Regarding the actual process of adaptation, not every story works dramatically ie the visual representation of inner conflict which is readily communicable through prose. Drama is more than just dialogue and just because a piece of writing is dialogue-based, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in a performance medium. I haven’t adapted anything for the stage (yet), but I have adapted to screen and it’s very hard to do. Sometimes I find that a story just will not work in another medium and I abandon it. Other times, like with my current screen project (a short story that became a radio play and is now a full-length screenplay) I find that the story should have been written for screen all along. Why? Because the plot was too ‘big’ for the time and space limits of a short story and radio play.

An excellent book I can recommend on adaptation is by my PhD supervisor • Reynolds, P (Ed) Novel Images: Literature in Performance , Taylor and Francis, 1993.

If you’re struggling to adapt a story for stage, don’t waste your time on it. If you want to write for stage, why not conceptualise something from scratch? You’ll find that having to think visually and dramatically from the beginning of the writing process will create something that is already suited to the stage rather than just the page. Give it a go.

My short stories have been enjoyed by people including Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Kevin Elyot, Neil Bartlett and Max Stafford-Clark, but I struggle to turn them into longer plays. Have you any advice?

If I can give a plug for a group based in West London http://www.actorsandwriters.org/

Great interview, Fiona. Very informative.

Penny xx