Our second writer Q&A is with Sean Climie, whose monologue The Pull Up follows Humza in a mental and physical battle with himself on the gym benches.

Why did you want to tell this story?

Being 5’5” and really skinny I always felt self-conscious, particularly when playing sports. A lot of the advice and resources out there are tailored to people wanting to lose weight, so it felt like nothing ever spoke to me. I also internalised a lot of the negative stuff said to me, which made me self-conscious and act out in negative ways or make excuses. I thought internalising this negative stuff and speaking to myself like David Goggins would motivate me and it definitely did, but there was also a part of it that was damaging as well.

It’s been two years since I started to consistently workout, and I’m still 5’5 and I am still skinny but in that time I’ve learned that the gym isn’t really physical, it’s a mental battle that teaches you resilience and belief and that's where true strength comes from. That and loading loads of weight you can’t carry on a bar doesn’t make you look cool, which I learned the hard way :(

How has this writing process been for you?

I’ve learned so much. Middle Child literary manager Matt has been so helpful and I think the way I look at characters’ wants and needs has changed as well. I’ve also learned that redrafting is real writing and the importance to try things out and not be afraid of failure, especially with a first or second draft.

Tell us about your set-up when you’re writing.

I have to sit in my chair. There are writers who can work anywhere, like their bed, and I really admire them, because I would just go to sleep. I also have to have my blinds closed. No, I don’t know why. I think it’s because writing is personal to me and I have to write absolute crap and then fix it, so I’m conscious of people watching me do that. Considering my flat is on the 4th floor, I don’t know who’s gonna rock-up on stilts to sneak a peek, but you never know.

I flip and flop with music. I have the attention span of a small child, so music just distracts me. But then recently some construction was being done across the road and there was this really low pitched beep that sounded every 17 seconds. It was really subtle and no one else could hear it, but it drove me MAD and then I would realise I’d just be listening for it instead of working, so I began to listen to music. I listen to Brain FM when I want to focus and block out the world.

I also have to have something in my hands when I write, so in the mornings I brew a massive carafe of coffee from my V60 and, if I’m brutally honest, I spend more time making the coffee than I do writing.

Were any of your characters influenced by real people?

Yeah, Dean, the bully, is based on a high school bully I bumped into a few years ago. There’s a guy at the beginning of the play who gives Humza advice and that guy was based on someone who saved me from being crushed by an (aborted) 100 kilo bench press I had no business in attempting in a JD Gym in 2018. If you see this, you’re the real MVP. Humza is based on my own experiences and that of the many friends I’ve talked to over the years.

If your play has had a life before now, how has it developed? And if not, how would you like to see it developed in the future?

When I graduated uni I think I thought I had to be ‘clever’ and wanted to make, like a piece of performance art about gym culture. I mentioned it to my friend, who called me a really mean name and said it sounded “shit”, which to be fair it did at the time. So I just put it in the mental freezer I have where plays, ideas, and characters go to die an agonising death, along with the other messed up stuff I dragged into existence into storage for me to pull out one day again, and make sense of or merge with something else.

So when I was really stuck at what to write about for Fresh Ink, my brain decided to un-repress it, but this time it wasn’t performance art or whatever I thought i was doing back then. This time I knew it was a play, I knew who the character would be and what the actual dilemma was and I just went from there and wrote the first page in one sitting. I’d love to continue to develop it in the future as a full-length play. I feel it’d be performed in a real gym, with the performers using real weights.

What are you most looking forward to during rehearsals and the performances?

Excited/scared. I’m really excited to see how an audience react to the idea and see talented people bring it to life. I know that when I see it performed though, I’ll have three thousand new ideas, which is super exciting but also makes me nervous because then I’ll kick myself for not thinking of them earlier.

What would you say to someone who is thinking about applying for Fresh Ink 2026?

Do it! Middle Child have been so supportive and made the process really enjoyable. I’ve been lucky to work with them and have learned so much; I’ve really come out of this process a lot more confident. Also just be yourself, you don’t have to be an established writer or speak dead formally in the application, just be yourself, speak like you.

Sean’s monologue The Pull Up will be performed on Saturday 19 July at 11.30am, alongside No Scrap, No Chips by Jim Norris, and on Sunday 20 July at 11.30am, alongside Keeper by Ellen Brammar.

Q&A with Sean Climie