Just got back from closing night of my show. While it wasn’t perfect (more on that in a second), I’m happy with how it turned out. Of all my plays, this one (“To Love and to Cherish”) had some of my favorite lines. That’s probably because it’s more personal than my previous plays have been, more from the gut and less from the head.
That said, I wrote the script in an hour with hardly any planning beforehand (I got the idea in the shower, got out, dried off, and promptly sat down and wrote it all out right then) and never actually revised it (contrast that with my last play, “Tree of Blood,” which I rewrote 15 or 16 times). And I only went to one rehearsal. (Rehearsals are usually where I see what needs to be rewritten, thus their importance.) As a result, there were some things I didn’t get to change about the play that I now wish I could have (tightening it up a bit, giving the characters a named homeland and culture instead of the ambiguous one they had, reword a few lines here and there), but that’s just life. :)
Oh, and I’m happy to announce that this is the first time I didn’t place in the top three! (My last three plays all got third place.) This sounds kind of weird, I realize, and you might think I’m asking for sympathy or pity or something, but I’m not. I’ve been hoping that my winning streak would end because I was starting to take it for granted, and that assumption is a quick recipe for laziness in writing and complacency. I needed to know that a third-place finish was not guaranteed, so that I keep striving for excellence in my craft and all that.
Speaking of which, I’ll keep writing plays, but I plan to switch gears here and focus much more heavily on fiction (short stories and novels).
Comments
I am sad we missed the show. We had such a great time at the other performance, I knew that this one would not disappoint.
Congratulations on your normalcy. :) Welcome to the realm of the rest of us!
Thanks for sharing your creative process, it assists me to de-mystify the writing I experience from others and believe in my own ability to create something worthwhile. And that de-mystification is probably the hardest part of starting, for me.
Haha, you’re welcome. :) I should write more about the writing process (and the creative process in general)…
“got out, dried off, and promptly sat down and wrote it all out right then”
Ben, are you trying to discretely tell your audience that you wrote this play in the buff? :)
Just clarifying… Heh heh.
Mary and I both enjoyed the play. Please thank Mr. Stradivarius for the tickets.
Egads, no, I had a towel on. :P (Just kidding, I was quite fully clothed. I’ve never been tempted to write au natural.) And I’ll pass your regards on to Mr. S. ;)