Anyone for a footrace? Want to give yourself a deadline? Comment here if you're interested, I'd be happy to encourage you to give yourself a time limit. It works for me, maybe we can help each other get things done. Just gentle reminders, no trash talk.
Any takers?
Friday, May 8, 2009
A Gratuitous Blog Entry
"Gratuitous" means "unnecessary, without cause, unwarranted," and there are many ways to achieve gratuitousness. Any aspect of a piece of writing is gratuitous if it doesn't do the work it should.
I recently wrote a draft of a play with situations and language that those who heard a reading of it judged gratuitous, and their reasons were sound. I had not convinced them of the point, use, function of those situations and my use of language in the service of the work. Among other insights I gained from the experience was an idea that, while it likely isn't original, has novelty and may help me in my continuing development of the play.
I have decided to write a synopsis of the play to clarify the story I am attempting to tell. Writing a synopsis should help a great deal in sloughing off any gratuitous elements. I intend then to build out from the synopsis and basically re-write the play.
Reduced to even simpler terms, I suppose I will be outlining the play's plot.
Let me know if you've had any comparable experience in your own work.
I recently wrote a draft of a play with situations and language that those who heard a reading of it judged gratuitous, and their reasons were sound. I had not convinced them of the point, use, function of those situations and my use of language in the service of the work. Among other insights I gained from the experience was an idea that, while it likely isn't original, has novelty and may help me in my continuing development of the play.
I have decided to write a synopsis of the play to clarify the story I am attempting to tell. Writing a synopsis should help a great deal in sloughing off any gratuitous elements. I intend then to build out from the synopsis and basically re-write the play.
Reduced to even simpler terms, I suppose I will be outlining the play's plot.
Let me know if you've had any comparable experience in your own work.
Labels:
gratuitousness,
language,
outline,
play reading,
playwriting
Value of Deadlines
I recently had a reading of a play I've been writing for more than a decade in front of a dozen or more playwrights (led by Sarah Gubbins, FAIR USE and many other plays). The opportunity presented itself at Chicago Dramatists, with which I'm pleased to be associated as a Network Playwright.
I got very useful feedback, but the main take-away was the power of the deadline. I had learned less than a week before the reading that I'd get this opportunity and had to distill hundreds of pages of notes and a couple hundred more pages of dialogue and stage directions into a comprehensible first-draft, bona fide script.
Never underestimate the power of a deadline. For better or worse.
I got very useful feedback, but the main take-away was the power of the deadline. I had learned less than a week before the reading that I'd get this opportunity and had to distill hundreds of pages of notes and a couple hundred more pages of dialogue and stage directions into a comprehensible first-draft, bona fide script.
Never underestimate the power of a deadline. For better or worse.
Labels:
deadlines,
management,
time,
turnaround,
writing
Blogging Hiatus
Please read today's post on my Meta blog, which explains my recent absence from these pages.
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