A big surprise!

No the surprise is not that I'm posting two nights in a row, smart ass! I think I mentioned that I had an idea for working on a play that I had begun some years ago and then set aside . . . well . . . I got the flash drive that a lot of my stuff is saved on, and was I ever surprised to see some of the stuff on there . . . there was at least one play that I had written beginning to end and forgotten about, I don't know that I ever printed it! There was also another piece that I had forgotten about, that was about 57 pages . . . and then yet another that is around sixty or so, which I had called Personal Gods. I was taking pages of PG to Blueberry Pond way back when, and people kind of liked it . . .should be interesting to see what it looks like. I'm thinking that maybe I can somehow take Sacred Ground (the one that I was going to work on anyway) and Personal Gods and kind of merge them into one . . . might be do-able, and it might be exciting/fun for me to work on . . . so away we go!

As part of this whole looking through my back pages I also looked at my writing resume. When it seems like your writing is too hard to go back to you should maybe take a look back. Eleven full length plays and however many one acts; and that is just the ones on my resume . . . sometime I should count my plays . . . quite a body of work . . . and I'm saying that as dispassionately as I can, not to brag, but just in amazement at what is there. And most of it in the last ten years. And before that, screenplays . . . wow . . . I wonder what I would find if I went into one of these boxes that are overstuffed with papers . . . really something to be proud of. I don't know if you have gotten the feel from my blog trail, just how much work goes into writing a play. Since I don't ever delete anything or throw anything away, i can tell you that the number of drafts of some of my plays get close to double digits. It's intense. But worthwhile? You better believe it.

Especially if you are lucky enough to get to put it in front of an audience and can experience their reactions . . . that's when you can really find out what a play is. I'd love to get all my plays on their feet some day, but wouldn't we all? So far my one acts have mostly been produced, which is nice and has been fun, a lot of beautiful memories, with a lot of wonderful people (and lets not forget 'The Siler Family Players', but more on that another time) ; Old Hickory is the first play that I have had produced that stood on its feet as an evening of theater. Good thing I'm not easily discouraged. The writing is the thing anyway. Creating a world with characters and being surprised by what happens . . . it's all too amazing for words. There really is nothing like it and I miss it . . . that's what happens if you spend enough time away from it . . . it comes for you and says, 'hey don't forget, I'm here!' To which I say: Hold on, I'm coming!