Not exactly breaking NEWS

I spoke to Susan a few days ago. There is another woman in West Virginia who wants to write a musical based entirely on The Gospel Truth, one of Susan's albums. Susan, being the considerate person she is, immediately contacted me to give me a heads up and see if it was okay.

She's offered me advice, suggestions, thoughts... I love it. There were things I was worried about, small concerns really, but it was still a huge relief to hear that everything was fine the way I was doing it.

Mainly, I was concerned that she might be upset if I changed a lyric or two. There aren't many changes I've HAD to make, but there are some. They are all for continuity, none because I simply thought it sounded better. So, when I asked her if that was alright, I was THRILLED when she got back saying "patti do what u want to do with lyric changes and if i can't take it i'll rewrite them with and for you to make the piece work. don't sweat that." You read that right "with and for". AWESOME!

I have never met a more accommodating person. She keeps reminding me, this is my piece - I can do with it what I want. She's honored. That's her word, not mine.

So the work continues.

Thinking small

Act 2 is now completely blocked out. I've added... a LOT! All very little vignettes. This makes me happy. I like vignettes. For one thing, they're short. I don't have to fill page after page after page with dialogue. Additionally, they are sweet. They are tiny morsals of information that are easy to follow and they allow for a better and freer flow for the words. It's amazing how chaacters can grow and say more, faster, when they actually speak and do less.

There are about seventeen vignettes in the Act. I know that seems like a lot, but some of these scenes are a minute long - if that. Some scenes are made up of three or four smaller bits that get strung together by a song. I'm excited.

Oh - Brill!

Not.

I started thinking a few days ago that I wasn't too keen on some of the names I had chosen for the characters in the piece. They weren't bad - but it simply wasn't working as well as I thought it could.

So, I changed some.

And now - as I TRY to write, I keep using the old names. Habits. They die hard.

If I would just suck it up and type up the 6 pages I have scribbled down that might be decent and the three more that are pretty awful... but have potential, I might actually get somewhere.

I need a device. I have to figure out why one of the women is such a judgmental bitch. I know part of it, but I can't figure out the rest of it. It feels forced and trite and I am getting upset.

It is also pretty late - or early. Maybe I'm just tired. I have a HUGE number of days off next week and I plan on using them to my fullest advantage. I want to go somewhere. But where? And with what money? I think that maybe a change of scenery would help me see the through line clearer.

I spoke to Susan a few days ago. She gave me some ideas, suggestions, answers to some questions I'd posed. She also asked if I ever sleep. It made me remember; even if nothing comes of this, even if this little piece of mine never goes beyond a small community theatre somewhere in Fairfield County, CT, that's okay. I'll have written it. I'll have made a contribution.

And then, at least I hope, the NEXT one might be easier to write.

Coming together...

I went back and changed Act 1 a little. It's feeling better to me now.

Act 2 is... well, I'm just not motivated. I'll get there. I have a busy day today but can probably get to the Library before it closes for some writing time. The outline that I have is good. But it wasn't finished when I started writing. Once I did, the outline changed... False starts, three. It makes it hard to keep it all straight.

And it is HOT today! Very.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

I actually KNOW I can. I'm just out of steam. I am physically exhausted lately. I am getting together with Kelly tonight and that should get things moving again.

I have a good start on scenes for Act 2. I started it a few times and reworked as I went. All I need to really do is type up what I have. I'm just. so. tired.

I think I will take a shower and a nap. Maybe I can type the few pages I have up after that.

Whoop it up!

Act 2 is blocked out. I know, this is probably not as thrilling for you as it is for me. I don't really care.

I figured it out... and have started to run out of steam. I think I'm just tired. Whatev- I'm allowed a break. Right?

ok now...

I'm kind of stuck.

I just finished blocking out Act 2. It's only 8 scenes long. Now, granted, it is only an outline and it can grow. There are 7 songs which can easily take up some time. BUT, with a first Act being 13 scenes long, even though some of them are connected without fade outs, and some are really short... I wonder. I suppose that I should just write.

Not bad

Without ANY songs or setups for scenes, Act 1 is 49 pages long. At this point, the songs for Act 1 run about 30 minutes, start to finish, with no edits and no talking over intros... SWEET! Act 1 is JUST over an hour! If one or two songs get widdled down a bit, and another one or two get done a beat or two faster than before, and ALL of them start while the actors are talking (which they always do) that's an EASY ten minutes shaved off right there.

Now, should I finish Act 2 before I ask Susan for sheet music or ask her now as I think she is on a short hiatus?

I should probably wait. I think I'll just keep going. I can finish and give it to her and THEN ask for sheet music - which, she might not even have.

I said when I started this blog, that I really liked this process and was daunted by it. I haven't said that in a while - bit it is still true. I really do love this process. Despite all the hangups, all the weird things... I love it. A lot.

There is still work to be done, I'm only half-done with half of what I need to do. And there is more to do on the side. But the writing is there. Everyone who has read it, likes it. I'm excited about that. They liked it before I edited it. Before I made necessary changes and cleaned it up considerably.

They liked it.

hmmmmm...

Act 2 is basically blocked out. Pretty sweet. Act 1 is in edits. There are two characters that I think need to be more fleshed out. BUT I am on a serious time limit. The Act is 59 pages long as it is right now. I can only add so much stuff...

Um... Kelly?

WAHOO!

After much debating in my head which kept me WIDE awake until 5 am... um, yesterday CRAP! I have finally, I think, I hope, I - dare I say it? pray that I have figured it out.


What was once 81 pages is now 60 pages. Sweet. What did I cut? Things I didn't like. Things I didn't like were necessary or did not plan to resolve in Act 2 and a HUGE chunk of the last scene that, while it was good, felt forced and off somehow. FUNNY - but not quite right.

So maybe I am moving on. Act 2 is calling me. I have a little bit of it written, but it is giving me the same grief that Act 1 did at the beginning.

ok

Now that Act One is finished... I can UN-finish it.

When I left the computer last night, after adding in some things I thought I needed, I realized that the script is already eighty-one pages long. Um... that's a lot.

Usually, you factor about one minute per page for a straight play. Musicals take a little longer because a song, that could easily fit onto one page, can take up to three or four minutes... Hmmm.

Now, it is already cut down to seventy-one pages.

I need to cut a lot more. Dammit.

WHOA!

Act one is DONE! Yes! DONE! As in finished. COMPLETE!

NO WAY!

It had given me trouble... I knew how the last scene ended, but I had no idea how exactly it was supposed to START. That's kinda important. But I managed to start it. And now, I have finished it.

Now, I have just four more hand-written pages to type up - it shouldn't take too long. As I heard the characters talking, I rushed to write it all down. My writing got bigger... and messier. But I can still decipher what I wrote down.

Then it is off to edit and critique.

Kelly, Laura, Tamara - watch your inboxes...

Timeline

I realize that I should probably include a timeline of some sort. It strikes that this is taking a very small amount of time. It is not that I am not thinking it out or working hard... just that the characters have been nice to me thus far and have not kept many secrets from me or hidden in the shadows somewhere... maybe only one or two times.

April 25: Meet Susan Werner, get approval to write play
April 26 - May 1: Begin to block out general idea.
May 2 - 29: Write approximately 1/3 of what is now Act 1.
May 30 - June 2: Take a major (almost too long) break to get my head around Claudia's death.
June 3 - now: complete Act 1 and begin working on Act 2.

If all goes well, I hope to have Act 2 complete by mid to late July and have everything edited and in the second draft stage by early August to give to Susan when she is in MA for another concert. If I can't, she'll be in New Haven in September, so I do have a little bit of time. I do not want to mail it to a gig somewhere. I need to hand it to her. I can't explain why.

13 down, 1 to go

Act One has 13 scenes... WHAT?! 13 scenes and 7 songs (not counting the underscoring pieces and the one that Kate sings only a piece of unaccompanied).

13!!

All that is left is one MAJOR scene... the last of the Act. It is the scene where everything hits the fan. Everybody argues, people cry... epic family drama. It's almost Greek. Maybe. I could just be saying that to make myself sound more intelligent.

As soon as it is done and typed up I will email it to a small group of people for edits and critiques. Then it is on to Act Two which I have already started to write and completed song selection (I think).

Productivity

There is much to be done. Act one now has a first scene. But, after a week of crying and taking too long of a break, I am finding it difficult to get back into the swing on things. This, I am sure, will pass.

The characters are growing - this I like to see. It never ceases to amaze me when people that I create take on lives and minds of their own and say/do things I wouldn't have originally thought they would.

I am sure that this would be a bit easier if I could find my notebook. I was smart enough to type up all of the scenes before I lost it, but it DOES have the outline in it, the one I like, so I really need to find it. I need to find it today.

I think I will go to the Westconn library this afternoon. It is pretty quiet and, now that graduation is over, there will be fewer people. Pretty sweet. I got a lot done in that building when I went to Western CT State, so maybe this will be good.

I have one additional piece of writing and a closer deadline. June 25 is the last day that I can send in my tribute letter for Claudia to AMDA. In addition to my notebook, I have to find my good stationery.

Wish me luck.

Back to it

After some days off, I am getting back to the writing. I have to finish. I am already planning out the NEXT play I want to write. I have no idea really how it will end up...

So, the play continues.

ok now

I am feeling better. I learned, read, and cried a lot since hearing of Claudia's death on Sunday. She'd been fighting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma since last year and was doing well. But, when she started to have physical issues suddenly, they did an MRI and found lesions on the brain. She bravely decided against the 2 month-long treatment that would be horrible to endure, might not work, would only add another 6 months if it worked at all, and could leave her in a vegetative state. She was transferred to hospice care and died peacefully in her wife's arms.

Beautiful.

Claudia would be disappointed if she knew how much time I had wasted, and will keep wasting, crying. She would be angry if she knew that I wasn't writing because I was too busy thinking about her. She would be supportive, tell me that "Change is good" and then ask me "What are you going to do about this?"

I am going to write.
I am going to finish.
I am going to dedicate this to Claudia. She'd think that's silly. She would tell me to leave her out of it.

And I would ignore that direction.