Keep Pushing Forward
Got a rejection of Henry Moore is Melting today. Also dropped 40 query letters for one of my screenplays in the mail.
June 2013
5 posts
“After a while, the characters I’m writing begin to feel real to me. That’s when I know I’m heading in the right direction.”
—Alice Hoffman (via booklust)
May 2013
15 posts
Everyone's a Little Bit Racist
On the bus today, I overheard a fellow (Caucasian) playwright complaining to her companion about how Canadians are actually racist, but they just won’t admit it.
How did she know?
This theater company in Toronto did a reading of one of her scripts. There was a part in the script about how Canadians were being racist towards this one Native tribe and the actors in the reading were like “we’re not actually racist towards this one Native tribe”.
What was the name of the tribe that she was accusing Canadians of being racist towards in the play that she wrote?
She couldn’t remember.
(Whatever, right? I mean, those Native tribes, they’re all the same and everything anyway…)
Really, though, I can’t even…*facepalm*
When someone makes a musical reference and you don't get it
The composer for my musical does this a lot and I am, in fact, deeply shamed.
“Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that—but you are the only you… There are better writers than me out there, there are smarter writers, there are people who can plot better—there are all those kinds of things, but there’s nobody who can write a Neil Gaiman story like I can.”
—Neil Gaiman (via writingquotes)
Anyone who thinks Shakespeare is boring apparently missed the greatest stage direction ever written:
I want that to be the final line of my biography.
The Long and the Short of It
I didn’t think this was possible but, it may very well be that I have a difficult time writing anything over 85 minutes. I’m trying to write my first two-act play right now (not counting the musical, which is 3 acts, but it’s a musical) - and Act I is only 46 pages. Gah! I must figure out where to add 14 pages to this thing at least.
In other news, 2 rejections today! Woo!
Also? If you are a theater company writing a rejection letter, please don’t write a VERY VAGUE criticism in the letter and think you are helping! If you want to give feedback, give specific, real feedback! Otherwise, please don’t bother. I’m a very confident, thick-skinned writer, but this kind of response just sends me into a tailspin of confusion and self-doubt. Better to have received nothing at all, thank you very much.
“Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. … Yes, yes, it’s the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it’s always the same thing. Yes, it’s like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don’t laugh any more.”
—
Samuel Beckett, Endgame
(via fuckyeahgreatplays)
The Seven Faces of a Writer →
hyphenman.com
Seven professions that help writers write:
1. Artist
2. Psychologist
3. Social Worker
4. Cop
5. Lawyer
6. Marketing Expert
7. Advertising Huckster
When you're in rehearsals as the playwright
By day three you’re like
but on opening night you’re like
(Submission: collegeisnottherealworld)
16 Amazing Mandy Patinkin Quotes That Will Change Your Life →
buzzfeed.com
This man is the wise grandfather we all wish we had.
