I recently disappeared up the coast for about ten days for a very good friend's wedding, and finally made it home a few days ago. We had a bonus day in Sydney on the way home due to car issues, which was a bit of a pain - but at least I got to catch up with my friend Pete, the guy who set me this writing challenge in the first place. He was chuffed that his (possibly beer-influenced) challenge had actually been the thing that got me off my arse and into writing mode, so it was nice to share with him the fact that I'm now at 30 pages! Hurray!
Anyway, back to this wedding, and the cause of our epic journey up the coast. Kelly (the bride) and I used to do drama together when we were about fourteen, and have been friends ever since. Rather than fly up her wedding, being held up on the NSW / QLD border we figured we'd be a bit adventurous and make the 3,400km return journey by car - because everyone loves a road trip, right? Especially when you get to visit incredibly iconic Australian landmarks like this:
Also in the car were the co-writers of the TV show I'm working on, and my partner (who is also a writer and is currently workshopping a number of ideas). So essentially, we were a mobile script factory with a LOT of hours to kill - and consequently, several new writing ideas were developed in the 38 hours / six days of driving.
There's something about the rhythm of driving down Australian country roads (especially when you've got cruise control!) that lulls my brain into 'thinking mode'. Even if you're the designated driver, you can go hours and hours without really needing to use your brain for anything other than keeping the car pointed in the (vaguely) correct direction. Consequently, I had quite a sizeable amount of time to think about my script, and writing in general.
One musing I had on the trip was how fantastic travel is for inspiring stories and ideas. The TV show we're writing is based on our own experiences in London. My feature film is inspired by events that transpired in LA and Western Australia. Heck, many of the other short / feature ideas I've been listing recently have all been inspired whilst on the road, whether it be in Australia or overseas. There's something amazing about being thrown into new situations, with new people, and getting an insight into all kinds of locations, characters, countries and lives that you'd never come across at home.
And as someone who lives a pretty chaotic life and finds it hard to put time aside to work on writing projects, being stuck on a plane for 17 hours is a pretty good excuse to put your head down and WRITE - there's no getting up to grab a snack or put the washing on, you're pretty much trapped. A fair amount of this feature was plotted out on the way home from LA last year, actually, and one of my most prolific writing streaks on an episode for my TV show concept occurred whilst stuck on the tarmac on the way home from Europe last year.
Writing in a car is a little trickier, but I'd loaded up Final Draft onto my iPad and found that I was surprisingly productive during the trip. I spent quite a lot of time re-reading what I'd written so far, thinking about what was coming next, and even managed to add a few extra pages. I also had a captive audience if I needed to ask a question about something.
Here's the view from my 'desk':
We also spent a few hours listening to writing podcasts, including one where Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler talked about their versions of the hero's journey. I've never been a big podcast person (finding the time to sit down and listen is just too hard for me!) but it was interesting, now that I've started writing, to apply their concepts to where I was at. Reading a book is one thing, but having the authors talk about their work and apply it in a more practical sense was incredibly helpful. Admittedly I zoned out a few times, just because one of them would say something that would trigger a thought / idea about my film, and then I'd start thinking about that instead - but it was certainly reassuring to find out that (theoretically) I'm tracking pretty well against many of the points that they raised.
Something that's becoming clearer and clearer as things progress is just how important it is to do your groundwork before you start writing - the more you've plotted it out, the easier it is to keep things rolling (and to vaguely gauge how you're tracking).
And for me, as a first time feature-writer, just knowing that I'm ticking at least some of the 'how you're meant to do it' boxes, is very encouraging.
Now I'm back in Melbourne, the holiday is over, and it's time to get my head into the 'real' world again. But luckily, given I've had some pretty good momentum happening, I'm not that worried about keeping the ball rolling.
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