Tonight I'm going to try and finish my epic play New Light Shine. I have three scenes left and the house to myself. It's going to be go, go, go and hopefully at some time before I collapse into bed, I am going to get to write THE END!
Which as we all know are the two greatest words in the world.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Deprivation
Number 24 on the great and masterful list is Lose a Dress Size.
For the last week, I have been dutifully attending to this. How? I hear you ask. Well, it's very simple. No bread. Not one bit. And no cheese. And no chocolate. And an absolute shirtload of vegetables. And by shirtload people, I mean SHIRTLOAD.
Only time will tell if all this is in vain.
For the last week, I have been dutifully attending to this. How? I hear you ask. Well, it's very simple. No bread. Not one bit. And no cheese. And no chocolate. And an absolute shirtload of vegetables. And by shirtload people, I mean SHIRTLOAD.
Only time will tell if all this is in vain.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Word of the Week
Word of the week this week is ... (drumroll please) ... (okay, well just do the drumroll sound in your head) ... (Fine. Forget it)
Milquetoast
noun (sometimes initial capital letter)
a very timid, unassertive, spineless person, esp. one who is easily dominated or intimidated: a milquetoast who's afraid to ask for a raise.
Milquetoast
noun (sometimes initial capital letter)
a very timid, unassertive, spineless person, esp. one who is easily dominated or intimidated: a milquetoast who's afraid to ask for a raise.
Weekly Update
For last week, and I know, I'm a little slack on the posting but you know, no judgement and all that. Well, judge if you feel like it. It's entirely up to you. If you want to be that person then you've got your own issues to figure out and perhaps you should start your own blog about it all. But anyway, back to me.
Last week saw a magnificent event take place, otherwise known as THE WRITING OF THE PLAY. Which I will come back to.
Because you see, I dawdled through most of the week or at least that's how it looked even though I was doing things, I was planning and rearranging and working on stuff. I was trying to live my life better which, after all, is the purpose of all of this. For example:
36. Eat vegetables at least 3 times a week.
I don't thinkI've mentioned this one yet and while it sounds a bit naff because I am a grown woman and I really should know this by now, it is so easy to eat potatoes and fool myself into thinking that I have my vegetable intake sorted. Well, no more. Let the green and red and other colours of vegetables run free through my body. And they have, and they will continue to do so. Not only am I eating them three times a week, I'm eating them at least twice a day. I know. VICTORY!
64. Use my lunch hours for something other than wandering around aimlessly.
This has been easier than I thought. Mainly because I'm only taking half an hour for lunch instead of an hour. I'm using this half hour daily to eat my vegetables and catch up on some reading.
98. Stop biting my nails.
This seems to go in a cycle. One week I won't even look at my nails, the next I can't keep my teeth away from them. And I don't think it has anything to do with nervousness or stress. I think it's just a habit.
And now to the writing:
11. Finish a full-length play.
There are three on of these on the list and there could be 12 more but again, a girl has to sleep. The play I'm trying to finish now is called New Ligh Shine and I think this is about draft seven. Well, it could be more than that and it could be less than that because I don't think I've ever finished a draft of this little play that became a monster play and is now back to being a little play. But this one is definitely going to be finished. In fact, I'm close to finishing. Like, really close. Like, three scenes to go which is way further along than I was last Friday afternoon when I had 3 scenes and 20-something pages. Now I have 75 pages and three scenes left. Yes, The Sandy Method does work and life is very, very good. I can see myself retiring in the Bahamas as I speak.
That was the main writing task of the week but I also managed to do another draft of a short play which will need one more read-through and edit and then I can cross that off the list, and I started thinking about my Mastodon play and I think i have the story for it.
I also rewrote the ending of a one-act play which had been annoying me for about a month and now looks and sounds much better.
I also had a great idea for a new play that I can't work on yet but hopefully will soon because it is ace and I can't believe I was the one to come up with it.
And that was pretty much my week. I also scrubbed my kitchen floor which I know doesn't sound like much but trust me that thing was gross and now it is pretty and I feel good walking on it unlike before when I had to think of pretty things so I didn't have to think what I was walking on.
Last week saw a magnificent event take place, otherwise known as THE WRITING OF THE PLAY. Which I will come back to.
Because you see, I dawdled through most of the week or at least that's how it looked even though I was doing things, I was planning and rearranging and working on stuff. I was trying to live my life better which, after all, is the purpose of all of this. For example:
36. Eat vegetables at least 3 times a week.
I don't thinkI've mentioned this one yet and while it sounds a bit naff because I am a grown woman and I really should know this by now, it is so easy to eat potatoes and fool myself into thinking that I have my vegetable intake sorted. Well, no more. Let the green and red and other colours of vegetables run free through my body. And they have, and they will continue to do so. Not only am I eating them three times a week, I'm eating them at least twice a day. I know. VICTORY!
64. Use my lunch hours for something other than wandering around aimlessly.
This has been easier than I thought. Mainly because I'm only taking half an hour for lunch instead of an hour. I'm using this half hour daily to eat my vegetables and catch up on some reading.
98. Stop biting my nails.
This seems to go in a cycle. One week I won't even look at my nails, the next I can't keep my teeth away from them. And I don't think it has anything to do with nervousness or stress. I think it's just a habit.
And now to the writing:
11. Finish a full-length play.
There are three on of these on the list and there could be 12 more but again, a girl has to sleep. The play I'm trying to finish now is called New Ligh Shine and I think this is about draft seven. Well, it could be more than that and it could be less than that because I don't think I've ever finished a draft of this little play that became a monster play and is now back to being a little play. But this one is definitely going to be finished. In fact, I'm close to finishing. Like, really close. Like, three scenes to go which is way further along than I was last Friday afternoon when I had 3 scenes and 20-something pages. Now I have 75 pages and three scenes left. Yes, The Sandy Method does work and life is very, very good. I can see myself retiring in the Bahamas as I speak.
That was the main writing task of the week but I also managed to do another draft of a short play which will need one more read-through and edit and then I can cross that off the list, and I started thinking about my Mastodon play and I think i have the story for it.
I also rewrote the ending of a one-act play which had been annoying me for about a month and now looks and sounds much better.
I also had a great idea for a new play that I can't work on yet but hopefully will soon because it is ace and I can't believe I was the one to come up with it.
And that was pretty much my week. I also scrubbed my kitchen floor which I know doesn't sound like much but trust me that thing was gross and now it is pretty and I feel good walking on it unlike before when I had to think of pretty things so I didn't have to think what I was walking on.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
How to Skin a Cat
Perhaps I have chanced upon what it needed to stop my obsession with the internet when I am at work. Small tasks. Because I'm perfectly fine when I have actual work to do but when I don't I'm googling random people I knew in primary school and obsessing over the careers of other playwrights. NO MORE! Small tasks, which is what I did today. And while I had a lot of actual work to do, I also got a few things crossed off my to-do list. VICTORY!
Voices
Last night, as we battled through the third night of a semi-heat wave (which means that it is hot but you really shouldn't complain about it, because it is not THAT hot) I started to put my ideas on paper regarding Number 85 - Write a Radio Play.
There is a monster competition for Radio Plays that the BBC runs every year which I always mean to have something ready for but of course, never do. This year will be different.
I have a play that I wrote as a short piece when I was at NIDA that was always not quite right for a short piece. And then I turned it into a long one act and that didn't really seem right for it also. So, third time being a charm and all that, I'm going to see if it might work as a radio play. And I think it will. It's about two people that meet once a week to play out a series of fantasies. It's a little bit sexual but mainly it is games that boost the psyche, make the ordinary a little more liveable.
So last night I started to inch it out and see what I have. I got to the point where I was out of ideas but really excited about it and these characters, Tommy and Belle, who have lived inside my head for about 5 years now, are still talking, still moving about, still want to tell their story. I guess it would seem mean if I didn't let them.
There is a monster competition for Radio Plays that the BBC runs every year which I always mean to have something ready for but of course, never do. This year will be different.
I have a play that I wrote as a short piece when I was at NIDA that was always not quite right for a short piece. And then I turned it into a long one act and that didn't really seem right for it also. So, third time being a charm and all that, I'm going to see if it might work as a radio play. And I think it will. It's about two people that meet once a week to play out a series of fantasies. It's a little bit sexual but mainly it is games that boost the psyche, make the ordinary a little more liveable.
So last night I started to inch it out and see what I have. I got to the point where I was out of ideas but really excited about it and these characters, Tommy and Belle, who have lived inside my head for about 5 years now, are still talking, still moving about, still want to tell their story. I guess it would seem mean if I didn't let them.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Progress on The Sandy Method
Well, contrary to my wonderful and hardly thought out plan, the play didn't get written in one weekend. 30 pages of it did get written, and now has been edited back to 20 pages.
So while the Sandy Method hasn't been the roaring success that it promisd itself to be, it wasn't exactly a complete failure either.
What did I find out by applying the Sandy Method?
That it is extremely possible to write a 1,000 words an hour, it's finding the hours that are free of distractions.
It terrifies me how easily I succumb to distraction. The slightest thing - a bird, a TV in the background, THE INTERNET, can completely rip me away from the task at hand.
What is worse is that I don't know how to get better at it. I'm sure there are like brain training exercises that improve concentration. Are there? Is this an actual thing, or am I just being lazy?
Stay tuned for answers to these things and much, much more.
So while the Sandy Method hasn't been the roaring success that it promisd itself to be, it wasn't exactly a complete failure either.
What did I find out by applying the Sandy Method?
That it is extremely possible to write a 1,000 words an hour, it's finding the hours that are free of distractions.
It terrifies me how easily I succumb to distraction. The slightest thing - a bird, a TV in the background, THE INTERNET, can completely rip me away from the task at hand.
What is worse is that I don't know how to get better at it. I'm sure there are like brain training exercises that improve concentration. Are there? Is this an actual thing, or am I just being lazy?
Stay tuned for answers to these things and much, much more.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Word of the Week
Haven't done Word of the Week for a while but I think the wait has been worth it because I have a killer this week.
Mastodon
A large extinct mammal of the genus Mammut, resembling the elephant but having nipple-shaped tubercles on the crowns of the molar teeth.
Why am I bringing you a Mastodon this week? Well, I'm thinking of writing a play about one. Or more than one. Why am I thinking of doing that? Well, there is a company in New Jersey that are looking for plays about Mastodons. No. I am not kidding.
New list item
I'm adding another thing to the list, because as the saying goes, when a horse is down that's the time to beat it. That's not how the saying goes? Mmm … interesting.
Anyway, meet
117. Write a short children's play.
I've added this because there's an opportunity coming up for a short children's play and there are not many opportunities for a newbie children's writer to get their foot in the door, and trust me when you are through that door, there are 72 virgins waiting for you. No. I'm pretty sure that's correct.
So, if I'm going to write it, and write it I am, then it is going on the list.
Number 96
Number 96 was to do something wonderful and indulgent for my birthday. My birthday came around last Tuesday and while I didn't exactly paint the town red I did have a wonderful time. The boyfriend and I went to a very fancy restaurant and went wild. We drank, we ate, we had so much fun.
So
Number 96, you are officially crossed off the list.
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