Uni Girl - It's the simple things in life... Play writing

Kirilee | 29/07/2006 - 15:19

Recently, I had my 19th birthday. As fun and as exciting as it was, I believe the thing I got most excited over was having my trusted friend and editor returning a script that I had written, completely covered with red pen.

Why I am so happy? This isn't my first draft, nor second, nor third. It is my seventh. And the play is one I've been working on for now... 3 years? And even though I have written about 8 plays, I keep coming back to this one... I affectionately call it my baby.
After all, I've seen it grow from a 33 000 word play that would be impossible to stage unless I was Robert LePage; to a very do-able play of just 11 500 words. So, still a nice full length play of about an hour and 45 minutes. Just tightening and polishing it up now.

But yes, who else finds editing plays just as riverting as me?

Perhaps I need help... jumping up and down at the sight of an edited script rather than a bottle of "hootch" is not something an average 19 year old would do.

*scratches head*

For that matter, just wondering for all the emerging (and not-so-emerging) playwrights out there, how many drafts have you done on your plays? And I'm not talking fixing a line here and there, I'm talking basically either changing scenes or starting again.

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Although you are already

Author: Na
Date: 29/07/2006 - 17:17

Although you are already doing this - hand the script over to someone else to edit. The more people the better. I find that quite often other people's perceptions help me refine my words and my ideas.

And if you're going to hand it over - do try and give it to theatre people. They're more likely to give constructive criticism and know how to offer insights a little more useful than 'That word is spelled wrong'.

Congrats on the 7th draft!

(Now when do I get to read it? Evil )

The Prompt Copy
Networking emerging theatre professionals
www.thepromptcopy.com

Sticky Apple Legs
http://stickyapplelegs.artsblogs.com

Rule #1

Author: Kirilee
Date: 30/07/2006 - 17:29

Oh yes, as a rule, unless the script is finished (which I have yet to deem on anything I have written), I will not hand it over to a non-theatre person. Mind you... most of my friends are theatre people, and the ones who aren't... well, either way, I don't think they would be much help.

And dear Na, I shall send you a copy as soon as my two friends read through this version. I can't very well send you a script that could be better at this very moment, now could I? It shall be the first thing you read of me. I don't want to make a bad impression.

LOL Smiling

congrats!

Author: Tari-Xalyr
Date: 30/07/2006 - 16:29

Lol! i can just picture you jumping up and down excited by a bleeding script as i call them! Rolling on the floor

Yes it's not something your average 19yr old would be excited over . . .not ur average 17yr old for that matter. My friend handed me back a story i'd given her to edit on my birthday this year to. Ah friends. . .gotta luv them. *sigh*

Unfortunately I've been working on and off on a play for about 2yrs now and having scenes editted here and there which i probably not smart to have three out of about 14 scenes editted three times and the rest not at all and the end not finished. . . .anywayz. I don't have a set number of times. I will just feel when I think it's right. and that feeling is better then anything a bottle of alcohol could give you! lol. . .

So yeh no set amount of editting. Just enough so I sit back and smile, sigh and say finished . . . then scare my family by running around the house screaming and dancing. . .*cough*

~ Tari

The Writer is a child forever listening at the keyhole of the adult world.

LOL I did that two years

Author: Kirilee
Date: 30/07/2006 - 20:20

LOL I did that two years ago with my script. My parents looked at me in that quaint way they do.

No, I do not believe a play is every truely finished until you give up on it. You can always make it better, for at the same time, you always make it worse - depend whose eyes you look through.

*looks at the two folderised printed out script and sighs* I love it- sending off a script to a new home for someone to read. Makes me happy.

BTW, I've been meaning to say for a while now, I love your corset in your photo. Where did you get it from?

Corsets!

Author: Tari-Xalyr
Date: 31/07/2006 - 21:01

Lol. I've got a collection of photo's of this corset in my art gallery on DeviantArt.com. Glad you like it! Smiling Cool

It's from Into Camelot in Fremantle. . . . www.intocamelot.com.au . . . They aren't cheap but they are the best quality I've seen and worth every penny.

~ Tari

The Writer is a child forever listening at the keyhole of the adult world.

01/08/2006 - 22:12 Aspirant Simple things in life

I recognise your name

Author: Logos
Date: 02/08/2006 - 09:00

from another post so I believe you have finished work. However not everyone works the same way and unless you know the person or the piece you are critising your post is probably unfair. I have been writing for twenty odd years now and have pieces that have been edited so many times the original play is forgotten. I have pieces that are unfinished with no ending that I continue to work on and pieces that flow and seem to need hardly any editing afterwards. I have even written plays that began with an ending and ended with a beginning.
Please try to be positive we all of us can be a little fragile. Tari and Kirillee keep writing and believe in your selves and your work.
Life's too short to stuff a mushroom
www.tonymoore.id.au

Endings can be hard

Author: Labrug
Date: 02/08/2006 - 09:21

That is an unfair statement to make. You do not know Kirilee and no doubt other writers. Each has their own style and make their own way.

Several years back, I read a text by author Barry B. Longyear about writing in general. In it he describes a process he went through as he wrote his books. His method was not to write the book at all, but to note down ideas, concepts and observations in his daily life. He found that these ideas eventually developed into their own stories that he then sat down and fleshed out.

The ending of any story is an important aspect of any piece of writing and getting it just right can and often is a real struggle. How to end one Barry B. Longyear novels was a major focus in this text. After attempt after attempt, he eventually gleaned an idea from his usual methods of observing others and so it was written. The book in question was 'Enemy Mine', a sci-fi cult classic that was later converted into a movie staring Denis Quiad and Louis Gossett Jr. back in 1985.

The struggle with an ending in a universal struggle. The fact that you apparently have not had this struggle is probably an indication of your approach and good fortune, and hats off to you. In my opinion, a struggle to end a piece is an indication of the dedication of the author to 'Get it right.'

Dixi

Jeff Watkins
Perth based Actor/Performer
Fight/Sword Choreographer

http://au.geocities.com/labrug

Another Longyear fan.

Author: Logos
Date: 02/08/2006 - 09:31

I haven't met many. I thought the film of Enemy Mine was a good film but a bad film of the book. Any comments?
Life's too short to stuff a mushroom
www.tonymoore.id.au

Good Film - Good Book - Bad Translation

Author: Labrug
Date: 02/08/2006 - 10:19

I tell you what Logo, finding Longyear books in Perth is hard, or is it just me?

As for 'Enemy Mine', I saw the film FIRST which led me to the book and then to the author. I thought the film, for its time was great. The book was therefore a pleseant surprise as it continued on after the film. Rather more poiniant. Upon reflection, the film took the Action Hero Star Warsy elements from the book and focused on that. While appropriate for the time it was released, it didn't really do the original story complete justice.

The legacy of Davidge and Zammis was the whole point to the original story and that was pretty much left up to audiences own interpretation in the film. Great by themselves though.

Dixi

Jeff Watkins
Perth based Actor/Performer
Fight/Sword Choreographer

http://au.geocities.com/labrug

I do not think it wise...

Author: Kirilee
Date: 05/08/2006 - 10:06

I do not think it wise for you to be so narrow minded when it comes to writing; in any form.
I have been involved with projects that created scenes at a time - not in linear order. And the outcome was one of the best works I've been involved with.

You may very well find it easier to work in linear order, for progression of character and plot - but some other people may have already a clear idea of what they characters and plots are. Sometimes it is easier to have three well developed scenes and link them, then edit them and create a linear story-line that way.
Heck, I've done that in alot of my stuff - and believe me, I want my texts to be performed. That's why I am currently at Uni studying all this.
I usually start with a beginning and an end and fill in between. Then I tighten it and I realise that the opening and end would be better written a different way.

Don't be so quick to judge - just because it isn't your way.

Yes, I liked the film but I

Author: Logos
Date: 02/08/2006 - 11:02

Yes, I liked the film but I had read the book (as a novella in the collection Manifest Destiny) first so found it a bit shallow compared to the story. I have bought most of the Longyear I own through Amazon.com in the US. He's largely out of print but there are some good second hand sites that will sell overseas as well. I like the City of Baraboo series too. Coming as I do from a showfolk background (my ancestry is largely Romany) I am fascinated by Circus and sideshow stories.
Life's too short to stuff a mushroom
www.tonymoore.id.au

Endings . . . Beginnings

Author: Tari-Xalyr
Date: 03/08/2006 - 10:23

Labrug said: "The struggle with an ending in a universal struggle"

Assuming you meant 'is' not 'in' I'll proceed. lol

Many play's I've read do not actually have an ending. Believing this is purposefully done by the writer. For example, Katherine Thomson's play "Diving for Pearls" her lst line is "When everything is right. . that'll be the day." And it's true. I've written several pieces in which I have purposefully had no resolutions, no tying up of loose ends so to speak. Why? Because a) it leaves it open to inperpretation and b) they are not issues that society has resolved itself, therefore I have left it open ended and 'unfinished' to allow people to realise the fact that it hasn't been solved. They are the solution themselves and we, as writers are just nudging them along and being persistant.

As far as endings go. It depends on the topic, the situations etc but I dont believe all plays need endings to make their point. Mayb the point is that there isn't an ending yet? It will just keep going?

As for beginnings: well they say as much as the ending does. Plays that go round in cirlces - I personally like those alot - finish where they began. It makes a statement in itself.

~ Tari

The Writer is a child forever listening at the keyhole of the adult world.

Thanks Tari

Author: Labrug
Date: 03/08/2006 - 11:20

For pointing out my mistakes Sticking out tongue I'll go fix my embaressment now..... <Sticks head in bucket> Ouch!

Dixi

Jeff Watkins
Perth based Actor/Performer
Fight/Sword Choreographer

http://au.geocities.com/labrug

I do like to acheive a resolution

Author: Logos
Date: 03/08/2006 - 12:17

But I also like leaving many questions unanswered. I often don't know the answer myself so I like to leave audiences and actors and directors to get their own answers to questions.

Life's too short to stuff a mushroom
www.tonymoore.id.au

Tying up loose ends

Author: Tari-Xalyr
Date: 03/08/2006 - 13:26

You can get your head out of the bucket now Labrug. Laughing out loud

Personally I belive there are only a certain amount of thing you can tie up. unless of course you are writing a childrens play or something where the kiddies need to know the neat and happy ending. Smiling

All part of the fun of interpretation Logos. Why theatre is performed in so many ways and each person has a different opinion on certain ideas, characters, etc. Variety!

~ Tari

P.S. I'm in a rather chirpy mood today . . . also in alot of pain but still. . . so feel free to blast all my opnions or arguements. . . and i apologise if i post many small comments and replies. . .

The Writer is a child forever listening at the keyhole of the adult world.

Hmmm, interesting

Author: Kirilee
Date: 05/08/2006 - 09:59

See, I'm a bit different. If it is a realistic piece, I like things to become clear for me at the end- not obviously like in Ancient Greek plays *is doing work on Agamemnon at the moment*.

I guess that's why out of the 4 different endings this play I have posted about, this one is my favorite. Everything is finally tied up on the very last line. So as the audience are plunged into darkness, they start to get the reality of it.
Or that's what I'm hoping for LOL.

I think many interpretations on a play is over-rated personality. I mean, two or three interpretations are okay, but I find myself trying to watch a play and keep up with the story - I'm not thinking what it means (mostly).
The performances where I've gone to see that are designed to give a different interpretation for everyone has made me leave feeling very very bored. I guess I like a common through line.

In saying that all of that, I think on of the best plays I've ever seen was the slightly absurd comedy of "What the Butler Saw". It was crazy, it was nonesense but it was saying one thing very clear: Life can be so simply sick.
At least that was my interpretation - but I am well aware that someone else may have another.

Okay... now I'm babbling.
*runs and hides*

- Kirilee

Clarification

Author: Tari-Xalyr
Date: 05/08/2006 - 10:15

When I mentioned interpretation I was thinking more along the lines of the performers and the designers not so much the audience.

I mean there is also the fact that I'm studying literature and analyse almost everything - unfortunately. So from seeing a play and reading a play you can gatehr different meanings and interpreatations.

As for endings. Alot is said in the last lines of a piece. I still believe that the kiddies plays need to all wrapped up neatly in a lil box with a ribbon on top Laughing out loud

~ Tari

The Writer is a child forever listening at the keyhole of the adult world.

Oh yes! Absoulutely! There

Author: Kirilee
Date: 05/08/2006 - 10:21

Oh yes! Absoulutely! There has to be a number of interpretations for the director and actors - I make only about two or three LOL - and some I make one or two (depends how close to my heart I hold them LOL).

For designers, that is the one area in my script where I leave everything up to them - bar the furniture I seriously need. I love designers having free rein (under the director) of course because I like seeing how many different ways a visual image can be displayed.

Design - interesting

Author: Tari-Xalyr
Date: 05/08/2006 - 10:31

It is interesting the design's people come up with.

For example - Out Lit class is doing "Diving for Pearls" by Katherine thomson and we were asked to design a set based on the "author notes" and they were so different. Some were simple.some complex. some absurd. some detailed and looking expensive! lol. . .

just interesting no?

~ Tari

The Writer is a child forever listening at the keyhole of the adult world.

Uni Girl - It's the simple things in life... Play writing

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