A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Hundred-Seven
This evening was my first session working with the other playwrights on our scripts. Not all of the others who are in the group were able to attend, but there were three of the others who came. We read through each of the plays, and I received a lot of notes that point me in the right direction and helped me to clarify certain ideas in a way that I think makes sense to me.
For one, I am definitely making the character an adult, and I am adding some more tension in terms of events surrounding the character. I think the title will likely change, and I am getting a pretty good notion of certain things that I think will need to happen. For one thing, I believe that the character will be using more direct quotes and the voices of the other characters. As well, I am going to alter the tense of the story and tweak certain aspects of the voice. I think I can also add in some small details here and there, in order to build the exposition.
Matt has also been suggesting that I might make some added drama in the character's family showing the mortality of the parents. I definitely need to address the death of the fish more explicitly, and I believe their is an opportunity to put one parent into the hospital, with it having happened before and it being clear that this is not the first time. Implying, as well, that the father may be somewhat ill when he returns, hastening the need to put the son into a group home or other situation may also be important.
Matt had suggested that the parent might die, but I actually believe that having the father be somehow reliant on the mother's care in a way that makes her the sole caretaker for both is actually much stronger and more dramatic. It is conceivable the mother might still care for him if she were alone, and might even find solace in that, despite her fears for his future, but having the father home and an invalid alters the dynamics in a stronger way, I believe.
The larger issues of the piece are largely about shaping the whole of the plot in a way that reveals more and makes this a significant story for the character. To do that, I am going to want to shape some aspects of the story in ways that will integrate an understanding for the reader. For one thing, I think that Jeffrey, the main character, is going to be an adult with a developmental issue, probably a form of high functioning autism combined with a syndrome X type diagnosis and intellectual disabilities. This is a fairly specific diagnosis and I need to do a bit more research on it, but I feel it is pretty good for what I am aiming to do.
I think that he is going to be someone that is already in a program of some sort, and that I will introduce a doctor of some sort who runs that program. He works there, and I think that Jackson, the other individual who provokes much of the action, is going to be a resident patient who Jeffrey works with. The other option would be to have Jackson be a child, likely a relative, and then to have family stuff coming up, but I can see other problems with that. It might relieve certain tension, if he has such a young relative, that others in the family can care for him. As well, I believe this will provide more opportunities for the story to be compact and yet dynamic enough on stage.
I really think that adding a second voice of a person with a disability, one that is markedly different, will be a big thing as well. It can provide a really interesting thing for the play, and something that is a bit more unique and different than I might have imagined. I think having a second voice, especially if I can find a way to make it different enough in those moments, yet authentic in a different way, will really be a powerful thing.
The ending of the play is also a point of import, and it needs to build properly. I think that the final bit is right, it is making all the tension leading to that work properly. The very end, the character is shown making a kind gesture towards their antagonist, and this is an ending that I feel can be quite strong, however, I also realized that it does need a bit more of a push. It was suggested that this can come from upping the stakes on the events surrounding that ending. In specific, the Jeffrey basically embarrasses his supposed friend Jackson. That is currently not explored or shown in great detail, but it needs to be made more explicit and given a larger sense of impact, and the gesture at the end needs to read in a slightly different way.
One thing that feels very true here is that the play is becoming, in a strange way that I hadn't anticipated, far more personal. As mentioned, I do have a learning disability, and I recognize that in many ways it has slowed down how I have developed on certain levels. I have remained less independent and have not flourished in ways that I might. In part, this is also a result of the over protection of my parents, but I know that much is also due to other factors. Now, this play is not exploring all of them, but is certainly looking at certain myths about me that I have had, albeit through an extremely metaphorical and distorted lens. The trajectory of the story, however, and the main character himself, as well as his situation, are things that I relate to far more than I realized. It is funny to me, as I wonder what I had done that pointed Matt towards considering these questions, since I feel that he was clearly pointing out things that were already there.
I have some pretty clear ideas about certain things. In fact there is a small "scene" in my mind, something that combines a few different things from the story. It will be a lot of work, but I am ready. So, for the next bit I am putting aside the novel(s) and working on this. I want to create something that is going to be special and different than might be expected, and which really allows the performer to have a lot of fun with the piece. I have a pretty strong notion of what I am doing, now, but I do feel that I need to make certain it works for the stage in a way that is not quite there yet. That will be work for tomorrow. It is already quite late, now, but I am very glad to have put this down and to have gotten this far in my thinking already.
For one, I am definitely making the character an adult, and I am adding some more tension in terms of events surrounding the character. I think the title will likely change, and I am getting a pretty good notion of certain things that I think will need to happen. For one thing, I believe that the character will be using more direct quotes and the voices of the other characters. As well, I am going to alter the tense of the story and tweak certain aspects of the voice. I think I can also add in some small details here and there, in order to build the exposition.
Matt has also been suggesting that I might make some added drama in the character's family showing the mortality of the parents. I definitely need to address the death of the fish more explicitly, and I believe their is an opportunity to put one parent into the hospital, with it having happened before and it being clear that this is not the first time. Implying, as well, that the father may be somewhat ill when he returns, hastening the need to put the son into a group home or other situation may also be important.
Matt had suggested that the parent might die, but I actually believe that having the father be somehow reliant on the mother's care in a way that makes her the sole caretaker for both is actually much stronger and more dramatic. It is conceivable the mother might still care for him if she were alone, and might even find solace in that, despite her fears for his future, but having the father home and an invalid alters the dynamics in a stronger way, I believe.
The larger issues of the piece are largely about shaping the whole of the plot in a way that reveals more and makes this a significant story for the character. To do that, I am going to want to shape some aspects of the story in ways that will integrate an understanding for the reader. For one thing, I think that Jeffrey, the main character, is going to be an adult with a developmental issue, probably a form of high functioning autism combined with a syndrome X type diagnosis and intellectual disabilities. This is a fairly specific diagnosis and I need to do a bit more research on it, but I feel it is pretty good for what I am aiming to do.
I think that he is going to be someone that is already in a program of some sort, and that I will introduce a doctor of some sort who runs that program. He works there, and I think that Jackson, the other individual who provokes much of the action, is going to be a resident patient who Jeffrey works with. The other option would be to have Jackson be a child, likely a relative, and then to have family stuff coming up, but I can see other problems with that. It might relieve certain tension, if he has such a young relative, that others in the family can care for him. As well, I believe this will provide more opportunities for the story to be compact and yet dynamic enough on stage.
I really think that adding a second voice of a person with a disability, one that is markedly different, will be a big thing as well. It can provide a really interesting thing for the play, and something that is a bit more unique and different than I might have imagined. I think having a second voice, especially if I can find a way to make it different enough in those moments, yet authentic in a different way, will really be a powerful thing.
The ending of the play is also a point of import, and it needs to build properly. I think that the final bit is right, it is making all the tension leading to that work properly. The very end, the character is shown making a kind gesture towards their antagonist, and this is an ending that I feel can be quite strong, however, I also realized that it does need a bit more of a push. It was suggested that this can come from upping the stakes on the events surrounding that ending. In specific, the Jeffrey basically embarrasses his supposed friend Jackson. That is currently not explored or shown in great detail, but it needs to be made more explicit and given a larger sense of impact, and the gesture at the end needs to read in a slightly different way.
One thing that feels very true here is that the play is becoming, in a strange way that I hadn't anticipated, far more personal. As mentioned, I do have a learning disability, and I recognize that in many ways it has slowed down how I have developed on certain levels. I have remained less independent and have not flourished in ways that I might. In part, this is also a result of the over protection of my parents, but I know that much is also due to other factors. Now, this play is not exploring all of them, but is certainly looking at certain myths about me that I have had, albeit through an extremely metaphorical and distorted lens. The trajectory of the story, however, and the main character himself, as well as his situation, are things that I relate to far more than I realized. It is funny to me, as I wonder what I had done that pointed Matt towards considering these questions, since I feel that he was clearly pointing out things that were already there.
I have some pretty clear ideas about certain things. In fact there is a small "scene" in my mind, something that combines a few different things from the story. It will be a lot of work, but I am ready. So, for the next bit I am putting aside the novel(s) and working on this. I want to create something that is going to be special and different than might be expected, and which really allows the performer to have a lot of fun with the piece. I have a pretty strong notion of what I am doing, now, but I do feel that I need to make certain it works for the stage in a way that is not quite there yet. That will be work for tomorrow. It is already quite late, now, but I am very glad to have put this down and to have gotten this far in my thinking already.
Comments
Post a Comment