Meanwhile, Over At The Screenwriters’ Festival Website…

…They’re looking for photos and answers to the question “Where Do You Write?”. Find the linkage here.

So if, like me, you want to pretend that you’re doing a piece for “Writers’ Rooms” in the Guardian, get yourself over there. Here’s what I will be sending:

I write on the dining room table, simply because this is the only flat surface in our home that has not been consumed by the encroaching tide of family life.

My daughter likes to work alongside me. I use the phrase “likes to work”, but I actually mean “likes to pound the keyboard of her laptop with her tiny fists”.

As you can see, we have differing opinions on the writing essentials. I have my Blackberry, notebooks and a glass of wine close to hand, she has the Dora the Explorer annual, High School Musical kitchen roll and a Peppa Pig flask in easy reach.

Maybe, one day, I will have my own study where I can shut out the noise of the children playing and my partner’s laughter. Would my daily word count increase? Definitely. Would the quality of my writing improve? Possibly. Would it be as much fun? I’m not so sure.

Method Writing

I practice something that I pretentiously call “method writing”.
If I know I’m going to write an action sequence, I’ll excite myself (no sniggering at the back). If I’m writing something filled with pathos and poignancy, as I currently am, I get myself in that mood.

The way I do that is my iPod. If I’m going to be writing an action sequence, it’s Rage Against The Machine or Nirvana through the day until I’m “in the zone”. You get the idea.

So, I’m sat at work listening to “I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You” by Tom Waits and “Verdi Cries” by 10,000 Maniacs. This, unfortunately, also means that I’m reducing myself to a gibbering wreck, surrounded by blokes. I hope they don’t notice.

But, personally, getting myself in this kind of state means that I produce thoughts and ideas that I wouldn’t have if I was just sat at the laptop thinking “Right, I need to make this scene touching”. I’m starting to feel the melancholy that my characters are feeling. And that’s going to produce a more realistic scene, I think.

It also means that I’m going to be wistfully drifting around the house, full of ennui, all weekend and annoying the Better Half.

Does anyone else do this, or am I odd?