Writing a Play!

The sixth impossible thing on my list of achievements in 2026 is writing a play! And then I surprised myself even more by writing another one!

I saw an advert on Facebook for a writing group for playwrights hosted by Deanna Strasse.

For many years, I have had a dream to turn my book, Lum, into a play which a theatre company could take into schools. Lum is a lovely story with an underlying anti-bullying message. Obviously a very important message for people of every age, but I feel we could stop bullying before it even starts if we reach very young children.

I learnt about bullying the hard way when I was a child. The old rhyme of “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is a load of balderdash, but I clung on to that rhyme as a child, willing it to be true. Funny how (it’s not) those bullies’ actions and words are still with me so many years later.

Anyway, back to my dream to reach more schools and children with my message of hope. As an author with my own children (they were 8 and 5 when I published Lum), I wasn’t able to travel far and wide to share my story, but a theatre company who were already visiting schools could. All I needed to do was write the play and then convince a theatre company to stage it. Easy, right?

Er, but how does one do that?

No idea!

So, a mere 10 years after publishing Lum, I signed up for Deanna’s group and went along to the first meeting with nothing but a notebook, a pen and a vague idea.

There, I met Sharmila Peake, who had written a very poignant and thought-provoking one woman play on her experiences during pregnancy and childbirth with her second child. Hearing Sharmila reading her play inspired me to write about my own experiences at a similar time in my life. It turns out that I had quite a lot of pent-up anger which came out in my writing. I then, bravely, read this piece at the next playwright writers meeting – “to critical acclaim” – as they say. It was an emotional reading.

The next day, my mind felt so free, and when I woke at 5am-ish, I got up, made a hot drink and sat in my garden to prolong the feeling of being free. Whilst there, my brain started musing on Lum, so I fetched my notebook and pen to write his play. It was done by 7am! Hot drink had cooled, so I gulped that down and did some gardening for a couple of hours with a great feeling of accomplishment inside. I am looking forward to sharing the play with Deanna’s group at our next meeting.

It turns out that all I needed to be able to write a play was someone giving me permission to do so, and for me to believe them when they said I could do it!

I’ve done my six impossible things this year and now I’m off to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe to celebrate! I’d love to hear about your achievements however big or small. Do get in touch.

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