Keeping focused

What the heck am I doing?  I let two days go by without doing my quota.  No pages on Friday or Sunday!  The month is going to be over before I’ve even gotten halfway through the first draft.

It’s hard when you keep looking at the big picture.  When you keep looking at how far you have to go.  To be honest, my daily output to get there is pretty ambitious, anyway.  Four pages a day.  It’s completely within my  ability to write that much, but it’s currently beyond my routine.

I feel like Sisyphus, looking at that damn rock that he has to push up the hill.  Forget the fact that it is going to roll back down, just as I reach the summit; it will be a hell of a lot of work just getting it up there.  But the struggle is part of the journey.  It’s part of how you get better as a writer.  It’s like a training run for a marathon runner or playing scales for a musician.  It must be done.

The temptation is to try and play catch up.  I missed writing eight pages, so I’ll write twelve pages today, instead of just four pages.  Or I’ll write five pages for the next eight days, instead of writing four.  But I will stick to the schedule and only focus on getting four pages done today.   Today is all that matters.  Let me be successful today.  I’ll worry about tomorrow’s pages, tomorrow.

As Samuel Bekett said, “Try again.  Fail again.  Fail better.”

Time to start writing.

Drawing up the Battle Plans

Okay, I'm just taking a reality check for what needs to be done to get this play Cast Away written.  I have about six pages of script and various pages of notes so far.  Some of those notes will make it verbatim into the script.  But I do need to establish a plan to get this piece done.

This will be my sixth play and I find that I haven’t yet established a routine for writing a play.  Each play seems to dictate its own process.  I’ve taken many screen writing classes and the emphasis is always on outlining incessantly and then start writing.  With my playwriting, I don’t always know where I’m going to go.  Sometimes the story is just there and I know where I’m going right from the beginning.  Other times I start writing and see where it goes, discovering the story along the way.

Cast Away should be fairly straight forward, I think.  I figured that I would basically tell the story from my first interview for the play being accepted into the Emerging Artist Series (EAS) to opening night.  Then it’s just a matter of finding dramatic things to put in.  Of course, as I’ve been thinking, I figured that I could add some stuff about the creative process.  I’m torn because I don’t know if it will be interesting or not.

I’m toying with playing around with some of my metaphysical attitudes.  I did a bit of that with my play Laund-o-mat at the End of the World.   I angst over it because I know that it will turn some people off and it might give other people the wrong idea that I’m a religious writer.  I can hear Paul Thompson’s voice echoing, “Do what scares you.”

But I really like the idea of the title Cast Away being a play on words.  It’s about some of the cast leaving the show and about feeling left adrift in the creative process.  A possible poster image is of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam part of the Sistine Chapel.  The image of Adam's hand reaching up to God’s hand.  But in my poster, I would be reaching up, but God would be giving me the finger.  Not sure if it is too scandalous or not.

I’ll let it gestate for a while.

Aside from the creative development of the play, I need to get it written.  The Festival runs from August 18 to 27.  I will have four performances in that time.  So not only does it have to get written, but it needs to be learned and rehearsed.  Do  I self-direct?  I’m leaning that way at the moment.

Ideally, I need to have a first draft finished by the end of June.  Then I can probably fit in two rewrites by the end of July.  That would give me almost three weeks to rehearse.  Hopefully, it will be percolating in my head anyway, so learning the lines won’t be too hard.  But you never know…  Last year I acted in a play that I co-wrote and I found it very difficult to learn my lines.  But I didn’t have as much time to prepare as I do now.

So, I have thirteen days to get the first draft done.  The piece will be about fifty minutes, so let’s call it approximately 50 pages of script.  That means that I need to write about 4 pages a day for the next 13 days.  On your marks.  Get ready.  Go! 

Let the page count begin.

My next project

In about two months, I will be onstage preforming a one man show called Cast Away.  The only problem is that I haven’t written it yet.  It’s an amorphous shape in my brain and I have some set bits for it, but I still have to write the thing.  I mean, if I was put on the spot and had to perform it today, I could probably improvise my way through it, but it wouldn’t be coherent or consistent.

Since I’ve been having trouble motivating myself to blog, I figured that I would chart my progress developing this piece.   So, let me start at the beginning.

Two years ago, I wrote a play called Cast Party.  When I got involved in acting in Community Theatre five years ago, I met lots of new people.  Stories would be shared as we bonded over beer after rehearsals.  Every show has antics or situations that actors and crew have to deal with, so I find it fun to listen to these stories.  Ironically, I kept hearing stories from one particular production.  It just so happened that in three different shows I did with a few different theatre groups, I ended up working with or meeting most of the people involved in that specific production. 

I was getting ready to write my second play, which was tentatively called Mulling Kilt Attire, inspired by some of those after rehearsal bar sessions, when I saw a play called Scratch by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman.  It’s a play about a girl’s reaction to her mother’s terminal cancer.  A few of the actors played multiple characters, seamlessly becoming someone different by a change in their physicality.

After seeing the play, I thought it would be cool to have a play where everyone played multiple characters.  It would be fun for the actors to challenge themselves and fun for the audience to see the actors’ versatility.  But I didn’t have a story to tell.  And then I remembered the stories about that production (that I hadn’t seen by the way) that I kept hearing about.  One of the things that struck me was that one of the actors died shortly after the production, but many people didn’t know he was sick.

So, I shelved Mulling Kilt Attire and decided to write Cast Party.  I would have each actor play two roles.  And I would try to incorporate the people that are involved in community theatre: cast, crew and hangers on. 

I submitted the play to Black Box Fire’s Emerging Artist Series and it got accepted.  Before I knew it, I was directing my play.  Without a doubt, it was the worst theatrical experience I ever had.  Actors didn’t show up to rehearsals, some quit, one I had to fire, another actor tried to start a mutiny.  Hai carumba!

But the show must go on, right?  It did go on.  Amidst the pain and betrayal, there were glimmers of hope and wonderful people who helped out.  Every time I was about to throw in the towel, someone or something positive would give me hope.  Since a lot of the audience were involved in community theatre, it was well received. 

People joked that I should write a sequel.  I would always quip back that I was planning to.  And I was going to call the show The Rehearsal. 

This year, I had a subscription to Theatre Passe Muraille and I saw a couple of one person shows that I really enjoyed:  The Cure for Everything by Maja Ardal and Oh, My Irma by Haley McGee.  I thought that The Rehearsal could work as a one person show.  I wrote a few pages, but it didn’t go any further.

I needed a deadline.  Cue the divine music and the celestial sunshine poking through dark clouds.  The Pearl Canadian Theatre Festival was looking for submissions.  I submitted  the synopsis for The Rehearsal, which I renamed Cast Away, and it was accepted.  Like I said, now, I have to write the darn thing.

Marking Milestones

I’m a big believer in setting goals.  And an important part of setting goals is creating tasks that move you towards those goals.  Instead of having a vague goal that you have no control over like “I want to be a famous playwright”; you create something that you can achieve, like “I will write 2 full length plays this year.” 

Ideally, you set long range goals and short range goals.  There’s nothing worse than only setting long range goals and feeling the despair that sets in when the achievement of the goal is too far to be invigorating.  You need baby steps, too.

In a way, you need to cultivate a regular state of dissatisfaction.  To become great at something, you need to be continuously improving.  So, as a goal is reached, it is important to have new goals ready to keep pushing you onward.

However, it is also important to acknowledge and celebrate the achievement of big and little goals.  You need to pause every now and then to take stock.  Are you on the right track?  Did you meet a goal?  Can you feel yourself moving forward?

I want to celebrate the fact that I received my first official royalty cheque the other day.  Some students put on my play “Laund-o-mat at the End of the World” for the Sears Festival and I got paid to let them use my play.  Awesome!  This is the first time one of my shows has been put on without my direct involvement.  I feel fantastic!  I feel like a big boy now. 

And no the royalty cheque isn’t that big, but that’s not the important thing.  It is another milestone towards my career as a playwright.  I was tempted to frame the cheque, but I decided to scan it, instead.  I can frame the jpeg, if I want.  J  What’s the fun of getting money and not spending it?

The next day, I found out that I came in third place for the Hamilton Fringe Playwriting Contest.  That’s the first time that I have “placed” in a contest!  Obviously, I would have preferred to win, but I’m pretty happy with being in the top three.  Another milestone!  Yay for me!!

Both of these events are encouraging me to strive harder.  I’m working on a rewrite, so that I can submit to another contest.  And there is yet another contest that I had submitted to that should be publishing their results soon. 

For today, however, I am pleased as punch.  I’ve received two concrete reinforcements for being a writer.  I’ll be sure to check back at this blog entry on the days when things aren’t going so well.  ;-) 

Getting up again

There’s a proverb that goes “Fall down seven times, get up eight times”.  I’ve fallen “off” the daily writing habit.  Again.  It’s been over a month since I was writing daily, so I’m going to dust myself off and start the habit again.

I know why I fell off.  Usually when I complete a first draft of a piece, I take a break.  Unfortunately, that break usually becomes extended.  When I finished writing my play Laund-o-mat at the End of the World, I didn’t write for almost a year.  I didn’t even write in my journal.  I really don’t know why that was, but the same thing has happened after all the other plays that I’ve written.

I finished the first draft of my fifth play just before I broke my daily writing habit.  The good news is that period of non-writing seems to be shrinking with each new work.  Maybe it’s a psychic recovery period.  Maybe I’m just lazy and need to catch up on my tv watching.   Whatever it is, I don’t like it.

At least this time, I kept up with some writerly pursuits.  I took part in a World Theatre Day celebration and wrote a mini-adaption as part of an exercise with my writing group.   I had a reading of my newest play.  I saw some high school kids perform Laund-o-mat as part of the Sears Festival (they won their division and are moving on to the Regionals) -- they did a great job, by the way.  I submitted my play Mulling Kilt Attire for dramaturgy at Pat the Dog.  I’ve entered a couple of contests.  I went to a couple of drop-ins at the Predella Open Studio.  I saw Linda Griffiths speak about playwriting.  I went to a masterclass with Judith Thompson.  Whew!

So, even though I haven’t been doing my daily pages, I can honestly say that I have been still busy with my  playwriting.  But, let’s face it: to be a writer, you have to write.  So, I’m renewing my daily writing habit.  I’m getting up, after falling down.

I kind of feel like I’m back to where I was at the beginning of January.  I’ve also put back that weight that I had lost.  Oh well.  Keep moving forward, right? 

As part of this do over, I will commit to writing at least one blog a week.  I may end up writing more, but the goal is to do at least one per week.  That way, I will have at least 52 blog entries next year at this time.  And hopefully another play or two.  ;-)

Scrivening with Scrivener

I first came across the word “scrivener” when someone gave me Bartleby the Scrivener to act out in charades.  I didn’t do so well and I always remembered that word.  That darn word.  There is an application called Scrivener by Literature and Latte which is for writers.  It is a mac application, but they’ve developed a version for Windows which is in beta.

What is Scrivener?  Basically, it’s a word processor.   But it’s a word processor designed for the early drafts of a project.  You can work on regular fiction (novel, short story, etc.) or scripts (plays, screenplays, etc.).   The nice thing about it is that it allows you to easily break up your work into segments and move it around.  You can also keep all your research material in one place (the document itself) and not have to look all over the place for that information.

I read Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit a few years ago.  It’s an excellent book and I highly recommend it.  One thing that I took from the book, which I still use today, is the concept of having a box for ideas related to a project.  Basically, it’s a place where you put ideas, clippings, songs, pictures, anything that relates to your project or that you think will serve as inspiration.

When I start a project I usually create a box file and jot down anything related to the story I’m going to work on.  As I’m writing, I will refer to that “box” when I get stuck to make sure that I’ve touched on everything that I wanted to.

The nice thing about Scrivener is that the file or box is part of the document itself.  So, you don’t have to flip from program to program.  Or search in folders to find that darn document.  (And what did I call it this time??) 

Scrivener is basically broken down into three parts: the document, the research and the trash.  The document section is where you do your writing or at least play with your writing.  Scrivener has different formats for you to use.  To be honest, I’m not crazy about the script writing.  I find it much easier to use Final Draft to write my script and then import it and play around with it in Scrivener. 

The research section is the part I really like.  You can import files (pictures, pdfs, music) into Scrivener and then refer to them when you write.  For example, a character in my current project has cancer and I put some notes in the research part.  Whenever my character is talking about her cancer, I do a quick look at my notes to see if I want to add something or at least inform what I’m going to write.  It’s a mouse click away.

Sometimes, I just start writing a project.  I don’t have an outline and I’m not sure exactly where it is going to go.  I can start writing, import the script into Scrivener and play around with “what” goes “where” and put in a place marker for events, beats or scenes and then go back to it.

Now, there are ways to do similar things in Final Draft or whatever word processing program you use.  But I like the ease in which it can be done with Scrivener.

There are still some bugs in the program.  It is a beta version, after all.  Currently, I have to export my Final Draft into rtf format and then import it in Scrivener.  And when I modify the script and export it to rtf to bring back into Final Draft, the formatting is all screwed up.  Me no likey.   But there will be an update out on Feb. 25, so we’ll see if those things are addressed.

If I was only going to use one tool, it would be Final Draft.  I find it much easier to write a script with it.  But I really like being able to play around with the script and have my research right where I can find it.  I’m going to continue to use both tools for my current project.  I’ll keep you updated.

P.S.  Super Bowl had an impact.  I gained two pounds.  Darn wings.  And chips.  And nachos.  And cake.  And brownies...

Perseverance trumps talent

Everyone knows the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, right? If not, where have you been for the last three thousand years?  Basically a rabbit and a turtle decide to have a long distance race and the rabbit is so fast and so far ahead that he takes a nap before reaching the finish line.  Of course, the turtle keeps moving slowly to the finish line and crosses over before the rabbit wakes from his nap.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Or as stated in Dan Pink’s book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: perseverance trumps talent.  That’s an important concept for us writers.  You have to plug away at this craft day by day and page by page.   You only get better by doing.  When we see a great piece of writing, we’re not looking at the first draft.  We’re looking at the crystallized, edited version.  It might be the fourth draft or the eleventh draft or the thirty-seventh draft.  We only see the finished work.

Sometimes when you look at your own writing and compare it to more established writers, it’s easy to think that you’ll never get there.  You’ll never be that good.  You don’t have the talent.  There’s only one cure for that.  Write more.  You have to write.  You have to persevere.  You have to strive to improve.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Outliers, he discusses the idea that maybe there is no such thing as talent.  People that we call talented have usually put in many, many hours towards that skill that makes them talented (hockey, music, writing, etc.).   How many hours?  Upwards of 10,000 hours.  And trust me, it takes a long time to spend 10,000 hours on something. 

Ray Bradbury said that you have to write a million words before you become a writer.  This blog is only 717 words.  So, you’d have to write about 1400 blogs to write that many words!  It’s not an easy task.

You better like that thing that you’re going to spend so much time on it.  Maybe the true talent of the “talented” is their love and/or commitment to the skill that keeps them going back to practice and get better every day.  If you want to be a writer, you have to write.  You have to write every day. 

One of the best ways to get to the place of daily writing is to set tiny goals and build on them.  I started the year wanting to write a page a day.  I had established the habit at the end of last year.  Obviously, I hadn’t established it strongly enough, because I let it lapse.  And I mistakenly thought I could jump right back where I stopped.

Two weeks ago, with a goal of writing a page a day, I wrote half a page.  Half a page for the entire week!  Last week, with a goal of writing a half page a day, I wrote 15 pages.  This week, I’ve increased my goal to ¾ of a page.  I will let you know next week how it turned out. 

The key is that even if I only write three quarters of a page a day, that’s five and a quarter pages at the end of the week.   It’s way more than the output was when I set my goal higher than I was ready to accomplish.  More importantly, the daily amount isn’t so big that it’s discouraging.  And because it is attainable, I’m completing the work every day; often surpassing the daily quota.

If you are finding that you aren’t meeting your writing goals, instead of getting pissed off with yourself and beating yourself up, set a smaller goal.  Consistency is the real goal here.   Consistency of output.  Regular writing.  Putting the seat of the pants into the seat of the chair and writing.  

Once you can meet your smaller goal consistently, then you can consider increasing it.   Maybe you need to keep it small and attainable for a long time.   Even if you only write half a page every day for a year, that’s a draft and half of a play. 

Be persistent.  Have a “turtle mind” and set some attainable goals that you can do consistently.  Slow and steady wins the race.

P.S.  I lost two pounds last week.