Did not get through that 31 days just like I never get through NANOWRIMO. No matter how hopeful I am. Sigh. BUT I did get one really good piece out of the days I did.

Right now I'm adapting a story into a play for possible inclusion at a festival. Hopeful!

31 days

Participating in this challenge to generate 31 new pieces of work this month.  I've just submitted piece #2. 

29 to go.

Back to work

Several works to complete.  That June 30th deadline is approaching fast!

Happy news

My one-minute play was selected for the festival which happens in the US and the UK.  Yay!

Another deadline

Another chapbook to send out. Feeling good about it. My only writing goal today.

I am so last minute

Today is a deadline for several things and nah, I'm not ready. 

Chapbook submission--check

Contest submission--almost, Submittable says I've got 10 hours and some minutes to pull it together (hope I do)

Ten-minute play--not gonna make it boo hoo

Conference proposal--another nope, maybe next year

Early dinner and the theatre!

Opening night. Excited to see my play and the others in the festival. But mostly mine.😁

One-Minute Plays

There is such a thing, so I wrote one and submitted to a theatre having a One-Minute Play Festival.

Missed a deadline for one of the plays I was working on. Worked some extra hours at my job and several (Read:  Too many) days, I just bummed around.  Did nothing. Okay, I wrote two poems 'cause it's April but otherwise, lazy, lazy.

Have the rest of the week to get it together and write.

Read this

Icarus Does the Dishes | Journal

You know what happens if you give a mouse a cookie, right?

But what if you loan a drunk five dollars? Find out on page 64. A parody.

Went to the first play rehearsal. Love the actors and their interpretations of my work. A mistake that the director noted that we didn't see before.  Oops.

Hope to have the other two 10-minute plays done this week.  I had to get stitches on my finger and couldn't type so I spent time thinking about my characters and reading other plays.

Send one off to a actor friend who is helping with it. Find someone to read the other and then hope to submit both to festivals by Saturday.

Here, Gwen, I'll help you out

Thanks Life!

So, I am all into writing plays now.  I do love the theatre. I have a very short play about the Civil Rights Movement that needs work.  The two characters are a white person and a black person.  Problem:  Don't know the motivation of someone white in this particular instance.

Went to the library and at the reference desk was this white man who looked like he might be willing to answer some questions (so I could gain some insight). Turns out his wife is very interested in activism for blacks.  We're gonna talk.  Hope to find the info I need to finish the work by mid-April.

Started a new play today.  Also found two places where I can send "No, Baby, No" for additional productions.

Play accepted!

My 10-minute play will be performed in the festival. Yay!

Reprieve

Editor says I still have time to get a story in. Still don't have a character, idea, or line.

10-minute play sent in. Director believes it has a good chance of being accepted. By Wednesday, I'll know. Took a techniques class with Robert Boswell and one thing I learned is how important the words are that characters speak. An assignment had us write a story and then condense it by choosing certain lines of narrative. We could use only one line of dialogue so you had to choose wisely. Has helped with with the two short plays I've written. Want to revise the other now but I need to do research and I already have a pile of articles and two theses to read for the novel.

Two other contests I'm hoping to enter. We'll see.

Did not get my contest entry in. Lost two days in late January to illness.

The play is good though. Have all the dialogue down. Need to go back, format and add stage directions. It's due in a few days as is a story I agreed to write for a publication and I haven't begun it. Don't even have a character😳

Am also judging a contest, the second this year, and next week I am a juror for another contest. I will not be sleeping for awhile.

50 Word Stories

My story was picked as story of the week.


Way cool.

Onward

Got the grant application in.

Have a friend who acts and directs. Community theatre is taking plays. I have a 10- minute one I'm going to revise, and if it gets accepted, she's going to direct it.  But first she's gonna read it and offer any needed suggestions. That's this weekend.

Then there's a contest I'm aiming for on the 7th.
Writing writing writing

A 50-word story

Over at 50 word stories

I'm not a medium

but I filed my taxes and I can see that chair in my writing room in the very near future.😊

!!!!!!!!

Am moving back into my writing groove.  Up in the middle of the night because my mind is writing. 

The novel is moving now.  Characters gelling.  Have been reading articles and a thesis I found on my subject and I don't feel so lost.

Yay!

--Have to call the Missouri State Archives and the State Historical Society.  And the Division of Youth Services because I have to get permission to view some case history records.  And write this person at the Dept. of Corrections because I want to tour a prison and she can give me a yay or nay.

--A new character showed up and he wants me to write his story which seems interesting but I've got too many pieces already in the works.  Ideas are not a problem for me.  Finishing is. And I'm concentrating on the sample from the novel.  That's priority.  Dude, take a number.

Writing but not writing

Working on the writing sample for the grant, which is also going to be a sample for some writing workshops I'd like to attend.  Shelved the story rewrites temporarily. 

Watchng Hulu but the show "This Is Us."  So much I'm learning about writing from that show.  Whoever churns out those scripts is at the top of his/her/their game.  Love how humor is used in and to balance dramatic scenes. Hoping to put more humor into my work which I find hard and it's crazy because I used to be a comedienne and I wrote my own stuff! 

So many broken links

I love the ease of the internet. People want to read my work. Google me. Done.

The flip and unfortunate side is that publications disappear, taking my work along with them. 😞

Another day, another story

Sent off.

Should I start a go-fund-me?

Penneys has a chair I want for my writing room. The price has fluctuated ever since I fell in love with it, the lowest price was around the past holidays but still too much 'cause I quit teaching so I could concentrate on my writing. It's not-quite-the starving artist life -but-pretty-darn-close😳😁😂 at the moment.

Ads of the chair show up on facebook, on pages I visit--taunting me, taunting me, taunting me😝

And let's not talk about the other collection pieces that match my desk and bookcase. . .

Yay, yay, yay, and yay!

Finally, a breakthrough in a scene of the novel that is coming along so slowly.

Steps forward on research as well. Have to go to Missouri (sorry NAACP) because that's where some archival material I need is.

Road trip!

Distracted by my own self

Got a photo acceptance so I was submitting the rejected out again. At the computer, I didn't want to write--just wanted to play around on Photoshop and other editing software.
Created some new images.  Submitted 23 in the last two days.  No writing but I was being creative.

I did do something for my writing though. Applying for a grant and got my budget done.  Now, I need to write a writing sample!😂

#1

If you want to reach a goal, the number one thing needed is discipline.  Without it, one wanders off course.

I got a work written last night but I didn't send it off because I was scrambling trying to find a publication that took micros.

Not even the story I was supposed to work on yesterday but I spent the day binge-watching "Chopped."  So easy to lose time due to distraction.

Lesson learned. No Hulu for me today.  I see where I'm trying to go.  Back on track to get there.

50 words

A short piece. Totally new, not one off the pile. Am really, really proud of this.  Love the voice and the subject.

Sent out. Hope it gets accepted.

The story I sent off yesterday got accepted. Yay!

If you want to be a writer, you should journal.

Really, you should.

Fourth day=fourth submission

I didn't work on the story I'd hoped to revise, so I cleaned up a flash and sent it out. 

I was up at 2:30 and could not fall back to sleep.  Mid-morning, I decided to lay down "for a minute" and then woke up and it was almost four!  Had errands to do.  Day gone.  But I can't let that keep me from my work.

I need to finish that stack of stories to help clear energy. And I will. No matter what.

All the Flies You can Eat

A short-short story

Got a story out. Still a bit of a struggle but I'm just going to have to accept that I am going to be rusty until I start writing regularly.

Have picked tomorrow's story and I have all day to work on it. Don't think it needs a lot of revision but it might.

Gonna go spend an hour on the novel and then read stories for a contest I'm helping judge.

Writing was a bit of a struggle but it's all my doing. Or really, not doing.

I have not written consistently in years.  I tried working on two different pieces but ugh, could not connect with the characters and tell their tales.

Worked on the novel, but I've got to do some reading to do to fill in some gaps, plus there are nine characters, though five will take secondary status.  I feel lost and overwhelmed but I'm going to reopen that file tomorrow and days after.

Sent a story out. One that had been completed and previously sent out and sent back. Not the one I'd hoped to send out -- but still.

Writing quote

As I entered the writing life, it entered me.

--Susan M. Tiberghien

Day 1

Got a story off.