The Play's the Thing

I’ve had some excellent successes since I last made an entry here, though they are on the periphery of my freelance writing career. Writing is writing, I’m proud of my work. (I’m also working freelance as a Marketing Consultant these days, and Marketing is writing, too. Isn’t it?)



My one-man show, STUPENDOUS, COLOSSAL FAILURE! premiered at Chicago Dramatists on Saturday, April 11th. It was well received and I want to do a full-length version sometime, and have a venue in mind.




More recently, a short play of mine, THE WORST THING, also premiered at Chicago Dramatists (as a staged reading), and was directed by Kathy Scambiatterra, Artistic Director of The Artistic Home, a wonderful coup for me.

What’s next?

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.

Time Management

You've probably seen as many clever time management schemes as I have. I don't think there exists a time management scheme or formula that's 100% reliable. Whether they work or not depends at least in part on personal temperament.

What works best for me is just doing what's in front of me. Is it a truism that time well-spent on a sound plan saves hours and days of revisions and fixes later on? When I plan too much time flies by. I say focus on what's in front of you, and let your intuition tell you what's next.

Ready?

Time was you'd get your degree and you were ready. Today, of course, education is ongoing and unending. I'm not sure the world is really moving faster, I am sure a lot more is expected of us each day. Whether the quality of our output has improved or not, we succeed first and foremost because we showed up—paraphrasing Woody Allen, unless someone else with the same idea showed up before he did.

I find it useful to wake up each day with selective amnesia. I remember only what I need to know to keep trying. I hope you keep trying too.

I am trying to get some leads on some good writing assignments. When I find them, I'll post them here, assuming they can be shared.

Write when you find work.