NaPlWriMo

I personally believe that all good writing comes from good characters. One week into Naplwrimo, we should all know just a little bit about our characters. But unless we know them well we're going to hit rocky ground sooner or later. If we can't predict exactly how they'd respond in any situation, if we don't know them as well as we know our best friends, well, then we're not doing our jobs properly.

And so, for a brief diversion from your scripts, here's a quick character quiz for you - and the answers given by Jack, one of my leads.

1. Where do you live?

a. everywhere and anywhere, currently sleeping on a sleeper couch at my sister's place in Oxford.

2. Describe a present you received as a child that really meant something to you?

a. When I was ten, my granddad gave me some binoculars, small brass ones. They opened up new worlds to me, and I still take them wherever I go.

3. What do you do when you're stuck in traffic?

a. I'm hardly ever in traffic, so it's a bit of a novelty. I watch other people.

4. Describe the last time you cried?

a. It was a couple of weeks ago, we went to this temple in Malaysia somewhere, and we got there at dawn, as the sun started hitting the tops of the stones. So freaking beautiful.

5. What do you think is your best attribute?

a. People trust me instinctively. I gather stories and secrets wherever I go, and I keep them all.

______

Please share your answers, I'd love to "meet" some of your characters...

It's late Rhinos and I've been up until 4:30 am or later all this week, so I'm going to make this short and sweet. There are few things that are working for me right and maybe they'll work for you too. I'm sure at least one of them will.

1. Don't judge the process - your process. Words on paper is all that matters. Really.

2. If you get stuck try making a list of things you know about your play. This may lead you to the next scene or remind you about how you wanted to describe a particular setting.

3. Notice your habits. One of the things I realized recently about myself is that when something is going well, one of my first impulses is to stop and walk away. It's partly because I'm so excited and partly hubris - I think that since it's working I've earned a break. So now I make myself sit still and stay put until I've written for my allotted time.

4. Yeah. Set a timer or make a writing schedule.

5. Finally, remember that sources of inspiration are everywhere. Every where. Even on the way to your car. There are huge gifts waiting for you if you just teach yourself to stop and recognize the gifts when they appear. Today I was given two big gifts: one for another performance project I'm devising and one for the play I'm writing. Which is what I want to tell you about. I was working today at one of my favorite writing spots - my local library. There is a window that looks out on an orchard. I was writing a scene where someone is looking out on the horizon and reporting what he sees. I kept looking up and out the window, and imagining this empty horizon. Then all of the sudden it struck me to describe what was actually out there. At that very moment this woman appeared and began walking back and forth along this path through the orchard. She was very pregnant and she kept walking and walking and I just described what I saw and added that to the play. It was such a gift. This is one of the most integral parts of my process: paying attention and looking for the gifts that are being sent my way by my genius. By the way, I'm calling myself a genius. My genius is that element that exists outside of myself whose sole raison is to help me write my play. You have one too. Your genius is not inside you, if you want to connect to it, you have to look for it outside of yourself. Trust me on this. It's out there. Look up, look down, sit still, do whatever. Be patient and it will appear. If you haven' t seen this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, now is probably a good time for it.

Good night! And welcome to Day 6!

Hi Rhinos,

As many of you know, once you have an account, you can edit your profile and add more information about you.

I've just added a box for page count so if you want to add your page count in there as well, you are free to do so. You can edit it as often as you want. I'm hoping in the future I can find someone to design a page count "widget" (do you know any java script geniuses?) but for now, this will do.

To edit your profile and page count go there:

http://www.naplwrimo.org/user

Click edit

Click  professional info

... you should see the page count box at the bottom.

Put in the number of pages in numerical form (ie, 4 not four)

Click save and voila!

For fun you can also check this page to see where everyone's page count is at. The number will appear right below name and location:

http://www.naplwrimo.org/profile

Nothing like a little PDC ( public display of page count) to keep the pressure on...