"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'" ~ C. S. Lewis

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Interesting Incompletion, Inspiration, Imagination and Invitations

Interesting Incompletion:

As I have mentioned before, I am currently involved in Script Frenzy. I am really going to try to hit 100 pages, but even if I don't between that and the A-Z Blogging Challenge, I have done more writing in the last 9 days than I did in the last 2 months, at least.

The other day I was desperately trying to pound out a couple of pages before bed when I found myself drifting off as I was writing. So I shut down my computer and went to sleep. The next day, when I started working again I realized that I had been apparently typing in my sleep, because I had left off in the middle of a sentence and the sentence made no sense whatsoever.

I'll post a little bit more about the play and a nice excerpt on Monday (yeah!) but here's a quick brief thing to let you know the basic context of this scene.

The play is a fairy tale, a kind of, sort of Cinderella-esque (but not really) story. But the twist is that the main characters are actually the narrators. There is a traditional narrator and then he is joined by an enthusiastic, unorthodox narrator and they clash and fight and help each other and, ultimately fall in love. I really, really, really love this play. I love the characters and the concept and everything about it so far.

Anyways, so this scene is the introduction of the Evil Stepmother, Harriet and the Evil Stepsisters, Ann & Nan (who act as one, though they are two), and the main fairy tale character, Jane. With lots of input from Jarvis and Gloria, the narrators.

ANN & NAN: Why are you still scrubbing the floor? I'm hungry! No, I was hungry first.

HARRIET: No fighting, girls. Obviously I was hungry first since I am older than both of you. Jane, fetch me some toast and jelly at once, with the crusts properly removed and exactly one teaspoon of jelly on each toast square.

JARVIS: In case you couldn't tell, the Evil Stepfamily was the jealous type and they forced poor Jane to slave away at their every whim out of pure spite.

GLORIA: This is just terrible. Someone should call the police or something.

JARVIS: It is a story! It is not real, we are... I am trying to tell a lovely piece of fiction.

GLORIA: So, you admit that it isn't real! This is all a giant setup to let little children know that these kinds of things, including happily ever afters, only happen in stories or on stage!

JARVIS: It is not saying that. Besides, they came in here looking for a story. They knew that is what they were getting into. Certainly there are no fairies that come and put spells on your hair. What is wrong with wanting to escape into a story for an hour or so? Have you not ever wished to escape from your life?

GLORIA: Well, duh! Why do you think I became a narrator?

JARVIS: Then you are doing a truly terrible job. I sincerely feel bad for all of the people you have narrated for. It is a wonder anything ever happens in any of your stories. I still have not gotten past the exposition, the opening or the introduction and you are still muddling things up. Normally we would be well into the first act by now.

GLORIA: In a snooze fest no one really cared about.

JARVIS: I cannot believe you just said that.

HARRIET: It's obvious that the two of you have some sever problems. I have the name of a wonderful therapist and we can talk about that later, but right now you two bickering is getting in the way of my wonderful, new and improved

(c) 2010 Rebecca Thompson

All Rights Reserved


And that's how it ended. When I pulled it up I was trying to figure out what on earth I was trying to say. New and improved? New and improved what? Personality? Try as I could, I simply had no idea what that sentence was going to be. So I changed it. But now it falls flat and I can't find the right words.

Has that ever happened to you? Ever get distracted or called away from your WIP and return to find that your train of thought has vanished and you have no clue what was happening in that sentence?


Inspiration:

In other news, today a group of ladies from our church were able to go to a women's conference sponsored by another local church. The keynote speaker was Patsy Clairmont and I was so happy, I can't even tell you. She is a riot. I laughed and then cried and then laughed again. She is a spitfire and real and so, so what I needed to end this stressful week on.

A quote that I brought away from it... "God is not the Great Magician, but the Great Physician. Healing takes time."

How true is that. So often we just want God to make everything better right now, but that's not always what is BEST for us. It's a good thing He knows what is best. Now we just have to work at trusting him about it.

Imagination:

Two short stories.
1. Yesterday I was frantically trying to finish the owl triplets for my Fifty Fabulous Followers contest and I suddenly found that I was missing the grey owl's wing. It just wasn't there. I looked around frantically and then said, "I'm missing a wing!" Dad's witty response? "How about a prayer?"

hahaha

2. We are in the middle of a little bit of a remodel project and my Dad had the door propped open with that slidey bar on the screen door.
Mom looked at it and said, "Why is the bar bent?"
Dad's answer. "Well, there was this aardvark that came around and he kept sticking his tongue out, mocking me, so I hit him with the door until he went away."
Mom's respons. "So it's your fault."
Dad. "No, the Aardvark wouldn't quit sticking out his tongue."

I love my parents :D

Invitations:

Enter some super cool contests I've learned about!

Wagging Tales passed 100 followers now and she's holding a choose your own prize contest! Holy cow!

Susan Fields also passed 100 followers and is having a gift card contest! Woohoo!

Lisa and Laura are celebrating 500! (Super major kudos for that one!) with a super contest! Yahoo!

14 comments:

Roland D. Yeomans said...

Robert Browning was once handed a poem he had written years before by a three critics and asked what it meant.

He studied it for long moments, then slowly said, "When I wrote this poem, only I and God knew what it meant. Now, only God knows."

It happens to the greats, too.

Come check out my murder scene entry if you have the time and are of a mind. It's set in 1853 aboard a transatlantic steamer bound for Paris with more than one killer out for sport.

http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/.
Thanks, Roland

Arlee Bird said...

I think I know what you're dealing with in doing A to Z and Script Frenzy. Last November I was doing the NaNoWriMo and posting about 1000 words per day to my blog and making numerous comments on other blogs all at the same time. I was really cranking it out and ended the month successfully completing it all.

I recall waking up about 2:30 in the morning once with an idea that was absolute genius. I went into my writing office--didn't even bother putting on my glasses-- and wrote my idea down on the notebpad on my desk. The next morning I went to read it-- I made absolutely no sense and was unreadable. Another idea of genius lost.

Lee
Blogging From A to Z April Challenge

Talli Roland said...

Love your script!

Have I ever got distracted and forgotten my train of thought? Oh yes. Happens at least once a day when I'm writing!

Anonymous said...

Have fun with the A-Z challange. If I'm trying to write during the day and my kids are around, I'm constanly jumping up to get them drinks or clean up messes or come see -oh wait, they're calling now.......Ok, I'm back....Shit. What was I saying?

PS- Google is coming up with some weird words to type into the security box. I just got the word 'stingle' whats up with that?

Sarah Ahiers said...

ooh i like the idea of the narrator also being a character. Just like Into the Woods (which i have a deep and unabiding love for)

Lynn Lindquist said...

I loved, loved, LOVED this scene and concept! So original and clever... I can't wait to see more!

Shelley Sly said...

Awesome script! I loved it and I'd love to read more. Thanks so much for sharing.

Patricia Stoltey said...

I want to know your folks -- they sound like lots of fun (I'm quite fond of the world aardvark and think there should be more aardvark stories).

Rebecca T. said...

@Roland: I love that quote! I will stop by your blog, thanks for dropping by mine :)

@arlee bird: The funniest things happen when you write while tired/half asleep. occasionally good, usually nonsensical :)

@Talli: thanks! This isn't the first time I've left off in the middle of something, but it is the first time I've had somewhere to share it :)

@creepyquerygirl: My favorite thing to do with those VW is to come up with definitions. On Nikki Stafford's Lost blog we regularly leave these definitions in the comments. They can be quite a hoot.

@Falen: I was writing it as a regular script and then the second narrator popped up and they just took over! ha! Love when that happens.

@Princess L: Aww... I'm so glad you liked it. These characters are cracking me up.

@Shelley: I'm gonna post more Monday (but I said that already). Thanks for reading :)

@Patricia: the world DOES need more Aardvark stories. I should write some.

Jemi Fraser said...

Good luck with Script Frenzy - I've done NaNo, but not this version. I like the zany pressure :)

Rae said...

Love the fact that you are writing. sometimes it can be the smallest of inspirations that get our spark back, great job!

Christina Farley said...

Hey Rebecca! Nice blog you have here. You won the magnets over on my blog. Send me your address and I'll pop them in the mail for you.

B. Miller said...

Nice post with LOTS of info! Great entry!

Thanks for stopping by my blog this weekend... hope to see you there again sometime!

Unknown said...

Haha... aardvarks? Really? I love it.

VW: derfske, a word in Ancient Kruje