How I write (pt.1)

Mark Whiteley is an actor, writer and theatre producer from the UK.  He has written numerous plays and stories for the theatre.  He won the MTA for Thick As Thieves.

Many people have many ways to write, here's some of the tricks I've learnt along the way.

Idea – the idea is the most important part of writing my stories.  To me they usually come out of the blue and very quickly.  I usually write a half page synopsis of every idea.  If the idea is any good it stays with me, I think about it night and day and let it grow in my head. 

 

Ideas I’ve never written are numerous.  Some ideas stay with you for years.  One of my plays, GRASS took 5 years, until I could get all the components to finish it.  Sometimes it’s because I can’t think of the end.  I think sometimes as I get better at writing I’ll be able to do the really mad ideas I have, I’m not good enough yet.

 

Ideas come from every where, friends, family, personal stories (Grass), internet, newspapers, photographs, flyers (walk this way). 

See and read about his work HERE

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Terry

First proper meeting of The Jungle Book today.

We were talking about animals. Snakes, monkeys, bears, panthers and a big bleeding Elephant (Indian, do they have bigger years?) I explained about being a Wallaby at drama school, but no one was listening. I was good.

Do you know those pipes you put in your tumble drier? They were mentioned a few times....

We had a 'chat' about changing character names, I said I'd have a word with the writer... I won't. Terry it is.

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My Dad's superpower

Dreams

My dad left me when I was 7, when I say left me I don’t mean to live in a bedsit like many of the other dads on our council estate, I mean left me.  He didn’t want to go but the cancer had got hold of him so he had no choice.  Before he went, most afternoons we would talk, mum, who had to look after him all day would send me upstairs to keep him company as soon as I got in from school.  He told me about his childhood, about my grandma, and the things they used to get up to when he was a kid.  He told me about his dreams and his ambitions for me, how he wanted me to ‘do better’ than him.

 

Near the end he would get upset and cried a lot.  I think he worried about my mum and me and how we would cope without him and that’s when he gave it to me.  He was in bed the curtains and his eyes were shut so I thought I’d got away without having to sit with him.  “Dad” I whispered as quietly as possible and moved towards the door.  “Mark, come here”. My heart sank, I know now to the world today it makes me look mean that I didn’t want to sit with my dying dad, but truth was, all I wanted to do was sit and watch telly like every other kid my age.  “I got something for you” he said. I sat down and he told me that because he was probably not going to be there as I grew up, that I would need a superpower to keep me safe.  This power wasn’t invisibility or speed or flight, but it is a super human strength that I can summon up when the situation arises.  In that bedroom, that afternoon my dad gave me everything.  When I am scared and lonely, when I have decisions to make, when I need council, when I need a friend and when I want to be with my dad I close my eyes and summon up my power…

 Hold fast to dreams  For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.  Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. 

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Not known

I was walking to the beach and I see a man.  When I get there he was gone.

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The Greatest story we NEVER told

When writer Mark and nurse practitioner Joanne tied the knot in Nashville Tennessee there was a little niggling doubt in the backs of their minds. You see, this couple hadn’t told a soul that they were getting married, and they had 100 guests invited to their ‘real’ wedding back in the UK when they got home.

 

Watch the film 

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Children's Theatre

For 10 years we have been producing a show for young people in this episode we answer a few questions about how it came about.

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