Well, a grand is a grand, so I set about racking my brains for a historical setting for my story. I decided upon the early 1900s, as I had written my A-Level History coursework on the economic and social position of women at the turn of the twentieth century (many moons ago) and felt like I remembered enough about the period. Then I started researching suffragettes and suffragists and somewhere I read that when World War One broke out, the suffragette movement was sort of put on hold. I then started thinking about what did these women do during the war? Did they lose that political zeal? Were they resentful or patriotic, and so forth. So I decided to write about a young suffragette and her role during the war. I’ve discovered that there isn’t much written about the Great War from the ordinary woman back home’s point of view, so it’ll be breaking some rarely trodden ground. Anyhow, I fell sick with the flu (in the middle of July, ridiculous I know!) and the short story never got sent to the women’s magazine. But my novel was born.

I have decided to focus the story on two sisters, Esther and Katy Fletcher (though ‘Katy’ might become ‘Emily’, I’ve not decided yet), who during the war get jobs at a munitions factory in Leeds. Esther, the elder sister, was a suffragette before the war, though not a ‘famous’ one (I’m trying to decide what social class the family are, so if she is working class, she wouldn’t really be in a position to speak at meetings or take part in and organise campaigns, like the Pankhursts), and is enjoying the freedom that has opened up to her now that most of the men are away fighting. Katy/Emily is the younger sister, who idolises her sister and follows wherever she goes, but as she grows up, she begins to find her own identity. There is a reclusive young ex-soldier, Stephen, who lives with his elderly aunt near to the Fletchers and who befriends Katy/Emily. At the moment, his story is that he was wounded in an accident during training, so never got to France, and was so embarrassed and ashamed that he has basically locked himself away.

So right now, I am researching the suffragette movement and also women’s roles at home during World War One. If anyone knows any good books/websites, please let me know!!

The picture above is a picture of women munitions workers in 1915. I got it from a website (I think it was one about the history of Leeds), so hope I’m not breaching copyright!

Lucy :-)