A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Hundred-Fourteen
I completed the reread and notes for on the play draft, but have not yet finished the work in the document. I expect that will go quickly and intend to conquer it in the morning. The meeting is tomorrow, so I have a strong incentive to do so. I felt that most of the work was solid, but I also recognize many places where it can be somewhat tighter. I intend to focus on getting the length down in the next round of edits.
At this point, I feel that the play does have a lot of strengths, far more than the initial draft, and I think some of it is very economical, but I recognize that their are probably many places where I am adding more than needed in order for it to work as a play. Being a person who is more accustomed to writing for the page, I am certain that I have details which aren't needed and would communicate through staging. That is not something I had looked at yet.
As well, I am considering the trick of embedding one story inside another, and how I might do more of this. I am specifically thinking about the question of whether all the parts without the parents can be reworked so that they are in the frame of conversations with one or both parent. First, this works to shift the focus towards that relationship, and second I believe it would work more dramatically. As well, the nesting of stories is something that can work to draw readers in, as they have multiple layers to keep track of and can more easily become immersed in the story as a result. I am not certain that this will work, but I want to take a look and see, as I think it potentially will work to both shorten the play and make it stronger.
While I didn't do any explicit work on it, I did continue my planning and plotting of the story I mentioned yesterday. I think I've come up with a structure for it as a piece. The beginning would involve a character, a reporter I believe, about to relay a strange story about the reason he didn't close his current investigation. The editor he is about to speak with interrupts him and says something about knowing what is coming, and the reporter says there is no way, and the editor, pulling out a big file from some hidden and secure spot, says that the reporter encountered a girl, and describes a little girl, what she looks like and is wearing, and so on. The reporter is silent. The man shows him the file, which is filled with reports of the girl.
The rest will be interlacing the notes on the girl in the story with other things that the reporter uncovers and investigates (despite being told not to pursue it repeatedly by many people). I am not certain of the entire thing, at least not yet, though I do have a strong sense of the story on a number of levels. I need to consider much more about it, and don't yet have a clear sense of the character, but I feel this is a strong place to start from.
However, as I mentioned yesterday, my intent is to forestall actually writing this until I am beyond working on my play. It seems important for me to focus on that work right now, at least in terms of my genuine writing time. I will attempt, of course, to do some work, writing poems, for example, but I can easily imagine being sucked into the new project if I give it my full energy.
At the same time, I don't want to lose the momentum on this idea, and, despite it not being my natural inclination as a writer, I am going to do a bit more plotting and planning on this than usual. In part, that is a tool for keeping the work spinning in my mind, while I complete more pressing work, but it also takes advantage of the circumstance to let me see how this works for me. It may well be that this type of more explicit planning is something that allows me to do better and write with greater proficiency. I can easily imagine how it would speed my work on a first draft, and perhaps produce a piece that is also more cohesive. I do worry about losing some of the magic that I find in writing without an outline. Often, I've mentioned the way that a story will seem to coalesce or bring details that seemed insignificant back in a way that sheds light on why it was there in the first place. Such surprises often feel like something I must have planned, and it is delightful when that occurs. As well, I think those magical moments are a sign that the work is being done on a very deep level. They are communications, I believe, from a deeper part of my mind that is doing more of the work in the background.
Of course, I am probably not being realistic in that fear. I know other writers who do a great deal of plotting and planning. For one thing, even the most detailed outline is not able to contain everything of the book. The book can't be in the outline, or it would be the book already. In that sense, the writing itself is always going to contain new ideas and will deepen as it is put into words. That means that their will always be room for such magic to occur, even if the outline is followed closely. Second, the outline is not always entirely accurate. It may provide a strong sense of the story, but the story may have other ideas at some point.
As well, it is worth recognizing that these insights are likely to occur in outlining the story. In plotting, the same general type of thinking must occur, though, it is true, not on the same intimate level as when putting the ideas into a draft. Still, I can expect that I will find the story shifting and taking shape in ways that reflect that same process as I experience in writing through my usual process. In writing, it is still possible more such moments will occur, but it is important to embrace the legitimacy of the outlining process as part of the writing, by accepting that those revelations can occur during that phase as well.
At this point, I feel that the play does have a lot of strengths, far more than the initial draft, and I think some of it is very economical, but I recognize that their are probably many places where I am adding more than needed in order for it to work as a play. Being a person who is more accustomed to writing for the page, I am certain that I have details which aren't needed and would communicate through staging. That is not something I had looked at yet.
As well, I am considering the trick of embedding one story inside another, and how I might do more of this. I am specifically thinking about the question of whether all the parts without the parents can be reworked so that they are in the frame of conversations with one or both parent. First, this works to shift the focus towards that relationship, and second I believe it would work more dramatically. As well, the nesting of stories is something that can work to draw readers in, as they have multiple layers to keep track of and can more easily become immersed in the story as a result. I am not certain that this will work, but I want to take a look and see, as I think it potentially will work to both shorten the play and make it stronger.
While I didn't do any explicit work on it, I did continue my planning and plotting of the story I mentioned yesterday. I think I've come up with a structure for it as a piece. The beginning would involve a character, a reporter I believe, about to relay a strange story about the reason he didn't close his current investigation. The editor he is about to speak with interrupts him and says something about knowing what is coming, and the reporter says there is no way, and the editor, pulling out a big file from some hidden and secure spot, says that the reporter encountered a girl, and describes a little girl, what she looks like and is wearing, and so on. The reporter is silent. The man shows him the file, which is filled with reports of the girl.
The rest will be interlacing the notes on the girl in the story with other things that the reporter uncovers and investigates (despite being told not to pursue it repeatedly by many people). I am not certain of the entire thing, at least not yet, though I do have a strong sense of the story on a number of levels. I need to consider much more about it, and don't yet have a clear sense of the character, but I feel this is a strong place to start from.
However, as I mentioned yesterday, my intent is to forestall actually writing this until I am beyond working on my play. It seems important for me to focus on that work right now, at least in terms of my genuine writing time. I will attempt, of course, to do some work, writing poems, for example, but I can easily imagine being sucked into the new project if I give it my full energy.
At the same time, I don't want to lose the momentum on this idea, and, despite it not being my natural inclination as a writer, I am going to do a bit more plotting and planning on this than usual. In part, that is a tool for keeping the work spinning in my mind, while I complete more pressing work, but it also takes advantage of the circumstance to let me see how this works for me. It may well be that this type of more explicit planning is something that allows me to do better and write with greater proficiency. I can easily imagine how it would speed my work on a first draft, and perhaps produce a piece that is also more cohesive. I do worry about losing some of the magic that I find in writing without an outline. Often, I've mentioned the way that a story will seem to coalesce or bring details that seemed insignificant back in a way that sheds light on why it was there in the first place. Such surprises often feel like something I must have planned, and it is delightful when that occurs. As well, I think those magical moments are a sign that the work is being done on a very deep level. They are communications, I believe, from a deeper part of my mind that is doing more of the work in the background.
Of course, I am probably not being realistic in that fear. I know other writers who do a great deal of plotting and planning. For one thing, even the most detailed outline is not able to contain everything of the book. The book can't be in the outline, or it would be the book already. In that sense, the writing itself is always going to contain new ideas and will deepen as it is put into words. That means that their will always be room for such magic to occur, even if the outline is followed closely. Second, the outline is not always entirely accurate. It may provide a strong sense of the story, but the story may have other ideas at some point.
As well, it is worth recognizing that these insights are likely to occur in outlining the story. In plotting, the same general type of thinking must occur, though, it is true, not on the same intimate level as when putting the ideas into a draft. Still, I can expect that I will find the story shifting and taking shape in ways that reflect that same process as I experience in writing through my usual process. In writing, it is still possible more such moments will occur, but it is important to embrace the legitimacy of the outlining process as part of the writing, by accepting that those revelations can occur during that phase as well.
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