From Idea to Stage in 10 Weeks | Issue 4 | Receiving and Applying Feedback on Drafts
Documenting the process of planning, writing, editing, and staging a short play in just 10 weeks
💡This article shares some thoughts about receiving feedback on your writing, as well as some reflections on how to react to an unproductive week.
Thanks for reading this fourth issue of my new weekly series, where I’m documenting my experience planning, writing, editing, and staging a short play in just 10 weeks.
This project is part of the 2024 Writers’ Studio programme at the OSO Theatre in Barnes.
I usually write novels and short stories, and I’ve never written a play before, so you can learn more about why I’ve chosen to take on this challenge here.
Where Are We?
I’d like to experiment with sharing where I am when I write and publish these articles.
It occurred to me recently that I spend a lot of time working in places that are actually quite cool, or quite interesting, or sometimes both.
Today, I’m sitting in The White Hart in Barnes, which is a great pub in a very nice location (drinking coffee, not beer).
To my left out the double-doors, beyond the terrace, the Thames is flowing east towards central London with a fast current.
I’d love to hear from other writers who go out to work in interesting places.
Do you have anywhere you go to get some work done when you need a break from the home-office?
What Our Third Weekly Workshop Involved
The third week of the 2024 Writers’ Studio was a great one. We had a guest facilitator lead our workshop, experienced theatre actor, director, and writer, Tama Matheson.
Tama gave everyone in our group some excellent analysis and feedback throughout the session.
This was also the first time our group of writers has read my play.
I’ve been participating in regular workshops with my writing group for seven years now. My friends and I, from my creative writing MA, have been meeting to critique each other’s work since that course began in September 2017 and we haven’t stopped since, so I’m used to discussing my work in a group setting.
But this was a bit like doing it for the first time all over again, because I’ve never written a play before, and this is a new, unfamiliar group of writers I’m working with.
It was really nice to get that feeling back again briefly. It’s a unique mix of excitement, vulnerability, and curiosity while you wait to hear what everyone thinks of your writing.
It was also fascinating to hear two people “performing” something I’ve written for the first time. A play is obviously very different to a short story or chapter from a novel. I’ve never heard anyone fully act out a scene of mine before. It came out really well, but I suppose it didn’t hurt having a veteran stage actor playing one of the parts.
The feedback all felt very positive too. There was a lot of discussion about it afterwards, which is always a good sign in writing workshops.
My play is very serious in tone and content, though. This is something I’ve been concerned about from the beginning, as my fiction usually explores pretty heavy themes. As a result, my editing priorities for the past week were to add a bit of levity early on and build up to the tension more gradually. That’s not easy with only 10 minutes for the whole play, but that challenge is exactly why I wanted to do the programme in the first place.
Overall, I’m really happy with how my play’s coming along so far.
Some Thoughts on Writing Workshops
Seven years of almost-weekly writing workshops is a lot, so I’d consider myself very experienced in providing and receiving feedback on draft fiction with other writers.
And there’s one thing that’s really important to keep in mind when you’re in that environment, which has taken me a while to learn, so I thought it might be useful to share here for other writers:
If you’re participating in a writing group or regular workshops, you need to actively develop the skill of knowing what feedback to pay attention to and what feedback to ignore.
Even certain great ideas should be ignored if they’re not right for your specific story.
Sometimes feedback and suggestions come with the best intentions, with very useful ideas, but if they’re not compatible with your intentions for the story they may weaken your original draft in other areas.
But this also highlights how important it is be intentional with everything you write, and have a clear understanding of what you’re trying to achieve with every word, line, paragraph, chapter, etc.
You have to trust yourself and remember that no one understands the story you’re trying to tell better than you.
Try to be strict with when to say no to those kind of ideas. Remain confident in what you know to be the right decision for your particular story.
A Tale of Two Weeks
The week before last, I had an amazing week of writing, maintaining a really productive, consistent routine. I was really proud of that achievement after an unproductive summer.
I was so proud of it, in fact, that I wrote a Substack post about it, which ended with this:
“Now the challenge is repeating this — or, ideally, improving on it — next week.”
I think it’s equally important, if not more so, to talk about the fact that I completely failed at repeating that achievement.
I wasn’t even close.
Last week, I barely got any fiction writing done, mainly because it was a particularly stressful week with work. I literally went from one extreme end of the spectrum to the other.
I’m sharing this for a few reasons:
1 – Last week, I knew I was going to struggle to find time to write because work was ridiculously busy.
So, the thing I decided to focus on was that even 15 minutes of writing is a lot better than nothing.
A year ago, if I didn’t get up to write at 6am, I would’ve just given up for the whole day, so I’m pleased with this small progression.
2 – And that in itself is a good lesson, to take any positives or learnings you can from a situation that’s far from ideal.
3 – I also know some writers reading this will benefit from the reminder that it’s ok for work and other commitments to disrupt your writing routine sometimes, no matter how much you want to maintain consistency.
We’ve all been there before, and we’ll all be there again at some stage. It’s just part of life.
4 – I also think too many people on platforms like this only talk about the good stuff. But it’s important to be honest about the fact that we all have bad weeks occasionally, and sometimes those just happen to come directly after our good weeks…
I used to give myself a really hard time about this kind of thing. In fact, I still do, to an extent.
(And I should also note that I do still believe it’s important to have high standards for yourself, and to push yourself to be as productive as possible.)
But I think the key thing — for me, at least — is to refrain from punishing yourself in situations like these, or dwelling on them for too long. That can have an even bigger negative impact on you in the long-run.
You should always try to use it as an opportunity to learn, or as motivation to improve, not a source of anxiety or stress.
If you ever feel frustrated or disappointed about struggling to write as much as you want to, please don’t be too hard on yourself.
After all, there’s always next week.
What I Read During the Week
This week, I was so pleased to see a friend’s short story published in The Brussels Review.
Huge congrats to Alexis David, who is a wonderful writer I met through The Writer’s Journey online community for writers.
has written a fantastic story, Mothers Like You.Please do spare a few minutes to go and read it by clicking the link here.
This Week’s Sunset of the Week
There’s a pub in Surrey, just outside Guildford, called The Mill at Elstead. It’s an old mill building converted into a pub, so the River Wey runs through the back garden.
It’s a beautiful place to spend an afternoon, especially during autumn when the sun sets a bit lower over the river. I’d highly recommend it!
This Week’s Song on Repeat
RIP to the great Kris Krisofferson.
This classic of his plays in the background of one of the best scenes from one of my favourite pieces of fiction of all-time, True Detective (season one, obviously).