Tuesday 15 March 2011

Cancel the exhibition

So, it turns out there'll be no Oscar (or Olivier Award, for that matter) after all. At least, not next year, anyway.
Today I received an email to add to the file marked 'rejection letters/emails to share with the public on book-signing tours' regarding the play I sent in to a local theatre. To be honest, things weren't looking promising when my one-line plot summary in a previous email led the recipient to declare that it didn't sound like a play they'd be interested in, and so I should probably be grateful that it even got looked at.
The criticism was odd, though: 'I would suggest that you need to work much harder at your dialogue'. Hmm. Three thoughts...
1) Is this actually suggesting the plot was OK? If so, that's a first for me, so in a peculiar way this was in fact a stunningly positive piece of feedback.
2) Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the entire play (stage directions aside) is dialogue? Does this mean that I need to work much harder on everything?
3) What really confuses me is this 'work much harder' idea - is the suggestion that what was lacking above all was effort and hard graft? There's something scarily school-report-like in the phrase (not that I would ever have received such a comment mind you...) and yet I kind of like the idea that there is little difference between me and all the other great writers in history apart from our work ethic. Simple solution: work harder and we'll be away. If only I'd thought of putting effort in earlier...
In happier news, I'm very much enjoying rediscovering music I've cruelly ignored for quite a few months, if not years, and am currently lapping up 'Wonderland' by The Charlatans, whilst I've been steadily working my way through 4 Spiritualized albums. Simple conclusion: I am already at that age where I dismiss all new music and cherish the 'golden era of my youth', or whatever it was Dad used to say.
Well, I'm off to write my latest play. You know what, I'm going to try and work hard on this one. Particularly on the dialogue. Forget stage directions - they're clearly sorted - and focus on dialogue. What could be easier?
By the way, the play is a retelling of the Pentecost story. Any suggestions for a title would be gratefully received. I keep wanting to do something that alliterates and so I've been trawling through 'P' words but that may not be a particularly good idea, so any other thoughts are welcome.

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