Getting the bad drafts out
As part of the Young Playwrights Programme, we were given the challenge of writing monologues with different challenges. My challenge was to write the monologue creating a character I did not like. Now, I will be honest and admit that when I was given this task, I was very worried. Every time I have tried to write a ‘villain’ of sorts they have always become very pantomime-esque. Too evil or comedic to seem real, and if they are not real, they are not frightening. What, then, is the point of having them?
So, I started writing and I found myself falling into the same comedic and exaggerated pattern. Although comedic implies funny. They weren’t funny. You know that friend you have that is absolutely hilarious without meaning to be, they just make you laugh? Well, my character wasn’t like that. They weren’t likeable or unlikeable. They were just… well… meh. Just meh. That’s the perfect word to use. I was so frustrated, why couldn’t I just get this right?! It’s not a hard task to do, so why was I failing so many times?
I managed to get the first draft in, but I can honestly say that I hated it. To me, it was absolutely horrendous. But I had to submit something. During one of our sessions, we had the opportunity to hear our work read aloud by another Young Playwright. This was both very exciting and also terrifying! Hearing my work read back to me helped the words come into the real world and off the page, but I also felt really embarrassed as I was almost ashamed of the quality of my work. The group were so lovely and encouraging, they helped me see the good things in my work where I was convinced there was none. It’s such a wonderful group to be a part of, just full of positivity.

So, I scrapped it. It was quite hard to push the delete button, but I think it was necessary. I then found ambient music on YouTube, and just let my hands write. They seemed to know what they were doing even if I did not. What came out was an entirely new monologue, but one that was unique to me and had my voice. This really reinforced the message of trusting in the process of writing and not expecting it to be perfect the first time. Sometimes, you need to get the ‘bad’ pieces out before you can move on, and when you do, you may find something you didn’t quite expect.
Erin Craighead
Erin is part of the Bunbury Banter Young Playwrights Programme 2020-2021
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