About... Granite - Play 31

Granite - script

Play #31.  Completed.  I will do a recap of the whole month in a later post, but for now...

I do actually kind of like where this one is going.  I was a little sad, though - I came up with a title off of the song I was listening to for this one ("Hold On" by Tom Waits), and I even started out by doing the title page with it; it was Bullet Needs a Gun - which I had no intention of that being literal.  But as I wrote and tried to tie these four people together, it became clear that Granite was a much more appropriate title.  Ah, well.

I had two images I found online - one of a European cobblestone street on a hill with storefronts and a large steeple-ish object at the top of the hill, the other an enormous carved stone block with a very tiny person looking at it; the roots of two of the stories.

About... Baling - play 30

Baling - script

This is the 30th play I've written this month.  There is one more and then it is over.
This is the hard part: being satisfied with having written this much, but not being satisfied with the writing.

This play felt awful to write.  It is not what I had in mind when I started - and I may need to take a good long look (psychologically) as to why I keep writing mobsters and Irish people.  At least it wasn't yet another love triangle.

I think this one came out Irish because I spent some of the day looking up information on a theatre festival in Ireland, then ended up looking at maps and images of the area.  (Visiting Ireland is on the bucket list)

And I won't lie.  I came up with a title because none of the other plays from this month started with B.

About... Leaving Circus Town - Day 29

Leaving Circus Town - script

29.

I did some web searching for images (I highly recommend Flickr's Most Interesting pics of the Last 7 Days).  I came upon a picture of a train, called The Circus Leaves Town - I twisted that around for a title.  I found a picture of two girls in a window, it was called Ines & Lisa.  I found a cool image of a wall of windows with colored panels, making the lobby area of this space brightly colored, and an image of paper lanterns on the ground.
I don't know exactly what Ines and Lisa are talking about (this happens to me a lot).  But somehow, Ines invents more drama than Lisa can tolerate any more, and if the circus is in town here, she'd rather be someplace else.

About... One to Ten - Play 28

One to Ten - script

28.  There's only 3 more scripts left to write.  I think I might actually miss doing this when it's over...

About... Loss of Faith - Play 27

Loss of Faith - script

Play 27, a day late.  Hoping to catch up tomorrow - but a lot of question marks about the next couple of days with Hurricane Isaac headed this way.  If we lose power, I may be switching to doing some writing long-hand.

Sitting in a class discussion, this idea came to me.  It turned out quite different from what I had in mind.

About... Wild Card - Day 26

Wild Card - script

Play 26.  Quick write.  listening to Bob Dylan's "Things Have Changed".

Just two dudes talking.  Really should have developed this more, but too tired.  Just having finished something is the accomplishment for the day.

There are now only 5 more plays to write.

About... Wake - Play 25

Wake - script

Play 25.  Sitting in the lounge chair, watching preseason football and listening to Radiohead's "15 Steps".  Gonna keep writing tonight -hopefully will catch up to pace.

About... Meant A Lot To Me - Play 24

Meant A Lot To Me - script

Play 24.

I had a really great idea.  I thought of it yesterday, I spent some time working it out in my head in the evening, went to bed thinking about it.  I even work up this morning, and I promise you that in my dreams I worked it out.  Then, as has been made necessary by my job, I read 5 short scripts.  and I took my son out this saturday morning for about 2 hours.  When i got back - you guessed it - gone.  So, the irony of the title is that this really didn't mean that much to me.  It took me a while to write this merely because I was fighting it the whole way - including stopping at least 3 times with the intention of dumping it entirely.  Despite all of that, this is not the worst script I've written this month.

I'll be trying to catch up to the schedule by writing again tonight.  Trying to clear my mind before then.

About... Forgiveness - Play 23

Forgiveness - script

Play 23.  Another mob thug.  This time, a different mark.  I like the scenario on this one; could be interesting with some more development - I don't like the title.
I started to write this one last night, but finished it today, writing during a little bit of down time in my office.

It is proving as hard as I thought it would be to keep up the pace now that school has started back up, but it is possible, so I'll keep moving forward.  Only one more week to go - 8 scripts by next friday.

About... The Heat - Play 22

The Heat - script

Play 22 done.  I actually wrote it last night, but waited to post it so I could make some tweaks.  It's ok - a little mobster/thug scene.

There are less than 10 plays left now.

About... Red Looking At Iris - Plays 21

Red Looking At Iris - script

Play 21.  Wrote this one a day late - yesterday was a long day...
Dining Room Table.  Listening to U2's "So Cruel".  I may have to try happier music.

To get back on schedule, I wrote this really quickly in the morning.  I'm planning to try to get back to something a little more realistic for #22, but who knows what will come out when I get there.

About... Jokes and Insults - Day 20

Jokes and Insults - script

Day 20.  Can't say that I'm wild about this one - not even the title.  I was trying to write something that included several lines of dialogue given to me by some friends.    Hey, I tried...

On a better note, I'm caught up.  We were informed that as of Sunday, only 41 people had turned in one play for each day - I'm happy to have been one of those 41.

About... One Thing I'm Sure Of - Play 19

One Thing I'm Sure Of - script

Play 19.  Just plugging along.

I really like writing in this style - a three person free-flowing scene.  I also enjoy attempting to stay away from questions of any kind - i find that trying to restate any question as a statement keeps the scenes much more energized.

This time, I'm downstairs on my lounge chair, sort of watching the movie Ronin.  Really has no impact on what I'm writing at all, as far as I can tell.  But I do think I'm going to try to write play number 20 before going to bed.  I missed a play yesterday, and with a busy schedule this next week, I want to get caught up in case I fall behind later.

About... Christmas Card - Day 18

Christmas Card - script

Day 18.  Today's script was following a suggestion from the 31 days 31 plays prompt - no stage directions.

About... The Three Sisters - Play 17

The Three Sisters - script

Play 17:  Not the Chekhov play.

This one came from an online image of a trio of peaks that were called "The Three Sisters."  I think they are in Australia.

I wanted the story to be dangerous, and I wanted to keep the end at least marginally surprising.  It's still a little sketchy, but a fun write for a Saturday afternoon in the dining room, listening to Coldplay's Prospekt's March.

About... All the Way Home - Day 16

All the Way Home - script

Day 16.  Did some recruiting for inspiration.  Invited people to send me images, phrases or songs that might inspire a play.

Got a photo of a young girl, maybe 7, sitting on a bench by a large window, holding a ceramic cup - which looks enormous in her tiny hands.  Chose the jazz tune "Tenderly" played by Chet Baker to go with it.

Back to the late night writing, and the dining room - which has quickly become the most creative room in the house, apparently.  Once upon a time, I had set up a 'writing studio' in a shack in my backyard - which is now full of storage and broken lawn equipment.  I did write there for a while, but that was now years ago.

Wasn't drawing on anything from my own experience for any of this play.  Other than that I always enjoy it when I come home and my kids are excited to see me.  Doesn't happen with the older ones much any more, but I can count on the two-year-old to just about explode with excitement every time I come into the same room with him.  Even if I was just in the next room

About... A Good Time - Day 15

A Good Time - script

Day 15.  Just at the halfway point of this endeavor.  Well, technically, halfway through tomorrow's script is half way, but you get the idea.  but I'm just happy to write something during the day this time, and not at 1am.

Had nothing going into this one - just had the time and sat down and did it.  "If These Are the Things" by Tracy Chapman was a big help.

About... Tout a L'Heure - Day 14

Tout a L'Heure - script

Day 14.  And now, I'm writing French people.

I had someone send me three pictures so I could have some inspiration for this script.  What came were an image of a woman with red hair and an ornately designed pattern on her sleeve; a woman with wings on a trapeze hanging high over a mostly empty room of wooden chairs, with one lone man watching; and an image of two women in a cafe eating a breakfast - French writing on the window next to them displaying the menu, all under the title A Toute Heure.  I looked up the meaning of the title, and it came up with "tout a l'heure" meaning in a general context "in a moment", but literally meaning "all the time" (thank you, internet).  Just trying to combine the images into a single story, and attempting to connect both the general and literal meanings of the phrase.

Today's writing location:  back to the dining room table.
Today's music: Bill Evans Trio

About... Commercial Break - Day 13

Commercial Break - script

Day 13 (the lucky one).  sitting on the sofa this time - mostly while my wife was watching LOST on netflix.  I've never watched the show other than catching moments as she's watching....

Not a lot of inspiration on this one - I'll try to do better.  Of everything in here, I think my favorite part of this one is the title.  Sure, it's a little on-the-nose, but it works for me.  Maybe the title could get a better play...

About... Find and Replace - Day 12

Find and Replace - script

Day 12.  Still writing in my dining room, late at night.  I'd really like to change that - time and place.  Today's song: One Headlight by The Wallflowers.

So I've been playing with this flowing scene form for a while - all characters occupying the stage and just easily flowing in and out of scene.  I've not actually gotten one staged, so I don't quite know yet if they work at all, but writing them is an enjoyable process.  Essentially micro-scenes, they force me to get right into the moment and don't let me linger too long - they demand to keep moving.

No forethought on this one - just started with the song and picked some starter dialogue.  Looking back, maybe the first scene ends up being the most disconnected from everything else going on, but working on that would take revision time that I don't have.

I generally try to avoid writing about writers anymore.  But in this quick-writing process, sometimes the discovery just kind of falls out.  Didn't set out for two of these three to be writers - and maybe in reality only one of them is.  Writing this really felt like scratching the surface of something a lot deeper.  I could have kept writing for hours - things kept occurring to me to add into the play, but it would have taken more time than I have allotted for it.  And, of course, tomorrow is another play.  I can imagine that trying to re-capture this story would be pretty hard, so I won't assume that I could come back to it next month.  Sorry, Khandi, Ed and Paul.  Your story just might have to stop here.