My experience: Laura Stevens

As a writer, speed and economy with words has never really been my thing. I usually spend weeks or months mulling over an idea before even thinking about taking those fateful steps towards a computer’s keyboard. Then as I write, each word seems to be slowly and painfully extracted rather than flowing in a glorious wave of inspiration!

So you can imagine my terror at the prospect of having…about an hour in the end….to write a play in just 100 words.

Fabulous, I thought. Terror is good. Stretch your writing muscles and think outside the box, I told myself. Move outside the comfort zone of desk, laptop, brain (but I really hoped the brain would turn up to the workshop).

Having not done that kind of fast writing workshop and exercises for a while I found it so free being unchained from the dreaded laptop. I also realised that I’ve lost the ability to string a sentence together in longhand. I loved the exercises to write a scene in 10 and then 20 words. It really makes you see how few words are actually necessary, and how little you need to make a scene.  I somehow stumbled upon an idea for my play that evolved just from the words ‘flip the switch’ at the top of a page. You get an idea and just have to spontaneously go with it, without my statutory weeks of pondering. I guess the writing process was quite teenage itself in that way.

I wanted to come to the workshop and write in a way that’s different for me, so instead of my usual tense drama I went for something surreal, weird, and quite succinct in the end, and while it might not be my strength, it was brilliant how the workshop made me want to experiment and break free.

Seeing the plays performed in the evening was an enormous buzz. We had all interpreted the brief and responded to the process in such a different way. I have admiration for all the writers I met, and the frighteningly energetic and talented NYT actors embraced the spirit of the process with such gusto.

Natasha, Oliver and Rachel have done an astounding job bringing this mad but brilliant day together and putting it into a cracking night’s entertainment with belief and dedication. The 100 word play is a brilliant and gutsy project which I am thrilled to have been part of and I would love to be part of any future projects.