The Discipline of Deadlines

Since completing an M.A in Playwriting in May 2014 I have written nothing, zilch, dim. What a waste of an M.A but very recently in the last week in fact I have entered two competitions. Two competitions that require the entrant to write a 10 minute Drama on a set theme and with a deadline, an actual date that you have to submit by and I have found that these two simple things, a theme and a deadline actually help the creative juices because a deadline says 'Get it done son' and I have got them done because they are only 10 minute pieces. You're not a proper playwright until you've had a weighty hour and an half on a stage in my humble and we've all had to sit through them and wish we were elsewhere, not mentioning any names, William Shakespeare, yes you Sir! You must have been smoking something to get all that down. Ten minutes is a start. Ten minutes where the young, witty, razor sharp audience get to listen and judge and give you marks and feedback. Even if yours is not chosen, the process itself of getting something sent in is accomplishment enough if you have been used to doing nothing like what I have! I thought it might be difficult to complete a story arc in 10 minutes but the time constraint again is a good discipline to push the action forward and to get rid of any waste and flannel of which I am renowned. Cut it down to the bone, then read it out loud in different voices or accents if you can. Does it sound good on the ear? Does the dialogue flow?  And what is also pleasing to me is that I am flexing my bilingual muscle. One of the pieces was in Welsh and the other in English. I always thought that I was better in English because that was the language that I was educated in but I am finding that once I allow the guards of the mind and the language police to take a tea break that I enjoy the process of writing in Welsh more, perhaps because of the novelty and because I am returning to source. I am thinking in English but writing what comes to me in Welsh. The task ahead now is like the adverts in salubrious periodicals 'Make it Longer'. I have to make it longer. I can keep bods hooked for ten minutes perhaps but half an hour, not sure and then the holy grail an hour, God Forbid! But that is the challenge, a challenge for me that needs a deadline and a theme because if you get a kick ass idea and it is not what people want, then thou hast been pissing in the wind which again in my book is tantamount to doing nowt especially for one who doesn't enjoy the process of writing. I enjoy getting the idea and the theme, the setting and the 'bastard' characters but writing it, that's a different story again. Lead on Macduff