Day 3 - Developing the Scenario (Part I)

Target: ¾ of the scenario (reason to be given later).
Achieved: First act of the scenario
Current Status: ½ of an act behind schedule!

Before we get on to the writing side of life, here comes the drop dead justification for meeting my self-imposed deadline!

There's no reason in writing this thing, unless I have somewhere to perform it in the Festival. I approached my Mess President (Navy talk for the bloke that is in command of my mess - or Wardroom as we prefer to call it ). I talked him through what I wanted to do: Perform the play in the upstairs bar, no entry charge, keep the night informal, and we'd need to provide a night's bed, board and water for the Adjudicator.

He leapt at it! Moreover, he's giving me additional bar-staff, a themed supper before the performance, hosting the Adjudicator, staff to escort the audience to the performance and a waiter drinks-service throughout the performance!

Damn it all! I now have one hell of a venue and service... All I have to do it write the thing, learn it, rehearse it and put it on!

To make matters worse (or better) it looks like I can put on an earlier performance in the Senior Rates Mess the night before... So at least we won't be raw when we go in front of the adjudicator.

But back to the reality of the Scenario...

Why do I generate one? I've said before that I love writing the dialogue. And I have written a play without one before now. So why go through the hassle of writing one for this play?

The simple answer is time. If I'm to stand a fighting chance of developing the script in 10 days, I'll need to know where I am going from the outset - and avoid that dreaded 'page 1' writer's block.

That's not to say that the scenario is overtly prescriptive. It is a detailed outline of the play, showing the interactions, motivation and emotions that need to be conveyed. But in the dialogue process, should a new idea hit me I can still employ it - but I have a decent idea on how it will impact on the remainder of the play.

I said at the top, that I need to develop at least ¾s of the scenario today. The reason is - tomorrow. There won't be much time for writing that night, as my wife and I attend a dance class (we're taking Ballroom and Latin classes, as it is the only excuse we have to spend a little time alone together away from the kids!).

There are many things that I am will to sacrifice for my writing, but my marriage isn't one of them. Indeed, it's one of biggest motivations for making writing my profession: If I can become successful at writing, I can give up the day job and spend more time at home with my family, doing what I love, in the company of those I love.

So today’s task is getting that scenario down. I suddenly realised how big a task I have given myself. Thanks to yesterday’s synopsis, generating the scenario started very well. I could feel all the emotions developing. And they are developing in a shape that will have the audience engaged – and just importantly, will have something for the actors to get their teeth into.

But I realised how much time this was taking. Getting your brain to convert emotions into text (that you know that you will be able to understand later to enable you to write the dialogue) takes time. But you aren’t aware of that time as your brain is constantly working. Hence the time disappears from you.

I set myself a target of saying that I would put myself to bed at 11:30. Before I knew it, I was about half way through the first act – but when I looked at the clock, it was nearly 10:30.

By my target, I had half a play’s worth of scenario to develop in the next hour!

Worse, I realised that my working title for the play was wrong… Sure, that happens as you develop the work… But I allowed it to distract me. I wasted valuable time.

Plus I started to get annoyed with myself. This is about developing a play – not about how to divvy up the time to write one!

But this is the deal that I have to cope with.

And the payback of that deal is that I am ½ an act behind schedule on my target scenario.

Am I disappointed? Strangely – no. And it's because of the annoyance.

When I realised that the working title was wrong, it enabled me to shift the point where the first act ends. It enables me to have a new and more dramatic hook at the end of the first act and changes the tone of the second act.

But how do I make up the time? I can’t work on this while I'm at my day job. While this is true, I can have my note book. And this has made me look at the play from a new stance. When that happens, ideas flood me, much the same ways as I was flooded while writing the synopsis.

All I have to do is make a coupe of bullet-point notes as to the shape of the play in my notepad, and I’ll be able to write the remainder of the scenario in less than half the time I’ve invested today.

I may be behind schedule, but that time can be made up. But more importantly, the play is going to be better as a result.

Overall, a rather good day!