Finding a Purpose
The last three months have been some of the most productive of my life in terms of writing, so I thought I'd try for maybe the fifth time to get myself blogging on a regular basis. This time, I'll try writing about writing. Maybe make some sense of my own process in the process. I'm liking these sentences that use the same word twice in one sentence… wink, wink.
I think part of the growth, perhaps even a large part, comes from participating in NaNoWriMo. There's something about writing all the time, that not only spurs more writing, but also more creativity. There's gotta be more than just the habit of writing that does this--opening the right doors in the creative mind, keeping the juices flowing, but who knows?
Aside from the 275 formatted pages of Flotsam, I wrote upwards of 60 pages for the stage, completing five one-acts and two monologues. Even ignoring my work for NaNoWriMo, this numbers among the very most productive times of my life.
The new year also being both a traditional and an effective time to revisit goals, I took a look at my writing goal for last year (set and mid-February), and crafted a new one for this year.
Here was my idea for last year: 50 new plays completed. Right. Like that was going to happen.
The work I did complete?
(1) A Spy by Any Other Name, (2) The Experiment or Let Them Eat Cake, (3) Reflections in Vinyl, (4) Name Withheld until February 17, (5) The One-Hundred Years War: The Musical (with Michael Ciaraldi), (6) Name Withheld until February 17, (8) Merry and Bright, (9) Name withheld until February 17, (10) Flotsam, a Novel.
This year, I'd like to make some goals I'll actually meet.
(1) Participate in both NaNoWriMo and ScriptFrenzy this year; (2) Revise and submit Flotsam; (3) Complete 4 Christmas or Holiday themed plays; (4) Write 12 new one-act plays; (5) Write one non-ScriptFrenzy full length play; (6) Finish the one-acts codenamed: Toilet, Cotton Candy, Letters, Water Rising, Chess; (7) Submit play(s) to the Samuel French OOB Festival, Humana and 10 other Theatre Festivals around the country.
Ambitious? Yes. But doable? I hope so. And I've already made good progress--finishing some of the plays I had started and clearing some of my pipeline a little. At the end of January, I find that I've completed two plays I'd left to rot in my less than complete play folder, and created in its entirety a third, as well as finish 2 of the five planned one-act completions. Go me!
Here's to February, to keeping this going, and doing more to meet my goals and move beyond.
Keep Writing.
Tofer