breakinglight11 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
breakinglight11) wrote2021-07-31 10:02 am
breakinglight11) wrote2021-07-31 10:02 am
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Goddamn it I forgot about 31 Plays in 31 Days again
Damn it, yet again I have spaced on the fact that the time to do 31 Plays in 31 Days is coming up. Every year since 2012, I’ve completed this challenge where you write a play scene of at least once page in length every day for the month of August. It’s a lot of work, and frequently an imposition on my time when I need to be focusing on something other than text generation. But I really love be able to look back on my long, unbroken record of having completed it, and I’ve come up with some really good stuff in the process. This will be the tenth year I’ll be doing it, so even though I’m not super feeling it yet again, I’m still not ready to give up the custom.
This year, though, I’m not really sure what I should be working on. I am currently in production, so writing something new isn’t a huge priority. Also, Bernie and I decided we would not be writing the next Mrs. Hawking this year— instead, we’re going to be performing Gentlemen Never Tell live at this coming Arisia, and going back to our previous catalogue and begin staging earlier installments in order to film them really well. They’ll still be stage shows, but optimize for capturing them on film— this past year we’ve thought it was really good for us to have permanent and highly accessible recordings of our work, rather than just the ephemeral stage presentations.
But that means there’s no obvious project to use 31P31D to work on. I can of course pick at scenes from the next Mrs. Hawking, as I frequently do. But there’s no primary piece I need to be working towards. Bernie and I do want to edit the first Mrs. Hawking before committing a version of it to film, but I’ve had a policy of not using edited versions of old work for this challenge. It also occurs to me that I could maybe use it to work on my prose projects, like those fan fics I need to finish, though that definitely doesn’t meet the “play scene of at least one page” thing— especially because it takes a lot more prose to make one page’s worth of work.
I don’t know. Maybe I just need to change my stupid arbitrary rules— why not do something that serves me better? It’s not for anybody but me! Say, two hundred fifty words (about one page of a paperback) equals one page of a play and allow prose to count? Like a NaNoWriMo thing. Or just fucking use it to edit Mrs. Hawking 1; who cares if it’s not entirely new? I’ve also begun a bit of work on episode 6 of Dream Machine, which though it’s not currently pressing it’s something I’ve got a bit of direction on and want to get done eventually.
Blargh. I hate the idea of breaking my streak, and I’m always glad I did it afterward. But I’ve definitely outgrown the practical uses of this challenge. Though last year was the first in a long time where it actually helped me finish a project, it’s increasingly become an albatross around my creative neck.
This year, though, I’m not really sure what I should be working on. I am currently in production, so writing something new isn’t a huge priority. Also, Bernie and I decided we would not be writing the next Mrs. Hawking this year— instead, we’re going to be performing Gentlemen Never Tell live at this coming Arisia, and going back to our previous catalogue and begin staging earlier installments in order to film them really well. They’ll still be stage shows, but optimize for capturing them on film— this past year we’ve thought it was really good for us to have permanent and highly accessible recordings of our work, rather than just the ephemeral stage presentations.
But that means there’s no obvious project to use 31P31D to work on. I can of course pick at scenes from the next Mrs. Hawking, as I frequently do. But there’s no primary piece I need to be working towards. Bernie and I do want to edit the first Mrs. Hawking before committing a version of it to film, but I’ve had a policy of not using edited versions of old work for this challenge. It also occurs to me that I could maybe use it to work on my prose projects, like those fan fics I need to finish, though that definitely doesn’t meet the “play scene of at least one page” thing— especially because it takes a lot more prose to make one page’s worth of work.
I don’t know. Maybe I just need to change my stupid arbitrary rules— why not do something that serves me better? It’s not for anybody but me! Say, two hundred fifty words (about one page of a paperback) equals one page of a play and allow prose to count? Like a NaNoWriMo thing. Or just fucking use it to edit Mrs. Hawking 1; who cares if it’s not entirely new? I’ve also begun a bit of work on episode 6 of Dream Machine, which though it’s not currently pressing it’s something I’ve got a bit of direction on and want to get done eventually.
Blargh. I hate the idea of breaking my streak, and I’m always glad I did it afterward. But I’ve definitely outgrown the practical uses of this challenge. Though last year was the first in a long time where it actually helped me finish a project, it’s increasingly become an albatross around my creative neck.