It’s hot, lads.

I suspect you are already aware of this but it feels strange to talk about this week without acknowledging what is probably at the front of you brain (or leaking out of it and dribbling down your face like a Central Line zombie). We mostly coped fine in this Casa de Kitties although I did, at one point, spend ten minutes gently rocking one of my cats back and forth in front of a desperately underpowered fan.

I’m back on schedule with these letters coming on a Friday and that’s where they will be remaining. It’s actually a gentle way to decompress before the weekend and, less wholesomely, I really like going out on Friday night so pretending I will consistently reach any sort of clarity or insight on a Saturday morning is a nonsense born of premium Procrastination Explanation™. See also: “It’s better if I do all the little things first” “lunch has made me tired” and “shut up Mum this Youtube video is vital to my research.”

This week has gifted me lots of lovely thinking and writing time and I’ve used it to continue to grow the series bible for my mid-apocalyptic sci-fi series as well as to write the first pages of the the pilot. It’s been an idea that’s been sitting in my brain for so many years and I’m thrilled be underway with it…

…But.

The weight of expectation that has accumulated with all those years means that at times I’ve found the whole thing completely daunting. Not just the ideas being massive but the sheer prospective workload has given me pause, especially as I’ve fought so hard to lessen how much I’m doing and try to enjoy my life. How to get past that? Well, much like when you get overwhelmed with a big feeling (like the prospect of your impending mortality happy Friday), I find homing in on the tiny details helps a great deal.

In particular, I’ve returned to those simple exercises about character detail that come up over and over and have found them almost annoyingly useful. Part of you wants to believe that after a certain stage you internalise all of that and can do it without thinking.

Nope.

Every time I do one of those five or ten minute exercises, about what a character wants or remembers or some such there’s always at least one plot point or detail that comes out of it that either informs that character or the world. That might not sound huge but more often than not the difference between a generic ‘asset’ and something that people will remember is a small, sparkling detail.

It would benefit me in general to focus on “small” and “sparkling” since my series bible is now north of 20,000 words and continues to grow. Very easy to get carried away with world-building, hey? Just need to go through it as I keep working and make sure it’s all speaking to, in some way, the same fundamental thematic concerns.

Bible aside, here is a little insight for how I write for telly. Before I settle down to begin the actual script, I make sure I have the plot of the episode out in simple bullet points - not more than a page or so. Then, alongside that, I bullet point out the journey of the lead character across the episode. I find this a good way to understand what the distinction is between the character’s journey and the story I’m telling in the episode and where they interlink.

Sometimes it will interlink too much for what is meant to be a multi-stranded affair. Sometimes it reveals to you how your lead isn’t actually driving the story. This happens all the time with me, especially when I’ll indulge my inherent antipathy towards the Big Moment. It’s an instinct that serves me well in theatre, I think, but it’s less useful for what is meant to be mainstream telly. Hit those hooky, tent pole beats and don’t look back.

After that, it’s a case of not overthinking it and making sure I write five pages a day. It’s a low ball target just to encourage myself and feel better about the days where it feels like you’re deleting more than you’re adding (which always happens) and on average I’ll usually do more than that. By end of next week I should be nearly halfway through the draft so I’ll let you know how I’m getting on then. If I don’t mention it, that means it’s going badly.

I’m sure it’ll be fine and even if it’s not, working on this project has been a lovely excuse to immerse myself in speculative fiction again and reconnect with my younger self. As a kid, I was totally obsessed with grounded sci-fi and counter-factual histories. Perhaps something about growing up in the London suburbs - so close to excitement that it feels like it’s yours to take but far when you’ve not got money or a means of transport - puts in you the instinct to re-conceive what you have, rather than looking for a total escape.

Nothing else to report I don’t think except that I played football out on pitch this Wednesday for what was roughly the first time in two years (having settled into life as a goalie) and OH MY GOD why did I do that. Muscles that have been unused for so long they’ve retired to run an olive grove on the slopes of an Italian mountain were forced back into action and like a stereotypical pensioner, they constantly complain about their pain.

Sometimes there’s nothing more powerful than a reassuring “you didn’t totally suck” to make a stranger’s day.

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