Brand New Project

Keep me on task with this one, guys.

Inspired by Suzan Lorie-Parks' 365 Days, 365 Plays, an occasionally interesting experiment in one-play-a-day playwriting, I have decided to submit myself to a similar challenge.

My goal, to write one sketch a day for the next year.

I started yesterday, late in the night. I really like writing sketch, so I think this could be very fun. Dialog comes naturally to me, and I want it to be part of the process that I don't worry about revision while writing. I just want to write them as quickly as possible, until I get to a point that feels conclusive. I'm trying to avoid planning out big punchlines and twists, letting the characters themselves guide where the dialog flows. When the characters run the narrative into trouble spots, that's when I institute major changes or wrap things up.

The first thing I've decided is that the sketches do not necessarily have to be funny. Hopefully, they will all have some element of the comedic in them, but I've found that forcing jokes can alienate the reader. I want them to be challenging and engaging, things I would like to read or direct. In that way, they are thematically and tonally similar to Lorie-Parks' works, but hopefully mine will be slightly less oblique and ethereal.

Then again, the one I wrote last night started really broad and jokey and ended tragically. It was about a dorky young kid coming of age, and ended with him beating his grandmother to death while his dad sat in the car with his dead mom's corpse.

So, it's highly experimental, is what I'm getting at. Even if they aren't completely finished, or completely valid, I hope they stumble across at least one interesting element each and explore it as far as the constraints will let them.

So yeah, if you see me, ask me how it's going. Friends inquiring is a great way of imposing non-literal deadlines on my deadline-desirous brain.