 a writer at work the CBS radio workshop dedicated to man's imagination the theater of the mind tonight an inquiry into the way a writer works this is Jan minor I'm an actress my work is to speak the lines written by writers to give expression to their thoughts to live for the moment the parts they create yet I don't know any more than most people do about the way a writer has furnished me with what I say and as many of you may have wondered I've asked myself how does a writer work where and how does he get his ideas what is the so-called creative process is it entirely by inspiration or can creativity be induced all this is what the workshop investigates tonight and writer Hector chevonny has been asked to be the subject well he should be able to satisfy our curiosity having been a professional writer for 28 years during his long and successful career mr. chevonny has published five books one a literary prize winner and some 30 short stories and articles he has also written for motion pictures and for radio and television has written more than a thousand plays what the workshop will do tonight will be to show this writer actually at work through tape recording then the finished script the result of his work will be produced here is mr. chevonny in a brief preliminary interview I'm willing to take part in this thing tonight providing no one concludes that I believe that I'm a typical writer there are no typical writers writers are highly individualistic and tend to vary sharply in temperament and character there's one thing that they all do and that is work and work hard the successful ones that is they don't sit around waiting for the inspiration they induce it by working all their methods of working very some prefer a typewriter some prefer a pencil some dictate some can't stand to have anyone around them I know one man who thinks you can write well only on blue paper but all the writers that I know follow the maxim of the late great Heywood broon as mr. broon said success in writing is achieved by the application of the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair to chevonny does appear to follow the Heywood broon maximum he works seven days a week month in and out his weekday work schedule calls for seven hours a day and on Saturday Sundays and holidays he puts in three to four hours and this is at his desk in his workroom now perhaps this tough grind is for the reason that mr. chevonny's assignment these four years has been the CBS daytime serial the second mrs. Burton it calls for five scripts a week now is it because of the Burton show that you Hector work this way not entirely I've been following that work schedule for the last 17 years or since I became a self-employed writer why Hector you see there's such a fixed notion in people's minds that a writer's work has to be spasmodic that he has to wait for the inspiration and it comes as sort of a shock to hear that a writer is a drudge well Janet a famous woman novelist that I used to know quite well once said to me I have to put in a certain number of hours every day without fail it has often struck me that my mind is a little like the muscles of a pianist who if he stays away from his keyboard even for one day finds it doubly difficult to return to it other writers have told me the same thing regularity is the essential otherwise the so-called creative process seems to to leave you that's right it seems to put on you hence the need for the long daily application that's right well I'll be fascinated on hearing the recording made of your working Hector and the script on which mr. Shevny worked as he was recorded was for the second mrs. Burton now that is a story about a family the Burton family and they're supposed to live in a town up the Hudson Valley and the dominant figure is wealthy mother Burton who insists on running the lives of her son and daughter and everyone else around her her daughter is Marsha who's married to Lou Archer and her son is Stan who's married to Terry which part I have the daily satisfaction of playing so that everyone will have an impression of the characters here's a brief scene from Burton life as it might be if the family were having after dinner coffee at say mother's house I did not say a writer cannot be a gentleman well then what did you say sounded to me like that's what you said mother how's about a shade more coffee please hand me your cup now what I said was it's difficult to see how writers can be gentlemen what they do for a living makes them entirely too inquisitive well lose a gentleman and he used to write me poetry didn't you darling yes angel but what do you say we don't go into that now well it seems to me that some writer could make a fortune putting this family into a book or one of those serials oh Terry please but how could a story about us get published or go on the air I wouldn't want to be the writer who tried it after a while he'd have to have shock treatment and would anybody believe it oh really at times your remarks are so unsettling put us into a book or a serial indeed no matter what writer tried it I assure you that he would be no gentleman now we're going to put on the recording of mr. chevony in his work room which is the word he himself uses for what was formally called the library in the rambling high-ceiling old apartment on Manhattan's Gramercy Park where chevony also lives with his family he happens to work with a secretary so his work process is audible which is another reason he was the writer asked to be the subject of this investigation every morning mrs. Eleanor loan comes to function as secretary and this is the way things went near the start of the day at about half past 9 a.m. music birkin thing down for an officer in vixen new york today is nice giving day period as usual mother insisted the family dying with her period so they came marsha and her family stand in his and here they are around the great old table under the Victorian chandelier in the dining hall at Burton towers sound effects tableware as wanted mother and are you ready for more turkey terry dear terry not quite yet mother mr. chevony's office I'm fine thank you mr. Davis and you our dear director good yes he is here hold on please stand Davis for you don't be so cheery with him he's only the director I stand yep yep yep I wrote her in that day and I wrote her in the following day mm-hmm mm-hmm yep I just well I looked it up you know which you got a television show interfere with the rehearsal room oh dear I feel like asking some of these people what what television's got that our show hasn't got unless it's fame and money they stand have you got an idea for a Thanksgiving script of course I'm up there I'm you know I'm trying to catch up so that we can I'm not blowing up I'm just telling you that I'm that I'm up there and then I didn't discover until this morning that's where I am and I've got an idea mm-hmm what hey Eleanor he wants to know if we can do a human sacrifice now we're gonna take the show yeah all right yeah well she's in both scripts okay kid yeah see you hang this up yeah I was on that corny line of mothers you know you many more turkey terry well boys yes ready for more turkey if his script goes through oh brother why do I have to do a dinner everybody that does the dinner on every daytime cereal Eleanor what I'm gonna do I'm gonna get back to the correspondence we laid aside there after all and I I will answer that letter to Paul Franklin to see if I can't get off this kick here and if I can find at this desk well it's in the box there I think oh it's about two hours later in Chevne's workroom about 1130 all right we get going again there gonna do the dinner thing after all I guess good oh cut it out will you um announcer today in Dexton New York it's Thanksgiving Day mother well I tell you use the rest of the narration as I had it there the first time the family going to have dinner at mother's house down to sound effects tableware is wanted mother aren't you ready for more of the turkey terry dear not quite yet no mother mother and you stand aren't you ready oh during these holiday scripts you they always interrupt the plot and have to do something special you didn't do anything special for July 4th like fun we didn't we worked until 9 o'clock the night we wrote that script but doesn't everybody eat Thanksgiving dinner well they don't they don't have to do on my scripts oh boy wish I wish you had reminded me of this a couple of days ago kid I thought you knew well I didn't chill in next week in the pitfall hour you know I came to New York looking for pitfalls and I haven't found a good pitfall in a couple of years hey did I ever tell you that I used to work for IBM no did you yeah I should have stayed with them too and it's clear they will look this is just wasting time all right let me try it again music Burton theme down for announcer in Dexton New York this Thanksgiving day etc. down to the sound effects music again please mother you know gonna start with mother yes Marsha in my opinion you did speak of Thanksgiving day flippantly Marsha flippantly exclamation point Stan I didn't hear her saying anything flippant about Thanksgiving day mother oh cut it you see the I don't have you got to have a beginning a middle and an end to a script all I got is a big great big fat middle well look it isn't funny you know I wish they had a Roosevelt back in office he put Thanksgiving day off a week every year well keep going let me see that flippantly thing there oh yes Stan I didn't hear Marsha saying anything flippant mother Marsha their mother Stan didn't hear me say anything flippant we got to bring the kids in here somehow sound dish suddenly overturned Marsha old Ralphie exclamation point Ralphie sets up how hey do I have a lunch date with somebody no music Britain theme down for in Dixon New York today is Thanksgiving day we have that didn't we the time is now half past two read me from the top of page seven please no I didn't say that Stan I just said that I'm not a person who would prefer to have lived in the past Martian what Lou is satisfied with is to live in the present day but with the antiques of 300 years ago no I'm living with you angel are you 300 years old Marsha oh you know what I mean Terry I feel the way new does mother you do Terry well I must disagree the graciousness of the past the greater leisure and respect for the fine things of life stand on mother how do you really know what life was like 300 years ago as far as you go it's all just nothing but dialogue all the way through you don't like a little joke about Marsha being an antique no I like it all right but but I shouldn't try to sell it oh maybe I take these things too hard but I like to have some kind of an idea and I like to have it a little bright and cute just that's all just to that's all I ask it just to be bright and cute I wonder how to be if we had a wonder how to be if we had a you know the dream sequence I know it's done pretty often but to Stan or Terry had a have a dream about 300 years ago Thanksgiving pilgrim days with a kind of a gag about to you know that the entire language well that's not exactly going forward is it no no it isn't going forward but at least it's it mounts it as they say in television maybe it's tough and let me try it let me try it let me try it a little start out when Terry and Stan still in bed they're wake up my mother telephone she's been invited over to their house for change she's they're trying to get some sleep Thanksgiving morning that sort of thing is said and then go into going to the throwback to go well let me try it you got it no wait a minute no I'm not going to do this mother calling up hey you're ready Britain thing down for you ready well just about now all right the Britain thing down for sound alarm clock suddenly goes off it's time to get up I guess for me but you can sleep a while yet but not too long I want you to help me or you're talking about oh Stan darling this year we're having the whole family right here having the whole family yes this is Thanksgiving Day remember oh oh yeah well Thanksgiving up and doing Terry Burton and we've got to go to that pageant at Wendy's school too don't we of course we do pageant the teacher staging that thing knows less about our pilgrim ancestors than I do she would know which way to point a blunder bus you say I can sleep a little longer until about 9 30 and then I need your help all right you wake me when you want me would you you just wake me or you want master wait oh oh Terry time to get up is it I that it is a rise okay no sooner said than done wait a minute I am all dressed and what kind of a get-up is this anyway and you where'd you get the funny clothes I do not comprehend the Lord and Master Lord and Master they cut it out will you what's this a gag and look what are all those old blunder buses doing hanging on the walls where am I anyway why though out in the loft of thine own dwelling in the loft of mine own dwelling what a healthy I don't know I feel fine oh stop jesting with me I have much too much to do for today the idea mother comes to dinner and my sister Marsha and her family and of course my son Brad is already here I'll come Brad's home and why should mother and everybody be here for dinner oh my husband has forgotten what day it is why this is oh Brad my dear stepmother my mother has arrived oh thy grandmother oh I must I must go below I was not there to greet a hurriedly stand yes yes all all right Terry holy cow what is it father you're dressed the same way I am are thou surprised you talk that way too huh I do not comprehend the father I don't dig the either I'll tell you that wait a minute what year is this year why does the year 1656 1656 AD oh AD well look how come your your home from college you do go to college don't you I mean you will that is your supposed to I attend Yale College yes indeed and I'm home because this is Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving I the day appointed by the governor and commended to the observance of the colonies I see and the family is coming here for dinner well I'll tell you what go thou downstairs help keep that gram of the company and I shall follow the betimes I obey father oh great situation 1656 wonder if I'm dreaming well even if I am I guess I better get me below 1656 oh it does my heart so much good to see the home dear grandson has been well I grandmother ah here's father I mother oh she's good to see the son I am nonetheless discomforted by thy behavior my behavior I know they should start lullaby to so late in our contrary to the virtues in which I have raised the my mother today I got up 300 years early oh I pay no attention it's only a gay a Jess I do not just about such matters note thy wife who's been up since dawn how diligently she go with about her domestic yes I've been watching her work that old cooking fireplace so that's can I give you some help Terry can stop give me some help why father what has now said I just offered to help with some of the work turning that haunch of venison on that hot spit can't be too easy and now I know the master in my known house I thought that that is what thou art thou wouldst insult me by asking if I need help I am a known as an able bodied woman whose widths are not exactly at all right all right again I was just kidding I mean I made another just well do not just so freely people may hear thee here dear husband sit thee down beside my mother and my son and take line ease as befits thy station okay that's fine with me sir say where's our daughter Wendy she play it without without oh oh you mean outdoors though Brad how about doing it Yale this year I've addressed myself with diligence to my studies and I'm becoming proficient in grammar numbers philosophy and deport fine that's fine I was like science coming science to a game proficiency I've learned for example that the tomato may be eaten that the tomato may be eaten what's so surprising about that what is so surprising about that oh stand everyone knows that the tomato is poisonous you watch over the years somebody will come to eat tomato tomatoes well I am sure that I will never be able to touch one me thinks heresy may be creeping in at Yale tomatoes indeed mother what is it Wendy my dear Aunt Marsha her husband Lou watching cousin Ralphie have arrived I bring their present brother-in-law well what does thou know a goose as we came here they're on the trail Lou down the bird with one shot from his trusty blunderbuck thank they Lou one take charge this bird Terry just what thou needs today a goose I shall hang him with the other game may I take cousin Ralphie out to play I may Wendy and I go out to play until dinner and what must you remember as you play children we must remember to conduct ourselves with proper sobriety courtesy gravity forbearance and trust also that must not throw any rocks Ralphie I never throw any rocks itself throw us rocks I do not throw rocks children children guard thy speech against pugnacity hostility and no rocks come Wendy I let us go to me childhood is such a sweet innocent care free time much to be remembered orders from that cooking fair appetizing I already I'm very hungry ask you about the tomato stand the tomato oh Lou at Yale Brad learned that tomatoes are really good to eat if I really want us to know what is being taught at Yale dear grandmother they now say there are no witches no which Brad no art not serious I speak with the utmost seriousness this is the teaching at Yale and from no other than the Reverend Mr. Tuttle himself oh this settles at stand thou must remove this boy from such influences oh calm thyself mother oh calm myself calm myself what is causing so much excitement oh Brad is now upset mother thoroughly by telling her that of course there are no witches mother all we need is for this to be heard stand forgive my speaking thus mother but I agree with Stan thou agree cherry have a care look mother Brad told you that this Reverend Mr. Tuttle teaches this now this is taught at Yale is himself bewitched I know there are witches out noist how does thou know mother do not be too curious as to how I know but I know prove it oh now please I'll make us a statement prove it very well stand away from me on how mother flew out the door look she took the broom the broom money what is it Ralphie Wendy and I really stand I should have my head examined brother-in-law why jump on me I wasn't the one who first said there are no witches but did so have to make mother prove there are well now at last we know all about mother don't we I and this had best be kept a secret from the column she's coming back so she is clear the runway let's hope she doesn't make a crash landing is thy broom Terry now see thou stand mother is always right that was the dress rehearsal of an episode at the daytime serial called the second mrs. Burton which you heard being composed by the author Hector chevony earlier in his home at 34 Grammarcy Park later it'll be polished timed and re-typed and broadcast over the CBS radio network on Thanksgiving day Thursday November 22nd one day's episode in the five days a week program dealing with the Burton family and now let's go back to the author and his secretary as they talk to each other at the day's end yes I think it was a good day to Hector yeah yeah I think it was a very good day well okay kid I'm sorry I kept you a little late tonight I'll see you tomorrow morning all that's all right Hector what are you gonna do for tomorrow what am I gonna do for tomorrow tomorrow scripts any idea I hear this alone sufficient into the day is the evil thereof I shall see the tomorrow morning you have been listening to the CBS radio workshop and a writer at work the writer was Hector chevony and those appearing in his cast of characters were Jan Minor as herself and as Terry Ethel Owens as mother Burton Dwight Weiss as Stan Alice Frost as Marsha and Larry Haynes as Lou others included Larry Robinson Lynn Loring Sarah Fussell and mr. chevony secretary Eleanor Lone writer at work was produced by Paul Roberts and directed by Stan Davis with music composed by Ben Ludlow and conducted by Alfredo Antonini with Chet Kingsbury at the organ this is Bob height inviting you to listen again next week when from Hollywood the CBS radio workshop will present an original story ballad by Edmund Brophy the legend of Annie Christmas America listens most to the CBS radio network