Bridget O'Connor
Bridget O’Connor is the author of two short story collections HERE COMES JOHN and TELL HER YOU LOVE HER, published by Picador. Her short stories have been published in various anthologies and magazines including THE PICADOR BOOK OF CONTEMPORARY IRISH SHORT STORIES, and have also been translated into French, Italian, German and Serbo-Croat. She has held a number of writing fellowships including Northern Arts Literary Fellow for the Universities of Newcastle and Durham and Writer in Residence at the University of East Anglia and has just completed a Writers Placement at the National Theatre. She won an Arts Council award for radio dramatists WRITE OUT LOUD and her play, BECOMING THE ROSE, was subsequently broadcast on Radio 4. She co-wrote a number of radio plays with her partner Peter Straughan, including STATES OF MIND and THE CENTURIONS. Her stage plays include the site-specific (co-written) NEWS FROM THE SEVENTH FLOOR, (Wils Wilson, 2003) set in a Watford Department store. Her play THE LOVERS premiered at Live Theatre, Newcastle 2005. Her short film, DEAD TERRY, was produced by the Live Theatre Newcastle in 2005. Her first feature film SIXTY-SIX (Working Title, co-written) is due to be released in 2006
Bridget is currently the Pearson Playwright in Residence at the Royal Exchange.
Top tip is Don't edit.
What works for me is to find the story of the play first. So first I write a kind of treatment or short story. This is the story of the play and contains all the main beats. In the story I ask myself active questions about the narrative and the world the characters inhabit. When I've found a storyline I can go with I commit to it and I try and clamp down on all other possible story lines. (This is because I know I will both meander and unravel and then fall into an exhausted stupor). I then write the play all the way to the end. I follow the story line fairly mechanically. The object is to finish and not to question or edit or in any other way undermine myself as I go along. I try to keep stringing myself along the beats until I've got right to the end of the story line. If I've managed this I feel as though I've broken the back of the play because all the really hard graft has been done.
P.S. I have only written two plays.
Bridget O’Connor is the author of two short story collections HERE COMES JOHN and TELL HER YOU LOVE HER, published by Picador. Her short stories have been published in various anthologies and magazines including THE PICADOR BOOK OF CONTEMPORARY IRISH SHORT STORIES, and have also been translated into French, Italian, German and Serbo-Croat. She has held a number of writing fellowships including Northern Arts Literary Fellow for the Universities of Newcastle and Durham and Writer in Residence at the University of East Anglia and has just completed a Writers Placement at the National Theatre. She won an Arts Council award for radio dramatists WRITE OUT LOUD and her play, BECOMING THE ROSE, was subsequently broadcast on Radio 4. She co-wrote a number of radio plays with her partner Peter Straughan, including STATES OF MIND and THE CENTURIONS. Her stage plays include the site-specific (co-written) NEWS FROM THE SEVENTH FLOOR, (Wils Wilson, 2003) set in a Watford Department store. Her play THE LOVERS premiered at Live Theatre, Newcastle 2005. Her short film, DEAD TERRY, was produced by the Live Theatre Newcastle in 2005. Her first feature film SIXTY-SIX (Working Title, co-written) is due to be released in 2006Bridget is currently the Pearson Playwright in Residence at the Royal Exchange.
Top tip is Don't edit.
What works for me is to find the story of the play first. So first I write a kind of treatment or short story. This is the story of the play and contains all the main beats. In the story I ask myself active questions about the narrative and the world the characters inhabit. When I've found a storyline I can go with I commit to it and I try and clamp down on all other possible story lines. (This is because I know I will both meander and unravel and then fall into an exhausted stupor). I then write the play all the way to the end. I follow the story line fairly mechanically. The object is to finish and not to question or edit or in any other way undermine myself as I go along. I try to keep stringing myself along the beats until I've got right to the end of the story line. If I've managed this I feel as though I've broken the back of the play because all the really hard graft has been done.
P.S. I have only written two plays.