Yesterday, I heard a script for the first time, at the table reading with the cast of this commission I’m working on for young audiences. For a playwright, the first table reading is half Christmas morning and half job interview, full of explosive joy and barbarous self-judgement. It’s got me thinking about Shakespeare, Sudoku, and “multiple intelligences.” Continue reading
Category Archives: play.in.progress
Word Choice in Dialogue: Whether the Weather
Someone walks up to you and says “I like this kind of weather.” Or, someone walks up to you and says “This is the kind of weather I like.” Then, the person walks away. Continue reading
Filed under how.to.write, play.in.progress, sf.olympians.festival, the.horse's.ass
What Writing Really Looks Like
Writing doesn’t always look like writing. When you hear the word “writing,” what do you think of? A pen moving across paper, or maybe a clicking keyboard and a glowing screen? Do you think writing is the application of language to a page? If that’s what you think of, you’re half right… but you’re also really wrong.
Writing is not the production of words. Continue reading
Filed under about.me, how.to.write, play.in.progress, the.horse's.ass
HELEN press and process roundup! Hot Trojan-War Performance-Installation Media-Blitz Life-Lesson Action!
So, the two-weekend workshop of The Helen Project all the way back in May got some really sweet press, which I never posted here. D’oh! How silly is that? Pretty silly, yes? What should I do about it? Oh, I could go ahead and post those quotes now? Okay! Also, how did the workshop go, and what happened with the two different editions? Oh, I’d better lay that out too, because the second weekend was bananas, and taught me the kind of “valuable lesson” one might hear in voiceover at the end of an afterschool special! Continue reading
Weather Forecast in the Tiny Zoo: Cloudy with a Chance of Realness
Whew. It’s almost December. I miss you, blog. Wondering how things are going in that pristine writing environment I set up a few months ago, my tiny zoo for dangerous ideas?
Well. Check it out. Here’s the zoo: Continue reading
“Zeus” Resource Page, and First Reading Tonight!
In celebration of tonight’s event at Booksmith, where the cool performance troupe “Literary Clown Foolery” will be performing a canto from my new play-in-progress Zeus (commissioned for next year’s San Francisco Olympians Festival), I thought I’d put together a quick resource page about the play, to share the process and some of the ideas behind it. Continue reading
Filed under about.me, play.in.progress, sf.olympians.festival
Monday Night with My Writing Partner: Tags, Tropes, & The Most Beautiful Woman In The World
Tonight, I am taking a night off from the screenplay (and the other play, and rehearsal, and the OTHER play, but mostly the screenplay). Why?
Filed under helen.of.troy, play.in.progress
Writer’s Block: The Solution to Good Ideas
Writer’s Block is a luxury disease, like feeling too sweaty in your satin pajamas, or having a lobster allergy. That’s not to say I don’t ever have Writer’s Block. In fact I have it right now. Sort of. Let’s ask a quick question.
Question: Megan, how can you be actively writing 5 projects across 4 different media, for several hours every day, with fairly satisfactory progress, and still consider yourself blocked?
Answer: LIFE IS FULL OF SURPRISES.
Check it. Continue reading
Comments Off on Writer’s Block: The Solution to Good Ideas
Filed under game.story.writing, how.to.write, play.in.progress