A heartbeat ago I was running playwriting workshops with some amazing writers. it was suggested in our last session that I might do a substack newsletter. So this is it. They inspired me to make a thing when I was the one supposed to be inspiring them.
I hope this will be inspiring or, at the very least, useful. I hope that ‘Making A Scene’ will help you find and develop your creative voice and encourage you (in an often discouraging world) to write, play, make and teach. It’s for writers, improvisers, teachers and performers. If your brain is telling you you’re not one of those things it’s lying to you. I’m afraid our heads don’t always tell us the truth.
The writer, Neil Gaiman, encourages us in the pursuit of ‘Good Art’ and that the route to such things is by making mistakes. We mustn’t worry about rules or whether or not our heads, or other people, tell us we can’t make good art. We begin to make ‘good art’ by pursuing failure.
Go and make interesting mistakes. Make mistakes. Make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your having been in it. Make Good Art.
Neil Gaiman
Some personal thoughts on making:
You can make something.
You can make something today.
The making of something is often more important than what you make.
Sometimes both are important.
If you can enjoy the making then any other good things that happen because of what you have made is a bonus.
I’ve found that making stuff is often more enjoyable that watching stuff.
There’s never enough time to make anything. You might as well accept that and make something anyway. Time is overrated.
Therefore,
You can make something and you can make something today.
Making A Scene: 10 Minute Character
Every time a newsletter drops I’ll include a tip or trick or challenge. It’s like a creative seed. If you choose to plant it who know what it might grow into... But there’s no pressure. God knows, none of us need more pressure. So, here it is:
Time: 10 minutes
Tools: A timer. Something to write with. Pen, Pencil, Phone, Typewriter, anything…
Instructions: Think of an object in your house. Not an interesting one just the first one that comes to mind. Imagine a character who is obsessed with the object. They might love it, loathe it, feel guilty for buying it - give them a reason for their obsession.
Set the timer.
Now write a stream of consciousness monologue, from that character’s point of view, for ten minutes without stopping.
It can be a passionate rant about the object. Or it can be about something else. Sometimes just knowing a character hates tin-openers is enough to understand their soul.
Now, and this is the important bit, don’t write a good monologue. Enjoy your mistakes. Don’t agonise over the dialogue. Just write it. Set the timer and go and don’t stop until the timer bleeps. Write whatever comes into your head. You are not so much writing here as ‘discovering’.
Afterwards reward yourself for your creative work. Eat that naughty biscuit or grab that G & T.
You made a thing. Which is more than most. You made a thing.
This Week’s Useful Thing
Paul’s Plugs
Here are some links to stuff I have made or am making:
If Walls Could Talk
I was commissioned to write some filmed and audio monologues for Fairfax House in York as part of the brilliant If Walls Could Talk exhibition. The mini-dramas explore how Lady Ann Fairfax was demonised for her faith, her gender and her struggles with mental health; much to everyone’s surprise she was far less fragile and far more capable than people imagined. It runs until November and you can book tickets here.
Theatre Lab
Myself and actor-teacher, Niall Costigan, are running a joint workshop on improvisation and Meisner technique at York Theatre Royal on the 29th April. Open to professional creatives you can book a place here.
Farewell
Whatever we make we should find ways to do it healthily. Having spent years hating running I’m now finding it super good - 6K and counting. Also, I’m enjoying watching Stanley Tucci wander round Italy and eat nice food with nice people on i-player; it make the world feel a slightly better place. I hope you’ve got stuff in your life that means you too fare well.