The Ultimate Selection!

I'm a little late again this week - but I think mid-week postings will become the order of the day, as I tend to be much busier during the weekends than on weekdays.
Been working on the story "Much Like..." and "Trolls" this week.  "Much Like..." is very short so I have been able to finish it.  I will leave it now until the next phase - the rehearsal/writing phase - where it will get polished and worked.  So, with "Sleep Inc.", I've got two shorts complete now, and hopefully a couple more by the end of the week.
The way I work on monologues is fairly lengthy - though I have written some pieces very swiftly indeed.  It isn't the writing of the monologue that takes the time, it's the re-writing and rehearsal phase that takes forever.  Let's put it this way - at the moment I'm enjoying writing because the pieces are just coming out, fairly swiftly and without fuss.  However, once I start saying the words outloud, then it get HARD.  There are quite a number of agonies that I will have to go through trying to make a load of words work.  Then I move to phase three, which is the rehearsal proper phase - preparing the stories for performance and fit them into a vaguely unified show.
"Trolls" is taking longer, partly because it is longer, and partly because it's just more complicated.  It is about lots of things - themes, ideas, characters and emotions - whereas a short monologue tends to work on just one or two things.  In the last week I've nearly completed a first draft - any day now and all the sections of the text will have been drawn together.  The only problem is that the rewriting will now take forever.
But I need to get ahead, as the closer I get to summer the less time I will have each day - as other projects butt in and administration for the autumn rears its ugly head.  Advertising, publicity, design work - plus the rehearsals themselves.  No time for writing - or much rewriting - then.
Had a little meeting or two to confirm a few other shows I'll be directing in Suffolk between now and the Storyteller shows, as well as confirming a cast member for "The Ghosts of Lavenham" special in October.  I can now start plotting out the story and look for details from Lavenham's past to create the character of the Ghost herself.

And here's a little departure - I've started to think out a plotline for a story working titled "Just One of My Little Hobbies" which is going to be based on this photo, which was taken (while Mr Simon Nader and myself were mucking about) in a photoshoot for the first Teaching Gods run.  It's sat there, smiling at me, saying "use me" and I've never quite figured out how.  I think I have the germ of an idea for it now.  It should be quite fun.
And, breaking news, there will be a one off, end of the line, performance of "Teaching Gods - The Ultimate Selection", in London in May.  It'll be a farewell to some of my favourite stories for a while before I move onto the new set I'm writing now.  It will also, by an amazing co-incidence, coincide with the launch of the Teaching Gods audiobook, which we're recording at the moment.  In fact, my big task this coming week is to re-rehearse "Teaching Gods" to get it ready for recording, as a couple of slight adjustments may need to be made to carry the meaning in the audio format.  Details on all this will follow shortly.