Finished early!

I apologize for my blog-silence over the last while. Every time I had the urge to write something here, I forcefully channeled it into a focus on my playwriting instead.

The benefit, though, is that the complete first draft of my play — still titled Entropy — is now finished.

I’ve brought it in at about 20,000 words and 63 pages, which in some ways seems like an accomplishment and in other ways feels like a thin total for two months of writing. As an excuse, though, many scenes were written, mulled, and then chopped. Ultimately, I’m quite happy with the output. There is a plot, a definite sense of style, and (I hope) a good story. I’m less certain about pacing, some character quirks, and (perhaps most importantly) a complete exploration of my theme. These things will come with time, though. As people kept reminding me, I have to allow for my first draft to be terrible. It is a starting place.

I gave myself an October 1 deadline, which gave me two months of work time covered by the grant money I received from the city of Ottawa. It also allowed for the fact that I am back in the shoes of “working actor” from October through February, making dedicated writing time challenging. And so I’m thrilled to have beat my deadline by almost a week.

At first, I thought I’d just sit on the script for a few days, and then take another pass at it…. but ultimately I couldn’t wait. I sent it out to some close friends and colleagues, which is a sharp contrast to the fear I had of showing anything to anyone up until this weekend. Reaching the point of sharing the script is a victory all its own.

From here, I can start looking for workshop funding. There is a writing group forming in Ottawa where I can bring pieces of the script to work on. And if all goes well, the script will be produced by Gruppo Rubato in a year or so.

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