Day One

It’s November 1st.

Day one of the National Playwriting Month.

I have begun my play.

The title?

A VERY AMERICAN DINNER.

Right now it’s a secret project so I won’t reveal too much. Obviously it’s about America and Family. I know, these are big targets.

My aim for this first draft really is to get a blueprint for when I direct it somewhere a year or two from now. This is an experiment in trusting my instincts and my experience, so I am not going to obsess over character, plot and structure right now. That will be for the revisions. I know that I'll rewrite a lot in rehearsal as a director.

I’ll chart my progress in this blog as much as I can.

It’s going to be a busy month.

Hey, that's a really good idea!

As a writer, I’m often approached by non-writers who tell me they have a really good story. I usually patiently nod and agree, yes, that would be a good idea. I then encourage them to get to work and start writing.

Okay, they don’t say those words exactly, they say they have a really good idea. But usually, they barely even have that. For instance, some sample dialogue:

“So you’re a writer, huh? You know what you should write about? India. Yeah, I went to India and it’s really crowded. And lots of culture. And with that movie that came out, it’s really hot right now.”

Or…

“I have a great idea for a movie—write about a guy in an office. People can relate to guys in offices.”

The problem with both of these ideas is that…well, they’re not really…good ideas.

But that’s okay.

As writers, we should write down any and all ideas and see what it blossoms into. I have a little black notebook and any time I think of something that might be interesting I write it down. It might be related to an idea for a play already, like adding a line, an activity, a song or another scene between characters. Sometimes it will be a title. I have lots of titles with no actual stories right now. I have a title in my book called “Reunion” and another called “Kitchen Sink”. I have no idea why I wrote them down, and frankly they’re not really good titles. At this point, I don’t care. Because I will also write something down that will turn into a good idea.

The trickiest part of writing a full-length play or a screenplay is recognizing the idea that lends itself to a full-length treatment. There are many plays that can only sustain about ten to fifteen minutes. They have one joke, one premise, only a few characters. The main dramatic question, will so-and-so get what he wants—is going to be answered rather quickly. If Hamlet only wanted to talk to the ghost of his dead father and the ghost only said, “hey, just wanted to say goodbye”, then it would be a short play. But no, the ghost says to Hamlet, “avenge my murder”. Well, for a Prince in Denmark, that is a bit tricky and will take some time. Hence, a good idea for a full-length.

Sometimes you think you have enough going on in your play to justify a full-length and then realize as you get half way there that you really don’t need all that time and space. I’ve been in a few situations like that and I’m usually smart enough to say, “Phew! Thanks for letting me know so now I can rewrite you and make you the best short play ever instead of a painfully long full-length."

A lot of playwrights don’t always do that. They set out to write a full-length and that’s what they’re going to get, damn the torpedoes! And the audience ends up watching plays that really should’ve been only forty-five minutes because that’s about the amount of conflict and complexity the author had put into it. If you ever see an audience looking at their watch or yawning and later talking about how there was only a few good scenes, that might be one reason why.

A play should never be padded with irrelevant scenes but should barrel down a track like a runaway train. Nothing should be extraneous. Always think "less is more".

Of course, this is the arduous task before us. And why so few write truly great plays.

But we will not be daunted!

So let’s get back to our idea…let’s say I write about a guy in an office. Well, we know this isn’t original and has been done well by many other people.

What if the guy is a zombie? Okay, that’s an interesting twist, but so what? That’s still only a sketch that will last five minutes on Saturday Night Live. How can we fill two hours of someone’s life watching a zombie in an office?

Let’s think of conflict…the zombie wants…love, of course. In this cold corporate world, who doesn’t want love? He’s in love with a co-worker who is of course, not a zombie, so he vows to win her love. Now this gets us closer to our goal as many plays and movies can be sustained with a simple “boy gets girl” story. We just need to throw some other complexities into the mix to get the ball rolling…

For instance, we need some obstacles other than that she doesn’t want to date zombies…like how about a successful non-zombie fiancée that she’s engaged to or what if she’s the boss’s daughter and the boss hates the zombie, ever determined to fire that zombie. What if the zombie is under some curse thereby if he doesn’t win the heart of his true love by midnight on Halloween, he’s going to turn to dust and die. What if his best friend is a werewolf or a vampire with a whole other subplot about how its hard to meet anybody in the city these days who aren't bigoted against his kind?

Suddenly, we’re turning an idea that was an SNL sketch into a romantic story about class and corporate culture. Now, we’re cooking. Granted, this is not the best example and feels more like “spit-balling” but now we actually have a story idea that might sustain us for the length of roughly two hours.

And zombies are hot right now, right?

Okay, it’s not Hamlet, but it would be hard to tell this story in a short play (though actually it probably could be done just as Hamlet could be told in 15 minutes, although it’s a lot funnier when its sped up that much).

So why all this big long post on having an idea that might sustain a play?

Tomorrow is November 1st and you know what that means. Time to start the National Playwriting Month! Or NaPlWriMo for all of you cool kids.
I have my idea for a play. I know what its going to be about. I have my characters and I’m pretty sure about the conflict. Now I just have to see if it will hold up for the amount of time I think it will.

And no, it doesn’t have any zombies in it…

Not yet, anyway.

So what's your big idea?

Beginnings

I feel like I’ve had a long, long summer of not writing and frankly, it’s been a good break. Unlike some writers I know, I never feel guilty about not writing. I think of writing as more than just sitting at your keyboard typing away. Writing is living and witnessing and getting perspective. Writing requires rest and recharging the batteries.

Also, last year was a busy year and I was extremely pleased with the outcome of 7 Minutes to Midnight. Part of me just wanted to rest on that success for awhile.

Now the time has come to get back to another project. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the sunshine has disappeared and the rain is back. This time the project will be a play, not a screenplay. It will be funny and tragic. It may have music but I’m not sure. I have a title, but I don’t feel like sharing it right now. It has six characters and I think the journey of this process may take me into some dark territory as well as surprise me.

Isn’t that what we want with our adventures? A little bit of terror and surprise? Thrill us but make us happy, too? In that way, a good story should be like a roller coaster.

Unlike the screenplays I’ve been writing, I’ve decided to just go free-form on this first draft. No outline. No real idea where I’m heading. I used to write this way when I was first writing plays and I don't recommend it as it usually gets me into trouble. But I do know that I am more likely to surprise myself if I don't pre-plan this particular story. I can always go back and shape it by outlining it. First I want to see what might be lurking there in the back of my head. I need to just get some ideas down and see if there really is a play there.

Some writers call this type of draft their "vomit draft". You literally just type whatever you want, an effort to get everything down on paper as quickly as possible. Hopefully you are so fast that the internal editor can’t catch you, slow you down, make you stop and think about what you’re writing about. Buried amidst a ton of crappy writing will be a jewel of a phrase. Or two. And those jewels will guide you to more treasure. Little by little, the work grows.

Getting things down quickly creates pressure—it taps into that desire and passion of being a storyteller—I need to get my story out NOW! The world must know before it’s too late…Sometimes you just need to push yourself.

Which is to say that next month, November, is National Playwriting Month.

NaPlWriMo is a little like the New York City Marathon, only without all the running and the sweating.

Actually, there’s still sweating. And some blood will flow. Maybe some tears, too.

But no running.

Seven Words

You may have noticed an absence of posts lately.

I blame the sunshine.

No, really.

Seattle has had a record-breaking heat wave this year and I’ve seen the sun so often that I can actually recognize it right away instead of taking the first five seconds to pause, shake my head and say, “wait, aren’t you…?”

It’s encouraged me to stay outside and away from the computer, thus giving a welcome respite to recharge the batteries.

But I have also been self-reflective lately.

Earlier this year a friend of mine who I worked with ended her long battle with cancer. Her absence in the office has been felt deeply and daily, ever since her choice to resign to fight the illness head-on. She was not without her courage and hope. I kept clinging to the idea of her return to the office and when she died, there were many feelings of anger and sadness as well as grief.

Her office is still empty and every time I pass by, I remember the many times I would take refuge in there, some times just to chat and other times to help “clean up” her office. This "clean up" mostly consisted of chatting about books, political affairs, and telling humorous stories. Oh yes, occasionally she would pull out a file from six years ago and ask me if she should throw it out (I always said yes but she would hold on to it, “just in case”), but more often than not she always gave advice, sometimes short and direct, but always wise.

Only recently did I realize how inspiring the last words she gave to me were.

She didn’t actually say them out loud. See, she gave me some pencils.

It was the day we were cleaning out her desk at work and I picked up a clear plastic tube containing some plain wooden #2 pencils. There were some words stenciled on them in different colors but I didn’t pay much attention to them, really.

Casually, she said, “You want ‘em?”.

I didn’t need wooden pencils. I actually use the mechanical kind (unless I’m sketching which I haven’t done since college). So I’m not really sure why I said “yes”. Something just said, take them.

About a week or so after her memorial, I took a closer look at the pencils on my desk. Each word is a different color. Each word is a different instruction. Sometimes I take the pencils out of the little plastic tube and hold them in my hands, like a talisman.

They remind me of her, but also remind me how to live.

Seven words which illuminate the simplicity of life.

CELEBRATE

CREATE

DREAM

LAUGH

RELAX

REMEMBER

SMILE

Evidently Plays Just Write Themselves

I just heard about this via Mead Hunter--the Drammy awards are Portland theater awards and evidently everyone deserves recognition...except the playwright.

Again.

To read about how 30 playwrights responded with a very polite "up yours!" letter, go here.

Why does this get me so pissed off?

Because I've heard directors and artistic directors bemoan how there's no good playwriting or no good new works but on the same token allow for no support for playwrights and create no incentives for good playwriting. It's really a small thing to give recognition for writing a good play in the same way that an actor gets recognition for a performance. So just do it. Give props where its due.

It's like giving Xmas gifts to all your kids except one. Why would you do that?

We don't deserve to be forgotten. If the person running the box office gets a Drammy award (I mean, I've done both box office and playwriting and I'm gonna tell you right now playwriting is MUCH harder and the hours are much worse...), then so should playwrights.

Of course, if you really like rehashing revivals of musicals and seeing bad Shakespeare, then by all means, never mind.

But by the way, even Shakespeare was a new playwright at one time (and not always revered).

A Special Song for a Special Day

This is Fresh Feeling by EELS, the first song my wife and I heard as we entered our reception as man and wife.

And yes, I still got that fresh feeling.

EELS rocks new album

Hey kids, it's music day!

And you thought I only listened to Bob Dylan or Robert Johnson.

I think I totally want to get the new album "Hombre Lobo".

It's sweet!