The Bare Minimum

I feel like I should write a blog post Monday - Thursday because I said I would. This is the bare minimum of that commitment.

I did  mostly boring things today. Well - I made lots of scene notecards and patted myself on the back for having a good 'breaking point/fulcrum' at the end of the middle movement. (The defining moment that changes everything for each character - which all the action has been building toward and spurs the action of the final movement.) It's probably the only part of the novel that is tailor-made for a play. (Orange - First Movement, Blue - Second, Yellow - Third.)

But then I read Tony Kushner's  Angels in America for a little while and its brilliance made me embarrassed to write anything. But I'll keep going tomorrow. :)

Today's song was Der Kommissar by After the Fire.

Rainy Day and Mondays

I took off Friday-Sunday. I’m not going to do that again. It put me in a cranky mood has taken me the whole day to get back into the swing of things.  That coupled with just letting things get to me that shouldn't. Too many annoying people this weekend. 

Remember kids, words never let you down or hurt your feelings. (Yeah, there's nothing unhealthy about that.) :)

Tried going to the gym, which got me a little pepped up.

So – A quiet day. I’m outlining the “first movement”. I’m not calling it an “act” for now… But basically it kind of is. Breaking out the notecards and pushpins.

I start the first draft of this movement next week, so I was hoping to get a precise outline of the structure. However – since I did some rearranging last week, I’m a little worried that I’m getting too tied up in the final “performance” outcome and not letting myself explore the scenes. 

Translation -  I’m telling them which scenes should be in the play instead of writing and letting THEM tell me.

Which highlights one of the oldest “writer problems” in the book. How much structure prep vs. how much first draft inspiration? The saving grace with an adaptation is that at least there is a structure in place - when you don’t have that, it’s really hell-ish.

I’ve spent the last two weeks mapping possible outlines – but until I put them to the test and begin to form these scenes, I’m not sure which path the play will follow. Will it be Cain’s story? Lola’s? Miss B’s? None of the above? All of the above?

This week, I’m setting no specific goals (other than the work schedule, gym, abstaining from Ding Dongs, etc., which are now implied weekly goals) and let things take me where they will. First draft starts next Monday.

And for relief of crankiness – Donna Summer always helps. There Goes My Baby. 

Reflection on Week Two  Goals:

Flesh out two outlines – Check. (Though may have done more harm than good.)

4 Blog Posts- Check. Enjoyed every one of them.

Screenwriting – Part One (bahahahaha) Ridiculous goal. I barely made it through Chapter 2, much less Part One. Silly rabbit…

Office Schedule – Check.

Read 2 plays – Read Ruined and 2/3 through Fun Home. Could have done better.

Gym every day- Check. The gym is keeping me sane, yet amazingly NOT making me alarmingly skinny. WTF? (Happy hours may have a little to with that.)

Ding Dong Limitation (3x) – Yes! Damn things. But I only ate 3 this week. (Well, 6 if you count them individually, but then what kind of horrible person does that?!) :)

PS - I have not killed my plant.

Wonk

Wonk - a person preoccupied with arcane details or procedures in a specialized field; broadly : nerd <a policy wonk> <a computer wonk>

Today’s blog entry is going to be very “Writer Wonky”.

I’ve been dancing around some outline work – hesitant of jumping in, for fear of what I may find, or not find, as the case may be.

First some Wonk… These aren’t all the parts, but the ones I’m concentrating on today…

Inciting Incident – Sets the stage, sometimes the opening scene- often before the play begins. (Think Hamlet’s father’s death.)

Plan of Action (Goal identified) – Hero/Heroes set forth with a goal or mission

Intermission Act Cliffhanger – Keeps the audience from going home during intermission.

Complications toward goal – obstacles, distractions, shifts, etc. Basically the middle (and most of the play, really).

Crisis – The thing that changes everything for everyone.

Climax – Great forces coming to battle. Somebody wins.

So in mapping out what I have today… some were easy, some not…

Inciting Incident – Birth

Plan of Action - ??

Break Cliffhanger – Macy’s arrival? (little weak)

Complications – Getting saved, Dance, Bushes, Affairs, Photographers, etc.

Crisis – Found kissing in the Baptismal

Climax – Drowning and Peggy/Neil/Lola confrontation.

No plan of action, no clear Cliffhanger.  Uh-oh.

So initially I’m thinking this idea of finding “Beauty” could be the plan… 

A need to be seen/validated that Miss B and Cain share. She in the culture/people/land, he in the sense of seeing his experience reflected.

And beauty is definitely a central theme. What makes someone/something/some place beautiful? 

However, that’s a pretty passive goal. It has to be more concrete. But I’ve got so many scenes setting up the characters that I don’t have a clear plan early enough. The Plan of Action needs to be within 10 minutes or so of the inciting incident. And as much as I love the details of the novel that unfold life with Momma Jewel, the store, etc. They aren’t theatrical moments.

So – Think more. Get lost in a little music. (I love not knowing what song from my past is going to play on my random list.)   Today we have Livin' La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin. However your breeze blows, there's some eye candy for everyone.

Fix Lunch. Make some notecards. Play around with Structure.

What if I do the Prologue (Arrival at the abandoned town), then the Birth (inciting incident) and then instead of going through Cain’s childhood, open Scene 2 with Cain waiting to see Brother Neil at the church to make sure he really got saved?

There may be ways that he could tell/reveal the backstory of his childhood. The storyteller could come through and you light up Cain, as a child, underneath the Oak Table hearing the men talking about ‘bits and pieces’ of Dip being sent home. Lights up on the bus, the humiliation, exile, etc.

Anyway, the goal would be to somehow give that background and push up to Scene Two the REAL plan of action… Cain finding a best friend.  Concrete, universal, active, consequential - especially for a bullied kid.

If I do some more rearranging, Cain could have the conversation with Miss B about beauty and the pictures in the magazine before he goes to see the preacher. 

Instead of learning from Brother Neil at the end of their conversation that he has a son around Cain’s age, as happens in the book, it could be that Cain knew of Mark beforehand and has set out to find someone who “won’t know any better,” - won’t know that Cain is the town outcast. 

Maybe that’s why Cain went down the aisle in the first place when he didn’t really understand what “getting saved” meant. And was so frustrated to be siphoned off to a Deacon instead of getting to pray with Brother Neil.

This could put a whole new sense of purpose on several scenes that I enjoy – Billy Ray flipping him the bird, Miss B and the magazines, Lola at the church.

Making Cain have a plan beforehand gives those scenes a more theatrical purpose.

So…

Inciting Incident – Cain’s Birth

Plan of Action – Finding a best friend (a connection for a person lost)

Cliffhanger – Now, this puts Macy’s arrival on a new level. If we’ve seen Cain manipulating, finding, gaining this friend – then the arrival of Macy and her big old boobs does create a little bit of a cliffhanger (If I’ve gotten the audience to really care about Cain.)

Complications – Sparring with Macy, Sunday School betrayals, graveyard visits, the bridge, the Dance – Becoming friends with Macy. Kissing Macy…

Crisis – The discovery of Cain, Macy and Mark kissing in the Baptismal by Brother Neil – where everything changes and they are set down a path none would choose.

Climax – Macy’s suicide attempt and the drowning lead to the final confrontation in the church.

I’ll have to add something to show the real buildup of Cain and Mark’s friendship. Difficult, but doable. And I’ll map out similar plans for each of the other characters who will be on a journey – Miss B, Lola, Macy, etc. They get their own 'plan of action' and complications threaded throughout.

With the clarification today, I think figuring out how I fit the other journeys into this overarching one will be easier. Still a lot of sifting, but some of that will have to wait until the first draft stage. The foundation seems sturdier now.

So, that’s a little of my day’s work.  I may or may not take off tomorrow. If I do, I’ll still post a fun Friday song. : ) (For those who’ve sent an encouraging message about enjoying seeing the process – thank you!) (This has been fun and has really been helpful in adapting to my new schedule. It definitely keeps me honest.)

Snow Day

It was not a stellar creative day. I blame the snow. For some reason when I spend the night in, I get lazier. I'm always more productive if I stay busy because my natural state is SEDENTARY.

If left to my own devices, I could piddle for months - trust me, I have. I think there was an entire year in my 20's that I basically couch-surfed around the country. (NYC, Virginia, Nashville, Memphis, Berkeley, Las Vegas, Laguna Beach, etc., Thanks Friends!)

So, once I dragged myself out of bed at noon, had lunch and staggered upstairs, it was 2:00. And what can you really do with 3 hours? So, it was another reading day - and jotting down a few ideas.

I finished a play called Ruined by Lynn Nottage about the devastation wrought, particularly on women, during the civil wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 2009 Pulitzer Prize Winner. A good read. Nothing I felt passionately connected to, but interesting enough, with a traditional structure. I'd go see it if it was up.

The nice thing about going to a play - which I don't do as much as I'd like - is that even when I see a bad one, I learn something new. Either an interesting set design, trick or particularly effective illusion. And sometimes just what not to do.

Plodding along in the new books - and they're really helpful. A lot of highlighting.

Also monitoring the progress of my first ever plant - pictured here. So far, so good. It's a paperwhite. It drinks vodka and they say it's hard to kill. Both good qualities to have in a living thing under my care. : )

I love the sound of the squirrels running on my roof. Very relaxing.  But I have a feeling that after another month or so I'm going to feel more like Chevy Chase in Funny Farm.  He starts out loving the birds singing outside his window...

So - not too much excitement or plotting today.  Identifying "inciting incidents" (the birth), points of attack (??) and climaxes (the river/church). As it is, the book does not easily lend itself to a play - but I knew that going in. If I'm not careful, I may just have 20 actors reading the book in a circle. While I'd enjoy that, I don't think it's quite the point.

Trivia of the day - I have 1, 419 songs in my iTunes library - 3.6 days of music.


Today's song fits the mellow mood - in honor the upcoming family trip to Hawaii in May.

Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by Israel Kamakowiwo'Ole.

Hopefully I'll get out of the house tonight!

Let it Snow...

I’ve discovered that I’m definitely ADD when it comes to outlining/brainstorming. I get up, walk around, run downstairs, take a nap, go play with the dog, etc., every 15 minutes or so – sometimes every 5 minutes.  But I’m coming back, which is all that matters in the long run.

On one diversion, I spent about 10 minutes getting my $750 Herman Miller chair in JUST the right position so that I can lean back and type. (I bought this chair when I was rewriting the book with my agent for about 9 hours each day after work and it was the best money I’ve ever spent. I love it.)

Anyway – Today I’m doing a little research (The Art and Craft of Playwriting) and playing around with outlines. I’ve begun a list of scenes that are “Needed” “Maybe” or “Not”. This list will change a lot, but it’s important to map out this week and next.

For example – When Bobby Lee attacks Cain on the bus. Not a bad scene (for a book or a movie) but really not realistic for the play. Bobby Lee made a good villain in the book, but for the play, much of that will probably be backstory/off stage. We’ll cover the memory of what traumatized Cain in another scene, but that’s a fairly easy one to know won’t be in the play. The birth scene – Needed. It’ll set the tone and characters, but I may bring in more characters and it may change form. Things like the Dance – Maybe… We’ll have to see once we get more focused on the details of the outline.

Once I determine the locations/scenes to include, I’ll analyze each to determine which interaction is the backbone of the scene and what other threads could be included.  For example - the scene where Trudy tells Miss B that there is "room in the human heart" for more than one love. I think it will be here and I think it'll be substantial, but it may not run as a single scene but be part of a larger scene that includes Cain, Lola, Ida and Leon dealing with Trudy's illness. So the backbone of that scene may be the Trudy/Miss B conversation, but there could be other interactions and interuptions that delay the gratification/suspense, but hopefully still spur the story forward on their own.

And as always, several times today I've thought, "There's no way this can be a play." Oh well, It may not be a good play, but a play it will be - come Hell or high water.

Hopefully, by Feb. 1^st when I start the first draft of Act One, I’ll have each scene outlined in pretty good detail – then let the characters start talking to each other. Much of what they'll say is already in the book, but if this adaptation is like some of the others I’ve done (The Carter Family, Alienation of Affection and Marty Mann) there will be new combinations and revelations as well. I have to say that I do love these people. I'm lucky to get some more time with them.

It’s an absolutely perfect day for writing. I’m sitting up here watching it snow and feeling pretty content. 

And the song for today was Vogue... : ) So life doesn't get much better than that, does it?

Week One Checkup

Here’s where I am on last week’s goals:

• 8-10 Structure Outlines - Yeah, that didn’t happen. Particularly the two “outside the box” and the experimental one. But honestly, I knew it was lofty. I’m happy with the 4-5 I’ve got to work with this week. 

• Blog Posts – 4/5. That’s fine. Fridays should be off anyway – there’s no sense in being fanatical. (FYI – I’m at 360 page views this week.) 

• 20 Hours in the Room – Check. And then some. (Some days I did better than others about leaving the phone OUTSIDE the Writing Room. )

• Fun After Each Completed Day – Check. I had a pretty fun week. Some interesting developments in life. 

• Gym Every Day – Check. At least the days I was working and not on the road. 

• Dancing – Check. Our song list this week was, Juke Box Hero, Ballroom Blitz, Run Joey Run, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,  and Missionary Man. 

• Screenwriting – Check. I’m about 18 pages in on the scene-by-scene adaptation. (End of Chapter 2 - this is going to be a long screenplay)

Goals This Week

• Flesh out two full outlines. I really need to know by the end of this week that I have an outline that will allow me to begin the first draft of Act One on Feb. 1.  So far, I’ve been doing very loose outlines, but this week I have to start deciding which story threads stay and which go. Not very fun work. 

• 4 Blog posts – Just something every day (except Fridays). 

• Screenwriting – I’d like to get through “Part One” of the book – which is basically the point up to when Macy arrives.  But, the screenwriting is a secondary goal… I have to be careful that I don’t get sucked into it because it’s easier than the playwriting part. 

• Keep the same office schedule.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

• Keep up with the songs – It’s nice when one strikes.  Today was – Cotton-Eyed Joe.

            Subgoal – Figure out how to post videos within the blog for easier viewing.  (That was easier  than I thought.) Enjoy...

• Read 2 plays. Last week I did Our Town and August: Osage County 

• Gym – Every day I write/read, I workout. Period.          

              Subgoal - Limit Ding Dong intake to THREE times this week – instead of daily, as was the case last week.  There’s a little store RIGHT outside the gym and it’s so unfair!

Reading the rest of the day, then gym… then burgers, then wine… Happy Monday! (No Ding Dongs!)

TGIF!

Today was less productive than the others, but that happens too.

I got to thinking about all my “great ideas” last night, then – as anyone who has written anything tends to do – I ripped them apart. (Every writer is something of a masochist at heart - and a sadist, I suppose.)

There will be a ‘storyteller’ character. That part of the structure idea works – and it may be the only way to do this thing. However, I’m now not convinced that it should be Cain and/or Macy. 

The reason the “stage manager” works in Our Town is because he is detached from the people. I’m not sure it’s not some kind of trickery to use characters in the play as that kind of a voice. You want to manipulate the story for maximum effect, but you never want to manipulate the audience.  People resent that – well, at least the people that I want to love this thing do.  

One of the things about the novel that makes me proud, is that I never milked a moment. My agent called it "wonderfully unsentimental writing"– which, is not my particular style (I love me some melodrama) – but I think that lack of manipulation allows the reader to feel the force themselves, without me intruding on it.

Anyway, now I’m writer-rambling…

There will be more thought and next week I’ll make a few more outlines… There’s an answer out there, I just have to stumble across it.

Like anything traumatic, the unraveling of what, at first, seemed like a great idea calls for some time to recuperate. So, today I just read.  Mainly August: Osage County. How’s that for uplifting?  : ) (I’ll have to check out the movie again now that I’ve seen it in a better light.) (Great stuff –Dark as hell – but great.)

Still, I count the day as a good one.

I let myself get a little derailed by an unexpected lunch invitation. I typically can NEVER have lunch with people, so now I know that spur of the moment lunch dates provide me too much opportunity to blow off my schedule. Duly noted. But it was a lovely lunch, all the same.

The song for today made it just under the wire… Missionary Man by Annie Lennox.

The plan is Friday off – I’ve done pretty darn good this week.  (Lots of reading tomorrow and over the weekend, but no office hours!) Go have some fun!