Shifting March 13, 2012

The last couple years I’ve been doing lots of small things, lots of things that have amounted to more things and things that I have been proud of. Things. Yeah, them things. But for the last year I’ve been aching to concentrate on my full length plays because that’s what I’m in this to do, right? Right. I haven’t had time because each year seems to get busier with my career and choices. That’s why I’ve been quiet because I’ve been busy.
 

 

So. I’ve been mulling on this idea since I asked my dad, “if I wrote a play about lorry drivers, would you come to the theatre?” He promptly laughed and said “yeah, I suppose so“. Two years later and I’ve finally got a finished version of the script that I’m happy to send out and for people to read. A former (unfinished and horribly clunky) version of the script, which is called Shifting, has been sent around and got great responses:

  

“This script immediately brings us into a marginal roadside world seldom portrayed on stage and screen. Vivid empathic characters and character-driven dialogue support the script’s ability to mine the drama from seemingly mundane relationships… Overall, I enjoyed this script and the fresh world it portrays.”
Hannah Rodger
New Writing Co-ordinator
BBC Writersroom

  

“A fascinating world drawn with real compassion and wit and humanity.”
Simon Stephens

  

“Interesting ensemble piece exploring the lives of long distance truck drivers and their families. The writer captures wonderfully the colloquial comic and brash language of this world creating a setting populated with interesting and original characters.”
Royal Court
Literary Department

  

“… Here at the National, we don’t normally give formal feedback, but I did want to pass on some thoughts from our readers. We felt Shifting was the most successful, and we enjoyed its sweetness, truthfulness and intimacy…”
Clare Slater
Assistant Literary Manager
National Theatre

 
 
It also placed well in the Verity Bargate Award (4th round) and I can safely say it’s the most epic story I’ve taken on in terms of staging, amount of characters and narrative. But I’m proud of it. I’m tempted to say it’s the best thing I’ve written, but I think every writer says that about the current thing they’re working on. Who cares, I’m chuffed I’ve finished it. And thank you to those who read it and gave feedback, they know who they are.

 

 

Alongside finishing this and starting the turbulent process of sending it out to people, I’ve made a strong mental decision to stick at home and spend less money and more time on writing all the ideas I have. This means not going into London unless I absolutely have to. Which does make me a little sad, but I kind of have no choice. There are books I’ve wanted to read since I can remember, films I’ve not opened for even longer and scripts I want to rework. I’m a funny fucker when it comes to time, mostly because it scares the crap out of me. But also because I always say I’ll do something tomorrow and I never do. And I mean I NEVER do and I hate that. I’ve now made the difficult decision and in the longterm I’m happy, it feels good. This was a different script for me. Each script is challenging me at every turn. If I compare each script I’ve written in the long form they differ drastically and this excites me. I’m constantly challenging myself and letting the story have its way with me and not mangling it to please anyone else. This script I’ve just finished reminded me of why I want to do this. Now I’ve just got to get people to read it. 

#excitedladybird Post Number 1 July 20, 2011

So far through WeFund we’re up to:

And that’s just after being live for under a week. AMAZING. Click on our orange ball of donation goodness above to see our WeFund page and to donate if you so wish. I’ll be also taking the reins of the blog over there but I thought I’d do it here too. The first blog is up and it’s from my face…

#excitedladybird Blog Number One

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Untitled (No Longer) December 28, 2009

The new project that I’m going to be slaving away on until it’s ripe is called this people*”:

“I Still Get Excited When I See A Ladybird”

It’s a collection of monologues based around one work space. So far one has been written (the one that was born in Shropshire with Simon Stephen’s help) and blue-prints have been made for two others. I’m aiming for eight. Of course this is all subject to change so don’t hold me to anything except for the title, I quite like it.

That is all, on your way.

*The photograph is nothing to do with the play, I just wanted to reassure you all.

Ladies And Gentlemen We Were Floating In Shropshire November 8, 2009

I’ve been extremely zen like since I got back and I seem to float around with the biggest lump in my throat. I feel physically sick when I think back to the week just gone and whenever someone asks me how it went I start to cry. This is a good thing, it was magnificently perfect. I couldn’t have asked for more, I’m just in mourning for what has been an emotional and enlightening week of self discovery of not only my writing but my attitudes to work and my drive.

I’d intended to work on one of the two plays I have lying around aching for re-writing but Simon threw me a curveball whilst having a smoke on the Monday night. “Why don’t you try writing something new whilst you’re here?” I baulked, I panicked. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it because he was right. My plays are at a stage where I just need to write them and not dwell on development anymore. So I started looking at a four paragraph monologue I had banging around on my laptop that I’d done as a writing exercise rather than anything; I’ve never written a proper monologue for performance before.

Then my journey began. I’d wake up at 6am then work on the piece, have the group session at 10am and hand work to Simon. One-on-one tutorials were in the afternoon and after mine I’d work on it again before dinner, then our evenings were planned with readings or a guest speaker and then after the frolics and copious amounts of alcohol I’ll go back and work on my piece till wee hours of the morning. I did this every day I was there so no wonder I was an emotional wreck by the time I got back home after the 3 hour drive. It was a routine, my routine that worked and I stuck to; something that doesn’t happen when I’m here, back in the real world with jobs and events and stresses.

More importantly I was making decisions for myself. It’s great having a mentor to guide you through and pick you up and point out the great bits to you but when you’re capable of being able to be self-aware of those decisions it’s so much more poignant. I told Simon that I was fucking proud of my piece of work because I had made the decisions and realised when they were right. Everyone was at varying degrees of their career in writing but I did feel a little out of my depth and once again was the youngest. But to be honest we all shared the same ambition so I felt more at ease once I felt like I knew what I was doing.

To have someone out there in the profession whose just as eager and prone to the pitfalls of the commissioning process say they’re excited about your work is just something I wanted to write on my forehead so I could see it every time I looked in the mirror. There was so much Simon said to me but for fear of sounding like I’m gloating and because a lot of them were personal I won’t splash them on here. All I will say is that it felt like I had an enthusiastic tutor who was also a mate. Admittedly on the first tutorial I felt a little intimidated but he’s such an easy going, extremely fucking funny, guy that you forget where you are and your half hour tutorial has whizzed by in a fury of energy, ecstatic words and a bundle of motivation.

The last night of the week we were all encouraged to read out some of the pieces we’d been working on in the week. Simon was eager for me to read the entire monologue out and it was true that I wanted to hear it but I wasn’t too sure about me being the one to do so. Throughout the week Simon had been reading us samples of his work that had never been read before and it was electric. He also has a great aptitude to sight read and give it full meaning and resonance. I voiced my concern at reading the piece myself and when I asked him if he’d read it on behalf of me he jumped at it. Not only did it help that I’d hear it back but it was brilliant to hear it for the voice it was intended for, male. As Simon read the piece and gave it his full attention and brought every nuance to light I sat and held my breath. This piece had just been born when I arrived at the Hurst so both Simon and I had seen this develop and grow as the week had gone on. What was evident as the monologue silenced the room is that I really had done a lot of work on it and Simon could see that and stressed how strong and clear it was. He knew this piece as well as I did.

There are so many things to take away from this trip and I still can’t get my thoughts into order so that I don’t well up every time I think back to the lasting effect. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t hunched over my laptop sobbing every night I was there. It was the idea that I had to carry on this motivation when I returned back to home. It was the big realisation when I had to leave the last morning that the rest was now up to me. I knew several of the Lovely people I had met whilst there had already left at 6am or thereabouts. I got up early and sat and had breakfast with myself but I couldn’t shake this melancholic feeling. I sat in silence and was adamant that I wouldn’t leave until I shook myself out of this slump and realise my achievement. There was no way I wanted to make the 3 hour drive back with my mind cluttered with clashing thoughts. So I went and stood looking over the hills in the morning sunshine. Then Ewan appeared and we had a laugh over breakfast and instantly my mood lifted. Simon soon followed and then the laughter continued and it was like mates saying goodbye rather than the end of a long week. My head and my heart were in the right place and as we hugged our goodbyes and kissed cheeks I knew my drive home would be a determined one. By the time I’d reached the other end I was inspired to calm down, slow down and realise my potential. Whilst I’m focused on what I want to achieve I more than often get tangled in too many projects and spend my time trying to rely on retreats like this to write when I should be doing it regardless.

I met some cracking people up in Craven Arms most of which I’ll keep in contact with and that includes Simon. Too many things to try and tell you about that were amazing and great and funny but it’s bound to end up being many of those ‘you-had-to-be-there’ moments. But I’ll leave you with this; drinking whiskey neat by candlelight till 3am listening to Mark Eitzel with Mister Stephens is going to stay with me for a long time. That and being mistaken for Lenny Henry multiple times.

SPARKS and Shropshire November 2, 2009

First of all I’m going to be loving you, patting your head, whispering semi-sweet nothings in your earholes and then sodding off to Shropshire. But I thought I’d at least stop by here and tell you that I possibly love you and offer something in this awkward relationship we have going on. I know I keep flitting here, there and everywhere (else) but it’s the way it goes. Look, don’t cry… I bought you flowers. But the dog ate them. I bought you chocolates. I ate them. You can have my friendship for another year? Oh… you thought it was something else. Umm… I can still warrant hugs. Everyone likes and needs a good ol’ hug. Too tight you say? But you said you liked them tight. Right, I was doing them so tight that you couldn’t breathe let alone express that they were too tight. Maybe hugs aren’t universal as I first thought. Have a handshake.

That there was a small splice of my brain smothered on the computer screen, it’s slightly grey matter but from my world. So therefore ergo it’s a little warped. Anywho it’s true; I’m off to Shropshire tomorrow and yet again I’ve been too busy to even think of anything further than 4 hours ahead of what I have planned. I’ve just packed and I still haven’t read my own script. Therefore ergo I fail. I wish I was getting the train so I can read but I will be driving and listening to the Tom Tom yell at me that I should have turned some directions behind. But I come bearing good news! One of my pieces is going to be read out at the great night called SPARKS in Brighton. It’s a neat setup with photographers and writers being each others’ stimulus and I’m truly gutted that I’m not there to read my own work and be in the company of Lovely folk. The night is run by Jo Mortimer and more information can be found out for the event over yonder:

Sparks

Other works on the bill that night include:

Vanessa Gebbie
Wendy Greenhalgh
Jac Cattaneo
Jon Pinnock
Katie McCullough (that’s moi)
Yeu-Ing Mo
Vanessa Gellard

Once again, I’m gutted that I can’t be there as I was well up for not only reading my own work but catching up on Brighton, it’s been too long.

(Brief Judo Interlude)

I walked the other way

So yes Shropshire is next on the cards. As much as I’ll be in a Lovely part of En-ger-land I won’t have time to rest. It’s a week one-on-one intensive with Simon Stephens and from what I hear there’s nine of us mentees waiting to get elbow deep in our work. The script I’ve picked is a highly emotional piece and I really want to come out the other end clutching a strong next draft with the intention of it being what I send to agents. Pie in the sky stuff? I dunno, there’s only one way of seeing if it works.

The reason I picked this piece as opposed to my other one is because I feel it’s in the same vein as Simon’s work, in fact it has echoes of Harper Regan, but it’s not a carbon copy (I’d not read the play until after I’d concocted my own) and I’m hoping this’ll make me knuckle down to work. I’m feeling extremely lack-lustre after being so busy but not actually working on my own stuff that I know is just sitting around doing nothing. I’ve missed writing my theatre and it’s been nagging at me for such a long time that I can’t wait to fall out with it again spectacularly and then start a passionate affair with it all over again. In all honesty I just want something finished so I can actually pimp myself out. I spend so much time prepping others and dishing out advice that I’ve forgotten how to do it myself so come the end of the week I’ll have either lost several stones and gained a full theatre script or kick and scream at how I didn’t want to be a writer anyway.

Not that I’m heaping on the pressure or anything.

But it’ll be nice to have a concentrated wedge of time to put aside for one project because recently my head’s been swimming with lots of different ones and in different mediums which doesn’t exactly help the ol’ noggin.

Oh, and phone signal doesn’t work there (it’s like Kilcreggan all over again!) and they don’t have Internet either. So it’s radio silence from me and technology cleansing from her.

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Fancy a hug? I won’t squeeze you too tight, I promise. Actually I can’t, I’m too busy to promise. Don’t run away, please… hallo?

Please Give This Lady Red Wine Please September 19, 2009

It’s been a busy busy time in Katieville recently. I’ve had to make lots of decisions with regards to what I actually want to be doing and what work goes where and who sees what. All those annoying (potential) big decisions that seem the biggest you need to clamber over but once it’s done the deed is indeed done and then you realise you were being an overly dramatic mopey walrus (just me huh?).

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So I decided to send the second play* I wrote for the Invitation Only group whilst at the Royal Court ahead to Simon Stephens in prep for the Arvon course in November. It was a tough call as it was either make one theatre script super duper worked on and shiny or choose the lesser worked on and newer project and then have the end result being two shiny projects to work from. So I opted for the latter choice which should be good as I’ve not even looked at that script since I handed it in earlier this year. Reignite the passion is the plan and what better way to do it with Simon Stephen’s guidance.

*I realise it would make sense if I actually called them by their names. First play is called, “Thursday’s Child” and second play is called, “Within Grasp”.

The dangling (first) script* from the Introduction Group is one that keeps pestering me to rewrite the next draft but I really can’t be bothered. I have no motivation for it at present and I keep getting annoyed at this factoid. So much so that I’ve hastily sent it to someone who wanted to read the next draft just so I could wash my hands of it for a while. I haven’t been stupid enough to send them a draft they’ve already read, I’ve sent them the fuller textured third draft although I was planning on sending them the fourth. Meh. Sometimes I am a tad impatient. But if it gives me a clearer head for a while and I don’t feel too guilty for not working on it then it can only be good.

I’ve been on a roll recently with short story submissions here, there and everywhere and when they’re up and ready to be perused I will submit the links on this very blog. I also recently did a guest stint over at Lucy Vee’s blog which be here. Lucy’s blog is rammed with information on reading, writing and more importantly is a healthy scriptual kick up the arse as to what you should be doing. She’s a Lady with a keen eye to help you with your script and comes with added humour and not at a very large price either (for reading your script that is).

Workshops have started for “The Yellow Wallpaper” and as ever these kids are fantastic. Unfortunately because it’s that time of year where they go off to uni to begin their further education of late nights, lack of proper stationery and alcohol the two excellent guinea pigs won’t be able to be involved in the final project. They were bloody marvellous and I wish I could develop the piece more with them but we also have two bloody fantastic stand-ins to step up the game and see the piece to fruition. Since I’ve started this out-of-the-blue adaptation route it’s been interesting. To take the structure and layer your own neatly cut pieces to make a new shiny colourful beast is a great feeling. And I love the collaborative side of a project like this; when you’re on a roll and you all share the same vision. It’s fantastic when the eyes light up and you all realise you’re thinking the same thing. Brilliant, I cannot wait to really get my hands dirty.

I will be doing so after I’ve whipped up another script of mine I haven’t touched for a while for the Rocliffe New Writing Forum at BAFTA. I made myself re-read my script and can admit I’ve fallen back in love with it and instantly knew which bits needed to be culled and reshaped. It was like sticking two fingers (and a fucking big knife) up to the person who basically defecated on my script and said some vile irritating things about my work. This wasn’t a case of me not handling feedback well (anyone who knows me will agree) this person said some rather unwarranted and holy inappropriate comments and made me angry for at least a week. I still can’t hold a proper conversation with them but I’m proud of this script and his comments are slowly being erased from my mind.

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And to top it all off my script that I’d completely forgotten about in the BSSC competition made it through the beatings to make the first round. Let’s see if I can beat my personal best this year.

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There’s plenty more to babble about but I’m well hungry and gasping for a cup of tea. Really I want a red wine but I have none. Really I should have done this as a videoblog so you didn’t have to read this much. But it’s cold and I would have looked like I was desperate for red wine.

Hallo Miss Busy! August 31, 2009

It’s late and I have tomorrow’s day already encroaching so this will be brief. I’ve been busy with work up to my eyelashes at the moment and it’s all exciting and extremely knackering. What with my unpredictable bouts of gallbladder problems and unhealthy scoops of lethargy I seem to be either writing, scrawling, writhing or sleeping.

But I came here to tell you what I’m up to…

Come end of this week I’ll be working with a few select students alongside Theatrix to do a modern adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper”. We’re going to be workshopping the short story and picking out the relevant themes that the students involved want to explore. It went in my favour that I saw an adaptation of this very short whilst up in Edinburgh. It was a humble amateur production that excelled in places and limped along in others. But what it did show me was the importance of the male voice within this female representation of post-natal depression and insanity. There’s only one male figure that appears directly within the text which is that of the controlling husband. The adaption I saw seemed to gloss over the role too easily and made him appear cliche ridden and lacking depth. What I’m hoping to do is flesh the male voices (I’m going to give a voice AND face to the much mentioned brother) out and add texture to the piece allowing for relationships to jump off the stage and not be hidden in subtext. This may seem to go against the grain of subtlety but the short story is essentially a monologue but I want to turn that on its head and explore it as a multiple hander. The one thing I want to do is free it of the claustrophobic Victorian setting it currently resides in.

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Aside from that I’m still umming and arring over what play to chose to take along to the Arvon course in November. It’s something that I’m fretting over because I want to make sure I’m giving out a good representation of my work. I’ve got my first full length play that was written for the Royal Court as part of the Young Writers’ Programme which I should be working on to take it to a third draft stage. But I’m lacking the motivation. Then there’s the second one I wrote as part of the Invitation Only group at the Royal Court which hasn’t been touched since I handed it in earlier this year which could do with whipping into shape. I’m leaning towards the latter so I can have potentially two strong pieces but I don’t know if I’m just being lazy about the first and looking for a good excuse to leave working on it a bit longer… Ignore this rambling please, sometimes I just have to write down my inane thoughts so I can what a doofus I’m being. The other pressing factor is that I’m going to be working with Simon Stephens on the selected work so I do want to make this decision based on proper thought. I’ll leave that till later…

Since my last posting I’ve been having a fair few short pieces flung around the Internet-electronical-sphere. All exciting and confidence boosting to say the least but also because the contacts I’ve made with the sites mentioned are absolutely Lovely and keen to showcase new work so if you’ve not visited them before please go and tell them I sent you. They’re rather nice. Here’s a list of the new works up and raring to be read:

“Homecoming” over at Six Sentences

“The Horny Insomniac” over at Six Sentences

“Tidal” over at Metazen

Please feel free to wander over and rate and/or comment on them. Then go try it yourself, very good for editing skills (as I seem to keep stressing recently) and a fun experiment.

Aside from that aside I’m tinkering away on audition monologues which seem to be more interesting than anything else I should be working on, but for those that know me (or are getting to know me) I prefer to be busy. Along the way I’ve been experimenting with Hint Fiction of which details can be found here. Through the myriad of blogs and competitions I keep adding little tasks to do writing wise so if I’m not working on writing, I’m thinking about working on writing and more than often it’s not the thing I should be working on. Go figure.

This jumbled blog was brought to you by the power of Ribena and the letter 9. Out.

P.s. I realise I still haven’t blogged about Edinburgh. I apologise for my tardiness.

P.p.s. I also realise that this is written and not talky talky for you. I apologise for my… Lack of self-pimping?

Re-Introducing… Katie! August 19, 2009

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