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I guess it’s vaguely interesting to see if I can manage it.
Back in July I was pretty certain that I couldn’t manage it, so I am quite surprised to get to the point where I found myself with five completed scripts by just after lunch.
The only problem is that I have not one word written for script 6.
I lay in the bath and thought it through. I have a basic plot (based on the family gathering where Ernie pooed on the patio - spoilers) and some character stories to either tie up or leave hanging in the air. I think I have enough to write about, but even by the end of today I had not actually typed any of it into a script. And there’s a lot more to it than the plot anyway.
I feel relatively OK about it. I have two full days (Monday and Tuesday) to get to grips with it and hopefully can find some time over the weekend to start getting stuff down. It’s still a lot of work, but in the bath, this afternoon, it felt like it was possible.
Actors, being annoying and professional, are keen to see the scripts ahead of the recording, but they may not get the chance with this one.
After finishing the script I went for a run. Miraculously my half marathon vest number and shoe chip turned up this morning. Weirdly the organisers emailed me this evening to say they could find no record of my entry and I have had no confirmation emails from them. But somehow the system still knows I am doing it, so there’s no way out now. If you’ve enjoyed a year of blogs, then
how about donating £3.65 to the cause. Just to let me know there’s someone out there.
And talking of some out there - I listened to Danny Robin’s new ghost podcast,
Uncanny as I ran and it shitted me right up. Even though I was running in broad daylight, I found the content of the first episode so disturbing that I became convinced, as I ran through woods alone, that some ancient nature spirit was going to jump out and attack me. That wasn’t even what the story was about. But it created that sense of foreboding and horror that makes every shadow and noise fill with an unnamed evil. I ran down a tree lined path, a little lost, ready for something to jump out of me from the bushes and was then startled by the corpse of some black and white creature right next to the path. I was running by and didn’t get a chance to look properly or identify the species, but in my fearful state it looked like whatever the creature was had had its fur ripped off in one piece and deposited on the ground, like a little puppet. It probably wasn’t that, but it was weird that it happened just as I was anticipating something terrible.
It was a good example of how the suggestion of fear can make you fearful and see things that aren't there or notice stuff you wouldn't have otherwise spotted and leap to the darkest interpretation.
And I don’t even believe in ghosts (apart from the ones in my house), so well done to Danny for creating such a suspenseful podcast, with stories so crazy that the experts trying to explain why it’s not real sound like insane fantasists.
It’s good stuff, but don’t listen when you’re running through the woods, less the tree sprites leap out and turn you into a glove puppet.
