Open Wardrobes

Well, with Greens, Thanksgiving, Chinese class, and, oh yeah, work, I've been a little remiss about keeping up with the blog. I am pleased to report, however, that as of Wednesday Kelly passed the 50,000 word mark for NaNoWriMo and as such is an official NaNoWriMo winner!!! See the official count right here. She still has a little ways to go to finish the draft, but should hit that milestone soon as well, as she doesn't expect the draft to be more than 60,000 words. What can I say, I'm impressed!


We have a break for Greens for Thanksgiving, but kick it up into high gear tomorrow with our first tech rehearsal and sprint on towards opening night next Thursday. The whole process has gone fast, and as excited as I am to start performing for an audience, I will be sad to have the show over with.

Last night Kelly crossed the 40,000 word threshold in her NaNoWriMo quest for 50,000 words in 30 days. I'm really impressed with how she's kept at it everyday. She's kept it up steadily for 3 weeks now with just over one to go. At this pace my guess is she'll hit around 55,000 by the end. We're planning on hitting the coffee shop again today, which has been a fun Saturday tradition this month.

As I've been working on my own projects both as an actor and a writer I've also been of course watching the progess of both Kelly and our friend Tim on National Novel Writing Month (affectionately referred to as NaNoWriMo). Last night Kelly crossed the 23,000 word threshold, which puts her several thousand words ahead and is an average of just over 2000 words a day. (Tim is already over 30,000, but he's something of an over-achiever so that's hardly typical ) I think this is a very impressive achievement, it takes a lot to keep up that sort of pace, especially when you have to work a full-time job on top of it. It's also a great exercise in not self-editing too much on the first draft. It's easy to get bogged down on the little parts at the expense of actually getting out a complete draft. There's something psychological about that achievement, however much work the piece might need. You've made it to a very definite goalpost, and once you have that first draft I find that there's more motivation to take it and turn it into a finished work. After all, you've made it that far, why not go the rest of the way and make all that effort really count? A half-finished draft, on the other hand, never seems to carry with it that same sense of obligation, especially if it doesn't yet feel like it's going anywhere.


So I find the whole NaNoWriMo concept very inspring, and it makes me want to sit down and start another book (shameless plug: my first book is on sale here). The idea that you can start at zero and in a month have a draft... well, it makes it all feel more doable. So perhaps when The Hanging of the Greens is over and I have a draft of the one-man show that needs to sit for a bit, maybe the time will be right.

I am at the moment taking care of a few odds and ends as a writer which deal mostly with the less-than-thrilling marketing side of things. Earlier this week I submitted The Last Anniversary, my new 10-minute play, to both Lakeshore Players and the National 10-Minute Play Contest. I'm crossing my fingers for Lakeshore and it would be wonderful to have it done where I know people and where I can easily go to see it. I am continuing to keep an eye on places to send The Princess and the Moon, and today am sending it off to the Panowski Playwriting Competition. That may be a bit of a longshot (they say no restriction in genre, but sometimes you have to wonder how interested non-children's theater contests are in children's theater). I just noticed this one recently, so I'm in a bit of a rush today to put everything together so that it will arrive by Friday! Lastly, Tim Goddard has started a new blog for Goddard Publishing, whose offerings include my novel Edelsha (have you bought your copy yet?), and Tim has asked that I participate in that blog as well. Tim and my wife Kelly are also both participating in National Novel Writing Month (affectionately known as NaNoWriMo) while I look on with a tinge of jealousy that I can't participate this year. (Acting in a show, writing a play, taking intermediate Chinese, working full time... trying to write a novel in a month on top of that just might kill me.)


So other than that, still waiting for reponses to my Princess queries (one polite "No thanks" so far, but that was from a longshot: the Children's Theatre in Minneapolis), plus I have a few submissions out to publishers. Now I should probably start looking at my lines...

After working on it for the past 10 years, I have at long last finished my first novel: Edelsha, and the Tale of the Third Ring (more details here). Thanks to the editing skills of my good friend Tim Goddard the book is now available from Goddard Publishing through Lulu.com. There is nothing quite like seeing your name in print, on something you've worked long and hard on. While I've experienced that before with plays, there's something special about seeing it on a book (don't we all dream of writing the Great American Novel?). It's also a good feeling to bring this project to completion after so many years. So with that wrapped up, The Princess and the Moon finished, it's probably time to start something new. Stay tuned...


Oh yes, and don't forget to buy my book.