I’m taking a leaf out of Stephen Fry’s book. He’s writing the next part to his autobiography and has a deadline. Basically, he’s stopped tweeting and cut off most forms of communication and distraction so he can get on with the business of writing.
I’m going to do the same. Facebook and Twitter are permanently there in my browser, and I’m always checking them, ‘liking’ something, commenting on something else, and updating my status, replying to a tweet, or adding my own pearls of wisdom for my followers.
I enjoy it, and when I’m in a normal frame of mind, that’s cool, but I have to write.
I’m in the middle of writing a new full length play. There’s loads in my head, and I really need to get it out. And although I can write and multi-task to certain extent, I often find myself checking something online, researching etc. And whilst there, it is too easy to click the facebook bookmark, or indeed twitter and just check in with the world.
And then, well I get distracted, and before I know it I’ve lost my train of thought and find it difficult to get back into the scene I was in the middle of.
My full length play is my ‘graduation piece’ for my Nuffield Theatre Writers Group. It’s due end of January.
Now I know I’m not going to make that one, hardly surprising based on my personal mental hell of getting through the last six months of 2009, but I’m aiming for the 18th February, since that’s when I’m due back at the Nuffield for two important meetings.
Now add to this another deadline; I’m applying for a ‘writing job’. It’s only £350 and tbh, I’ll be lucky if I get it as my CV isn’t exactly bursting at the seams, but the important thing is, there’s a deadline. 14th February. And that means having to write. Even if I don’t get it, I’d like to think that I could have done it, had I got it.
So I really need to start working on my dicipline. And that’s not going to be easy. I’m moving from the ‘wannabe playwright’ to ‘professional playwright’ and if I end up getting a writing job, and people are paying me to write, I need to come up with the goods when they require it.
So, I’ve decided, with all credit to the wonderful Stephen Fry, that I’ll have a hiatus and switch off most of my connections with the outside world while I finish writing the first draft of the current play.
Once written, it’ll hide on my hard disc for a few weeks, and I’ll come back and say hi, knowing it’s safely fermenting, waiting for me to return, edit, redraft, rewrite etc.
I can write quickly. The ideas are all there. I can spend hours and hours typing the words, but I’m going to have to do this without distraction.
This play has come out of my head in a very different way to my other work. It is a much more professional piece. I’m already proud of it, and it deserves my time and undistracted efforts in getting into the world, being the best it can be.
So, adios.
I’ll be off facebook and twitter for a while, and I’m turning off my MSN too. Temporarily of course; I’ll be back.
I’ll update my blog with progress when I can, and intend to keep my One Word posts going too. I’ll check my email, and you can always text or call me!
Laters xx
PS: Guilty as charged. I just checked my facebook again, and there was another couple of tweets on my Twitter too. This is gunna be hard.
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