From playwright to author

   My transition from Playwright to Author has been full of surprises.

It began when I started writing Painting the Light and discovered I could have as many characters as I wanted in a “scene” (I couldn’t stop thinking of chapters as scenes). Then I realised I could have a whole lot of “props” like trucks and horses and tanks and that I could skip from location to location with gay abandon.

 Painting the Light is a story that has been with me for my whole life. It is based on my parent’s lives before, during and after WW2.

The book began its life as an outline for a mini- series way back in the late ‘70’s when I was living in Canberra. When I moved to Sydney to begin my acting career I showed it to my mentor, the late George Ogilvie, who told me,

“It isn’t a film, it’s a life.”

This resulted in me shelving the idea and re-writing my first play, Us or Them. It went on to be a hit at Griffin and many other plays followed.

 Of course, my parents never left me but swirled around in my head while I pursued other playwriting and acting projects. I returned to it many years later when I was living in Melbourne. I had just had my teaching memoir, Playground Duty, published and was dreaming up another writing project. I had written a brand-new play, Tsunami, that was short listed for the Patrick White Award but couldn’t get so much as a reading. It didn’t take long for the penny to drop that my days as a playwright were numbered. Apart from my collaborations with 7ON, that is.

 I began writing a memoir based on my father’s life. I did tons of research and pitched the idea to a well-known publisher. The person I pitched it to was very enthusiastic and took it to a commissioning meeting. Apparently, everyone thought it was an amazing story, but the trouble was, no one had heard of Alan Manning. According to the experts this meant that no one would buy it. So, that was that as far as a biography was concerned.

 Writing a novel not only opened up a world of possibilities in terms of structure, but it also led to some surprising discoveries in the writing.

 I knew the story I wanted to tell. I mapped it out in fine detail. I knew my father’s story, I had lots of source material to draw on. But I didn’t just want to write about the male perspective of that period. I wanted to know how women like my mother were affected by being left behind. Women who found themselves pregnant to men they hardly knew, becoming single mothers when they had other plans. Or women like my stepmother who found themselves married to men whose war experiences had changed them irrevocably.

 Once I started writing them, these characters took on a life of their own. I’m not sure where they came from, whether it was my subconscious or snippets of things I’d heard or read about.

 Wherever they came from, it was incredibly exciting. All sorts of characters found their way into the story. Women and men.

For example, I needed a scene to show how Alec’s farming methods were bearing fruit (wheat actually). I also wanted to show how he and Bernie were working as a team. I came up with the idea that they finished harvesting the crop and took it to a railway siding before it rained. Then “Rusty” appeared. Literally out of nowhere. I don’t know where he came from. Nor do I know where the siding came from. The scene was a means to advancing the story and writing it was thrilling.

There were times when I was daunted by writing Painting the Light, when I sat down at my desk wondering if I could do it. Fortunately, my writer’s mantra kicked in and I put the nose to the grindstone and soon was writing away happily.

 I was extremely lucky to be working with a fantastic editor, Bernadette Foley, who went on to become my publisher. I like working with an editor. Especially one as on the ball as Bernadette. The book began its life as a very optimistic 200,000 words and ended up a tad over 100,000.

Once it had received four or five edits and we were happy with it, we began the process of publishing.

Bernadette’s company, Broadcast Books, is a small independent publisher that helps new Authors like me to get their books out there. Bernadette’s wealth of experience proved, and is proving, invaluable.  

Daniel New came on board to design the layout and the cover. Daniel’s cover is superb and catches the tone of the novel perfectly. Another piece of the puzzle was in place.

This is when the real surprise hit me in the eyes.

Being a playwright, I was used to a six or, maybe, eight week season. There would be reviews, hopefully positive, and then the season and then it was it over. If you were really lucky it would get published and, if you hit the jackpot, it might get included on a schools list. On rare occasions the play got another season as happened with Us or Them and a few of my other plays. Either way there was a finite time when the play was on and people watched it. And then it was over.

 The journey of a novel is way different. There might be an initial burst with a launch or two. A few interviews or articles. Maybe bookshops will highlight it in the window. Then, even if you have one of the big publishers onside, after a few weeks you find your book has moved out of the window and onto a shelf. Unless you’re Tim Winton or Helen Garner or Sarah J. Maas you quickly disappear. You hang on to the prospect of a great review, hopefully for not too long though. There are literally hundreds of books published each month, self-publishing has had a huge impact on the book industry, and there’s a fair chance you won’t get a great review. You may not get one at all.

 Getting noticed for a first-time author isn’t easy. Even with a publicist as brilliant as DmcprMedia.

 Fortunately, I have had a long career producing my own work. I am fully aware of the challenges facing an independent artist. I have learnt that if you are an independent artist you need to work as hard at getting your work out there as you did creating the work in the first place. What I have to get used to as an author, is the seemingly endless timeline that lies ahead. It’s the particular longevity of the process that is most challenging for a novice like me.

 For instance, people ask me how the book is going,

“Pretty well.” I say, “Ticking over.”

“That’s great.”

“Did you like it?”

“Ummm…well…I haven’t bought it yet…but I will.”

I smile.

Others say,

“It’s on a pile. Under all the other books I need to read.”

“Great…”

At least they’ve bought it.

 This is exactly what I mean about a steep learning curve. With a play people either go or they don’t. The don’t put their tickets under a pillow for a few months. Plays are immediate. I’m learning that the life of a novel is anything but immediate. I try not to drive my friends crazy marketing Painting the Light, although many have been with me on other projects so they’re pretty long suffering.  

 I like to think of this of this phase as “Act2 – Marketing & Distribution”. I’m learning all about book selling. I go out to the Booktopia warehouse to deliver books. I go to bookshops asking if they might like a copy or two to sell? I am travelling to country areas to do talks, something I love doing. I’m very excited to have some book club events coming up.

 I loved writing this book and I love the fact that so many people seem to be getting different things from it. It seems only right that I keep on making it possible for people to read it.