Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Buy my plays

Just because I know you sit there in your little houses wondering how you can support me and my wonderful writing, tearing yourself up inside because you believe that you haven't sufficiently shown me how much you love me, you can go here and here and buy them. You can just read them or if you are especially wonderful you can hire a hall and put them on. I cater for all needs.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Weekend

I took a break from the massive play over the weekend which probably wasn't the best idea I've ever had but that didn't seem to stop me. I did get a couple of short plays finished and off to various festivals and whatnot so the weekend wasn't a complete bust. Also started an outline for a new one act that looks really good at the moment but I'm guessing that feeling won't last very long.

I also wasted a lot of time thinking about things that I can do nothing about which made for a wonderful if not productive Saturday afternoon.

But it's back to the monster today and for the rest of the week until someone gives me some gainful employment, which it looks like I'm going to have to go out and find at this point. I hate when that happens.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Story

Well, Mr McKee and his 30 hours of story was quite the experience. It was good. I wasn't expecting it to be so helpful especially with writing plays but I have been getting down to it since I finished and it is changing the very way I write. Which makes me sound like I was brainwashed or something and maybe I was but I've been working on New Light Shine for the last two days and while I thought I had an outline and I knew what I was doing … turns out I had a half a scrap of an idea and three characters that were sort of worked out.

Well … all that has now changed. It feels like I'm doing less work each day but it's a gathering process and the whole foundations of the play have now changed and are now cementing themselves into place.

I hate to say it … but I am a convert. Mr MrKee, Sir, I worship at your altar.

I know … I make myself sick too.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Next

Off to the fabled Robert McKee seminar for the next three days. I have a new notebook and 4 new pens. I'm ready to be touched by greatness.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Update

I managed to get two short plays rewritten on Sunday afternoon which was … not exactly the hub of activity I assumed I was going to create. And I'm still tweaking them. Anyway, 2 better than 0.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Cleaning up the vomit

This afternoon, in an attempt (HA!) to get my life (HA!) and my work (HA! HA! HA!) under some sort of control, Shannon Murdoch Inc will be closed for all business that does not pertain to plays that are of the smallish nature.

This, loyal readers, is an on-going issue. I have so many drafts of short plays in various degrees of doneness that it looks like a forest vomited on my desk. It's disgusting. I should be ashamed of myself. Half of myself is laughing at the other half. Something needs to be done and NOW!

I hope to come back to you with better news.

Stay tuned.

After the first draft

I'm not alone in thinking that the worst part of writing, the absolute gut-wrenching, want to die, want to go enrol in law school and forget this whole seedy business is when you have to face the first draft and figure out what the hell you were doing and more importantly, what the hell you are going to do now.

I've been in this for the last few days on New Light Shine. What I thought was a pretty solid first draft turned out to be well, a first draft. The surface of things, a rambling story with a hint of all the things that should exist under the surface but instead just hang like loose threads.

It's overwhelming. I never know where to begin. The instinct is to get my pen out and start rewriting dialogue. This never helps. Let me repeat that. This never helps. Talk about bandaids on gun shot wounds. Draft Two is all about outlines. Detailed documents where everything the play needs to function is worked out before anyone does any talking.

This is where I am with New Light Shine. It's always horrible for the first day or so but after that it starts to become more enjoyable, dare I say fun? Maybe not quite that far. Draft two is the detail stage. Tiny little things, twitches of character and plot, are marked down and bit by bit they start to grow and connect, forming something works as a whole.

Draft Two is not mad writing, seeing where things will go, not caring about what is on the page as long as there is something on the page. Draft Two inches along, tiny step by tiny step, getting bigger and more solid with each detail. It's about creating a detailed world, where your characters are comfortable telling their story and interacting with each other and going on the journey they must go on.

Making connections. That's what I'm trying to say. Draft two is all about making connections.

 

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Note

So it turns out there were three female playwrights in the plays I saw on Sunday night (Sorry Hoa) which made me feel better about the whole all female all the time theatre going thing. Unfortunately, three of them were completely rubbish. Fortunately it wasn't all the female playwrights. Only two of them. I won't mention who they were. That's not nice.

But here's a note to playwrights: Stop bashing me over the head with how bad the world is. I know. I live in it. Give me some hope, just a little, for the love of God. End of note.

Reading

Reading this which I've been meaning to for years. So far it's not quite as good as I was hoping it was going to be which is always the way with books that have got lashings of praise from all corners of the globe. Gee, wouldn't that be nice? But still I keep turning the page so there is definitely a lot of fairly good going on in this book.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Update

Still waiting for the last scene of the first draft of Cut for Stone to give itself up. Part of me is telling myself that the reason that the scene won't come is that there are all the problems in the rest of the play. The other half is telling me that that is a cop out. Just write the damn scene. It's a very uninteresting battle in my head to see who wins out first.

In happier news, I've finally started a "youth" play that I actually like and I think is actually quite good. Well, good in a first draft sense.

I'm going to see this tonight. My bid to see only women playwrights is kind of screwed with this one but there are two female playwrights. I'm also seeing this next week. Does that even up the score? Maybe I have to rethink this whole thing because I really want to go see the Will Eno play that's on at La Mama. If I see all the female playwrights, all of them, then maybe I get to see what I want after that. Except for Joanna Murray-Smith. She really doesn't need me flying the female flag for her. She seems to be doing alright and really, her plays shit me to tears. You heard it here first.

I'm also reading this, which I found in a remainder bin and pretty much like the cover so bought it for five bucks. Then I find out it is shortlisted for the Orange Prize and proves yet again that people are dumb and don't know good when they see it. It's the fictionalised story of Nikola Tesla who invented the radio and AC electricity and got screwed out of his invention by Edison and Westinghouse and died penniless in a hotel in New York. Don't let that put you off. Because it's also about pigeons. It's a great read. Find it in a remainder bin near you.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Almost there

Have almost finished the first draft of Cut for Stone. I have one scene left to write and I can't think of a thing to say. I know who is in the scene, I know where it takes place, I just don't have a clue what they are going to say. It's almost there but not quite close enough to grab hold of and devour.

It could be the fact that my brain is mush at the moment. I've been writing for about 7 hours non-stop and the grey matter is begging for a nap.

I think some dancing around the house might be in order. Sitting in a chair for hours on end makes me remember that I have rheumatoid arthritis. Time to get the joints working.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Hating myself

In an effort to destroy any last thread of self-confidence I may have been clutching with both hands, I made a list of things that I haven't done last night. This included:

  1. Get a day job I actually enjoy;
  2. Have a child; and
  3. Save money.

Wow. I have issues.

On the upside I have finished a short play, a one-act play and the first two scenes of Act Two of Cut for Stone in the last three days. Not exactly a child, but not exactly a complete failure.