...to the blog today. Hello Will, thanks for being here and I know how busy you are, so I'll get straight to the questions...
AW So, you're an actor, a theatre director, a playwright and a poet. What first got you into writing and why?
WT I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. Longer really, as my memory’s not what it was. I started as a small boy, and considering how tall I am now, that was obviously a long time ago.
AW Hmm... Readers, I can vouch for that - he's as tall as a tree! But you were talking about writing...
WT I’m not sure what set me off, it was just something I always loved doing. Or should that be, loved “having done”? The results were much more rewarding than the actual process of writing. It can feel such a chore. I’m the world’s worst procrastinator (or do all writers think that?). But holding a finished piece of work in my hands, and being able to show it to family and friends was such a buzz, and still is. I still have a hand-written collection of horror stories that I wrote in a school exercise book in my mid-teens. I stencilled the title “Venture Into The Macabre” onto the cover and pretty much wrote the stories straight out. I wouldn’t be keen to show anyone the contents these days but I was very proud of it at the time.
AW Hmm... Readers, I can vouch for that - he's as tall as a tree! But you were talking about writing...
WT I’m not sure what set me off, it was just something I always loved doing. Or should that be, loved “having done”? The results were much more rewarding than the actual process of writing. It can feel such a chore. I’m the world’s worst procrastinator (or do all writers think that?). But holding a finished piece of work in my hands, and being able to show it to family and friends was such a buzz, and still is. I still have a hand-written collection of horror stories that I wrote in a school exercise book in my mid-teens. I stencilled the title “Venture Into The Macabre” onto the cover and pretty much wrote the stories straight out. I wouldn’t be keen to show anyone the contents these days but I was very proud of it at the time.
AW And what about other types of writing? Have you ever dabbled with short stories, for instance, or novels?
WT I wrote a lot of short stories back then. My first published works were short stories in the in-house magazine for the registration service when I worked there. The plays came later, after I joined a local drama group and acquired a taste for that style of writing. For the last few years I’ve been producing short-form screenplays for young actors to turn into videos for YouTube. The screenplay format is a natural progression from stage plays, but with its own rules and restrictions. It’s gratifying to think that my work has been viewed millions of times on the internet, but the scripts were all ghostwritten so there were no onscreen credits. I’m currently working on a crime novel, but, of course, it is a completely different discipline to writing scripts; the necessity to fill in the bits between the lines. When you rely entirely on dialogue you have to convey so much merely with speech. It actually feels like I’m cheating in a way, being able to explain the motivation behind a character’s words and deeds. And then there’s the need to describe a location so that a reader can “see” where the characters are, instead of simply writing “a bedsit, somewhere in England”, and leaving a director to create the visuals.
AW Famous authors, such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas, had a special space for writing. Do you have a writing ‘shed’ of your own?
WT Not a shed, no. What would be the dining room in my house has been converted into an office and a den. My desk and chair are actually my old ones from the register office, rescued from abandonment when the registrar team moved to their new premises. I also have a wonderful old Chesterfield chair and retro music system in the same room, to create the ultimate man cave.
AW Finally, if you had a whole afternoon to yourself and could choose to spend it with any one real individual (living or dead), or a character from a book, play or poem, who would it be, and what would you want to discuss?
WT Shakespeare has had such an incredible influence on all of literature, plays and prose, plus films and TV shows and any form of entertainment imaginable, so it would be amazing to have the opportunity to meet the man himself and get to know the mind behind all that. Also to let him know that he’s remembered four hundred years after his death and get his reaction to that!
Thanks Will and best of luck with the crime novel. Just because it is coming up to Hallowe'en, I have a little poetic offering from Will for you...
What feet were these with shuffling gait
Did tiptoe on the creaking stair
To hesitate and stop and wait
And linger just a moment there
Did tiptoe on the creaking stair
To hesitate and stop and wait
And linger just a moment there
What eyes were these in growing black
Did peer into the shadows thick
But dared not part the curtains' crack
Or spark the ashen candle wick
Did peer into the shadows thick
But dared not part the curtains' crack
Or spark the ashen candle wick
What ears were these, alert and ware
Did strain to catch the merest breath
Of one who slept with not a care
For hurt nor harm nor creeping death
Did strain to catch the merest breath
Of one who slept with not a care
For hurt nor harm nor creeping death
What hands were these when trembling so
Could scarce maintain a sturdy grip
Would others care, would others know
Would any curl a sneering lip
What blade was this so razor keenCould scarce maintain a sturdy grip
Would others care, would others know
Would any curl a sneering lip
As ever been on any knife
What man was this, unheard, unseen
Who ventured forth to claim a life
You can find Will's work using the following links No Harm Done Splish Splash - A Comedy in 2 Acts and 5 Towels Jenny's Friend Sod's Law
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