Something of a varied day yesterday, the highlight probably being the evening's North Yorkshire Stanza meeting which to my mind was one of our best for a while, with a collection of stand-out poems. My Villanelle, "The Schooner", went down particularly well - mainly because they're so hard to write! I think you get kudos … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 7th March →

The opening section of my new fiction project "C" introduces the four main characters, but the next chapter to be written introduces the final two. Perhaps that is why, when I started to tackle the latter yesterday, it proved harder going that I might have imagined. It was almost as if I was beginning another … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 6th March →

Another surprising one yesterday when again the two key things I ended up doing simply weren't on my radar at the beginning of the day. The first of these was the completion of a draft of "B" - which is the follow-on to Crash and, if things go as I expect them to, will be … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 5th March →

It's odd how some days end up with a work-profile you simply hadn't foreseen. Yesterday was one such day where two of the three things on which I spent my time weren't really on my radar at all - and those that were, didn't happen. An hour's solo rehearsing of Crash trying to consolidate what … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 4th March →

How did the first proper Crash rehearsal go yesterday? I thought really well. Andy and I went through the first section about six times, including the non-verbal context and scene setting. Having someone who knows what they're doing asking you the right questions and making good suggestions is invaluable. Already I'm wondering how awful it … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 3rd March →

I managed to get a lot done yesterday, which was good. As planned, I worked through the potential episodes for "C" and now have some kind of sequence which I can further refine and consider. Unplanned was the production of two podcast episodes, one a reading of the draft opening of "C", the other a … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 2nd March →

A good way to finish the month, yesterday was busy. First a quick run-through of Crash with about a dozen lines removed. 40 minutes seems set to be the running time. Then a couple of hours residency in the library during which time I did some more planning of 'episodes' in my project "C". The … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 1st March →

It was a good day yesterday in terms of "C", completing the character profiles. The next stage is to work through these to pull out ideas for the episodes I need to write in order to build the characters in the narrative e.g. the character profile may have identified an influential event from the character's … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 28th February →

During yesterday's run-through of Crash, I think I recognised that there are a few lines in a couple of places that need to be cut. They're the kind of lines which work well enough on the page, but in a 'performance' of the piece seem to cost momentum. This is the first time I've had … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 27th February →

I surprised myself by getting a large slug of "C" planning done yesterday, attempting outline how I might fill in the gaps between the narrative bookends already written. Putting potential books on the shelf, if you like. The next exercise on this particular journey should be completion of six character profiles; these will then help … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 26th February →