Discourses

For some reason, I started thinking about the book Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Can't find my copy, though. Sad.

Anyway, it got me thinking about the tradition of explaining via dialogues, much as Socrates did originally, a tradition that Lewis Carrol inherited. I kind of want to write "________: A Discourse in the Manner of Lewis Carrol." Problem is, I don't know what ________ is. Oh, well. Maybe something'll come to me.

First Draft Complete!

Once More, With Feeling now has a complete first draft. It clocks in at about 28 standard letter-size pages. I = super happy. Hopefully, I can get a lot of feedback on it and make the necessary changes, maybe snowflake it out a bit. If anyone actually reads this and wants to help me out by reading it and giving me their thoughts, I'd be glad to e-mail you a copy.

Now that the "bang it out" portion is done, I can focus on other writing exercises. I'll also be updating this more often.

One of the things we just did in Playwriting was try to write a group monologue. We started by freewriting on insomnia, and it had to start with "In the middle of the night, " We then picked a passage we wanted to improve (about a sentence length), and we're trying to stitch them together. I'm okay with what I came up with for the class, but I thought of a better one I really like while I was on my grave shift.

"Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Know why? It's the gremlins in my head. Little fuckers won't stop scratching at the walls. Scratch, scratch, scratch, they go. Scratch, scratch, scratch."

Progress!

It's being made. Did another two to three pages on Once More tonight. Not going to post them, but I figured that I should post something sos I don't fall out of the habit (of either writing or posting). I'm pretty happy with how Once More is going so far, though.

On another facet, just read The Abdication. I like it. I can see a lot of it in Once More (or a lot of Once More in it. Dunno), and Julia sounds like it's one she'd like to do for STF next year. But now is now, and then is then.

New Thematic Key

Looks like William Butler Yeats will have a strong thematic role in Once More, With Feeling. Found a couple of his poems, and really liked them. Strong lyric tendencies, while still being kind of modern.

The ones I'm definitely using are "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death":

"I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above:
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love:
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind,
In balance with this life, this death."

Also, I'll probably use his epitaph:

"Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!"

I may also try to work in a Latin quote that adorned timepieces and sundials:

"Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat." All hours wound, the last kills.

Also, take a look at this picture of Yeats!

In Progress

Well, it looks like I'll be pretty busy this next week, what with both an asston of reading to do for my midterm next week, as well as my promise to myself to finish my first draft of Once More before the end of this week.

I did, however, want to jot down a play idea I'll probably end up playing with. No idea how long it'll end up being. Basically, I want to do one where the play essentially disintegrates onstage due to backstage drama. I'll probably have the "play" be something already known, like Shakespeare or Cyrano, so that when the action deviates, the audience will know what's wrong.

Senator's Revalation

Well, here's me taking a swing at that monologue I brainstormed on earlier.

"Have a seat. Mind if I have a drink? Life really is interesting, Franklin. I learn something new about it every day. For example, did you know that birds can actually sing two notes at the same time? It's amazing. They have two voice boxes, or something. Y'see that starling out the window? His song is actually two unique melodies preformed at once. A normal human can't mimic it on his own. Needs help. But the bird...the bird is a choir unto itself. Isn't that something? Anyway, Franklin, I must thank you for your assistance with my campaign. You must have pulled some very dirty strings to be so marvelously effective. Sadly, my new position makes our previous agreement...untenable. I need to build trust in this community, Franklin, and I can't do that while I'm protecting a crime lord as notorious as Frankie Bellini. Shh, shh, shh. Don't interrupt. Now, while I am redefining our old agreement, that doesn't mean I'm cutting you out altogether. You're still very much involved. Because, you see, Franklin, you can help me build that trust I was talking about. (Pulls out a pistol) You see, threatening me after I nobly refused your bribe was an unwise move. Thank god my bodyguard fired first. (Senator fires, killing Frankie. Birdsong from outside the window.)"

Class Assignment

Need to write a monologue by Friday for Playwriting. It can be about anything, so I figured I'd use this journal as it was intended and think "aloud", if you will.

A monologue is one person speaking at length. Could be to him or herself, to another person or people, or to the audience. Topics: For some reason, I've been thinking about death and grieving lately, and I'd like to try toying with a topic I haven't played with before. I could do "relate my history", sort of like Inigo's speech about the six-fingered man, but that feels a little...straightforward. Actually, I'm starting to like the idea of a double-cross. Two characters had a deal, and after one gets what he wants, he tells the other to go fuck himself. Yeah.

So, what dirty deed was just committed? Theft? Murder? Subset of murder: assassination? Rigging an election? Yeah. I like that. A newly-elected senator, who got there with the help of a small-time mob boss, decides to renege on his side of the deal, and instead has the mobster killed "in self-defense".

Ghosts Exercise

KYLE: Storm's a-brewing, Johnny-boy. You can smell it in the air. The clouds are gathering, and soon they'll break, you'll break, and I'll get to watch it all.
JOHN: Shut up.
KYLE: Now why would I do that, when it so obviously bothers you?
JOHN: You're not real. You're dead.
KYLE: Oh, I'm dead, all right. The bullet you put through my right temple saw to that. Soon, now, you'll pay your price.
JOHN: You deserved a lot worse, you evil son of a bitch.
KYLE: That may be. But you never proved it.
JOHN: Just, shut up.
KYLE: Storm's brewing. This is a war you called down on yourself. Holed up in here with your dead hostage, all the cops in the burg around you. You won't be walking out of this one, Johnny-boy.
JOHN: You're dead. Just leave me alone.
KYLE: Can't, m'boy. Those are the rules. You killed me, and so I'm with you to the end. 'Course, that won't be long, now. (Pause) It was the same way with that bitch sister of yours. She just would. Not. Shut. Up!
JOHN: (Rushes Kyle, pins him to the wall.) Don't talk that way about her.
KYLE: (Laughs) Or what? You'll kill me again?(John pistol whips him. Kyle is unfazed.) It wasn't just the constant crying, either. (Again) Your Charlotte wasn't any great shakes to look at, but the cutting I did certainly didn't make her any prettier. (Again. Kyle laughs.)

Ghosts

A man haunted by all his ghosts. Trying to live and love while the past won't leave him alone. A 15 minute play, perhaps?

Who are the ghosts? Memories of people he knew, or did he actually kill them? Are they all people he knew while they lived, or historical figures? No abstract concepts personified.

Ghosts don't need to be from the past. One from the future? A ghost of now?

Six Word Stories

At last, I can cry again.
"I need you, too," she lied.
Without sleep, my dreams turned real.
Cursed fate. Fate cursed me back.
God's report card: "Too many truancies."
Amidst the rubble, the baby laughed.
Gone. It's all gone. Everything. Everyone.

Themes

Things I've been thinking about that interest me:

Madness – The definition of sanity. How sane people react to the actions of the insane. The freedom of those whose actions are based solely upon their individual perceptions of the world. Whether I would prefer to be mad, and whether it's possible to choose madness. Also, the word madness is cool.

Melancholy – Recently, I've been getting into funks, and melancholy is the best way to describe them. What I find interesting is that, although they are depressive episodes (and may actually be connected to clinical depression, given my family history), there's something beautiful about that emotional chord. For some reason, I enjoy getting that bittersweet depression for no reason at all. When I do, I tend to go for a walk alone across the mystery bridge and sit at the lookout. I think that's also the root of my two full-length plays. Trying to duplicate that emotional chord for an audience requires a fair deal of background.

Love – It's not so much that I want to tell love stories. It has more to do with trying to figure out what the word means. Love is bandied about so much and covers such a broad spectrum that it's really lost all objective meaning. Also, my experience with it has been very limited, if extant at all, so I'm very interested in exploring it via writing.

Starting Shot

This journal is more for me than for anyone else. I'm just really bad at maintaining a private journal, so I figure I'll feel more obligated to add to it if it's at least available to others. The primary goal of this will be both to practice my writing, as well as recording my writing process. However, nothing is really "off topic", so there will be glimpses into what I am thinking about or mulling over at any given time. And so, let's start off with where I'm at with various writing projects:

Once More, With Feeling – This is the full-length play I'm working on for this year's Infinite Monkeys Festival. I've got the full idea, and most of the skeleton dialogue. It's at about the half-hour point, but I'm estimating a length of about 50 minutes once I finish the first draft. Then it's just a matter of fleshing it out, snowflake-style.

Playwriting Class – There's a small idea I may be fleshing out. Based on the classic revenge tale (I just read the Oresteia), and the style is very much western in nature.

I'll also be posting turns of phrase or images I find interesting. I hope that my next project's evolution is completely documented here.