Yesterday was pretty terrible; a day of coughing and sneezing bookended by two nights with virtually no sleep. (It was bad enough for me to take a Covid test this morning...which confirmed 'man flu'.) The only thing of any note was spending about and hour typing-up the already drafted follow-on to Crash into play format. … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 21st April →

In the end it was a decent day yesterday, even if it didn't get off to the best of starts. I decided on another Crash read-through, my assumption being that the more I read it, the more of it I'll learn off-pat. But it was a session interrupted by multiple phone calls, and I wasn't … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 20th April →

Lots of time spent doing things yesterday as is usually the case on a Tuesday with my Library session and 'Write-on Ripon' - but only half of it was pre-planned. The things I did expect to get done were some more drafting of "C" (which continues to move on at pace), and 'Write-on Ripon'. The … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 19th April →

After a day or two when production has been below average, it usually takes a short while to ramp the effort back up, and yesterday was no exception. I started the day with a Crash read-through. It's interesting how my rehearsals with Andy take about 5 minutes less than when I read it in my … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 18th April →

By the time I get to the end of a writers' retreat at which I'm mentoring I'm usually pretty exhausted mentally. No surprise then that creatively yesterday was at a minimum. At the request of the Ripon Theatre Festival organiser I pulled together a few paragraphs about me and my inspiration for Crash which I … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 17th April →

Often a fantastic thing happens on the last evening of our writers' retreats - and yesterday was no exception. We always finish with a 'read-around', where delegates share some of their work by reading it to the rest of the group. This can be something they've been working on during the retreat or something else … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 16th April →

The most rewarding elements of the retreat yesterday came after the 'Character Building' workshop when at least three of the attendees tried out my character profiling suggestion on their works-in-progress. They said they found the exercise very useful, and that the profiles will help them build their final stories. That really as all I could … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 15th April →

The retreat at which I'm now mentoring kicked-off in pretty standard fashion yesterday - apart from a little local 'colour' which doesn't really warrant any further explanation here, but one day has to make it into a story! As usual, there are a variety of writers here who I'll be getting to know over the … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 14th April →

The great news from yesterday was how well Andy thinks my performance of Crash is coming along. Indeed, we are likely to reduce formal rehearsals to bi-weekly until just before the June event. One of the beauties of the piece - and the performance - is that I can practise at home, something I'll have … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 13th April →

Given what was on the agenda, yesterday was always going to be pretty busy - yet I even managed to fit in something unplanned! The library session was quiet (but only in terms of people wanting to see me), so I cut it short half an hour early. During my time there (and at various … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 12th April →