Getting the words out there.

Over the last couple of years writing has had an increased predominance in my life and I'm rather thrilled to find that I like it.. I have several friends who are writers, mainly writers of television material, and I have always admired the self-discipline they have to sit down at their computer screens each morning and conjure up words out of the air. That was always the problem for me in being a writer. The self-discipline and the self-determination to do that. In acting, for a great amount of the time, there is somebody there to set us a deadline and to make us do the work. We have to learn the lines by the morning. We have to turn up for rehearsal at a certain time. We have to be in the theatre by the half. I like all that. It's good and it lets me know where I need to be at any given point.

In writing, those are targets you have to set yourself. When I wrote my first book "So You Want to Be a Corporate Actor?", although I was keen to write the book, the actual process of writing was something that was a mystery to me. On a workshop in France the writer Adrian Magson told me "just write whatever you know about now. You can always place the chapters together later". As somebody who had always just read a book from beginning to end, I thought that was how you had to write them, but like a film, it can be all completed out of order.

I set myself targets - on each Saturday in my calendar I put a number and that was the word count that I needed to be at by that day. I'm glad to say that on both  books I've written, I was always ahead of that word count and the added bonus was that it gave me a great feeling of success in having achieved something when I knew that I was 1500 or 2000 words in front of where I needed to be.

My second book "The Working Actor" did benefit from having written one before, but also surprised me with that "difficult second album" syndrome. It has been much harder work, and yet reading the final proofs of it last week before it went to the printers for its release on May 5th, I'm convinced it's probably a much better book in that it deals with a wider scope, and has many many practical tasks designed to give you something to do when there seems to be nothing to do in your life as an actor.

That's how I like to work. I can cope with a day at home if, like today, I know there is a big long list of tasks for me to get through and there is a reason for doing them on this particular day. That's what the book aims to do, and if just one reader completes all those tasks and as a result get a job or piece of work out of it, then my efforts will have been worthwhile. Ever since I finished the first book, I have had the dream of writing a piece of fiction. It's all been plotted out in my head, on notes programs, and on novel writing software, but it steadfastly stayed at around the 3000 word mark while my second acting book was completed and the day job took precedence. Last month was a joyous one including two holidays, one in Istanbul, mercifully before the bomb went off, and another six-day break in New York. The theatregoing during that holiday provides the basis for a forthcoming column in The Stage. But on the work front, it wasn't busy, and April has been remarkably quiet, so I decided to set myself the target of completing 10,000 words of my piece of fiction,  Today I've done it, so I'm pleased by the fact that by the 20 April I have managed to complete the target for the month. I've edited it and indeed I now have the first four chapters of my mystery novel. Events have even gone a stage further as today I actually pressed send on an email which contained all 10,000 words and sent them swimming through the nether sphere  to a literary agent who is interested in it.  It's like that dreadful moment when people come into the rehearsal room to see what you've all been playing at for a couple of weeks. Today I have absolutely no faith in whether it's any good or not. I can only stand by it. I know that probably if I get a couple of 'no's", it won't get written as unless I have a reason to write it and a  target to finish it by, I will be let down by the lack of self-determination once more.

I'm thrilled that the " The Working Actor" will be out on May 5th. I'm delighted and surprised that "So You Want to Be a Corporate Actor?" continues to sell and prove useful to people new to the corporate world and experienced role players alike. It's great to receive a tweet or an email from someone saying that because of reading that book, they've done a job that otherwise they previously couldn't have done.

And of course I'd be extra thrilled if the document I've sent off today came back as an invitation to write the rest of it.  It's just getting the words out there.

One of the guys I have mentored from the Alan Bates made a short film last month that has been bought by the BBC and will be on iPlayer for Shakespeare's birthday this Saturday. Another is making his own documentary about the golden days of Repertory theatre. Great that they have projects that they are in charge of.

 But just like me they also relish the job where one is told what to do. Getting the balance right is key.