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[Ewan] Welcome to the University of Stirling. We’re here at the Macrobert Arts Centre, in the Filmhouse with award winning writer for stage, screen and radio, Rona Munro. [Aubrey] Welcome Rona, thank you for talking to us today. [Rona] Nice to be here.
[Aubrey] One of our questions was, if you had a specific writing process or certain, habitual practices that you do when you sit down? [Rona] Actually I have a practice now that began in lockdown, which I do with a group of other writers,
And it’s based on the Pomodoro study method, if you know what that is? Where you know, you do twenty five minutes study and then you break for five minutes and then you do another twenty five. And I do it with, there was a bunch of us in lockdown, started doing that every morning.
So we’d all go on five minutes, turn off our cameras and microphones, work on our other projects for twenty five and then come back five. And we’ve kept it going. So I always start the day with that. So meeting
With that other group of writers and then all of us doing our own things. And that’s actually been incredibly helpful because it means, even on the days when you’re a bit stuck, and you’re finding it hard to get going, you’ve got that appointment to just,
Be in the space and have a go, and it’s really good at kind of getting the work going for the day. [Ewan] Seven days a week? [Rona] No, no, no, we’re not university anymore. We don’t work like that. [Ewan] So you’ve written The James Plays, which are a fictional retelling of historical events.
What made you choose this as a multipart work? [Rona] Well, I’d always been really interested in history, particularly Scottish history. And at one point, I went to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform the entire history cycle of Shakespeare’s plays, in The Round House, in London,
Which was a whole weekend event, you just went in and you saw play after play after play, which was amazing. But when I came out, I realised that so much of that period of history, English history, medieval history, is known because of those plays.
So we all have a sense of characters like Henry V or Richard III, because of those plays and because they’ve lasted. Which means that in England there’s an understanding of that period of their history, whether it’s accurate or not, it’s neither here nor there. The broad events are known.
Whereas in Scotland, we don’t have an equivalent. The medieval history of Scotland ,it was and pretty well is, completely invisible to most people in Scotland, unless they study it. So I wasn’t arrogant enough to think that I could match Shakespeare, but I did think it, might be a worthy ambition
To kind of, you know, do an equivalent for Scotland. [The James Plays trailer] [Ewan] How does writing longstanding fictional characters like, The Doctor, Inspector Rebus or Frankenstein, how does that differ from creating your own characters? [Rona] With the Doctor, and I’ve written for the Doctor twice in two incarnations, because I’m that elderly,
I think I was, because and also, I think most people that write for Doctor Who are fans and you probably don’t get the opportunity if you’re not a fan. And that means inheriting the responsibility of making sure The Doctor is authentically, The Doctor.
It’s not a place to be doing some kind of little spin on the story you’d like to tell, or take his character in, or their character or her character in some kind of outlandish direction. So with that, there’s a sense of wanting to fit into a tradition.
[Aubrey] You’ve had such a successful career as a writer and you’ve had very flexible stage work, film work, radio work. What is your advice for us as future writers? [Rona] I think, the main advice I’d give any aspiring writer is just keep going because staying power will win out.
But it can feel like it never will. and the other thing I would say is don’t compare yourself to others’ success. [Ewan] Is there an importance in producing more Scottish work within a Scottish context? [Rona] Definitely. and I think, not least because, we are a small nation, we have a small population,
But within that, certain voices have historically always dominated and certain other voices have always been marginalised. And the effect of that is to assume that they’re not part of our culture at all. So women’s voices, queer voices, global majority voices, trans voices, all are kind of shifted out of the mainstream
As if they’re fringe, other, not part of being Scottish. Well they are part of being Scottish. And I think the more work we get that makes the diversity of our culture visible in a kind of joyful way, because isn’t it wonderful that so many things are part of Scottish culture? The better.
[Aubrey] This has been so great to hear all of your wisdom over the years. and we just wanted to say thank you for coming to talk to us today. [Rona] Thank you, It’s been absolute delight. Lovely to meet you both. [Ewan] Thank you.
And The James Plays are out in the new year? [Rona] In the spring. So they start touring in April, and I don’t know if they’re coming here. They’re certainly coming close. [Ewan] I believe they are coming here. [Rona] Oh fantastic. Yeah. So. See you all in the Macrobert.
[Ewan] Thank you very much. [Aubrey] Thank you.