The Kids Are Alrright

Went to see the KIDS ARE ALRIGHT at the National Media Museum in Bradford this evening. I was really looking forward to it but once in my seat I found my mind kept wandering back to the story I'm writing at the moment. I'm only meant to be doing a detailed synopsis for my agent for now but whole sections of dialogue keep drifting into my mind and I get held up writing them out in case I forget them. Twice tonight I had to sneak out of the cinema and into the toilet with my notebook. The staff at the museum must think I suffer from chronic diorhea.

Writers all have different ways of working. For me, the process starts with an idea that I might not do anything about for years. It's like I'm standing at a shut window and I know there' a story taking place outside it. I need to open the shutters to see what's happening. Once I do, I can see it all so clearly it sort of acts itself out infront of me and all I have to do is take notes. But opening the window takes courage and I often pass by a few times before I do. It's a complicated process, more like a burglar trying to get inside a safe than a hotel waiter flinging the shutters open in a bedroom suite. And, sometimes when I do open the window, it's only to discover that there is no story out there, just a minor incident if you like which is not worth describing. Or the story has been told before, probably by someone much more gifted than yours truly. Still, I can't help opening that window. And sometimes, when I am really tired and the right words won't come, I get the awful sensation that I am walking down a long corridor with hundreds of windows on either side of me. No matter how many I open, I will never have time to tell all the stories...which means I need to stop blogging and get back to work, even though it's gone past eleven at night. Who was it that said you're not really a writer until you get to know your milkman on a first name basis?