I finished Beneath the Streets by Adam MacQueen at the start of the month. A murder mystery sent in the 1970s within an alternative history where Jeremy Thorpe's murder bid on his lover had been successful. It was a page turning read, with each chapter ending on a new revelation or predicament.
I've recently got into Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels, and I took on Tripwire this month. This is the third Reacher novel published in 1999. I'm reading a bit out of sequence, having recently completed Without Fail, the third book in the series. This story centred on a shady money lender apparently helping out struggling businesses with a piddling million dollar loan here and there.
How do playwrights get ideas? How do they begin writing their plays? What do they do to get the first draft completed? Below are some thoughts from playwrights on how they begin.
Ideas and Getting Started
"I’m a thorough planner. I don’t write from nothing onto the page. There are five stages of the writing process for me. There’s a lengthy period of months and months of mulling. I move from what Peter Brook describes as “a formless hunch” to starting work on a play. I’ve got to go ...
1. The Wild Bunch (1969)
Directed by Sam Peckinpah Written by Sam Peckinpah, Walon Green
Starring: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates
2. The Drop (2014)
Directed by Michaël R. Roskam
Written by Dennis Lehane
Starring: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenaerts
3. Kill the Messenger (2014)
Directed by Michael Cuesta
Written by Peter Landesman
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ray Liotta, Tim Blake Nelson, Barry Peppe... Continue reading...
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (UK release date 17th December)
Directed by J. J. Abrams
Written by Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams, Michael Arndt
Starring: Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver
2. The Lobster (UK release date 16th October)
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Written by Efthimis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, John C. Reilly, Olivia Colman
I came across this interview with James Kelman while researching old copies of the Clydebank Press. I thought it was worth preserving.
ON THE BUSES with Kelman the young
Drumchapel writer
by JACK HAGGERTY
The Clydebank Press, Friday, January
11, 1974
Jim Kelman is a young Glasgow writer,
presently living in Maryhill, who has just published his first book
of short stories recently, “An Old Pub near the Angel”
(Puckerbush Press, Orono, Maine, U.S.A.). Although born and bred in
Govan, he was ...
I'm producing an evening of short plays at the end of this month. We're on at the Old Hairdressers, 27 Renfield Lane, Glasgow on Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th July. Tickets are £5.50 and you can get them from See Tickets. The plays are -
Ava and the Seagull by Róisín Kelly
Ava loves Peter. Colm loves Ava. And Big Bad One. A dark tale of bird love, betrayal and revenge.
Smokers by Julie McDowall
The play is about Julie's favourite topic - the end of the world - and shows two people enjoying ...
