Finally, after a couple of weeks of trying to get together, my friend and I had dinner to discuss this project I want to collaborate on with her. We shot some ideas back and forth and have come up with a game plan:

Take over the world.

Or, at the very least, our home town. Or something. The details on that aren’t really strong. But we did discuss the project and we (I’m being generous here; she really had most of the ideas) came up with a timetable to get the work done and some thoughts as to how to get it out to the world.

As we get closer to the deadline, I’ll let you in on what’s going on.

And I should, at some point, work on the final touches of the play. Because, well, it’s due, like, now.

One thing I’ve noticed about writing these 100 word pieces is that, although it’s only been a few weeks, I’ve seen a shift in my writing. The first few pieces were less dialogue and more descriptive, I guess. And they pretty much told a full story.

But now, especially the last two, they have been parts of a story, and had guns mentioned in them. Not that guns are a bad thing. It’s just that two in a row is boring.

I think I know why I’m writing only part of a story; I like the idea of being dropped into the middle of something and not know what’s going on. You have to take a step back and say, ‘Who is this guy? How did he fall and hurt his head? And where is he going with that gun?’ You have to use your imagination a little.

The only problem is that it doesn’t give the person who follows me much to go on. Should I worry about that? I don’t think so. The only real rule is to hit 100 words. The story can be about anything. Though I am the only one who uses any sort of dialogue on an almost regular basis.

I just write what comes to me.

On the flip side, I think I need to work on these stories a bit to tighten them up. All of them need a work, some more than others. The stories I put up are the stories I send out to my group, usually as is. I have, on occasion, changed a word here or there, but nothing drastic. For example, I changed the word ‘fed’ to feed’ in ‘birds-of-despair’. I am going to make minor adjustments. Nothing more.

In other news….

Hopefully this week I’ll be able to meet up with my friend to discuss this project I have in mind. It could be really cool or really dumb.

Obviously I’m hoping for the cool.

Remember back when I said I was going to meet up on Wednesday with a friend of mine to talk about collaborating on a project? Well, it’s not going to happen.

The meeting, not the collaborating. We’re meeting Thursday instead. Which is fine. I just have to be be sure I’m out of there in time for my evening meeting with Bry* and Sara* about the manga.

The three of us are supposed to discuss deadlines and publishers and costume design (?). I’m looking forward to it because it’s been a few weeks since our last meet up and I cannot wait to see what they’ve come up with. While I haven’t done any work on it because I don;t know what are plans are. Are we still going to be published in the anthology? Or are we not and instead going for a publishing house?

Guess I’ll find out Thursday.

*names have been altered needlessly since no one reads this anyway.

So I finally finished the rewrite of the play and e-mailed it to the director early this morning. Let me tell you, there is no better feeling than getting to the point where it is all just touching up and light editing. It allows a deep cleansing breath.

Aaahhh….

The director has already gotten back to me with what I’ll call minor details. I call them minor because they should take no more than a few minutes to fix. No big deal. Our only concern is to make it a bit longer. At 48 pages, it will run less than an hour and ideally we’d like it to be over an hour somewhat so that the audience feels that they’ve gotten their money’s worth.

Pretty sure the screenwriter whose work this is based on isn’t going to like it at all. Not with the major changes I’ve done to it. And as much as I would like to keep as much of his stuff as I can (and did), this new version has a more complete story arc. This is good for the play, not good for the ego.

I’m also glad this is almost in the bag because I have reached out to a friend of mine to collaborate on a project. Can’t give any details yet, but judging from her response to my query, this could very well be a really cool thing.

I’m meeting with her on Wednesday so I might have details then.

The director of the play and I had a lunch meeting yesterday. (Well, Monday, actually.) It was really productive. Since we have been given carte blanche, we’re making a shitload of changes to the play. Combining characters, getting rid of characters, story changes; we’re going all out.

Will the producer and actual writer be happy? Highly doubtful. In fact, they’re probably gonna hate it. Well, the producer might like the idea of less characters because it’ll save him money. But the writer, he’s not gonna like it at all. He doesn’t understand that there has to be a story arc. His writing sounded too much like a bunch of guys hanging out in a bar, not a complete story. What the director and I came up with is a complete story. With surprises and a couple of twists.

Should be an interesting script when all is said and done.

In other news….

I think I’m going to start work on another graphic novel. Have the first few pages in my head and I need to get them down before I forget them. It’s gonna be different from Uke´ in that it’s not going to be about a superhero. Or even in manga style. This will be a darker storyline. More dealing with the underbelly of society perhaps. Not exactly sure which way I’m gonna head with it yet, but dark it will be.

What I’ve noticed from working with Sara*, or to be more precise, looking at all of the sites for the conventions she’s a part of, and on the panels they have either artist or writer/artist. There aren’t many, if any, just plain writers. At all. I understand that it’s the art that makes the story graphic, and the better the art the better the book. Sara* has a convention later this month and under photo on the website it says that she is the artist of a particular story. The writer is not listed on the page at all.

Just a curious little tidbit I’ve noticed….

*names have been changed so that they can’t be googled.

Just found out that the director of the play and I have full creative control over the play adaptation. This means we can actually have a plot, some conflict, and a resolution.

We are going to meet up soon and to take the script apart line by line and build it back up.

This is going to be fun. And long. Though we don’t have much time to do it. We’re going to have to have it done within, I going to say, the next two weeks, tops, so that we can stay on schedule to have the play up in September.

Let the chaos unfold….

Have to go to the table reading for the play tonight. Not really looking forward to it since I (and the director) don’t feel that the script is up to par. But maybe this way the writer will finally realize that he needs to stop changing all the elements that make the play work and let me and the director do our jobs.

Plus, at 3.15 this morning, the producer e-mailed me asking if I had any actors that could do the reading. Well, besides the obvious fact that I don’t own any actors, none that I do know would want to do this anyway. Plus, none are white with an Italian background. Which means that we are probably going to be short an actor or two tonight.

Wasn’t this the reason we had to reschedule this reading? Twice?