Category: The Failed Writer
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Ups, Downs, Dreams and Reality
To begin. This is not an Arts Marketing blog – for some people reading this that will be nothing but a blessed relief, for others I’m sure you’re now wondering how else I might disappoint you in a distinctly lengthy blog post. Today’s post is about confidence in one’s creative self (eventually). So if you’re…
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Watching & Dreaming (1)
This story starts, somewhat unexpectedly, at a car boot sale. Car boot sales are not, you see, likely places for stories to begin. Quite the contrary, car boot sales are where stories go to end, where the unwanted entrails and detritus of life are paraded in a muddy field as drizzle and a light fog…
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Fear Of Flying – 3
Simon had never been a big fan of change. He liked the safety of knowing what was happening when, consistency and a timetabling of his life that bordered on obsessive. He wouldn’t feel terrible if change occurred, it’s just he tended to shy away from it, someone who’d never throw away a sock with holes…
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Fear Of Flying – 2
The old police officer’s morning had been, he could safely say, pretty poor. He’d not slept well the previous night and had awoken in a cold house with ice on the insides of the window to see his frosty breath in front of him. The previous day had been stressful, the temperature plunging as snow…
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Fear Of Flying – 1
This story starts, as all good stories must, on a Tuesday. At a railway station, waiting for the working week to begin with a torturous journey to the city centre, the morning passengers are assembling in the same way they had for the preceding days, weeks, months, years and in one case decades. In their heavy winter…
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Work In Progress – Part 1
Hello! I’m abandoning football commentary to put some new writing up. I’ve been writing a show to record and then put out as a free podcast. So here’s the first 5 pages… See what you think! Incidently I should mention I’ve not looked at spelling and grammar and it’s written as it is to be…
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Writer’s Block (is back…)
So here it is, again, it follows me around like rain clouds stalk cricket matches, like my good friend attracts impossibly drunk women, like Jazz is followed by an involuntary nod of the head and an occasional tap on the knee – yes, writers block is back and this time it means business. This has…
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What next…
So that’s it, the show’s over, the responses are in, the reviews are slowly circulating and it’s back to reality… Floating was good fun to do, we got some great reactions, a couple of nurses (who I don’t know!) posted comments on the page and Unity Theatre’s wall: “absolutely stunning show tonight. It was strange…
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Rehearsing – This time less pretentious…
For those of you who are a regular reader of my blog, or have stumbled over the last couple of blog posts you’ll have noticed, when compared to earlier works of occasional light hearted genius, that the mood and tone has taken an excessively artistic and pretentious edge of late. I was questioned about my…
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Back to rehearsals…
We’re back in rehearsals for Floating this time down in London and we’ve had the first day of rehearsals. It’s great being back in the space, exploring the text and still finding new things to experiment with and push the play onwards finding variations of different scenes to find the best resolutions, the most honest…
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A new show…
I’ve been thinking about what to do recently and started writing a new show… Anyway here’s a bit of it, let me know what you think, if you’d be interested in being in it or if you’d fancy directing it! When I was 15 I read ‘1984’. We were in English, English Literature, the start…
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Floating rehearsal – Day One
As part of my job as a theatre marketing person I invariably find myself berating companies for not keeping an adequate record of the process they’ve gone though in creating a new piece of work. Alas I suspect I shall fall foul of my own demands, but in order to appease myself I’m going to…
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The Failed Writer – Chapter One
Chapter One – To Edinburgh There is, I suspect, nothing more pleasurable in the entire world than travelling by train. More specifically travelling in a massively overcrowded train where, against the odds, you’ve managed to find yourself in first class (paying only for a standard fare ticket) with a cold beer, tray of Bakewell tarts…
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The Failed Writer – Preface
The preface of any book is usually written after the book has been completed. It’s the section where the author thanks his loyal audience for purchasing this “essential read” and for embarking upon an “emotional rollercoaster” with this the sole occuping project that has filled their lives for the previous few years. They also usually…