Step one: Have a great idea.
Hilarious. Suspenseful. Brilliant! Can't wait to start putting words to
parchment—Yay!
Step two: Got the amazing
opening monologue down completely, end-to-end in one session. Requires
remarkably little editing; came out perfectly. I live for days like this!
Writing is wonderful!
Step three: Bash out first
scene just as planned. This is gonna be a good one. All characters, individual
and clear and fully formed, just jump off the page.
Step four: Character 3
surprises me with an unexpected tactic. It's a good one. Forces me to rethink
the next batch of forward movement, but the play as a whole looks better.
Step five: Character 4 suddenly—out
of nowhere—suddenly morphs into a completely different character (one from a
previous, directly related play—hello, excuse me, why are you here?) making it necessary to incorporate two more previously written entities. A strange turnabout indeed, but you gotta love the surprises
in this game.
Step six: Realizing now that
I have these repeat characters, the original ending will have to change. That's
okay; it was a little fuzzy to start with. So, like the intrepid explorer
Stanley, I place the pith helmet of my creativity squarely on the crown of my
purpose and set boldly off into the jungle of the unknown.
Step seven: Realize now that
my original first character, the one the play has been named after, has
suddenly been relegated to a tertiary position. I wonder how much of my
original scribblings I can keep. I had a whole series of utterly brilliant
comedic running gags serving as plot tactics written down in my Notes for Play file. I’m sure I can
salvage most of them.
Step eight: Hmmm. Is it
possible to make the play about a different character and still keep the
original title and premise?
Step nine: Finish first
scene. Yep--it's now a completely different play. The words are still coming
like an open faucet, but I'm not sure where it's leading anymore.
Step ten: Hey—no worries! I'm
back on track because of Character Two's sudden reveal. Whew!
Step eleven: …which forces
two other characters to get killed. Did not see that coming. Also did not see
Character Four doing the dirty work. This...ummm...enriches...the play...?
Step twelve: Realize that the
play is now a one-act and that because of the loss of two characters and that
unexpected sentence that Character One just spewed out, the original planned
Act Two is no longer viable. Hmmm. I have to think about this.
Step thirteen. Still
thinking.
Step fourteen. Original
two-act full-length play may actually be only a ten-minute play.
Step fifteen. Realize the
opening monologue no longer fits. Maybe I can use it on its own. With some
tweaking.
Step sixteen. Character 2
reveals she is now (and has always been, really, I just never knew it) female.
Step seventeen: Have to
change the title (originally Surfing With Pasquale), as Character 1 is
now in a coma. Coma-ing With Pasquale just doesn't have that snap.
Step eighteen: I think it's
finished. Character 3 just suddenly ended their arc. I have nothing left.
Pasquale still in a coma.
Step nineteen: Decide this is
the last time I try to write a YA play.
