To write, or not to write? That is the question.

For those of you who don't know, I'm part of an amateur dramatic group.  Our dramatic year tends to be split into two halves.  The main event of the year is the Pantomime, which we perform every January.  It all gets a bit surreal around this time, with men playing the parts of Dames, women playing the lead Male hero roles, as well as women playing the heroine.

The summer production is a much more sober affair.  The Youth section enter the local drama festival, and the adults do a small production.  In the past we've done 'Allo 'allo, The importance of being Ernest, and a few radio plays.

Tonight we are dropping scripts, so it's probably going to end up being lots of blank looks followed by giggles.

In case you are wondering what the writing connection to this entry is, it's that the Panto is always written in house.  There are some very talented people there who have produced some incredible scripts.  The odd thing is, that none of them have any aspirations to write a book!

Recently, there's been growing pressure from some of those involved, for me to throw my hat in the ring when they're looking for someone to write the next Panto.  So far I've resisted, as I don't want to be distracted from my WIP.  The problem is, that I keep thinking about the formula that Pantos fall under, and how it would be structured.  Maybe when the time comes, I should just go with the madness!

It's a mystery

The other week, we went to a murder mystery dinner.  Not the sort that you host yourself and invite your mates round to (although these are great fun), but one in a restored 17th Century country house and actors.

The evening progressed through the usual stages of champagne in the Library, where we met the characters and they sowed the seeds for the coming events of the evening. 
We then went into the dining hall and progressed with the meal. After the first course, there was the reading of the Will, with various (expected) upsets with people storming off, and the sound of shots being fired.  One of the characters then came running in exclaiming that there had been a murder!

Having been assured that the police were on the way, and that the cook would be upset if we didn't carry on, we progressed with the second course.
While we were waiting for the third course, the cast came back in and wandered from table to table where we could question them about the events, rumours we'd heard, where they were, etc.
After the questioning, we filled in a form saying who we thought the murderer was, and had to give three reasons why.
At the end of the evening, they announced the top three tables in reverse order. And…
Yes, you guessed it…
We were the only ones who got all three clues correct!  Our cleverness was rewarded with a bottle of champagne.

The odd thing about the evening was that, although the evening was incredibly enjoyable when taking it at face value, a part of me was analysing the event from a writing point of view.  Studying the characters, the back story that they gradually revealed, the setting of the plot by announcing of the reading of the Will, etc.
Maybe that’s how we spotted the clues.  Maybe I'm barking mad!  Who knows.
And yes, these pictures are of Danson House where the meal was held.

Last lines Part 2

This is the second half of the last lines I edited during NaNoRevMo.

The details just said 'Professional Services' and totalled £15,000.

Sid waved the radio about.  "I'm going up to the edge to let the bomb squad know that we've found it, and what its layout is."

There was a knock on the door and a guard entered.  "Sorry to disturb you, but we've just got word that the plane with the girl on, has disappeared."

In his world of blinding light and agony, the darkness robbed him of his consciousness.

In his haste to get the job done, he'd forgotten he'd need a security card to give him acess to the other parts of the building.

His head turned sharply as an invisible punch landed on his jaw.  He sank to the floor, his eyes rolling up in their sockets.

"They are looking to ship us back home, but I've said that we all need a break, so I'll be driving us there.  It'll give us time to track down Maz's movements, and fix the mess that they've landed us in."

“Pleasant trip?”  The sarcastic voice gave T.D. a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.  Mr. Large was driving.

Steve appeared in the dooray, quickly followed by Sid and Holly.

They think that the plane was probably hit by lightning.

Who knew what menial tasks they would be set once they went back to London.

Last lines

One of the fun things about NaNoRevMo was putting the last line edited.
Here are a few of the lines I finished on during the month:

The Crimson Hide were making a lot of headlines recently with their animal liberation activities, and this one looked like it was going to be the biggest one yet.

T.D. watched the little tendrils of electricity snaking over her unconscious body, before earthing into the floor, seconds later.

The key rattled in the door as he locked it, and then he disappeared.

He frowned at the contents.Initially, it looked like a wet suit, but on closer inspection, the material was wrong.

He waited for the guard to patrol to the far end of the gate, and using the drain pipe, scaled the gate in seconds, dropping silently onto the far side.

With a quick swipe of the stolen card, the magnetic door lock gave a muted 'thunk' as it released.  He was through to the main entrance hall of the Embassy.

"Get off me!  I'm innocent, someone set me up!"  He looked at Steve, searching his face for a hint that he knew T.D. was innocent.  "You gotta believe me, it wasn't me."

The smile returned.  "You too, huh?"

They cowered down low, winceing as the pieces of lead zipped past, close to their heads.

He flipped open the folder and pushed it towards T.D.

A car was already waiting for them at the bottom of the plane's steps.

"Go! Go! Go!"  Large crashed through the door, and the press of bodies behind him,surged fowards, making the most of the surprise raid.

Month end.

I‘m sure you are all aware, today is the end of NaNo month.  I didn’t do the Writing one, I opted for Peggy’s lesser know Revision month.  I have to admit, it was a brilliant idea of hers. 
WriMo doesn’t really call to me.  It tends to lurk in the shadows and make rude gestures at me when it thinks I’m not looking.  I just don’t have the spare capacity to drop everything and write, no matter how much I would love to.
My goals for RevMo were quite modest compared to a lot of the gang who signed up:
* Do a complete revision of my MS
* Type up the changes (I have to edit on a printed copy, otherwise I can’t keep track.  What can I say, I’m a bloke.)
* Write a synopsis.
Thanks to the support of everyone taking part, I achieved my goals on the 29th.  A day early.  I also found that I needed to insert a chapter, which when I wrote it, turned into two chapters.  I also managed to get these completed by the 29th.
One of the great things with the RevMo gang was that we put the last line we edited for the day into our update mails.  It was so cool, (and sometimes a bit intimidating when you read the awesome lines) and for me, added a little extra to the whole thing.
I just want to say a massive heartfelt THANKYOU to everyone who played along.  You helped me do a hell of a lot more than I would have done without you, and you made me realise that I’m not alone in this writing game!

Writing group update.

I survived my writing group again last week.
Once again, I was expecting a bit of a mauling over the piece that I submitted.  The title had been very uninspiring, and I had struggled to come up with anything vaguely interesting after 2 weeks.
When I did eventually come up with something, the story was soooooo weak, I doubt that it could have fought its way out of a wet paper bag!  I concentrated on giving the character as much depth as possible, and the internal conflict he experienced when he knew that his actions were wrong.
There are 3 people in the group that we all seek a positive responses from.  They are very clever people, and know their stuff.  They aren't nasty, and anything they say is always with the aim of helping you improve, but you still want them to say it was good.
One of them hadn't made it to the meeting, but she did mail a good critique to me.  This left the 2 others.  To my amazement, the first one said that they liked it, and couldn't find anything to fault.  I was beaming quite a lot at this point.  They went around the room, saying that the tension was good etc, it was all positive.
Then I came to the other person I was waiting to hear from.  And..... she liked it too!  She had a few minor comments about his motives, but that was all.
After a month of ripping my WIP to pieces, it was very heartening to be told that I can actually write something half decent :o)

Use it or lose it!

I've been concentrating so hard on revisions for the last month that I've hardly written a word.  Up until now, I've either solely written, or I've done a mix of revising and writing during the day.  I have written every day for the last two years, and the two years before then, I wrote nearly every day.  It's part of my routine, and when I settle down to write, it flows quite easily.
About a week ago, I realised that I needed to add a chapter to my WIP.  I could see the piece of story very clearly, but when I sat down to write it, nothing came out.  It seemed to be a mix of being overly critical of every word I typed, rather than letting it flow, and the words not being there for me to type.  Even my ability to write a blog entry had dried up. 
It's taken over a week to get my head back into the place where it needs to be for things to start to flow.  All the ideas were there, so, I'm guessing that I was lucky that my head didn't explode.
I can only conclude from this, that I need to write every day.