A Writer's notebook, Day One-Hundred-Forty

Today was the reading which I have been preparing for and I am very glad to say that it went exceptionally well.  I think that there was a lot that I feel was working, and I found that a number of things played quite well.  That is to say that certain lines seemed to get a very positive response from the audience.  I also recognized a few small places where I can add back certain things.  I may need to do a little more trimming, as well, I think. 

In all, it ran to about fifteen minutes, which is still long for a short monologue, though not beyond the limit.  I think it can be trimmed a bit more and made stronger, but I recognized that certain lines need to be restored.  As well, I recognized that some things can be shifted a bit in the play without losing the voice, and these may allow more changes in the pursuit of trimming and streamlining the play.  It went quite well, though, and I am very glad.  Friends and family who attended were very positive, as were several others who came up and spoke to me after.

I know I need to keep working on it, and I also need to do more writing.  I may focus a bit on writing some more plays.  I have several ideas at the moment, but I have one that is sticking out in my mind right now, and which I think I may be able to put together once I have the world and the characters.  In essence, I know the general premise and the dramatic situation of the play, but I need to figure out the details.  The idea is in a post-apocalyptic setting, but I need to determine the specifics of that setting. 

There are, of course, a lot of different ways for the world to fall apart, and I have to consider how that happened and the precise catastrophe, as well as how long it has been since and the current state of the world.  It is not going to be the immediate aftermath, but a time when things are still wild but somewhat consistent.  This world is one that has undergone changes and has not recovered, but is not still decaying in the same way.  The disaster itself is over, but things have yet to be restored to order.

I do know a bit about one of the characters.  I may have a name for them and a sense of them, at least physically and in a broad strokes sense of the character.  Discovering more will take a bit of thinking about things.  What is most clear to me is aspects of how the play will work, in that it has a certain setting and a situation that is very clear to me, but I need to find what the story being explored is about in more detail.

So, I think that tomorrow I may begin some work on that play, as well as looking at my last play once again.  I think it will be good to get a look at it tomorrow morning, when I am well rested, but with the reading still fresh.  It has, yet again, been a long day, however, and I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked last night, so I am keeping this relatively short and calling it a night.  I am very proud of today and I feel that it was certainly a success, and am looking forwards to seeing what I can do to make the play even better and continuing on this trajectory.

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