So who remembers this post from over three years ago? You know the one… the one where I was “closing the door” and “leaving” community theatre because I felt dead inside and there simply wasn’t any joy in it for me? Where theatre was more of a parasite rather than something that I can truly enjoy and want to be a part of?
You remember that post…
And here I am eating my words in ways I did not expect.
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So in the past two posts I mentioned some fanfiction that I found myself reading in their entirety and the “What If” scenarios that caught my attention despite my love of fanfictions that stick with canon. However, since the “What If” scenario that posits what would happen should Cassius Warrington of Slytherin were to be the Hogwarts champion as opposed to Cedric Diggory is so darn appealing how to adjust the rest of the series so that the Hufflepuffs would come into their own…?
The key here is that Hufflepuffs by nature don’t strive for glory like the other three houses, they aren’t necessarily the underdogs either, instead they tend to stick to the background working diligently and consistently to earn their wares. They tend to be the background players who provide the security, knowledge, forethought, etc for any problem and situation while others present said information to the masses.
BETWEEN BOOK 4 (Goblet of Fire) and BOOK 5 (Order of the Phoenix)
Keeping the above in mind it would not have been far from the realm of possibility if towards the end of the events of Book 4 (keeping in track with the “What If” from the previous post that Cassius Warrington was the Hogwarts Champion) Harry Potter glances around the school and sees small groups of Slytherins interacting with students from other houses, or a lone Slytherin being comforted by other houses.
This is the time where the Slytherin students are divided internally, be it within themselves or within the house itself. There are Slytherins that are still steadfast in the ways of the regime as promised by The Dark Lord and there are others whose belief was shaken to the core and they are questioning the world and beliefs that were instilled in them from birth.
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One of the problems that have been fairly steady as of late versus ten plus years ago is that although ideas, thoughts, and stories are constant in their presence and in the imagination, the actual writing of them into a cohesive unit is far more difficult
Case in point, one of the oldest fanfictions (what author does not create “what if scenarios” for their favorite characters) the process was fairly smooth in composition. Pick a starting point and simply write. The different groups of characters from three differing places of the world had their own stories to tell before they were to meet and seeing what they were doing came easily… more than easily… it was there.
Another story written before that, the storyline was fairly straightforward, but the writing thereof was not linear, it was all over the place. One moment it was towards the end of the store, the next it was the beginning, and then perhaps somewhere in the middle. Just all over the place until the entirety finally poured on to the page and was then completed.
Nowadays find the writing just as piece meal as it was in those early days. With ideas and storyline all over the place but no real cohesive unit anywhere except in the grandiose scheme of things.
Like right now, as much as one would try to focus on a particular character… another group of characters (currently dubbed “The Musketeers”) just keep clamoring to be seen, then again, gentlemen of that persuasion tend to want for attention. What is an author to do than to write the scene involving these particular enigmatic group of gentlemen and see what would happen.
So what did happen?
So I have been rather addicted to this series: “Once Upon a Time”. The irony is that although a fair number of my friends have insisted I should start watching it because it would be a series I would enjoy I made a point of not watching it for that same reason. Well that and the fact that I don’t always have the time to watch television shows anymore.
But then I started watching some time during the first half of Season Three when the characters went to Neverland and I was hooked (heh, Hook… Neverland… get it?). So I purchased the first two seasons of the series and got myself caught up and lo and behold I was definitely on the bandwagon.
I don’t know why I didn’t watch this series sooner… it took all the “happily ever afters” and turned them on their heads. It took all of the beloved fairytales and found ways to integrate them amongst one another from Snow White to Sleeping Beauty, from Pinocchio to Rumpelstiltskin, etc.
There were some ties in between various fairytales that were rather ingenious and inspiring that one can’t help but wonder why did it not happen before? I suppose in a lot of ways we’ll never know.
And now in the second half of the third season the core cast has been integrated with the Wicked Witch of the West… except that is the only integration. Oz appears primarily in flashbacks from the Wicked Witch’s point of view and Glinda the Good Witch makes a couple of appearances, but that’s about all. Which is too bad because I was hoping for some more…
Then again… this kind of popped up on my Facebook News Feed over a month ago. From the Disney ABC Careers, they are taking applications for writers on their current and / or new programs… Now isn’t this tempting.
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It’s a little bit funny… This feeling inside…
Still trying to decipher it, but nonetheless there is something to be said about seeing something that one has nurtured from a speck of an idea in one’s imagination to words on paper. Then to trust another party to take those words that you have already cut up, broken, chopped, sewn together, simmer, percolate, etc until it is ripe for someone to then cast actors and have them act those same words out for others to see…
There is just something incredibly profound about the process and I had the chance to see that happen on stage last night during the tech rehearsal prior to opening weekend.
Yes… I know I have been MIA.
And yes… I know… I was putting together costumes where their pictures have yet to surface on the internet.
Well fear not… for it is that life (as in the real one) got busy. But isn’t that always the case?
**le sigh**
Anyway, the latest idea / obsession / hobby of mine is cosplaying, except I take it to the extreme. As mentioned in a few previous posts:
– FablesCon
– A Renaissance Appropriate Costume
– Costume Inspirations
– Corseted Inspired Costumes
– Disney Bounding
I have been putting together various costumes over the past year and a limited number of pictures to show for it. Well with a photographers lined up it is the matter of getting some well crafted accessories to complete the costume.
Blame the thespian in me… without a few accessories here and there, the costume just don’t feel complete to me.
So what am I talking about? Well…
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Why have I been busy? I’ve been writing… a lot of it.
But what exactly? Well that is a bit of a loaded question with a not so easy answer so I will try.
Over a year ago I was in rehearsals for a series of one-acts, one of those one-acts was Christopher Durang’s Kitty the Waitress. In his afterword this particular ten minute play was created with the intention of being one in a series of nine cat related plays… In his original intention the fifth life. So why not create something like that?
So where would I begin? Considering that I listen to music non-stop while working I decided to go with that and listen to songs and if inspiration strikes to quickly write ideas down before I forget them and move on. So if I were to do that what songs would I use? Early on, two songs whose story popped up rather quickly were:
1) Savage Garden’s Two Beds and a Coffee Machine
2) Celine Dion’s It’s All Coming Back to Me Now
Not because I don’t want to continue blogging… but because there is a shift happening. In particular So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Got Talent are both going on and guess who gets to write those?
Yep… me.
But also I have been going back to my writing projects and have been working on a few projects here and there. So the shift of my blogging would probably end up focusing on whatever writing project I am working on…
So what would I reveal?
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Someone once told me:
If someone claims to have been in love multiple times, they don’t really know what love is
The irony in this statement is that I remember once upon a time when a small group of us were talking about whether we have ever been in love before. And we went around the group… a few of the people have been in love multiple times or believes that they were in love at the moment. But me? I had to think, I grew to love one guy… I liked others… I was in love with the idea of being in love with another guy… but being in love with someone? Nope, hasn’t happened… at least not the full fledged thereof…
There are some people I know that are with someone because it is comfortable and eventually they have grown to love one another… a kind of jaded view on the concept of love but when you’ve been burned over and over again could you blame them? There are others that jump from person to person to person because chances are deep down the idea an concept of being alone frightens them… even though to every one else they appear to be guy or girl crazy…
I am not saying that I am any better… but speaking as someone that has been alone (voluntarily) for close to seven years straight and makes a conscious effort to be alone after a falling out of a relationship as opposed to jumping straight to the next person waiting in the wings… well I would like to think I have a better feel of the kind of person that I am.
Which is kind of odd that my latest role was the part of Elvira in Munroe Park Theatre Guild’s production of Blithe Spirit. Early in the process the director sat down with myself and a couple of other actors and went into more detail as to how these particular characters are acting and reacting in particular situations.
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Ah yes, New Years Resolution time. You know, that time of the year when one reflects on the previous year and see what has been accomplished on one’s resolution list and what one has accomplished unknowingly… and what one still needs to work on.
I don’t usually have a resolutions list… but rather a list of what I would want to do and what I did not want to do. Some small and minor and others major and life altering.
But why am I doing this? Because I find that (after talking to many of my friends) we often get caught up in the details in life that we forget just how much we have accomplished when we sit down and actually think about it. So in many ways this is my attempt to put things into perspective and see what have I accomplished no matter how small. Afterall, if we stress about the little things we forget about the big things and if we forget about the big things we lose track of what is really important in life.
So before I head into 2013… what have I completed in 2012? Better question: what would carry over into 2013 and what would not?
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Ok… so it would appear that it takes me another two weeks before I found a block of time to sit down and just write again.
So for a quick update of Week 3 (since I did squat in Week 2):
Day 15: edited the first ten-minute scripted. Deleted a character and streamlined the script more before sending out to a few friends.
Day 18: edited the first ten-minute again after talking to friends and going back to old comments. Also worked on other ten-minute scripts. Reprinted script that I didn’t have access to originally.
Day 19: I wrapped up all the scenes that were missing in the accidental deletion bring the overall word count to 5,019 (words written / added: 326).
Day 21: Expanding the Sixth Scene in the series of vignettes as well as re-worked a few of the earlier scenes so that the Narrator wouldn’t be talking so much or rather narrating the piece too much by himself. Also added an afterword kind of describing the purpose of the work and the inspiration. Word count: 6,010 (words written / added: 991).
Conclusion: So I did manage to get some decent work in, I am impressed with myself. It only took a week of doing squat before I was able to get back into the groove of writing.
However, there is no way I will be able to hit the 50,000 word goal that is typically set by NaNoWriMo unless by some miracle I pull off an all day marathon writing session… and who knows if that would happen.
What I will say is that for the series of vignettes, now that one scene is completed I am back to going back to the research material to plan out what I would like to do next. So it might be a day or two until I actually get anymore writing done, unless something presents itself.
Ah well… one can hope I suppose.
As for another other posts? I am not exactly dry on the posting front I have just been focused on getting some legitimate writing done this month since that was the commitment I made. Eventually I’ll start posting again… but until then I will work on the writing projects and maybe if things work out I’ll post a few tidbits, but somehow I am doubt that I would even do that.
Wow, this was a rather strong writing day. Didn’t expect that. I kind of just sat down, reworked a few scenes, redistributed a bunch of lines and expanded on Scene Six. Now I am done with Scene Six and am looking into my research to see what I have to do next…
Total Word Count: 6,010
Yup, that is a pretty decent jump.
Granted I have been doing a little bit of editing other stuff… so really is this any surprise? I also added an Afterword to the script to gives additional information about inspiration and how the idea came about… which added to the over all word count.
When looking at the “research” for the series of vignettes… I ended up breaking down approximately how many other scenes I most likely have and I counted at minimum around eight and at most? Ha I don’t want to think about that yet… yeeeeaaaah I am not even halfway done. Go figure.
So what else do I have in the queue should I be so lucky as to finish writing the vignettes? Well there is the first ten-minute play formally named “Cycles”, I also have another ten-minute that is going to undergo heavy revisions if not a full out rewrite called “Moments”. Another script that needs to go through heavy revisions is based off of Ray Bradbury’s “The Rocket Man”.
Then of course there is the full show that I have to streamline called “Arrangements”… if I do this right I would be able to whittle the character list from ten to six and possibly even five… but I am unsure if I could even do that! Ugh.
Of course I have all these prose projects that have been on back burner… in the end I am just glad to have gotten started on anything at all… hopefully this motivation lasts into the next month or so. We’ll see.
So I finally got around to completing a couple more scenes from the series of vignettes stage play that I have been working on being my word total up to 5,019-ish… Well more or less. I am sure I am off by a few words give or take.
From here on out the series will be new material compiled from previous stories… And as thus a kind of “starting from fresh” kind of mentality. Not a bad thing mind you but it may or may not make plowing along easier.
But really…
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So during a rehearsal line read through over the weekend I went through a couple of ten minute plays of mine and reworked and continued to edit them. I have completed the editing process for one and once I have implemented the changes will go through it again one more time before sending it off to a couple of close friends for their opinions on the changes.
As for the other? Well it needs work. I like the concept and the idea and the whys, but since a lot of the dialogue is based off of conversations I had many moons ago what works in real life doesn’t necessarily work on stage. So I have two choices I could rework from the script what I want or I could scrap the whole thing and just start from scratch. Now that I have a better idea of what I want to do and how to shape it, the latter might be more to my liking, who knows.
What is on the agenda? Other than the above I still have the series of vignettes to continue working on. I am tempted to just go back and start formatting the sucker for my sanity and so others could start reading (or I could start editing) but I don’t know if that would help or hinder the process… Meh, does it really matter? I am getting stuff done… that’s all that counts. 😉
Overall I have gotten… or have been getting a lot more done editing-wise than I had initially anticipated, and it is a good feeling. Moreso now that I have a couple half an hour or so just sitting down and focusing on editing during rehearsals. Multi-tasking is a beautiful thing.
Yup, you read that right… I didn’t do any writing between days 4 and 15… and it is rather depressing, but what can one do?
So why am I updating? Because I have managed to go through and reproduce three of the five scenes that I lost in the deletion of one script… so that word count is up to around 5,000… but not only that I started expanding and adding in pieces here and there to fill out the scenes already written.
Needless to say I am a bit excited because the next two scenes aren’t not aspects just thrown together, but rather actual events with lots of information that could stand alone. Once I have these last two scenes rewritten I would be golden and after that it is all new material… in the matter of speaking.
Take that a step further and I spent some time earlier today editing the first ten-minute play I ever wrote. I purposely placed the piece on back burner because I wanted a fair amount of time to pass before looking at it again and most likely heavily editing it. Which is what ended up happening.
I deleted a character… rearranged a few lines… changed the mentality of one of the characters so there is more of a punch / conflict and I am happy with what I have.
With some time over the weekend… in between everything else going on, mayhaps I will find time for additional writing?