Writing
I finished up Sunday meeting Rachel in Bellevue for some writing. We started off at the Border's coffee shop around 7:30. They closed at 9 PM, so we adjourned to Starbuck's which was open until 11 PM.
This time we wrote three or four short scenes, and a short essay. We were in different places, with my scenes tending to be totally made up and Rachel's much more directly personal -- some really powerful images and thoughts.
It was very good for me. My writing efforts have been focused on a piece that is in work, and the one I am researching. Writing short bits which were totally unrelated got the creative juices flowing again and with any luck that will carry over to my projects.
Rachel commented on all my starts. How they started strong and caught the attention. Very, very good to hear, as that has been a weakness in the past. Steven Dietz spoke to the playwriting class I took, and talked of what he called a "stop moment." His point was your script should start with one. His explanation of a "stop moment" was the sort of thing or occurrence that causes you to stop when you are walking down the sidewalk to see what is going on. There are thousands of things which could be stop moments, and billions that would not be.
I think about stop moments a lot, though rarely when I am writing. Rewrites are another story. Maybe all that pondering, actor training over the last year with good scripts, and having worked on The Nazi Nearest You which was a work in progress all worked on my below the surface awareness. Next time I have a few spare moments at home, I am going to look over the exercises we did Sunday, and the exercises I did over a year ago when I took the writing workshop at Driftwood.
This time we wrote three or four short scenes, and a short essay. We were in different places, with my scenes tending to be totally made up and Rachel's much more directly personal -- some really powerful images and thoughts.
It was very good for me. My writing efforts have been focused on a piece that is in work, and the one I am researching. Writing short bits which were totally unrelated got the creative juices flowing again and with any luck that will carry over to my projects.
Rachel commented on all my starts. How they started strong and caught the attention. Very, very good to hear, as that has been a weakness in the past. Steven Dietz spoke to the playwriting class I took, and talked of what he called a "stop moment." His point was your script should start with one. His explanation of a "stop moment" was the sort of thing or occurrence that causes you to stop when you are walking down the sidewalk to see what is going on. There are thousands of things which could be stop moments, and billions that would not be.
I think about stop moments a lot, though rarely when I am writing. Rewrites are another story. Maybe all that pondering, actor training over the last year with good scripts, and having worked on The Nazi Nearest You which was a work in progress all worked on my below the surface awareness. Next time I have a few spare moments at home, I am going to look over the exercises we did Sunday, and the exercises I did over a year ago when I took the writing workshop at Driftwood.
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