A Writer's Notebook, Day Four-Hundred-And-Forty-Two
I have made a great deal of progress on my play, which is good, as it is due quite soon. It will be finished on time. I can pull that off, I know it, even if it means staying up quite late one or two nights. In order to finish work on my script for last year, I had to do a lot of work in a short period, and was able to really pull of a huge amount by doing that.
My biggest concern, really, is that I may have plotted a bit more for the play than can actually work, but I think that can be fixed. Once I have a basic draft (hopefully I can finish that tomorrow, early, or in the night if I am awake), I can see if I need to make real cuts to it, and then can work on that. I think that I am likely to be able to trim a great deal without losing the content. Once I know the whole shape, I can find ways to make it work inside the limits placed on me by the format. Of course, it is also possible I am over estimating. The first segment is likely the longest of the piece, with most of the others being much shorter, so it may well be the right length. I have to see how it works out. If it is too long, then I will cut it down and find a way to make it work.
The play itself developed rather interestingly from some of my poetry. I had one poem in particular that I felt might work well as a part of a play, so I began considering it and wrote out a bit of a scene around it. That element is only, now, one piece of the whole play, but I think that it has influenced my thinking of what I want to write. This piece has a lot of surreal elements and is largely allegorical in nature. It is very much in line with my general work, in terms of being less interested in realism than in creating something for the recipient of the work to experience.
In the play, three sisters each meet a different fate. On their birthday, one is to be selected for a special portrait. The other two exchange secret gifts, one receiving a recorder that had been hidden in the attic, the other binoculars from the basement. The mother hears the recorder and instantly wants to take it from her daughter, but each time she hides it, somehow it mysteriously returns to the daughter. The daughter who is posing for the artist complains, it is taking days and she is sick of sitting still all the time. The girl with the binoculars goes out in the yard to bird watch but is not seen again. Later we learn she fell in a hole, that her father has decided she should get out herself. The daughter with the recorder is sent away by her mother, who reveals that it was her instrument, but as soon as she was pregnant it became too shrill and caused her headaches at a single note. She had been trying to hide the instrument, but can take no more. The third daughter is alone, waking up in the last scene. Her parents tell her that they have fired the artist, that his portrait did not capture her beauty, but that she has learned to sit so still, why should they keep a portrait when she can just sit in the living room to be a stature for them.
It is a strange piece, and as I said it is going to need to occur within a very tight window of time, but I feel it will all fit together. I must trust the part of my mind that knows how to organize these ideas. I think it often has a far better sense of what can be done than I do in general. If it is too long, as I said, I will edit it down to the right size. I do not think that will be impossible. It is not going to be a full length piece or even a full one act. At most it will run over a few pages, and I am certain that I can pull that back by just removing small things that do not need to be there, or combining actions/lines.
Anyhow, I am well on my way, finally, and I feel that this has the potential to be quite an interesting piece. I certainly think it is not going to be like any other play they will receive, and I hope that I can make it work in ways that are unexpected for such a piece. Beyond this, I also know that the work will be revised within workshop, as it was last year. That process was amazing, and I am certain that they expect the work they receive to be less polished and prepped than what will ultimately be presented. Though I do think I might be able to provide a quality script, one that might even be in shape for a performance at the start, I know that it will improve through that process, and that they are expecting that improvement as much as I am. In the end, my focus now needs to be on the writing, and on getting it into shape for submission before the looming deadline.
My biggest concern, really, is that I may have plotted a bit more for the play than can actually work, but I think that can be fixed. Once I have a basic draft (hopefully I can finish that tomorrow, early, or in the night if I am awake), I can see if I need to make real cuts to it, and then can work on that. I think that I am likely to be able to trim a great deal without losing the content. Once I know the whole shape, I can find ways to make it work inside the limits placed on me by the format. Of course, it is also possible I am over estimating. The first segment is likely the longest of the piece, with most of the others being much shorter, so it may well be the right length. I have to see how it works out. If it is too long, then I will cut it down and find a way to make it work.
The play itself developed rather interestingly from some of my poetry. I had one poem in particular that I felt might work well as a part of a play, so I began considering it and wrote out a bit of a scene around it. That element is only, now, one piece of the whole play, but I think that it has influenced my thinking of what I want to write. This piece has a lot of surreal elements and is largely allegorical in nature. It is very much in line with my general work, in terms of being less interested in realism than in creating something for the recipient of the work to experience.
In the play, three sisters each meet a different fate. On their birthday, one is to be selected for a special portrait. The other two exchange secret gifts, one receiving a recorder that had been hidden in the attic, the other binoculars from the basement. The mother hears the recorder and instantly wants to take it from her daughter, but each time she hides it, somehow it mysteriously returns to the daughter. The daughter who is posing for the artist complains, it is taking days and she is sick of sitting still all the time. The girl with the binoculars goes out in the yard to bird watch but is not seen again. Later we learn she fell in a hole, that her father has decided she should get out herself. The daughter with the recorder is sent away by her mother, who reveals that it was her instrument, but as soon as she was pregnant it became too shrill and caused her headaches at a single note. She had been trying to hide the instrument, but can take no more. The third daughter is alone, waking up in the last scene. Her parents tell her that they have fired the artist, that his portrait did not capture her beauty, but that she has learned to sit so still, why should they keep a portrait when she can just sit in the living room to be a stature for them.
It is a strange piece, and as I said it is going to need to occur within a very tight window of time, but I feel it will all fit together. I must trust the part of my mind that knows how to organize these ideas. I think it often has a far better sense of what can be done than I do in general. If it is too long, as I said, I will edit it down to the right size. I do not think that will be impossible. It is not going to be a full length piece or even a full one act. At most it will run over a few pages, and I am certain that I can pull that back by just removing small things that do not need to be there, or combining actions/lines.
Anyhow, I am well on my way, finally, and I feel that this has the potential to be quite an interesting piece. I certainly think it is not going to be like any other play they will receive, and I hope that I can make it work in ways that are unexpected for such a piece. Beyond this, I also know that the work will be revised within workshop, as it was last year. That process was amazing, and I am certain that they expect the work they receive to be less polished and prepped than what will ultimately be presented. Though I do think I might be able to provide a quality script, one that might even be in shape for a performance at the start, I know that it will improve through that process, and that they are expecting that improvement as much as I am. In the end, my focus now needs to be on the writing, and on getting it into shape for submission before the looming deadline.
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