2 hours in The Cafe and it was done. 2 cups of tea and warm apple cake drowned in custard did the trick for me. I normally don’t think about it that much any more, but I did yesterday: it feels good that my first script actually got written in The Cafe from The Girl In The Cafe.
Talking about The Girl In The Cafe, I am sad. When I came home from holiday, both DVD’s had disappeared from the face of the earth. But fear not, I just reread this, and I’ll keep singing and will reboot the project again again, and send out the DVD to the next persons waiting tomorrow.
Something else happened after I came home from holiday. My office had moved to another location. We moved from a shabby office in South Croydon, to the NLA tower, a top notch location on the 18th(!) floor in East Croydon. Not only does this save me 10 minutes travelling time, from my desk I can see the Millennium Dome, The London Eye, Canary Wharf, Wembley Stadium, Crystal Park, and check who is leading the game in Selhurst Park. I don’t know why they did it, but they managed to give the biggest day dreamer the best place, right by the window. It is hard not to get tempted to look out and enjoy this amazing view.
My script has emptied my head for proper writing, but there are still some train stories to tell. They will come at some point. As will the pictures.
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I didn’t know you could see the Dome from the NLA Tower. Yowser.
My great-grandma used to call it The Thrip’ny Bit Building, cos it looked like a bunch of three-penny coins stacked on top of each other. In new money it’d be The 50p Building.
They proper cleaned it up at some point in the last couple of years. And added the coloured lights.
Hi there,
Good that you finished your script. It sounds as if you have a great view from your office …
I’m looking forward to watching TGITC!
This is a question for Ingrid….and anyone else who has a creative streak in them…Im glad you managed to get your script done, im sure you will pass and then we can all get to read some of it!
Anyway, the question…you finished your script in ‘the’ cafe but are there any other places or things you do that give you inspiration…? Some people say booze (like Robert Burns quoted as saying ‘O thou, my muse’ when refferring to whisky-well, the Scottish do like a drink…) and for some people, their best ideas come whilst sitting on the…ahem…throne…
Jay
@Jay good question.
Well yes The Cafe is a special place for me and I always am inspired when I am there, but other cafe’s might do the trick as well. Other things that trigger my imagination and inspiration:
films (with and without Bill Nighy)
music (lyrics in particular)
painting or photographs
listening to people’s conversations and observing people’s behaviour
train, tube and generally just travelling
news paper articles
Basically just having an open mind, keep your ears and eyes open can get you loads of ideas.
@Paul – the 50p building, that covers it exactly :-) It is refurbished, and even though it still doesn’t look that sexy from the outside, inside it’s all new and freshed up. It’s a great place for an office.
And yes I can see the Dome from here, it’s one of the parts of London not blocked by the Crystal Palace hill :)
@Kate – I’m sure you’ll like the film!
@ Ingrid
What atmospheres get you going with lyrics and film? With film I like to be made to think but in general I love hidden gems…something thats there and is relevant, just hard to find or very subtle. Kinda the same reason why I like travelling too i think..
Jay
Did they remember to tell you they were moving your office while you were on holiday!!??
Yes they did – but they were surprised that I had remembered to come to the new office after my holiday :-)
In this weirdo weather we have here at the moment (snowstorm today) the view is amazing, both today and yesterday we could see the clouds with snow coming towards us all the way from central London, being this high up with a nearly 360 degrees view, it’s really amazing. Too bad we we have to actually do some work now and then, I could stare out of the window full time. Only making a cup of tea every now and then.
@Jay – good question, but I’m not sure I have an answer. Music and lyrics can kickstart some visual scenes in my head sometimes. And watching a film might trigger certain ideas I unconsiously already had in my head, and which then pop out. I regularly have to find my notebook in the dark cinema to make some notes because I suddenly get some ideas. Writing things down in a dark cinema – not easy! :)