All Eyes on Me

I am quite late with this, but as I have been absolutely slammed for the last two months, it’s been something of a theme for the whole challenge. Still, I wanted to make sure I do as I always do, and give an assessment of what I made over the course of the month’s writing.

This year’s challenge was easy in some ways and hard in others. I’ve consistently found the process most useful and productive when I had a project to work on, and so I used much of it for drafting pieces for Mrs. Hawking part 8, which Bernie and I have recently dug into. I made a fair bit of progress, though we still have enough questions about how it’s going to work that I expect the scenes I generated to need a ton of editing. Still, I’m happy for the forward movement on the project. I also returned to Dream Machine, which I haven’t touched in a while, and did a few more new Little Monsters and Texts from Avengers Towers bits, so there was a noticeable focus on comedy. Didn’t write as much other fanfic as I expected, or more than one or two bits of anything else.

I am disappointed to report, however, that for the first time in thirteen years, I failed to finish all thirty-one pieces before the end of the month. I’ve been dealing with some focus issues for a while now, but the real problem is the last handful of months have been totally slammed. Between work, chores, and family obligations involving travel, I lost a ton of time that led to me falling behind. I know it doesn’t really matter— this is a challenge I’ve arbitrarily set for myself, with rules that only I care about, and I ended up doing the same amount of writing in the end that I always do. But I feel kind of bad that my perfect streak of all that time is a little tarnished.

As I was drafting it, I felt like my quality varied a lot. I remember being very frustrated with some pieces, while others came very easily. Looking back through what I wrote with a few weeks’ distance, however, I’m actually pretty pleased with the general level of these pieces. The character voices seem on point, the jokes are strong where there are jokes, and I managed to give some meaningful character motion in the vast majority of the scenes. That’s actually not half bad, even though I know everything will need a lot of editing, both stylistic and functional. I really do strongly believe that you need to just get SOMETHING on the page, no matter how bad, as the first step to making something good.

The breakdown of projects I wrote for:

Hawking part 8 - 14
Texts from Avengers Tower - 3
Dream Machine - 4
Little Monsters - 6
Gentlemen Never Tell 2 - 1
Forever Captain - 1
Witchy - 1

And the breakdown of characters I wrote for:

1. Nathaniel Hawking - 9
2. Beatrice Hawking - 8
3. Clara Hawking - 7
4. Victoria Hawking - 6
5. Mary Stone - 6
6. Leah Lucchesi - 4
7. Twyla Boogieman - 3
8. Draculaura - 3
9. Venus McFlytrap - 3
10. Frankie Stein - 3
11. Ghoulia Yelps - 3
12. Heath Burns - 2
13. Josie Carraway - 2
14. Meryl Dresden - 2
15. Derek Kaplan - 2
16. Joanna Kerrigan - 2
17. Spectra Vondergeist - 2
18. Clawdeen Wolf - 2
19. Bucky Barnes - 1
20. Meredith Barry - 1
21. Clint Barton - 1
22. Lagoona Blue - 1
23. Abbey Bominable - 1
24. Peggy Carter - 1
25. Devon Chambers - 1
26. Zach Barry - 1
27. Cleo de Nile - 1
28. Ryan Dresden - 1
29. Gwen Galway - 1
30. Justin Hawking - 1
31. Reggie Hawking - 1
32. Logan - 1
33. Megan May - 1
34. Catty Noir - 1
35. Nate Reyes - 1
36. Barbie Roberts - 1
37. Steve Rogers - 1
38. Thor - 1
39. Toralei Stripe - 1
40. Arthur Swann - 1
41. Sam Wilson - 1
42. Wade Wilson - 1

Forty-two characters is a fairly large number, even for me. Last year I only wrote for thirty-six, thirty-seven the year before, and thirty-four the year before that. I averaged about three characters a scene, though most of them only had two while the largest maxed out at seven. I’ve always found it tougher to manage larger-cast scenes, so I’m surprised at how many there were this year to skew the average.

Favorite scenes? I thought I did pretty well this year, so I liked a lot. I enjoyed writing for Beatrice Hawking, with her enthusiasm for learning undercover work and managing her privileged background, such as in #23 - Just Powder and #25 - Tweenies.

#23 - Culture Not Costumes is a really funny Little Monsters bit, as is #19 - Relatable. I was also glad I was able to work out #14 - Special Ability, since I was chipping at that joke for most of the month. I’m fond of #26 - Two Sets of Tentacles if only because it’s a serious contender for weirdest thing I’ve ever written.

I also ended up really liking #31 - Derek in Hell, since it’s one of those scenes that I didn’t know where it was going to go until I wrote it. In fact, the only scene I don’t really like is #30 - In Murder’s Path, which doesn’t add anything to its larger piece and was the first of the two scenes I had to write past the end of the month.

Favorite lines? Lagoona’s weird, weird mini-monologue in #26 - Two Sets of Tentacles. Beatrice’s too-enthusiastic recitation of her melodramatic invented backstory in #25 - Tweenies. Nathaniel’s titular line in #24 - Got the Morbs. There’s some cute back and forth between Justin and Reggie in #17 - Let Me Tell You.

So, yeah, a lot of good came out of the exercise this month. Even if I was a little late getting it all done.

This picks up directly after #6 - Alien Parasite. Again, it’s silly and sitcommy, but I think it has potential to be really funny. Especially if I can make the Alien parody work somehow…



( Day #11 - No One Can Hear You Scream )

A ridiculous bit from the “Friendsgiving” episode I have been noodling on for Dream Machine. The premise of it is that when the shooting schedule runs over and everybody’s grumpy, nobody is able to travel for Thanksgiving. So Meredith tries to host everybody to try and raise spirits and do some team building, but folks are not feeling it. THEN HIJINKS OCCUR.

Other scenes I’ve written for this episode are, in rough order they would occur:

- ”Extreme Rendition”
- ”Friendsgiving”
- ”Emotional Potluck”
- ”Marching Orders”
- ”Competitive”
- ”Glorified Babysitters”

I think this one falls between “Marching Order” and “Competitive”. It’s very dumb and sitcommy, but with some polishing could be very funny. It also occurs to me that Devon should probably be in this scene, since he reacts to a certain character’s appearance. But I was trying to keep the character count down for some reason, so I kept some people out of the room. Still, I’ll have to fix that on a second pass.



( Day #4 - Special Delivery )

Blargh. As the end of the month draws near, I always get to a point where I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for scenes. Add in the fact that I’m nearing my moving date, I really don’t have the time to work these out very well.

This is a couple of Dream Machine bits strung together with basically no arc, from my idea for the Friendsgiving episode. Kind of funny maybe? At least it’s raw material to develop later.



( Day #27 - Marching Orders )

Furthering building on the "rough time at the Emmys" idea I've been noodling with for Dream Machine. I was thinking of developing the connection between actors Josie Carraway and the new leading man, Tom Vincent, until he reveals himself to be a cad and a turncoat, leaving Josie to feel like both her personal and professional lives are destroyed. I also thought she'd get nominated for an Emmy for her performance in the season finale, but because of the circumstances, not have the reaction that the rest of the team is expecting from her.

I notice the Dream Machine scenes I've been drafting this month haven't been very funny for a comedy. But I've always said moments of high drama always come much easier to me than jokes or structure. I can always punch up if need be later.



( Day #24 - Shelley Duvall )

Another Dream Machine bit. This combines two elements that will be featuring later in how I envision season 1– Ryan reencountering his ex-wife Veronica, with whom he parted on very bad terms, and the reconnection with an old producing partner, Cory Bentley. Cory dangling the possibility of him returning to the big leagues of film production brings out the old version of Ryan from before he got clean, and he’s forced to confront the kind of person he used to be. Spoiler alert: he’s not entirely pleased with what he realizes about himself. I’ve written about Cory before in this scene, “Hello, 1989.”

Veronica Dresden is a character I’ve enjoyed working out. Writing this, I realized how rarely I’ve ever treated drama between former romantic partners. I have not written many characters who have ever been divorced, much less have interaction with that former spouse. And as I think I’ve mentioned, Veronica is a particular challenge because I want to make her angry enough at Ryan that the audience instinctively sympathizes with him, but in realizing how justified she is in her anger, they have to confront their own assumption that an angry ex wife must be a bitch. It’s a tough balance to achieve.



( Day #21 - Asshole )

An idea from Dream Machine, in the wake of the eventual terrible night at the Emmys I am imagining; I think it would be probably at the start of season two. I’ve written several scenes from the bottle episode I want of Leah and Ryan hanging out after the ceremony— ”Man Cave,” ”Flawless,” and ”Three-Time”. I was thinking it might be neat to technically make that story a flashback, by showing the morning after the Emmys and having everyone being in a state, then flashing back to how the night went that showed how they got there.

This would be that opening scene before the flashback. Don’t know if it would work, but it’s an idea to try in the full draft.



( Day #19 - Crabs in a Barrel )

This one builds upon yesterday's piece, #9 - "Marcelina Anastasia di Gregorio Tremaine". Inspired by the talents of actress Liz Salazar, I thought it would be fun to send her character Meredith on a journey of making up an imperious persona that would give her the strength to assert herself as a producer. But, not only would the lack of personal accountability drive her mad with power, it keeps her from developing her own professional authority, which is a good struggle for a character to work through.

Here's a scene, which is rough but at least a bit funny, of Derek confronting her over what she hath wrought in her alternate persona of Marcelina Anastasia di Gregorio Tremaine. (Long complicated names make me laugh.)



( Day #10 - Iron Fist )

And that’s my tenth year of this silly jaunt. :-) That’s pretty cool.

I didn’t have one particular project I was trying to use the challenge to help me complete, the way I have in recent years. Bernie and I decided we were not going to debut the next Mrs. Hawking play, but instead do a staged version of Gentlemen and a recorded version of the first one, so I was kind of on my own recognizance for what I felt like working on.

The projects I worked on this time:

Dream Machine - 9
Forever Captain - 7
Hawking - 11
Adonis - 4

The characters I included this time:

1. Ryan Dresden - 7
2. Steve Rogers - 7
3. Leah Lucchesi - 6
4. Nathaniel Hawking - 5
5. Mary Stone - 5
6. Aidan - 4
7. Clara Hawking - 4
8. Victoria Hawking - 4
9. Veronica Dresden - 3
10. Rishun Hayward - 3
11. Meredith Barry - 2
12. Cedric Brockton - 2
13. Devon Chambers - 2
14. Elizabeth Frost - 2
15. Tony Stark - 2
16. Jeremy Allison - 1
17. Zach Barry - 1
18. Miranda Barrymore - 1
19. Elizabeth Carter - 1
20. John Colchester - 1
21. Marlon Dresden - 1
22. Gan Jhao - 1
23. Hamba - 1
24. Justin Hawking - 1
25. Don Hayward - 1
26. Joxer - 1
27. Derek Kaplan - 1
28. Vivian Newell - 1
29. Pavilla - 1
30. Ken Rafferty - 1
31. Red Tyrus - 1
32. Malaika Shah - 1
33. Arthur Swann - 1
34. Zagora - 1

At first glance, this looks like the narrowest spread of different projects— just Mrs. Hawking, Dream Machine, Adonis, and Forever Captain. But really, I just didn’t really separate different pieces within the same series or umbrella this time in the manner I usually do. I worked on Hawking pieces from several epochs, three different Captain America fan fictions, three different episodes of Dream Machine, and at least two separate parts of the larger Adonis story. I think I did that because this time I wasn’t always certain which project each piece would ultimately belong in. But I do feel like I generated a lot of work that I will make use of eventually.

I usually end up writing about between thirty and forty different characters, so that’s fairly typical. Twenty male to fourteen female, which is skewed more in favor of men than usual. Ryan Dresden and Steve Rogers featured most frequently, with 7 scenes each, followed by Leah Lucchesi at 6, Nathaniel Hawking and Mary Stone at 5, then Aidan, Victoria Hawking, and Clara Hawking at 4. Nathaniel basically always makes it into the top five. While Mrs. Hawking still has the most 31P31D scenes of all time, she’s only in the top ten this year.

Last year I also started to pay attention to the characters who have actors associated with them. Yet again I’m writing a lot of scenes for Eric Cheung, as he plays both Ryan and Justin Hawking, totaling 8. Between Leah and Malaika Shah, that’s 7 for Naomi Ibatsitas, 5 for Christian Krenek as Nathaniel, 5 for Circe Rowan as Mary, 4 for Cari Keebaugh as Mrs. Hawking, 4 for Jackie Freyman as Clara. There’s also some roles I haven’t officially cast but have people I’d love to see as— like Arielle Kaplan as Veronica Dresden, and maybe double cast as Miranda Barrymore as well, which if you total those up with Mrs. Frost comes to 6.

Favorite scenes for this year? Hmm, I was generally pretty happy with what I generated. It’s in need of a lot of polishing, of course, but I feel like I was getting at good ideas in the overall majority of pieces. Occasionally I feel like I am just screwing around wasting page space, but that didn’t really happen this year. But I’m not sure what I thought was really head and shoulders above the rest. I thought there was some real power in #15 - No Regrets. #2 - Sit Up and Beg came out much wittier than I expected it would upon short notice. And even though I don’t even know if I can use #20 - Bannock in whole anywhere, I think it has some real tenderness to it. And #13 - Man Cave came out very clever and funny, actually close to the particular combination of humorous and vulnerable I was going for.

Favorite lines? I liked in #22 - Recon Mom, when Steve asks if Rishun can sneak two little kids past a strike team, her answer of, “Grant. I have two toddlers. Compared to a church or a toy store, this is nothing.” I also thought I was onto something in #30 - Brazen, with Justin’s “With that pink in your cheeks? I think I’d like to see it up to the roots of your hair.” Justin always gets good lines. But honestly the best is probably “They must have passed you around like a wineskin at a wake,” from #26 of the same name. It manages to be snappy, raw, and in the idiom I was going for— a very tricky thing to achieve. Apparently I’m into the naughtiest ones this time!

So, yeah. I’m pretty happy with the result. It didn’t feel hugely burdensome, and I got some nice work out of it. And looking at my chart of ten years solid is really, really satisfying to me.