A Dry Run

We have a week at home now. No sessions at Elstree. No tutorial at White City. It feels like a holiday... but it's not.

This week we Academicians have to write an episode of Doctors. It's the "dry run". We've already written a "dry dry run" in which we had to put together a complete guest story without the serial elements. This time we have to bring together a new guest story and some serial stuff. We've all been given serial material from a few months back just after Nick's accident and the arrival of Daniel. And we pitched our guest stories on Friday.

So, I will be spending most of this week sitting at home and completing a first draft.

In some ways, it all feels a bit of a waste of time. Part of me says "I've done this. I've had two episodes broadcast". And another part of me resents writing stuff which will never be broadcast. But I also know that this is the opportunity to work in a different way - to try to put the official "John Yorke" method into practice. So, there's everything to play for.

And, anyway, writing's fun. Putting the actual words down on paper is the bit which I really enjoy. So, this week I'm going to tell myself a story. And at the end of the week I'll share it with John and a few other select folk. Hopefully, they'll enjoy it.

Later on, we get to do the whole thing again. For real.