I’m back…

I’ve been missing in action somewhat.  There has been rather a lot of life since I last committed blog. In my last post I was packing up the old house in Wrexham psyching myself up for the move and all that would bring.

After that post I went and lived with my parents for a fortnight before joining my partner in south east London.  I’m  well settled into the new job having survived something that was really intense.  Its a busy job which I love but I’ve survived it at its worst I am going to be fine next year.

The downside is that it really did eat my brains for six months.  But then I have a bit of a record when it comes to joining intense jobs.  Moving away from having a very hands on manager who scheduled my entire week.  The management here is very different and its quite freeing even if my confidence took a heck of a beating as the work has been immense.

And now the dust has settled and I have time to reflect. Firstly I did it. No small achievement taking over something mid cycle and despite a few close calls I did not crash the process and indeed as the memories of the stress fades, I can state that yes I love this job.

The next part is proving interesting though.  I have plenty still to do but my brain isn’t quite so saturated and I have enough processing power to start thinking about how I can make my life more varied again and get used to writing things again.

I’ve been reviewing books for a while and yes – I must get back into that because I do find it a useful thing to do. Especially since I have a lot more time to devote to writing. The other thing I’m going to start doing is writing about the theatre I see because I get to see a lot of productions these days and I have the urge to document my response to things.  I don’t want to review but I do want to talk about what I’ve seen and how they have effected me.

So that is the plan in a nutshell.  Write more, read more review more. Talk about everything.

I’m also getting back into running which fell off completely after the move.  I hope you’d like to join me on my journey into all sorts of shenanigans.

Where are we now?

I am sitting in a half empty shell of a home at the threshold of a new year with a sense of wonder as to how everything changed in the last 12 months. I have learned such a lot and have done so much that I didn’t even know I was capable of.  

I am struggling to put anything into words, I am typing and deleting constantly to try and find the expression to sum up the seismic changes my life is going through. So yes, let’s start with the small things. I have quietly been taking back control of me. I have made my body be more active and I have seen some exciting results.  I have learnt to run and have run 5km a few times.  Other stuff has got in the way the past month and a half but I did it and now that I know I can it will be much easier to do it again and again and better myself.

Thoughts on process

I’m not much of a planner –  but I need to be.  Why because my ideas fizzle out and when it gets hard I lose interest and want to do something else.

I’m still getting used to ways I can plan stories but the prep work is kind of daunting and I worry that I won’t be able to come up with something that anyone else would care to read.  There is a musical called Sunday in the Park with George which is about the artist George Seurat and his process.  There is a song called Move On which basically describes what everyone who is trying to be creative is trying to achieve.  I like to listen to it when I need a bit of inspiration.

The Video is of Mandy Patankin and Bernadette Peters singing at a Sondheim birthday celebration.

So lets go write something new and find some interesting pieces.

 

Characters

I’m thinking a lot about creating characters at the moment.  I feel like there is someone I want to get to know just hovering beyond my perception.  There are a couple in fact, I’m hoping to tell their stories soon.

My creative process is image based.  Sometimes a single image gives me a character and the story grows from that.  Often the image and idea spark and off I go.

Character is the imperative, I try and give my characters a sense of place and weight.  Details that flesh them out and bring them to life.  There are many stories out there which fail to work because the characters are not driving the action, the plot is imposing stupid choices on the characters.  But that is a whole other post.

Some writers know everything about  their characters, create playlists which can be fun, I tend to write conversations my characters might have, get them to talk to me.  It might sound crazy and I am half convinced a good proportion of writers tend towards crazy.

The girl with flint flecked shale eyes, watched the door. She paced each measured stride an attempt to stifle her need to be anywhere but here. Childish hands fidgetted like a pair of angry birds.  She pushed her thumbnails into the soft pads of her index fingers.  A thick cascade of almost black hair masked most of her expression.

So who is she? I can’t wait to find out.