How do you know when you’re ready to start your story?

Sometimes it’s obvious you’re ready to start because you can’t help yourself.  You just start writing, and four years later you realise you have an eight-hundred-page novel and the editing job from hell. 

However, if you live in my world than you have a brief for a script, a deadline, a cast list and maybe an idea about a guy you saw on the news the other day and this woman in the park who told you that you were a bad father because you let your children play on the see-saw.

To help you get from vague ideas to something you can start writing, I’m going to show you the four-question test.  Not only will the four questions help you solidify vague thoughts into something that will work as a play, it also works pretty well as a pitch when you get asked “what is your play about” and all you’ve got is “there’s this guy and something to do with a see-saw.”  Ready?  Here goes.

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