Tuesday 19 July 2011

Smoking and drinking...

... Two very useful vices for the incompetent playwright. For your characters, not (just) for you. Drinking lets them say things they wouldn't have otherwise said, and, in the modern era of health regulations, smoking lets them exit for a quick fag.

I'll try and post an excerpt tomorrow. I did a full hour today, which seems to add up to about 10 lines of dialogue. But more importantly, I am spending time in the company of my characters, getting to know them again, and figuring out what they are like. (James has become Sean. He was never a James.)

3 comments:

bob said...

Nice one. Let them talk to you and they'll tell you plenty, it's getting them to shut up once they get going that's the hard part.

In my humble experience, at least.

Anonymous said...

Good advice (about the smoking and drinking). I'll have to remember that.

Lynne Rees said...

James would have had a floppy fringe, I'm sure. I bet Sean doesn't and does he like single malts?