The Times They Are Achanging

Trying to cobble an article together for an upcoming competition. I don't really do articles, since that usually demands that I try to sound like I know what I'm talking about. So, usually, I stick to fiction: plays, stories, and the like. Recently, however, I've done a few reviews and opinion pieces, mainly for stage, TV and film. Presumably, that's one of the reasons for keeping up with this blog: trying to exercise a writing muscle, with the hope that for every 100 blogs I write, there might be at least one that I can hack apart and re-use.

The article that I'm attempting to put together at the moment comes from old material, but I'm not precisely sure where. At times it reads like a spec piece for the Guardian, whereas at others it sounds more like a bit of stand-up. Therefore, the latter, while perhaps funny enough for a topic on stand-up, just sounds clunky on paper. This has happened often before: an idea, well-written and well paced, simply doesn't work in whatever format you've decided to place it. I could write exactly the same story as a short piece of fiction, a radio play, and a half hour spot on TV, and all three would demand entirely different narrative techniques. Now, no doubt this is old news to anyone who's been writing professionally for a while, but it's still something I'm finding my way around. I'm still at the point when I'm ploughing through a story, not able to work out why a reasonably simple but clever idea isn't working. It usually takes me a while to work out that I'm simply writing it in the wrong format. By which I don't mean the wrong version of Microsoft Word.

The thing I'm trying to get this article finished for is the 2012 Prolitzer Peize, which is a significantly more open door affair than the Pulitzer Prize (and unless I can lip-read Andrew Mitchell, I don't think that's coming anywhere near me soon). This morning, on a whim, I checked the deadline, which I knew without checking to be October 31st. However, it seems that the deadline with checking is thirty days earlier - less than a week away. The good news is that I've already got more than half of the word count written. The bad news, of course, is that it isn't all about the word count. In the current version of the article, which is an opinion piece, I state quite emphatically my opinion. I do it at the top of the article. I also do it at the end. And, for good measure, I find space and time to do it a couple of times within the body of the text itself. As an opinion piece, it's certainly not short of opinion. However, in terms of witty and erudite words to back up the opinion, it's currently backing bash fully away from any semblance of coherence. However, it's a good writing exercise, and as ever, it's useful to have a deadline looming to sharpen the senses. Whether I get anywhere with the entry or not, I'll post the resulting article up here in a few weeks.

Last night's Acting Class at the New Venture Theatre was great fun, possibly the breeziest and loveliest class of the term so far. There was a reasonable amount of improv interspersed with everything else, and while the NVT classes are more Acting technique-directed than the upcoming improv drop ins at the DukeBox Theatre will be, the vibe promised great things for Iron Clad Improv come October.

The wind and rain seem to have tailed off a bit (touch wood), which is about time, since I have a Ghostwalk tonight. As ever, it passes by the Northern Lights bar in Brighton's Lanes. Normally, I wouldn't mention this, bit I'm aware that a friend is having birthday drinks in that bar tonight, and I'll be passing through, telling ghost stories while she's there, despite the fact that she (still) hasn't come along on the walk. This means that she will be getting at least one ghost story for free. I have decided that she can have this as her birthday present.