Reflections on 31 Plays 31 Days

So I got through the month of August having written a play for each of the thirty-one days, and I'm quite proud of myself. It went  differently than I expected it to, and though it was hard and an additional source of stress at a time when that might have been the last thing I needed, but I think it was extremely beneficial for me and I'm extremely glad I undertook it.

First of all, it got me writing. It forced me to practice my craft whether I was feeling it or not. They say every word you write helps you become better, so of course the more you do it, the more you improve. I've learned a lot about how plays should be put together over the last year and the only way to get better at doing that is to practice. 

Secondly, it gave me a ton more material for my portfolio. Up to this point I've had relatively few finished, useable pieces to my name as a playwright, which makes it hard to submit into consideration for production. Now I have a bunch of things I can fix up into submissions. Starting and getting the words on paper is often the hardest part, bow now I have things to go on. I can edit what I came up with last month, whip it into shape, without the pressure of coming up with the bones of the original idea. 

When I got ready to start, I expected to have to just write some nonsense each day just to meet the quota. When I've tried to just force myself to write something in the past, I've had a very hard time summoning any meaningful inspiration on command. But to my surprise, I think that happened maybe three times in the thirty-one days. (They were, for reference, #13 "Explain," #25 "Daughter's Daughter," and #29 "Playing the Game.") All the other times I was able to come up with an actual idea I could get mentally invested in. I'm shocked and delighted that I was able to do that. 

Some of them, such as the many based on The Stand, were drawn from the stories of characters I already knew and cared about. I got no fewer than seven short plays from that larp of mine (the plot of which I'm particularly proud) not counting the one I wrote for school first semester. All of them, I feel, could be polished into real ten-minute plays. Maybe they could even be pieced together into a full-length, especially given how many pieces I got out of the backstory of one particular character. I'd like to see if I can come up with even more, given how many cool characters I have in that game.

Other pieces came from ideas I'd had floating around in my head but heretofore had never done anything with. I'd had the vague notion that I could make a play about a supermodel who is catastrophically disfigured in an assault and must rebuild her life and identity now that she is no longer beautiful. Pieces #1 "Pretty is Power" and #23 "Lie Down and Die" are the first bits of work I've done toward actually realizing that story. I now have a start for a new play that I wouldn't have otherwise had. 

In two instances I came up with a brand-new concept I think I could do something with. I came up with the character of fashion designer Freddy Moreau who featured in pieces #17 "Slimming" and #28 "Better Design" in the course of this challenge, and I have become quite interested in the idea of him learning the absurdities of the notions of body image in the retail fashion industry. I never would have come up with him if I hadn't undertaken this. Also, I'm pretty excited about doing more with my somewhat meta, humorous take on what it is to live the life of a superhero as done in #5 "Wondra" and #14 "Work-Life Balance." 

In other cases it provided impetus to work on scripts that I needed for other things. I wrote six, possibly even seven, scenes that I could adapt for use in my ballet-themed graphic novel. I also wrote one scene for Mrs. Hawking, which will feature in the next installment of the play I will be handing in for credit. Getting even the tiniest bit ahead is really helpful, given how much work I have to get through this semester.

Finally, you may recall that in Break a Leg, an important part of the gameplay will be "cobbling together a play" to put on in two hours because the death of the leading lady has made their previous show unplayable. Fortunately, before her nervous breakdown, the playwright associated with the troupe left scattered pieces of scripts around the backstage area that can be performed instead. So the players have the option to perform scenes during the game, hopefully as humorously and outrageously as possible. That means I have to write those scenes! But I think in the course of this project, I may have generated a couple that may be viable for inclusion in the game. I won't tell you which ones so as not to ruin the surprise, but that's a little work off me already. :-)

So I think there's a lot more good than not in the things I wrote last month, even if only in the form of good bones that still require editing. I really like a number of the things I wrote, and definitely plan on devoting the time to revising them. I have been encouraged to have pieces read aloud to hear how they sound, so I would really like to have an evening of readings of my favorites from this. Cook a nice meal and have all of you over to read some of my favorite pieces. If anyone has any opinions or suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them. 

Now I just need to figure out what to do for edits. Which to do first, where to go from here. But I'm taking a day or two to just enjoy having completed the challenge to write thirty-one plays in thirty-one days.