In my beginning is my end
the circular route may be longer but it's inevitable
My last post looked at how hard it is to deliver an original and satisfying ending to viewers and/or readers. Take a look at the comments on that post - and do join in with your own favourite and/or letdown endings. It’s good to share. You never know, you may discover a good read/listen/watch that you’ve missed, or give someone else a new fix.
Sometimes, you have an idea for a piece of writing and you just know it’s a good one. You feel it in your water. You’ve no idea how it will start or end, but it’s got legs.
That’s how I felt about Previously Loved. Before it was called Previously Loved. Before I spent time volunteering in a local charity shop (back in 2016). Before I knew whether it would be a story, a play or a novel, or something else.
Some ideas have legs… even if it takes you an age to work out where those legs are going to take you
Occasionally, I collect newspaper and magazine clippings. I put them in a file and completely forget about them. A few years ago, I was having a clear out and came across a faded file called Ideas. A slim volume but surpisingly illuminating. A couple of items relating to charity shops had clearly caught my eye in the dusty before. One concerned a bunch of volunteers who’d walked out ‘on strike’ because they didn’t like the changes a new manager was making to ‘their’ shop. Another was the story of a long-serving volunteer who, at nearly ninety, still donated time to his local charity shop.
I shook off, the dust and re-read them. And I still felt a creative frisson. There is something in this, I thought.
A bit like a commercial kitchen (think the recent hit series The Bear, available on Disney+), a charity shop offers a contained but flexible environment, where an eclectic cast of characters must gather. They bring with them their simmering outside lives which are ready to bubble over into the enclosed shared space and further complicate/enliven an already pressure cooker environment (enough with the metaphor, Ed.). On the surface, our random group is united by one thing (love of cooking/a wish to volunteer) but, scratch at each individual’s surface, and deeper universal connections - and differences - will be uncovered.
And that’s the potential I think I first felt with the charity shop location. Over the years, I poked at it, turning over the embers of the idea, hoping that something would ignite and inspire me to write.
And, today (Tuesday 3 September, 2024), we start rehearsals for my play based in a charity shop: Previously Loved. It’s interesting looking back because it’s easy to forget the long process and progress of some projects. The no starts. The false starts. The restarts.
Editing is, of course, part of any writing - whether it’s an email or a novel. Anyone else find they have to nip back to the beginning of an email to put the ‘niceties’ in? Surely not just me?
And there’s a little point to be taken from that. To get to the end, you’ve got to have a beginning. Even if you write your end first, it’s not actually the end unless you have a beginning. And, as I’ve said before, in creative writing, endings are all important BUT endings are really hard.
Something else it’s good to revisit is feedback you received through the writing of a project. I’ve mentioned in other posts the small band of writers I’ve kept in touch with from my Creative Writing MA. They have been completely invaluable in the crafting of my Previously Loved script. From early-draft comments, to the feedback quoted below on a later draft, from my friend Dean (I’ve edited out one very specfic reference in Dean’s feedback):
“I liked the wrap up, however it all seemed a little bit convenient, effortless. Came too quickly.
It’s not bad, not at all, it works, but at the same time, it feels a bit… generic. This ending wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of Law and Order, or Midsummer Murders, or Lewis. Is there an ending which is unique and only works for Previously Loved?
I’m trying to think of a good example of what I mean. You’ve seen High Fidelity, that film could have ended with John Cusack bringing Laura flowers, proposing, a wedding. Any of those would have been a perfectly satisfactory romcom ending. Instead it ended with him making a mixtape for Laura, it meant the same thing, but that ending was unique and could only work in that particular film and with that character, tailor made versus off the rack.”
Is there an ending which is unique and only works for Previously Loved?
Dean nailed it. Yes, we all have certain expectations of particular genres. A pattern of characters or features is what makes a genre. But, the second that pattern becomes a one-size-fits-all finish, is the second it becomes cliched or, as Dean puts it, ‘generic’ and ‘off the rack.’
Much as I hated dragging myself back through the play yet again, it had to be done. I wasn’t as radical with my rewrites as I could have been. And maybe the end will change again - yes, even though we’re about to start rehearsals. But I did go back and I did try to ensure that my end was one that only my characters could make happen. An end that was in keeping with the ethos of the play. An end that felt true to the beginning.
Did I succeed? You’ll have to come and see the play to find out. And I’m sure you’ll let me know!
Previously Loved presented by Ragbag Theatre in venues in North Northumberland:
Chatton Village Hall on Wed Nov 27 2024
Etal Village Hall on Thurs Nov 28
Alnwick Playhouse on Fri Nov 29
Spittal Community Centre (St Paul's) on Sat Nov 30
Tickets available soon. I’ll keep you posted.
Till next time
And, as this post is being published later in the week, here’s a taster of what our rehearsal space looks like. It’s brilliant!
