Don’t worry this isn’t a commercial and far too early Countdown to Christmas — a subversive effort to entice you to over-spend your hard-earned dollars in the coming weeks or months — although, of course it would be rude not to mention the Early Bird Deadline for the CSSC that coincides with the coming festive season — and there is a discount for early submitters (I’m just saying!)

No Christmas is the working title for a new play that I have been intermittently dabbling with over the last few months. And I now have a working first draft, of sorts. This is reason enough for a small celebration — a mince pie maybe… The final scribbled words exited my pen on Sunday evening and so I now have a reasonably consistent narrative, some fun characters and huge tonal inconsistencies to work with. Writing is re-writing after all.

I am conscious that I haven’t written too much on this blog about the writing process — my approach to the craft anyway. Elements of my methodology have changed over the years, but one thing I have always done is write the first draft with a pen in a notebook — with the able assistance of yellow post-it notes.

I try to use the first draft to basically dump as much out as I can — not worry too much about story structure or character motivations. Sometimes I have a coherent picture in mind and the act of writing is more akin to transcription of the ideas in my head — but more often than not, the first draft is really an exploration of the idea or themes that have motivated me to form a story around it. I find pen and paper a better tool to do this with and it avoids the distraction of resolving spelling errors, typos or formatting errors that Word and Final Draft insist need addressing! Technology is great for re-drafting but I find it less helpful for the first go.

I have long been interested in ‘Christmas’. I have written stories and scripts set during the yuletide season several times before. I find it an endlessly fascinating period of the year: what it means for many people, the shared values it holds but also those differences in the way we celebrate, or not as the case may be. Its origins as both a pagan and religious festival; the shaping of it as a time for family and charity through the work of Charles Dickens; and its modern transformation into a time for celebration and excess. These are all facets I find interesting.

Today’s world, at least depicted through the media we consume, seems to have less and less time for shared values and a reduced tolerance for differences. So I wanted to explore this too. I therefore had a sense of conflict in built from the start. Not so much through people with different goals — but with divergent values. That battle between tradition and other ways of being. New versus old.

But perhaps the more interesting thing — for me anyway, is that I think Christmas will work better as a stage play. This will make this my first real attempt at writing for the theatre, if I decide to stick with this route…

When I think of myself as a writer (and to be honest, I’m not sure I really do!) I tend to categorise myself first and foremost as a screenwriter. I love the movies. I have watched far too many of them, and from an early age—the medium no doubt is wired into my brain! I find screenwriting more natural — my head thinks in pictures and edits — emotional beats. I find writing prose and theatre less instinctive, it’s harder work.

But two things emerged during the writing process of Christmas. The first one was internal to me. I noticed that I don’t need lots of characters or locations to tell this story. And I was using more words than I usually do. This of course, lends itself nicely to the stage. The second influence was entirely external. I saw a small play at the Kiln Theatre in London back in February called The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon. What stuck in my head was how elegantly the simple re-arrangement of the set dressings and a creative use of lighting could convey location changes. It was quite brilliant stage craft — that didn’t require the expensive mechanics or pyrotechnics of the big budget West End productions to get from one place to another — and most importantly it didn’t slow down the narrative as characters constantly exit and re-enter the stage — which can be an annoying feature of higher budget shows in London’s theatrical district.

Although my current Christmas story doesn’t shift place too often, it does move in time — so an ability to do this succinctly is important.

And I also like it when things disrupt my writing process in an intriguing manner.

So the re-writing stage begins. It will likely take place over Christmas, when I always have some time off from the day job—I can’t wait! And yes, Scrooge indeed is a character in my story too.

#Very Early Seasons Greetings to you all.