First drafts

Slow week. My fiance is in Ireland helping out with things for her brother’s wedding this Saturday. I’ll be flying out Thursday night. I’m looking forward to it, it should be fun. The last one was. Got my kilt sorted out, just need to pick it up Thursday.

I was reading through the hardcopy of the manuscript last night in bed. I noticed a lot that needed to be changed. There were inconsistencies, some weak descriptions and unrealistic dialogue. Nothing that I shouldn’t be able to fix, but still, there were a couple of times when I was wondering what possessed me to bash the keyboard in that particular order.

It’d be quite interesting I think to be able to read a few first drafts of some popular author’s works. Just from a writer’s perspective it would be quite encouraging to be able to compare the first draft to the final book. Demand would probably be quite low though I would imagine. Then again, Dan Brown doesn’t seem to have any bother getting people to buy first drafts of his books.

Fizzling out

Well the fringe is nearly over now. I’ve been to my last show anyway. It’s been a fun, albeit expensive month. The if.comedy nominees were released the other day and this year unlike last, I’ve actually seen some of the shows nominated. Two in fact, although I saw Kristen Schaal last year and she was very, very good so I’m not surprised she, along with Kurt Braunohler got a nomination. I hope and expect Rhod Gilbert to win though and thus kind of ruin the concept of his own show.

I’m trying to get back to the writing now. I wouldn’t say it’s going brilliantly. I know it was for the best to leave the manuscript for a couple of months but it’s really killed the momentum I had going for the first half of the year. Somehow I have to try and get myself properly motivated again to get this done. It’s not that I don’t know what can be done to improve the thing – I have plenty of ideas. It’s just actually buckling down (do people still use that term) and applying the changes that I’m struggling with. At the moment there’s 174 pages and I’ve edited 20 of them. That’s 11.49%. Still so much to do. I’ll try and make some progress over the weekend and the rest of this week, but I’ll be out the country from Thursday for Wedding II so it’s not like I’ll get a big run of momentum going. August really has been the write off I expected it to be but I won’t have any excuses for September so I’ll have to gear myself up to make some real progress from that month on.

Right then. It’s on.

Mark Watson – All The Thoughts I’ve Had Since I Was Born

Despite keeping a packed room at the Pleasance Grand entertained for an hour, Mark Watson notes that he can’t help but be frustrated with the fact that one particular member of the audience has seemingly failed to crack a smile the whole night. Letting that get on his nerves seems ironic for a show about Watson trying to stop getting so annoyed about unimportant things. “Will it still be important in a year?” is the question he has been trying to ask of things that get him upset in a bid to lower his stress levels. In a years time, Watson will no doubt be back performing another excellent show while the woman in question will hopefully have gotten the money together for an operation to make her able to laugh again. ****1/2

Josie Long – All of the Planet’s Wonders (Shown in Detail)

I can’t imagine anyone not liking Josie Long. Going to one of her shows is like going round to a mates house and having them put on a show for you that they’ve just made up and you think it’s probably not that good really but it’s your mate and they’re so enthusiastic that you can’t help but piss yourself laughing anyway. It’s a little like that anyway. In this year’s show Josie talks to us about her love of finding out stuff that she didn’t know. By her own admission, Long doesn’t do proper jokes. One of the only “proper” jokes in her set was along the lines of how much does the sport cost to organise in Harry Potter? Quidditch. Thankfully, Long’s personality and enthusiasm carry the show along just fine. It really is difficult to put your finger on why Long is so funny. If you’ve seen her and liked her then you’ll get it. If you’ve seen her but didn’t like her then you probably won’t like her this year. And also you must surely be dead inside. ****

Stewart Lee – Scrambled Egg

In the sweltering heat of the Edinburgh Stand, Stewart Lee plays mainly to a packed room full of people who are already predisposed to liking him. Nevertheless he insists, stand up comedy is the hardest job in the world. Sarcasm is this man’s backbone and in this years show, basically a rehearsal of old and new material in preparation for his forthcoming BBC2 series, he uses it to full effect. Turning away from the grander themes he has covered in the past like 11/9, political correctness and vomiting into the gaping anus of Christ, Lee turns his attention to ridiculing the painfully obscure, like American comedian Franklyn Ajaye and Chris Moyles second autobiography. In the case of Ajaye, Lee focuses on the comedian’s 1974 comedy album “I’m a Comedian, Seriously”, squeezing every last laugh out of the hilariously pompous cover and contradictory track listing, having never actually listened to the album, or indeed removed the original cellophane wrapping. In the case of Moyles, Lee contemplates the success of a book aimed at being a great toilet book that in Davina McCall’s opinion is butt-clenchingly honest.

If this show is any indication, and by it’s definition it is, then Lee’s TV show should be well worth watching. *****

Stumbling

I fear I will never finish editing the book now. As if I wasn’t procrastinating enough before, today I discovered Stumble-Upon. It’s Internet Heroin. I just can’t help myself from clicking on the magical button of dreams. I tell myself that i’ll stop clicking on it after the next one, but one click is never enough. Never. I’m writing this and all I keep thinking about is clicking the button again.

Ahh, I clicked it. http://www.quotegarden.com/philosophical.html. Lots of quotes. I think I’m okay now. Got it out of my system. So anyway, the writing then. Managed to get a bit more done… ahhh, got to press it again… http://wadsworth.com/english_d/templates/student_resources/1413001890_burnett/UsageHandbook/edit_marks.htm

Okay, that’s not funny. When an inanimate web browser script is telling you to get back to work, it’s probably time to get back to work.

So just the one more go then…

Bill Bailey – Tinselworm

I think I forgot to mention I was going to see this last night. It was well worth the wait. Bailey is one of the few acts able to really do good musical comedy. He’s an amazing musician in his own right, seemingly able to play anything placed in front of him. As focused as ever Bailey switches from exploring sinister sounding doorbells to his love for emo to shouting at cars in the street. In between we get George Bush soundbites and David Cameron dancing. It all makes more sense when you see it live. Though even then it doesn’t really make much sense. I didn’t get the feeling this show was as good as his previous ones but it was still a hilarious couple of hours. ****

Some editing gets done

Some progress on the editing tonight. I’m on to the fourth chapter now. Nothing major has been changed so far. I’m looking especially at the minute for inconsistencies in how characters act and speak at the start because I’m aware that one in particular probably doesn’t speak the way I had her speaking at the end. Which is an issue. At some point I’m going to have to start reading from the printout of the thing as well, just to try and see it from a different perspective. I have the weekend in mind for a lot of reading of the manuscript so we’ll see how that goes.

Bill Bailey tomorrow night. Not sure if I mentioned that before. Probably did in passing.

Legless

I got back from Ireland last night. I spent the weekend on a stag do with my future brother-in-law who gets married at the end of the month. It was quite the interesting weekend all in all. We went go-karting, drinking and paintballing. In that order. Thankfully split across two days. It was a good laugh though, although my legs don’t agree with that as they are in agony. I feel like a 90 year old man getting up and down stairs right now. It’s not fun.

I’m gearing myself up to get back into writing this weekend as I should have some time to myself. I’ve got a whole bunch of new ideas in my head that I want to be cracking on with. Specifically the ending which right now is a bit weak but I think I have the solution to that. Then I’m off next week again and we’ll spend some time at the festival. Stewart Lee, Mark Watson and Josie Long still to see next week. Bill Bailey this Thursday which I cannot wait for. It’s going to be awesome. How could it not be?

Daniel Kitson – 66a Church Road – A Lament, Made of Memories and Kept in Suitcases

It’s Daniel Kitson, how the hell is it not going to be brilliant? In his own words, this is Kitson’s break up show for his flat of six years. Kitson’s affection for his flat, which he admits is not even that great a flat, highlights the attachment we can place on things that we really shouldn’t. All too often we will concentrate our attentions on the things we think are important, overlooking the things that really are. His fear of somehow losing the memories he has created in the flat threatens to hold him back from making new memories elsewhere. On the surface, you would suspect the theme of the show has the potential to turn into a straightforward “Home is where the heart is” type message, but Kitson never simplifies things to that extent. At it’s heart this is an exploration of the suffocating hold nostalgia can have over a person and in spite of a half hour technical delay in starting, was never anything less than excellent. *****