ZigZag

A line or course that proceeds by sharp turns in alternating directions.

That's kind of how I feel my blog has been over the last month.

I've gone from standard posts (like Retail Wednesdays) to uber short ones (like "G" and "Y") to really long ones where I posted some of my play to introspective ones (like "V") to goofy completely ridiculous ones (like"D").

I started out with titles like "Attempting Astronomically Ample Activities" and ended up with titles like "Untitled".

But there is one thing that every single one of these posts had in common: I had fun with them. And from the comments I received, it looked like you guys did too.

So thanks for coming along on this crazy hairpin turn journey :)

Monday is going to be the big retrospective day and I'm looking forward to really thinking about what this month has meant for me. I didn't complete my play, but I wrote 70 more pages than I would have if I hadn't signed up for Script Frenzy (and I still have today, so I'll be even closer).

And I've certainly blogged a WHOLE lot more than if I hadn't signed up for the A-Z Challenge.

Thanks for reading everyone... I'll be back tomorrow for the Last Line Blogfest!

Untitled

I've talked about my play on here a couple of times and I'm gonna post another snippet of it for you. But first I need some

Or I could just get one of these signs, which made me laugh so hard I shook the entire table:

hahahahahaha! *snort*

Anyhoo.

I really do need some help. I need some suggestions for a title.

My original short story was called An Unlikely Fairy Tale but I don't like it.

So I've been trying to come up with something better. I want something that still references that it is a fairy tale and is a bit whimsical.

I've been playing around with things like "Twice Told Tale" (yech), Two Timing (okay, not really) and my favorite so far is "Twice Upon a Narrator". I've gotten one good response to that and one mocking response to that. I think I'm headed the right direction, but I figured if I threw it out to all you brilliant people you can help me get my juices flowing. (If you come up with a title I use I'll even put you in as Guest #1 or Guest #2 depending on whether you wan to be nice or snarky :)

I've kind of talked about the plot before, but here's a brief summary.

Jarvis is a traditional narrator ready to tell the story of Jane with her enchanted hair when he is interrupted by Gloria, an impulsive, passionate and slightly hyper replacement narrator who was hired even though Jarvis was never fired. They clash and she continually throws out things that disrupt the story (aliens, laptops, etc). At the end of the first act they have a fight and Gloria leaves. The second act begins, but it drags. Everything seems drab without Gloria's constant "interference". She returns, bringing with her pirates and kidnapping schemes. Throughout the rest of the play Jarvis realizes that he needs a little more spontaneity and Gloria comes to see that a plan and tradition may be more necessary than she wanted to admit.

And of course they all live happily ever after!

Any suggestions? Thoughts? Terrible puns?

And here's another excerpt. This is Gloria and Jarvis' big blow up right before the end of the first act. Gloria has just brought in a rock band to play at the ball and has distracted Jarvis from seeing them setting up. The band just began to play......

JARVIS

What is this?

GLORIA

They’re musicians.

JARVIS

(Throws down the cord.) We just talked about continuity and how there is no electricity. You said you could see my point. What is this?

GLORIA

(hesitantly) I might have had electricity installed while you were busy.

REYNOLD

Electricity? I can plug my laptop in! (starts to run off stage, but JARVIS’ voice stops him.)

JARVIS

No! Reynold, you stay right there. This has gone far enough, Gloria. I can’t believe I trusted you. For you to pull something like this while you lied to my face.

GLORIA

I didn’t lie to you.

JARVIS

(steps toward her. The crowd parts as he makes his way to her.) “The Martians were taking it a bit far.” “Vampires have no place in this story.” “All right, I guess I can see that.” Did you mean any of it? Or were you just playing me so you could do whatever you wanted without my interference?

GLORIA

I don’t think vampires belong.

JARVIS

Certainly, make a joke out of it. You have not wanted this story to be told from the moment you walked on stage. I do not know why you took this job in the first place, unless you meant to sabotage it. If that was your intent, then congratulations. You have succeeded.

GLORIA

(growing angry)

Who are you to say what my motivations are? You just can’t handle a little competition. Are you afraid I’m going to improve the story and you won’t be needed any longer?

JARVIS

I think it has already been proved multiple times that I am the superior storyteller here, Martian girl.

GLORIA

Why don’t you throw that in my face a couple more times? I’ve already apologized, what else can I do? I think the reason it rankles you so much is because it proves that you can’t see outside of your narrow little box, even if it might actually improve the story. So maybe that was a bad idea? Does that necessarily mean that all of my ideas are also bad?

JARVIS

Every time I have left you alone or allowed you to tell the story you have thrown something into it to distract and confuse the plot. That is not good!

GLORIA

And which of those things have you allowed to play out for longer than thirty seconds? How do you know it won’t work if you won’t allow the story to run? You keep telling me to be patient and let you tell the story, even if I think it still screams Cinderella. I’ve given you the benefit of the doubt. I’ve played along. You’ve done nothing but shoot down every little original thought I’ve tried to work in.

JARVIS

At least I never lied to or manipulated you. It is no wonder you are sniping for my job. You are incompetent, undisciplined, untrustworthy, volatile and disruptive. You are a disgrace to the good name of narrators everywhere.

GLORIA

(Quietly) Is that really how you feel?

JARVIS

It is.

GLORIA

Someday I hope you realize that you have talked your way right out of a job. Sure people like fairy tales, but you can only tell them so many times and in so many ways. Variety is the spice of life and your life is so bland it’s choking you to death and you can’t even see it. Goodbye, Jarvis. I hope you find your happily ever after, but I have a feeling that by the time you get there you’ll find that it’s not as satisfying as you think it will be.

(exits)

JARVIS

Gloria...

(curtain closes)

*******************************************************************************

I still don't entirely like Gloria's final little speech there. It needs to be tweaked. but this is only the first draft, so :)

Jarvis

As promised I am going to share a little bit more of my SIP (Script In Progress). I've fiddled around with plays and musicals before. (Naomi and I are writing a musical called Fairylandville, which she did most of the script and we're working on the songs together - setting them all to classical music pieces. So if you have a favorite classical piece, let us know and we'll see if it will work for any of the songs.)

But I've never really sat down and spent an effort on finishing one. It is proving quite challenging. I think this is for one major reason - I've sort of worked on this play before. Many years ago (when I was like 14) I wrote a short story. I thought it was hilarious at the time. I read it to my family and set it lovingly aside. A few years ago I pulled it out and wondered if it would work better as a play. So I started taking the dialogue straight from the short story and entering it in play form. I rather liked it, though it wasn't nearly as funny as it had been when I was 14. As I begin writing a second narrator pops into view. I wasn't really expecting that, but I had all of these asides in the short story and the 2nd narrator gave voice to these asides.

About a year ago I pulled it out and grimaced. How on earth could I have ever thought it witty? But I still liked the basic premise of the story and I loved the idea of having two narrators and of having them become the main characters of the play.

A friend of the family introduced us (like 10 years ago) to the radio play "Jungle Jam and Friends". If you have never hear of it or have never heard any of their shows you should find them. They are so funny and enjoyable for the entire family. My favorite is their Christmas special, "Three Wise Men and a Baby". You will never hear the story of Christmas again without thinking of some of the gems from this play. Plus it has gorgeous music. But I digress.

The reason I bring them up is because, in the radio plays, the narrator plays an integral part in the show, often interacting with the characters. I believe that this show really influenced the way my play began to develop.

I shuffled through more ideas for Script Frenzy than I would care to admit, but I kept coming back to "An Unlikely Fairy Tale" (and ugh on that title. I'm still waiting for a good one to come along. It's on the verge of my brain but hasn't crystalized as of yet.). Except I knew that things would have to change. First, I had to develop real personalities for the narrators. In the original they didn't even have names. I knew that the first was most definitely a guy and it made sense to make the second narrator a girl. She came together fully formed. Gloria was her name and she is sassy and sarcastic and impulsive. The guy took a little longer. But I love him now. He is Jarvis (!post title! lol) and he is a little bit geeky, but cute geeky and proper and traditional, but with a sense of humor and a willingness to change over the course of the play (though he is resistant of course.) If there are any Buffy fans out there, I kind of envision him as a younger and more eloquent Giles (*sigh*).

So the problem I'm running into now is that I have a story and a early play draft that I am kind of using as an outline. But as Jarvis and Gloria start taking over, the plot begins to stray from that and I think I'm trying too hard to keep them on track. What I need to do is just let them have their say, because I'm lovin' where they've taken me so far.

When your characters start to take over do you fight them? Or do you just let it go where it will? Does it frustrate or excite you? 'Cause I'm a little bit of both right about now :)

So, here's an excerpt from the opening of the play.

JARVIS

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Sit back, relax and allow the story to carry you away.

Once upon a time there was ...

GLORIA

(runs on stage, interrupting)

No, no, no! You can’t start the story that way. That’s the most overused line in all of story telling. Please! If I had a dollar for every time someone started a tale with “once upon a time” I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be on some beach somewhere with a nice cold lemonade, watching the sun set over the ocean. Or maybe Vegas.

JARVIS

I beg your pardon, but who are you?

GLORIA

The narrator, of course, duh! Why else do you think I’m out here on the stage even before the curtain has gone up? My name’s Gloria! Hi! (holds out hand to JARVIS)

JARVIS

(shakes her hand briefly) Jarvis, nice to meet... wait, did you say you were the narrator?

I’m afraid you are mistaken. I am the narrator for this story.

GLORIA

Well, apparently you got replaced. And with openers like that, it’s no wonder.

JARVIS

Once upon a time is not overused. It is classic. This is a fairy tale, therefore it is perfectly appropriate to use it at the beginning.

GLORIA

Yeah, whatever. If you want to stay stuck in the 1600’s then by all means, just keep going.

JARVIS

And I suppose you have a better idea.

GLORIA

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner folks! That’s why I’m here.

(turns to audience)

Folks, today we plan to take you where no one has gone before. We’re going to seek out new plot lines and new character developments. To boldly...

JARVIS

You might want to stop there. You’re bordering on copyright infringement.

GLORIA

Well, look who swallowed a dictionary. Fine, do it your way.

(exits)

JARVIS

(clearing throat)

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, forgive the interruption and let us begin again.

Once upon a time, in a far away land...

GLORIA

(reentering)

Is it always in a far away land?

JARVIS

What?

GLORIA

Well, it usually says in a far away land. How come none of them take place right here in our back yard? I mean, this is an interesting place. Why can’t the story take place here? And what does “far away land” mean? Is it just a way of telling everyone that stories like this don’t actually happen, so don’t get your hopes up. Cause that’s pretty depressing. I can’t believe you would crush little children’s hopes and dreams that way. Look at this crowd! They’re nearly crying from disappointment.

JARVIS

It does not look like they are crying.

GLORIA

They’re crying on the inside. It’s too depressing out here.

(exits)

JARVIS

(clearing throat again)

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a girl named Jane.

(curtain raises on interior of Stepfamily’s house. There is a bedroom to one side and a sitting area to the other. JANE is scrubbing the floor, her hair tied up in a handkerchief.)

Jane’s father and mother had died and she lived with her Evil Stepmother Harriet and her Evil Stepsisters, Ann and Nan.

GLORIA

(entering)

I can’t take it anymore! Really? Cinderella again! Do you know how many times this story has been redone? It’s sickening really. But I wouldn’t expect a man like you with no artistic sentiment to understand that. You’re all about tradition. You might as well be playing a fiddle on a roof!

JARVIS

It is not the story of Cinderella.

GLORIA

Hm, let me think. Orphan, check! Evil Stepmother, check! Not one, but two Evil Stepsisters, check! Floor scrubbing, check! Sounds like Cinderella to me. All you need is to slap in a fairy godmother and a crystal shoe and you’re in business.

JARVIS

There is no fairy godmother in this story. No glass shoes and no Cinderella.

GLORIA

Hey, I just call them like I see them and I say Cinderella.

JARVIS

Well, perhaps if you allowed me to get more than two words out at a time you would see that it is not Cinderella.

GLORIA

Are you saying I talk too much? Are you? Are you?

(GLORIA steps closer and closer to JARVIS poking at his chest.)

JARVIS

(shouting)

Yes!

GLORIA

(smirking)

I knew there was emotion in there somewhere.

JARVIS

I cannot believe that you would think that after two minutes...

GLORIA

After two minutes of you droning on the audience would have fallen asleep.

JANE

Excuse me?

JARVIS & GLORIA

What!?

JANE

Do you think maybe we could continue the story?

GLORIA

Well, that is the general idea.

JARVIS

We would be well into the story if it were not for all of your interruptions.

GLORIA

If you call that a story, then all right. I just came here to do a job.

JARVIS

Fine, then you do it. You start the story your way.

(Walks to edge of stage, crosses arms and waits)

GLORIA

I will, thank you very much.

Once upon a time... Gah! Now you’ve got me doing it! There was a time and there was a place and there was a girl. Her name was Jane. She lived happily with her mother and her father.

(JANE stands. MOTHER and FATHER enter. They all stare at each other for a long moment until the silence is uncomfortable.)

JARVIS

You see, it is not that simple. You must have conflict to make the story interesting. Otherwise it would simply be ‘and they all lived happily ever after.’ Happy perhaps, but not interesting to watch.

GLORIA

If you could just give me some time, I’m sure I can come up with something good.

JARVIS

Right now we have an audience waiting. I promise you that it will not be a Cinderella story. May I continue?

JANE

Yes, please.

GLORIA

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

(JANE shrugs)

What if she is the evil stepsister and the other two...

JARVIS

No. That’s not how it goes. Be quiet and watch.

GLORIA

(huffs with hands on hips, but is temporarily silent.)

JARVIS

All right then, let me see. Jane was an orphan (MOTHER and FATHER exit) and she lived with her Evil Stepmother and two Evil Stepsisters. Jane was a very ordinary girl. There was nothing about her that would make her stand out in a crowd.

JANE

Hey!

GLORIA

See, this is what happens when you let a man tell the story. If I were the narrator then I could make you a beautiful princess in disguise. Then the mysterious prince in disguise would sweep you off your feet and away to his castle in the clouds.

JARVIS

(snorts)

GLORIA

What?

JARVIS

Ooh... a princess and prince in disguise. Now who’s being a traditionalist? Because you are really breaking new ground with that storyline, Shakespeare.

GLORIA

Well, well, well. The stiff knows sarcasm.

(c) 2010 Rebecca Thompson

All Rights Reserved

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!

Attempting Astronomically Ample Activities

All right...

Apparently April is going to be a busy month for me. And I'm kinda wondering if I may have too much on my plate. But I'll just go with the flow and see where it takes me :)

You're welcome to join me in my insanity ...

(Oh, and if you linked over to see my Alternate Version post, you are allowed to scroll past the insane ramblings to that part of the post at the bottom :)

• Lee over at Tossing it Out has issued a blogging challenge - to write a blog a day (except for Sundays) for the entire month of April - each day representing a consecutive letter of the alphabet. Today is (obviously) A. Hence my alliterative post title :) This should be fun. Challenging, but fun. I usually post about 3 times a week. 6 is double that (see I can do math). Well, this first one will be out of the way soon. I need to start writing down ideas for other letters as they come to me. But if you link over to his blog, then you can get added to the list and check out other people who are also doing the challenge. Some are poets doing themed poems, some are just people working in the letter of the day. Anyhoo it looks to be a hoot. You can join all through the weekend (I think he said) so go! Do! be insane like me!
• On top of that, as I have mentioned a couple of times (and as you can see with the icon on the sidebar) I am also doing Script Frenzy. You DO NOT have to know how to write a script in order to do this. They give you all the tools you need. All you have to know how to do is develop a story. and write dialogue, which if you write fiction, you probably do. Anyways, I think it will be a fun challenge and for that I have to write about 3 1/3 pages a day. I'm hoping it will be as easy as it sounds. (Yeah, right)
• I also have an interview for grad school coming up as well as getting all of my other stuff in place like my schedule for the fall and financial issues cared for. Blah. School fun, that kind of stuff icky.
• And I don't want to lose track of the blogs I'm following and the friends I'm making here because you all are awesomesauce. But if I'm not commenting as much, you will know why. You will see my return in May.
• Then I discovered through Simon at Constant Revision a bunch of blog fests. I've never done a blog fest, but they look really fun. So I kinda want to do some of those too. (have I lost my mind? Yes, yes I have)
• On top of that, I have now hit 40 followers and I can feel a contest coming on soon... don't know exactly what or when yet, but think books and, of course, owls. hehehe
• Then there's the business of life - full time job, church involvement, family stuff, laundry - you know, all that jazz.
• And I absolutely must get started on The Stand. I FINALLY got my hands on a copy and I have yet to start it, but it's being referenced every week by friends at Nikki's blog and I hate having to skip over the comments to avoid book spoilers. Besides, I've had SO many people tell me it's a must read. And I WANT to read it. NOW.
• Not to mention the TV I absolutely MUST keep up on. Lost being #1 and Castle being #2. Beyond that, I can wait until April is over to catch up on things like FlashForward and Vampire Diaries.

Psshhttt.... what was I worried about? This should be easy. I just eliminate sleeping and eating, dictate my script as I drive to work and - presto! Instant mental breakdown! (should not be attempted at home, above results may vary, course traveled by a professional nutjob)

To start off the fun and to continue with the "A" theme of the day, I am now going to post my Alternate Version blogfest entry here.

Original: Historical Christian Romance (working title Unexpected Miracles)

"Hello?" she said, her voice rising slightly to make it a question. The figure moved forward into the moonlight and Kristy was unnerved to see it was Brandon. She cleared her throat nervously and tried to step around him, but he reached out and held her arm. Kristy jerked back out of his grasp.

Brandon dropped his hand and they stood there for a moment. The silence grew thicker until Kristy couldn't stand it any longer.

"What do you want?" she asked. "Why can't you just be happy we're friends? That's all we've ever been."

"No, that's all you've ever thought we were," Brandon said.

Alternate: Contemporary Mystery

"Hello?" Kristy's voice wavered. The menacing shadow moved forward and she gasped as Brandon stepped into the light of the lone streetlamp. She cleared her throat nervously and tried to step around him, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her close. Kristy jerked away, her heart pounding. He had never seemed so dangerous.

She waited for him to say something, to explain why he had waited out here for her, but the silence stretched between them.

"What do you want?" she asked. "Why can't you just be happy we're friends?"

His eyes darkened and he stepped toward her again. "No, that's all you've ever thought we were." His smile was sinister as he reached for her again.

Whew - that was fun. I don't know if that's exactly how this thing is supposed to work, but that is a totally different scene. Even the characters came out different.

If you want to join in, click here and have some fun :)