My Writing Life: Jack Thorne
"Write the impossible." Playwright and screenwriter Jack Thorne.
1. What book should every writer read?
I can't imagine there is one. For me, the book that I treasure most is Arthur Miller's Plays 1. The idea that one mind managed to penetrate those worlds and create them one after the other like that seems an act of impossibility. I frequently reread them to remind me what I should be doing.
2. What is the one thing you wish someone had told you before you started your writing career?
The advice I return to again and again is that of an Executive Producer who told me that everyone working on the project was as passionate as me, and if I stopped behaving like a stuck up fool then I'd be able to see that. It's advice I keep forgetting. It's so easy to get precious I think. I fall in that hole all the time.
The other advice though, is from Dennis Kelly, a writer I love, who said "you've got to work out the point where you tell everyone to fuck off".
3. Who has been an influential figure in your writing career?
I've two people who I think taught me most about writing. Bryan Elsley, the showrunner of Skins, who taught me what a TV hour should be, and Shane Meadows who really made me examine what I wanted to write about. Both are brilliant. I got incredibly lucky.
4. What is the best advice you’ve ever received about your writing?
It's from the director John Tiffany and it was "write the impossible".
5. What was the proudest moment of your writing career?
The closest I've come to writing something which said what I wanted it to was a show called Help on Channel 4. Either that or the first preview of The Motive and the Cue where the audience just seemed to get it.
6. What is your typical writing day like?
On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays I take my kid to school, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I do Pilates while my wife takes him to school. I say this only because that's the only vivid thing in my days. I get to my computer, following these incredible adventures at about 10 to 10.30 and then I write there 'til my son's bedtime at 7pm. I write in a little hut in our garden, there is no internet. I try to do about 10-12 pages a day. Of which hopefully 3-5 are useful.
What are you reading right now?
Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood. It's brilliant.
Bookmarker or page-folder?
Page-folder. My 8 year old tells me off for it all the time. I also occasionally write notes in biro on the actual book. I am a thug.
Jack Thorne FRSL is a British playwright and BAFTA-winning screenwriter. His plays for the stage include When Winston Went to War with the Wireless (Donmar Warehouse, 2023); The Motive and the Cue (National Theatre and West End, 2023; Evening Standard Award for Best Play; Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play); A Christmas Carol (Old Vic, London, 2017); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre, London, 2016). His television work includes His Dark Materials, Then Barbara Met Alan (with Genevieve Barr), The Eddy, Help, The Accident, Kiri, National Treasure and This is England ’86/’88/’90. His films include The Swimmers (with Sally El Hosaini), Enola Holmes, Radioactive, The Aeronauts and Wonder. He was the recipient of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing in 2022.
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