So here is the deal, the coffers in the kitty are low and I am really looking at 3 months to make this series happen. Don’t worry I am not so deluded that in those three months I think we will finish everything and sign a lucrative deal for 5 series with the BBC.  However, I do think we will finish the scripts, get real readings done, put together a kick ass pitch document and blitz anyone with money, power, vision and talent.

So this means no more slacking, focus all the way.  To help I have brought on a mentor of sorts.  He has one role and that is to demand pages everyday and slap me round the face when they don’t come.

In our small group we have often mentioned this lack of an authority figure as one of the problems we have had in not getting work done at a pace we feel we can realistically achieve. We look at the days where we have been mega productive and ask why can’t we do this everyday? The bottom line is we are our own bosses, and unfortunately we are the bosses you would love to have.

Want to start work late because it was cold outside? Fine.

Need to leave early to get ready for that dinner date at 9? No problem.

Want to sit around and play computer games? Excellent idea, we need to take a break from all this work anyway.

All of that aside, it takes a lot of discipline to do what we have done on spec. We could have rushed this through, but then it would be the same sort of stories and characters we started this to avoid. No one is paying us wages and yet we have found a way to scrape by to fulfil our dreams of being writers.

So roll on the Tennies and may they be far more productive and lucrative than the Noughties.

One of the toughest things about writing the way we have is that we don’t have deadlines. There is no producer standing over our shoulder telling us we need to have a finished script done by next week. So what does it matter if next week turns into next month? It matters because we know we can do better. This week we set a goal to do a rehearsed reading; 3 weeks to get 3 scripts up to scratch.  Now we have a deadline. But is it really a deadline? We have been here before, every time we start to panic that we are taking too long, money is running short or another project looks more tempting. We know that if we miss this deadline no one will get fired, instead the deadline will be moved and we will conclude that it is in the name of quality.

So dealines have issues which brings us to fear. We can’t organise a reading in a couple of days, this takes a couple of weeks so we have to start now and with the actors in place we can’t cancel. These scripts will get read no matter what, plot holes, character inconsistencies and typos; hopefully they won’t be there, but we will have to accept it if there is.  We need to hear these scripts, have an opportunity to step back from the computer and enjoy the fruits of our labour as it is brought to life.

A deadline we cannot move should give us the fear to meet it.

Despite the death sentence looming down upon him, Burgess quickly discovered another motivator to help him get those 1000 words a day down faster.  He discovered if he set down to work first thing in the morning he could have his quota done by lunchtime, he would then head down to the pub and spend the rest of the day drinking beer. This is I a guess a really good example of “the carrot and the stick”. Fear is the stick and helps to get you off your ass, but don’t forget the rewards because we are suppose to enjoy this process.

Look out for my next blog “The Fallen Soldier”, due early next week.

* I have 3 copies of A Clockwork Orange and one copy of the play, annoyingly  the copy that has the Burgess introduction where he tells this story is missing so the 1000 words a day is from my memory, it might have been more, but 100,000 words for a novel sounds about right. It is also worth noting that while he wrote all the books during this time, he did not actually finish and publish all of them in that period and some were based on earlier works. Still, it is impressive what you can do under pressure.

I was browsing through Facebook, one of the world’s most common and basic procrastination techniques when I stumbled upon a message from a friend, saying that one his friends was going to be appearing on the fourth plinth as part of Anthony Gormley’s One and Other project. That sounds like a laugh I thought and so signed up thinking that with little more than a month left I would have little chance of getting randomly picked by the magic computer.  Excellent I thought, 5 minutes wasted, that is some quality procrastination. Then the phone rang. ‘That’s odd.’ I thought, no one calls me.

Me: Hello.

Abi: Hello, is the Graham Trefler?

Me: Trelfer, yes.

Abi: I’m calling from the One and Other project and we would like to offer you a place on the fourth plinth… on Wednesday.

Me: This Wednesday.

Abi: Yes, someone dropped out at the last minute.

So with 48 hours before I ascend the fourth plinth I have no idea what I am going to do. So rather than continuing to finish the script, the brain trust and I must brain out something reasonably awesome, inspiring, amusing and not as pointless as the girl we watched having a party by herself.

So there you have it, 5 minutes of procrastination has been spread out to three days.

Any ideas of what you would like to see on the plinth please let me know.

As it happened we both had the same concerns, although the solutions differed somewhat.  My instant reaction was to cut the first half of the script, but writing partner, script reader and all round wheat intolerant demi God said, “no, refocus on this character.”  Oh, it makes sense when you say it, but this character was hardly in the storylines, so I blame that, rather than myself.  This character is the audience’s eyes and we want people to discover our world through her.

Great I can finally get back to work, but the play station is looking at me. Damn it, it is much easier to procrastinate when you can blame it someone else. So now I am off to the park with a print out to look at this character’s journey to see what I can do to make it more interesting.

This brings me to procrastination.  As you know (if you read my other posts) I write with 2 other people and at this stage of the writing we have separated to write different episodes.  I say separated, but we still meet up to write and yesterday I was reminded why.  With one partner having to work to pay bills, the other two of us were planning to meet up.  But due to issues with showers and plans for the evening this fell through and we were to write on our own.  Suddenly I had no reason to venture out my bedroom.  No one asking me “how it was going” and all those little jobs like fixing the bin lid and watering the tomatoes became very important.  6 hours later I realised that I had done no work, I looked at my computer screen and couldn’t even read the first line before jumping on the net to check e-mails and the latest news on Obama’s health care plan.

That was it.  I already knew my evening would be taken up the London Comedy Writers and so I grabbed a print out of my script packed a bag and headed down to London Bridge where I found a nice spot by the river and worked without distraction.

I obviously can’t be trusted to work at home alone and no matter how far I think I have come in these last 8 months without someone watching over my shoulder I still find very hard to focus on what I need to do.

Anyway a special shout out to Jude who took sympathy on me when my pen ran out and gave me a new one.  Had it not been for that pinked hair angel my efforts to get out the house and write would have been scrapped before they really got underway.