Resolutions for 2012

After some thought, I have made my new list of resolutions for 2012. I did a good job with my last set, so I'm going to task myself with a lot of things again that really matter to me. For this coming year, I would like to:

1. Write, produce, and direct The Tailor of Riddling Way. I am feeling quite passionate about this project, and I think it has the potential to be something really good.

2. Get back into the habit of exercising six days a week like I used to. I really hate how squishy I've gotten and how undisciplined I've become about taking care of my physical health. I want my old body back, and I want to feel strong again.
 
3. Do well in school, and generate respectable work. Going right along with this is keeping up with my biweekly theater writing challenge. I have done quite well with this so far, as my average is actually closer to one a week rather than two weeks, but I want to keep it up in order to keep improving my work and generating a portfolio.

4. Become a competent seamstress. This is a skill I really want to master, and making things with my hands makes me feel good in my soul.

5. Make significant improvement with ballet. It will take practice and discipline, but the payoff would be worth it.

6. Start a garden of some kind. Probably herbs, maybe vegetables or even flowers or something. Playing Minecraft of all things has made me feel like it would be good for me to have something like this to take care of and raise. See above regarding the good feeling in my soul.

7. Write a complete piece that I am really proud of. Tailor of course is a priority and will hopefully qualify, but I want to do something in addition, another thing like To Think of Nothing that people like and respect that I feel truly good about.

And then those perennial ones that should always be on my list:

8. Be good to my parents and spend as much time with them as possible. This is important forever.

9. Keep working on being a kinder person. I especially need to work on keeping my temper and being less judgmental.

10. Learn how to be hopeful. I cannot keep falling into these dark periods for months and then taking months to claw my way out of them. I need to get away from this hole that I seem to be endlessly wavering on the edge of, if not swallowed up by it entirely. There is so much good in the world, and I've been unbelievably blessed in my life, and the weakness in me must not keep me from all the joy to be had.

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #13.1 - Scene 5, Tom and his mother's embroidery notes

I'm not sure how I should be numbering this piece-- perhaps it should be 11.5 instead of 13 --but since I broke up my streak of working on The Tailor of Riddling Way I guess it gets a new number. This short scene is from The Tailor of Riddling Way after Tom returns home from learning that Miss Emma Loring has been found dead. Though he figures he shouldn't be worrying about making the strange gown she commissioned anymore, he can't seem to get the project out of his head, and finds himself consulting his mother's old embroidery notes wondering how he might have handled the challenge.

One thing about audio drama is that since you can only communicate information through what the audience hears, you find yourself having characters needing to tell rather than show what they're doing. It can be tough to make characters "think out loud," so to speak, without making it sound unnatural and stagey. Also, things in the book are read in the voice of the woman who wrote them, even though she's not actually there, and I hope that plays clearly. You be the judge of the job I did here.

( By necessity, Tom must talk to himself... )

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #13.2 - The Tailor of Riddling Way, scene 2

This is the second scene of the piece, immediately following this one. There's not much too it, but I like how it begins, with Tom trying to parse out how the dress is made just from what he can glean from an old faded newspaper clipping. In my head the dress looks similar to this one that Keira Knightley wears in Atonement. It's not a totally period choice for the early twenties, but it's close enough and I like it very much. Striking as that gorgeous vivid emerald green is, however, I picture it here in cornflower blue, and instead of a deep v-neck, the bodice comes up higher and is covered with an intricate pattern of beadwork.

( Scene 2, in which I get to include lots of cool dressmaking terms... )