Friday, March 21, 2008

Tinder

A productive day's writing and I feel as if I'm getting out of the woods at last. I think I can see a way through to the end. It's too soon for me to articulate it - it might dissolve if I do - but it's a good feeling.

I've been thinking about titles as well. 'Ned's Story' is way too wishy-washy.

I'm toying with 'Tinder' as a title. I like it because it implies (for me) that the characters are flammable, that they could explode at any moment. And it's not just the characters. Their home is a tinderbox. The air crackles and sparks.

And the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale 'The Tinderbox' has become a key element of the play. I love how surreal it is. The dog with eyes as big as spinning towers. The soldier who gets wealth beyond his dreams thanks to the witch, and then kills her anyway. The morality is completely warped and twisted.

Stories within stories. Kind of like this blog - writing about writing.

This play has its hooks deep inside me. I think about it all the time. Not about writing it, but about the characters. Why they do what they do. what happened to them before this time I'm writing about. What will happen afterwards. I certainly don't have the answers. Not yet anyway.

2 comments:

Kate Eltham said...

I really love that title, and I didn't want to say anything but I wasn't a fan of Ned's Story (says the girl who published a short story called "Davey's Story" blech)

Don't you love that feeling of being obsessed with your story? It's like being in love - infatuated, can't stop thinking about it, vaguely exhausted by it but also secretly adoring because nobody else knows when you're mind is elsewhere.

Hope you having a great long weekend.

Kate.

Katherine Lyall-Watson said...

Thanks, Kate! It's lovely to get your feedback.

This play was originally 'The Woods' (bleurgh). 'Ned's Story' was the file name for the draft I wrote at Varuna. At the end of my stay I started looking for a title and was thinking of 'When the Axe Sings'. My lovely dramaturg at the time, MaryAnne Gifford, said it gave away too much and just to stick with 'Ned's Story'. So I did. But I've never liked it as a title.

This draft is now called 'Tinder'. Much better!