Friday's are my study day. I did break the rule somewhat - to apply for a few jobs. I found three today. I have one other position that I think is still live but I decided to press on with applications.

For today's study plan, I decided to work my way through the Bruntwood workshops. I'd already participated live in one, Chris Goode's. It was great fun and I've spoken about it in a previous post. I'm currently reading his book, The Field and the Forest. It's quite academic but immensely rich. I've recently read the section where he describes one of his best theatre experiences. This play began with the lines 'Look over there' and he describes how powerful that is as an opening line. It made me look again at 'Midnight Sunrise' and consider the first line. I've changed it to make it have a similar impact to 'Look over there' - drawing the audience into the space they are in and throwing them into a new world. It will now be 'Where the hell am I?'. 

I finished April de Angelis's workshop on Ambition, Scale, Honesty & Imagination. It was live streamed in March. She used a good technique to get you started on a new idea. Here it is in summary:

• Find something that annoys you. Read a newspaper.
• Find a character - look for a photograph or picture of someone.
• Can you connect them?
• Ask your character some questions to find out something about them.
• Write a scene. Perhaps include a ritual. Turn the expected outcome on its head.

I'll be watching the others of the next few months and pulling out some of the techniques.

I've finished the hand edits of the second draft of 'The Proving'. As DBC Pierre suggested, I've been doing this with the metaphorical cardigan on. Now I need to put about 50 pages of scribbles into Ulysses. Then I will have a break. I'll probably try to finish Midnight Sunrise or perhaps apply for R&D funding for Loud Mouth. I also need to progress an application for a word association art project idea. I'll come back to complete a third draft. It will need it but how long it will take I have no idea. I've not got to this stage before, except for the The Carpenter and the Goat Herder. But that was quite short and anyway, I can't remember how difficult the third stage had been. I'm hoping that if I sail through the first few chapters, I can begin cover letters to agents along with the other material they require.