First draft of a play in a week

So remember that insane project I said I was doing? Well, it was writing a play. A full-length play, in entirely too little time. I'm not going to tell you too much about it until it's well and truly done, but today I finished the first draft. I even had some lovely and talented people read it for me and give me useful feedback. It wasn't half bad for something I wrote in a week! Though it could certainly use tweaking, I'm happy with the basic gist.

I plan on editing it tomorrow. I have the whole day, only for editing, based on the response I got tonight, and my own impressions. I'm really glad to be able to spend a day on it. The deadline I've been writing it for is Friday.

So far, so good. Onward!

FLASH PLAY ACCOMPLISHED

Finished a fairly solid first-round-edit of my new play today. I had an emergency reading dinner with some really wonderful actor friends who rendered their opinion on very short notice, and it was incredibly useful. The plot of this piece involves a fairly complex series of actions, which I wanted feedback on the logic of, as well as whether or not the emotional arcs read and were genuine. I mostly achieved what I wanted, and in the ways it didn't quite work the suggestions and responses I got were very helpful. I spent today applying those edits, and I'm pretty happy with the result. Not bad for a week's work!

As I mention, I'm waiting a bit before I widely say what the piece was. But it had a couple of demands specific to this particular project, including issues of context and whether or not certain subtle things were delivered clearly. I also really wanted was a balance of drama and emotional weight with moments of genuine levity and humor. The reading last night seemed to demonstrate that I achieved that, and I think I managed to incorporate my readers' suggestions effectively.

This piece could definitely use a subplot. It's... maybe ten pages shorter than it should be. One thing I have a consistent tendency towards is making the plot barrel forward full speed ahead. I'm not very good at adding in those little somewhat divergent threads that seem to tell a separate story, but which actually supports and reveals the overall themes of the piece. My way has the advantage of the fact that it usually indicates highly active characters who are taking steps and making things happen to achieve their goals, which tends to make for better drama. But at the same time, it can have the downside of pacing problems, and a lack of dimension and complexity. I had the same trouble when I was working on Mrs. Loring, and honestly, I never really resolved it in that one. At least for the first draft of this newest, I suppose it will do, but I wouldn't mind thinking of something else I can include just to get it up to length.

It probably needs more tweaking. I did write it in a week. But at the moment I am a bit burnt out on it. I will need more distance before I think I will be able to effectively bring it to the next level. Still, I think it's good enough for what I want it to do at the moment...