this that

I received a response to my book proposal entitled Fake Quotes, Falsely Attributed. This was about the 4th or 5th from an editor that really liked the idea, but for whatever reason wouldn't publish. He suggested a blog akin to Shit My Father Said, which my wife had suggested. I don't know.

I'm going on vacation tomorrow. I'm a little burned out, but I still want to write. It's more the body shutting down on me.

more GoTo

I just finished extending my play GoTo Country to 60 pages which seems about the minimum for what can be considered a full length play. I will probably work on editing it some more and wait at least a couple of weeks to make the play 75 pages. I'm burnt out on it now and am considering taking chucks of my unpublishable book about military school and translating to a play.

play format

I'm working on expanding my longish play. I was at 43 pages including title page and character/scene page. I think I have to a have at least 60 pages to submit to a lot of places that want a full length play. Apparently a page is supposed to equal a minute. There is a lot of conflicting format info out there. Some of it talk about indenting the left side so that it can be bound, others the speaker should be listed in the middle of the page or the side, etc... . I have looked at many plays and their is mucho variation. I'm also having trouble have the page number start at 1 where the dialogue starts. When I figured that out I had to split the doc into 2 sections and now I can't figure out how to eliminate the pagination on the first couple of pages.

more stuff

I recently finished a monologue called Best Son about a father-son con men team. There are a couple of sites that collect monologues and then people can peruse the site and pay a fee to use it.

I was thinking that my next project should be full length play, but I have opted to write to the specs of reqeusted submissions. I would like to get a track record of some readings and performances and the theory is that if there is a greater likelihood of an acceptance if you are giving somebody exactly what they want.

more

The writing group I was in shut down because of health issues with the founder. It's interesting how these things come and go. My playwriting class also ended last week. I didn't even go because I was running so late it would have been a rude entrance. I'm working on a play monologue despite just reading a warning to never write one. I was inspired by Neil Labute's Wrecks, which I found amazing despite (again) a truly disturbing ending.

There are adult acting classes in the area and I might try out a couple. It's $25 per class and it might help me feel comfortable enough for an audition so I can try to feel my way around the theatre scene. Probably a dead end, but what the hey? I saw a audition for a Labute play that I loved reading called the Mercy Seat. I just want to see the play when it comes out. Cool stuff.

latest

I finished my one-act play that was taken from my alaska fishing boat experience. I have really mined that one. I have a memoir, poem and now a play from that one couple month experience. I also sent out more submissions for my alphabet haiku book. My friend Mike Garman is doing the illustrations. He has a political cartoonists background, so I think we have a pretty unique product. I took off another week from writing. Looking over this blog I see I am taking a lot of time off. Writing takes a lot out of me, but also gives me a lot. I felt pretty useless this week and am looking forward to getting back to it.

stuff

I finished my one act play and then went back and changed the ending based upon reading Neil Labute and his unexpected endings. I have just read a couple of his plays that I really like. He also had one where an infant was killed and having a child I can't take plays, movies or tv with child endangerment. But really liked one set the day after 9/11. Another play had a technique with the the main character/narrator coming removing himself from the play and talking to the audience and scenes that could have happened that I thought was amazing. The blindside (i mean this positively) ending was my inspiration for the change in my story.