Becoming a Night Owl to Give a Hoot

It's 4:30 in the morning, and I don't have to be to work until 6:30 and I've been up for an hour.

There's too many exciting things going on in my life to be sleeping through it!

Some of them I can't talk about (yet). But I think I can talk about this one:

http://www.pwscc.edu/conference/plays.shtml

If you scroll down, you will find me all the way near the bottom, with my state erroneously put as Arizona (note to self--email them regarding that), but I am completely planning on being in Alaska for a week in June! Even more exciting is that I actually don't have to struggle with work because it just so happens that the week was free. June is usually a hard month to get time off, but I guess it was meant to be.

So that is wonderful. I am very excited to to the Last Frontier Conference and to visit Alaska. I have never been there, so this will be quite the experience.

AND, finally, a year and a half later, something good has happened with my work, without my direct doing (other than sending a play to them!). 'Time Changes' is probably my most polished of my unpublished, unproduced work, so this is great. I am really looking forward to this!

And, after my last post, and a pep talk from my dramaturg buddy, Robert, I might have had a breakthrough with 'Saving Ryan's Pumpkins'. I wasn't sure I was ever going to care about the play, but the characters are developing more quickly now--thank the gods too, because April is coming right up here!

And in the next couple weeks, I have another announcement as well. This is a personal one, rather than a playwriting one, but I know it will change my writing (again) for the better!

Giving a Hoot

So the good news is, I have a reading in April.

The bad news is, I could give a rat's about the play itself.

I tried to choose another play, but I couldn't find one that fit the parameters. So I am stuck with the one I think is a yawn-fest and that I don't care about.

I don't know how I got to this point with this play. I started out thinking it was pretty great, but I just can't stand it now. I suppose this happens to writers at some point, but this has never happened to me. I have never written a play that I didn't care about on some level.

Luckily, I have a couple weeks where I can revise it, and get moving on it. But it's hard to motivate myself with it. Right now, I think it's the adults in the play that I am having a hard time with. The kids--yah, I think I got them figured out. The adults are a snorefest and I can't see how anyone will care.

And I don't want to bore my audience. This would be bad. I kind of feel like this is going to be the first reading that a lot of people who attend will go to, and I don't want them to think that all readings are this terrible. I mean, if I can't care about the play, how can I expect the audience to?

I better get back to work on this thing--one way or another, I have a reading--I need to make it count.

I want to be the living example of this, on and off stage

Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible. "
~ Cadet Maxim

Holding Pattern

Being in a holding pattern, waiting to find out where we are going to end up in six months, is a bit of an emotion and energy suck. This year, I am going to do it differently.

Thankfully, I have a lot of projects and things to do, so I am going to keep busy and try to not think about things.

I have done some work with National PlayREwriting month. I think that we are going to be doing it a lot more loosely than we do November's run. I am going to be editing a play for a reading I have in April over the next couple days I have off, and I am going to take pictures and document my rewriting process. It's very Adrian Monk-like, so I think it would be funny to take pictures and describe it.

Other than that, I am not sure what I am going to do. Perhaps I need to find more quotes and suggestions about rewriting, but I am not sure. I've never done this before, and while I don't want to do it wrong, I don't see how I can, because I haven't done it before! I just want to give the NaPlWriMo people a place to come and talk about the process and get some rewriting done. And I have been itching to work on 'Mine' so this is good.

As far as my reading goes at the library, I have decided to change the play we were going to do and then I changed back. I don't know why, but I am having a hard time finding myself caring about 'Smashing Ryan's Pumpkins'. I think it's a cute play, but I don't know. I'm ambivalent about it. I don't think that's a good place to be, but I think rewriting it and doing a reading of it will confirm if I should continue with it or just ditch it for now. I wish I could do 'A Death in the Family'. I want to see that play up and on its feet so badly. But I will have to wait.

And then there's Script Frenzy. I am very excited to work on 'Human Girl'. After we visited the abandoned elementary school in Transylvania, LA, on the way to NOLA, I felt as though I finally found the setting for the play. I hope that it comes out this time. It's been YEARS since I started work on this play and I think that devoting a month of work to it might just coax it out of its shell.

And I think I have my idea for my 'Wizards of Waverly Place' script. Funny enough, I am going to be scrapping almost all of 'Szyzgy' in order to have it work out. That's fine--I think that it will work well for 'Wizards' if I change it for them. So that's good. Things aren't due until June I don't think, so we will see. I am creating a show bible and taking notes on things I notice instead of writing down the plot and such. It helps free me and watch the show for what I need to watch it for: understanding the characters and their motivations and getting their vocal patterns down.

Lots of work to do and always in the background is this holding pattern. I am surprised that I am keeping as busy as I have been--last year I was not nearly as productive. So we will see.

Some Much to Do, So Little Time

January was filled with not a lot of work for me to do. I was doing a lot of crocheting, cleaning and dreaming of new jobs for my fiance (not creating them for him--ha! I wish!--but thinking of ones that he's interviewing for--could use some good karma in our direction!). But February. Oh, February, my old short friend, you always sneak up on me and the next thing I know, I have a million things to do!

Like what?

• ABC/Disney Fellowship--still watching Wizards of Waverly Place and doing some reading from their suggested reading list. Luckily, I have a couple of the books, and a sweet Groupon hook-up, my B&N memberships and coupon assisted me in scoring Story for a mere $13 new. Awesome. Also, I don't think I need to have the script ready until June, so I got some time.
• A reading. Of what, I'm not sure. It's going to be at the Faulkner County Library in April for National Library Week, but the play I originally wanted to do was too long for the presentation. So I need to either choose a different play or do selections from the play. Gotta figure that out soon.
• Another library thing in April--doing write-ins for Script Frenzy. I was thinking that maybe doing a write-in once a week for any kind of writer who wants to come would be good. This will probably be Wednesdays in April. Again, gotta figure that out soon.
• April = Script Frenzy = Human Girl.
• March = National Play REWriting Month. I have to set up the forums and get that all ready. I'm really excited to dig back into 'Mine' and get it all straightened up. I got it printed out right now, and it's sitting on the shelf behind me, taunting me.

As usual, I ended up with some kind of blockage right here at the beginning of the year. Some of it is personal life upheaval and being in a holding pattern, but some of it is also just the beginning of the year. It seems to happen ever year--I just need to crochet and update my submissions notebook and do some reading of other stuff. I made it through, although during it, it seems like I might never write again and that I have to jump off a building.

Yeah, well, I'm still here.