Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Are We There Yet?

Are We There Yet?

My Students have completed or on the verge of completing Lesson 3, The First Draft. Think about it, less than halfway through the course and they have a first draft down in black and white. No longer is it necessary to speak in abstractions about vague concepts. Now when I point something out we both have something specific to refer to.

A first draft is a fluid document. Hopefully it contains all the components I have been emphasizing for the first part of the course and while it represents a significant milestone nothing is really dovetailing nicely together yet.

Most will soon discover that significant rewrites lie ahead. Other swill see that the structure needs to be revamped to get that hub spinning the way they want. (Ouch!) If they are in the ball park I will tell them to sit on it this week and do little. If they aren’t we will have to keep plugging away. Everybody is still hanging in there and that is encouraging. Last semester there were only two left standing at this point.

Nobody is satisfied with what they have and that is a good thing. If they were happy each would be even more resistant to change and there are a lot of changes still to be made. For some it will be plenty and or others a whole lot more. There is still the integration, timing, and acceleration that needs to be worked on and all the non-essentials to be deleted. Everything must contribute and what is missing must be added in and we are not talking at this juncture about polishing and fine tuning… Forget that…. That part is still a ways off. However we do have a good first draft and time still to work on it. I hope the process of what we do from the first draft forward will be eye opening because many new playwrights haven’t been to the first draft stage before and think when they get there it’s almost finished. (Are we there yet?) I wish I could say, simply clean up some grammar and spelling and they’re finished. A good draft comes about halfway through the process …. A light appears way off at the end of a dark tunnel… and we’re right on schedule.

The last time I taught the course it was an accomplishment to simply get through it. This time I have more students and there are a lot of ideas that begin to suggest themselves to make the class better. Foremost is the idea of having a daily lecture to supplement the Lesson. It will be like what you read in this blog but in a lecture format and sent out in a group email. Everybody likes to get emails here at WDC. Is that a good idea or what? So there will be course pages, Lesson Plans and Daily Lectures. In addition I asked Socalscribe if he had some references for a Screen Writing Course. I might begin writing one of those. It will be similar in many ways to the One Act Play Course but build on the lessons learned. Maybe If I find a promising assistant instructor I could devote some time to writing it. Also I am thinking about writing a how to book on the One Act Play. Ideas, ideas, ideas… is there no end to them…? unfortunately there is but that is a depressing subject we need not dwell on.