Shopping List

            My writers class began again on Monday 30th April. It was good to see them again, good to be back. The class wasn't on last night, because of the bank holiday, but will be back on next Monday. And they've given me homework. To write something in the style of a 19th century novel. All of us were set something which was supposed to push us out of our comfort zone; so another of the class, who doesn't like poetry, has to write a poem.

            I've got a load of stuff to do apart from that. First drafts to type up from notebooks. First drafts to revise. But all the time, I'm trying to dream up a new project. A brand new one act stage play for the Drama Association of Wales's 2013 competition ( http://www.dramawales,org.uk/ ); always supposing, please God, that the DAW are still in existence- they're having trouble- and that they hold the competition.

            Trying to come up with the idea for my one-act stage play has been like the quest for Eldorado. I feel like it's going to pop up any day now, and it never does. I'm chasing a phantom. Because I've got such a fixed idea of the sort of idea I want- for a horror story, with just three female characters, set entirely outdoors and over the course of one night, and with the flavour of an M.R. James ghost story- that I'm rejecting anything else which doesn't match those criteria.

            I've encountered this problem before. I don't set out with an idea but a shopping list. And actually months and years can go by, with no guarrantee that the right idea will ever turn up. I'm chasing a phantom. The sensible thing to do now would be to go back to one of my existing stories- say, the one I was trying to get ready for the Bridport Prize, the closing date of which is at the end of May- and work on that. Alternatively, if I wanted to start a fresh project, settle for the first one which comes along. But I am not sensible.

            Horror stage plays seem to be rare. The stage equivalent of horror films. If you discount Greek and Shakespearean tragedies, all you seem to be left with are adaptations of prose texts. Original stage plays with non-human villains are virtually non-existent. I cobbled something together for the DAW's 2012 competition. Here, the villain (tragic hero) was a vampire, who interacts with humans. I'm making it even harder on myself this time by having a supernatural character who isn't seen or heard. I wonder what the hell I'm doing.

            The weekend and yesterday's bank holiday were lazy for me. I did virtually no writing. Yesterday, I couldn't even get near a notebook or a computer. But maybe that's what I needed: to take my mind off the problem.