NaNoWriMo Chronicles: Post mortem

I topped out at 5250 words.

Multiplied by 10, that's a victory! But no one, including and especially me, multiplied it by anything.

5250 it remains—another failed experiment in extreme output.

But the month wasn't a complete waste. See above re: 5250 words... that's a decent start!

And even more exciting is that, while it wasn't such a great month for the nonfiction book project, it was a goddamn stellar month for playwrighting:

Because I couldn't let a Boston Theater Marathon deadline slip by without submitting something, I expanded, revised, and submitted two plays from this August's 31 Plays in 31 Days effort: GOING VIRAL and THE FORMATIVE YEARS.

Now I had two more complete ten-minute plays, so for kicks I also submitted them to the Long Island City One Act Festival.

And then I learned about an opportunity that would be a perfect home for another of my plays, THE GAME, so I expanded, revised, and submitted that, too.

And, lastly, I joined a playwrighting workshop group called Write On! that meets once a month in downtown Boston. I met some supportive like-minded folks, workshopped THE FORMATIVE YEARS with them, and got terrific feedback.

(All the while, mind you, beating myself up because I was "failing" NaNoWriMo.)

So then! There's an announcement here about how one of those submissions turned out. And just last night I discovered an oblique mention of my play, THE INTERVIEW, in a review for Bridge Rep of Boston's newest play, NOT JENNY:

Bridge Repertory Theater was founded by a consortium of some of Boston’s most talented young actors and directors. Olivia D’Ambrosio, the Producing Artistic Director, directed what I thought was one of the most successful, and hilarious, productions in the Boston Theater Marathon earlier this year.

"Successful"? "Hilarious"? Well. WELL. Olivia, as I've mentioned before, did an incredible job with the material, as did the actors, Deborah Martin and Adam Lauver. The play, of course, started here on this blog as Week Seven and it keeps coming up now and again.

But better, even, than this praise (which I just now co-opted from a review of a play that I did not write) is the sense of momentum my playwrighting seems to have at the moment. It comes more naturally to me than other forms of writing do, and people are really starting to respond to my work. It's an exciting time.

So anyway, sucks to you, NaNoWriMo!

...And see you again next year.

World premiere of The Interview at the Boston Theater Marathon

I've been using this blog as a workspace and my new home site to announce achievement things, but since this particular achievement came out of this blog, I thought it fitting to post this here.

Yesterday, I (and my mother and sister, and my girlfriend, and her parents, and several of our close friends... so I like the attention, what of it?) watched the world premiere of THE INTERVIEW, which is the play that came out of Week Seven's exercise.

I'm not sure I have words to express this, except that it was an incredible experience. The performance was a perfect collaboration between everyone involved—the director, Bridge Rep of Boston's Olivia D'Ambrosio, and the actors, Deborah Martin and Adam Lauver. (Also I helped a little, but they did the heavy lifting required to make a script into a play.) We got some huge laughs, and I think the poignant moment at the end really hit with the audience. And then it was over, and everyone congratulated me, and I was officially a playwright.

The stated purpose of this blog was to get me writing again, and though my output has often been... let us say "sporadic"... I finally do think of myself as a writer now. A large part of that is you all—everyone who has read, "Liked," and commented on my words.

I'm excited to start work on the next piece, whatever that might be.

Perhaps Week Fifteen...?