Ask the Author: Brian Astbury
Answered Questions (6)
Brian Astbury
Over 30 years I taught young actors how to write their own speeches/plays. It finally developed into a system, and, with the emergence of self/Indie publication and what I learned from that, I decided to put it into a book. I had had a lot of requests for workshops, many coming from outside London. The book was a way of spreading the 'gospel'. The system is not rocket science. Anybody can use the book to set up their own group and put it into practice. I hope that others will try it and then gain the courage to publish their own work. Writing is a great joy, and very therapeutic.
Brian Astbury
Ah, that's a mystery, of course - and must remain so...
Brian Astbury
Use Julia Cameron's technique of Morning Pages (found in her wonderful book - The Artists Way, as well as a version specially adapted for writers in my Everyone Can Write). After I had done her Morning Pages Challenge (my word, not hers - it's a tough one for anyone like me who doesn't like getting up any earlier than I HAVE to, but it's really worth it), I found that I could write anywhere and at any time. Morning Pages destroys your fear of The Dreaded Blank Page. I can write on buses, tubes, aeroplanes; during a lunch-break; while waiting for a meeting. Writer's Block? What's Writer's Block?
Brian Astbury
Don't let anyone put you off by telling you how HARD it is. Writing is a joy - an addictive joy. You don't have to know what you're going to write about before you start. I allowed myself (stupidly) to be stopped from writing for nearly two decades by books that purported to teach how to write, only to espouse techniques that I found impossible to follow. It was only after the Writing Urge ignored my doubts and asserted itself that I was able to rediscover the joy I had in writing when I was young. Writing is therapeutic.
The BIG problem only arrives at the end of the process when you have to find the courage to PUBLISH. In these days of Digital Publishing this has become unbelievably easy. There's no excuse NOT to publish. But it is daunting for most. 'It won't be good enough.' 'I'm not Tolstoy (or Woolf, or Austen, or, or, or...).' Follow people like Jane Friedman, Joanna Penn, David Gaughran online; start up a small writers' circle; and, to shamelessly publicise, read my book Everyone Can Write.
The BIG problem only arrives at the end of the process when you have to find the courage to PUBLISH. In these days of Digital Publishing this has become unbelievably easy. There's no excuse NOT to publish. But it is daunting for most. 'It won't be good enough.' 'I'm not Tolstoy (or Woolf, or Austen, or, or, or...).' Follow people like Jane Friedman, Joanna Penn, David Gaughran online; start up a small writers' circle; and, to shamelessly publicise, read my book Everyone Can Write.
Brian Astbury
Don't wait for inspiration! My book - Everyone Can Write or How NOT to learn how to write - contains all the techniques you will need to enable Inspiration to come hunting for you! Use Mind-mapping, Image Streaming, Morning Pages to enable you to start listening to all the stories that are already lurking in your subconscious, waiting to be told.
Brian Astbury
My next book - Create Theatre - a DIY Manual. It's a book for actors, directors and writers that shows how to start from scratch - no venue, no script - and Create Theatre. It's based on my experience at The Space Theatre in South Africa in the 70s; at Arts Threshold in London in the 90s; as well as other experiences in professional theatre and drama education.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more