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| (Back L-R) Me, Dean; (Middle) Alex, Anna, Josh; (Front) Denise, Badger and Richard. |
So, how do I feel after having my first significant piece of writing performed?
S'alright! In seriousness I must admit for the first time I feel like I can call myself 'a writer'. Whether or not I have the confidence to say it with conviction when meeting someone for the first time will remain to be seen. Let's face it, even back when Dickens was around if he uttered the words 'I'm a writer' then you'd have thought he was a bit of a knob. But I digress; I feel like I can do this in the long run.
I've already spoken about coming up with the idea for Chicken Shed which you can read in my earlier post Coming Out of My Shell from my experience of bullying and using self awareness to create characters in the play. But what I found from the play being exposed to a wider audience is just how much other people have had similar experiences. I had several conversations with friends and total strangers who told me how it reminded them of instances of bullying at school or, in some cases, how they had bullied someone else. I haven't significantly changed their lives but I've made them stop and think for a moment, even if just on the walk/drive home and that to me is a key part of what I want from my writing.
It sounds obvious but sometimes we feel that our feelings are individual to us, that maybe people couldn't possibly empathise with what we have to say. At least that's certainly how I feel sometimes. However writing about a topic around events that have greatly affected me as a person, especially one that most people will have some sort of encounter with in their lives, has generated discussion and made me feel like I have got something valid to say. That's not to say that all of my projects will involve so broad a topic but it has given me a nudge to have more confidence in my writing.
If I had any advice from this experience it would be to trust your feelings and never be afraid to leave your own imprint on a project. You're writing it with your own passion so why shouldn't it be all about you. This may sound obvious but originally when I started writing I was attempting to write near-carbon copies of Reservoir Dogs. Or sitcom scripts that as much as I wanted to be anything but Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps ending up being very similar; more like A Couple of Ciders and Some Pork Scratchings. However this didn't really work as I've never been a chav or been involved in a failed diamnond heist...nor any successful ones. In hindsight, they weren't great examples to emulate during my first attempts at scriptwriting!
As Jimmy McGovern once said, "I think finding a voice probably means finding a confidence in your own voice and a respect for your own experiences, and being confident enough to deem your own experiences as worthy of inclusion in the story. And then finding out the kind of things you do well."
So, now I have a fairly good idea about what I do well and the major areas for improvement. I think it's vital as a writer however that I accept that I'll never be 100% happy with my craft. But is there a writer who is?
So...next for me; obviously I'll be continuing to write on several projects and hope to try getting into radio and television a lot more. I've already got a couple of ideas of how to adapt Chicken shed for an episodic radio play; we'll see how that goes. Playwise, I have another in the pipeline which should have it's public airing next year. It's already been done successfully as rehearsed reading and has a working title of 'Donaldson', the name of the lead character, though the title may change come the production.
Now I've had some positive feedback from people who paid to see my play, the fact that they're not asking for their money back, means I just might be able to get away with this writing lark!
As always, emails and comments welcome particularly if there are different aspects of the writing process you may want to hear about. I'll be back to posting some more of my general writing tips/best practices very soon...
