It's the Intermission
A Creative Coffee Break

The Speechless Campaign in support of the WGA strike.

The Dramatists Guild statement about the WGA strike.

The software mentioned on my website is stuff I like and use. Not stuff I think you should use.

The list is biased towards Macs. Why? I could write a lot of rude things about the whys, however, let’s leave it as “because that’s what I use to write on.”

Formatting software:  Movie Magic Screenwriter
The idea, for me, behind using a specialized word processor for playwriting, is I don’t want to have to think too much when I’m using software. I want it to work, to format my stuff how I like it, and all that rot. If you can get away with using a Word template, or macro set, then good for you! There are several options for software, some costly, some cheap, some free. You can do an internet search on screenwriting software to find them. Or look at the wiki List of Screenwriting Software for a short list. That’s right, you gotta get screenwriting software and hope you can adapt it to playwriting. If you’re a student, you can buy one of the two major software programs, Final Draft, or Movie Magic Screenwriter, at a much lower cost than retail. Both the majors will require you to adjust their play templates to get them into Samuel French format. Both the majors have trial versions you can evaluate. 

For years, I used Final Draft. Like back to 1992 when the company was called B.C. Software. In Sept 2007, I permanently switched over to Movie Magic Screenwriter 6. My friend and writing partner, MBH, switched over to MM6 earlier in the year. I ignored his consistent raves about version 6 because I had hated version 4, and told myself, “it’s only formatting software, after all.” When he began to use MM6 to format our TV spec show, damn, I had to begin trying it out. I’m now busy converting all my scripts over to MM6.

MM6 has two features I love. First, it allows you to keep a sidebar containing an outline, list of scenes, notes, or bookmarks, making instant navigation through a script easy and possible. Second, notes can be embeded in the script. You can view or print them as part of your script, or suppress them from the printed copy or the screen. Final Draft 7 allows notes yet always keeps them hidden unless you click on them. F.D.’s method was an annoyance I didn’t really think about until I began using notes in MM6. MM6 makes notes confusion free for working with a writing partner, and a joy to use in general.

Note-taking software
I use a combination of software programs. (1) Aquaminds’ Notetaker, (2) SoHo Notes, and (3) Bibdesk. I use Notetaker like a virtual spiral bound notebook. SoHo Notes I use to keep random tidbits, or long thoughts, I don’t want to lose. BibDesk I use to organize my research, which often exists in the form of PDFs of articles, or of books on my bookshelf or the library’s shelves. Initially, when I looked at BibDesk, I thought, “oh that’s cool. Don’t need it.” And then surprised myself by using it regularly and  with great enthusiasm. I now have a fingertip method of viewing my research at a glance, as well as in detail, in an organized fashion on my trusty Powerbook.

Links to what I’ve previously written about software
Notetaking here, and here
Favorite Writing Tools

It has been a joy to pick up the play again this week, and hanging out with the strange, volatile, yet funny, characters who’ve discovered my pen. The new play’s structure is the most linear play I’ve written in a long time. MBH says the characters have very clear goals and desires, which is his way of saying that most of my characters are not usually so simply defined or constructed. The structure, the characters, the plot-lines nag at my Editor’s Mind. Far too often the Editor yells at me, What the hell is this? I suppress the Editor’s noise, and keep writing. That’s all I know to do. More to be revealed, as someone says. When the first draft finds completion, only then will reconstruction commence.

Normally, whatever the hell that means, I manage to break structural rules, which confuses literary managers used to reading sitcoms or tele-movies passing as plays. Someone once suggested to me that one of my plays was missing a, uh, thunderous moment between the main characters. Having witnessed the power of the play on stage, well, I believe that comment said more about the commenter than the play itself. The comment was true, yet not the point. The conflict in the play, as in most of my plays, is between the characters and the world around them. I wish I had had this quote from Marsha Norman at the ready:

I really do think that men who run theatre classically want there to be a chase and then some kind of event, and then the thing’s over, right? Whereas women who write plays tend to be not so involved with what the big event is, but what it is that the people know in the story; how the people are let to each other; what they do for each other. There may be a distinctly different gender view of what’s a story and what’s worth telling.

from an Interview with Marsha Norman by Gary Garrison, The Dramatist, Nov/Dec 2007, p. 40

Instead, my retort was more pithy like, Well, yeah, dat’s da point.

I expect my pen to be down tomorrow, while we feast at the Parental Unit’s home. I’m thankful for so many things in my life, from the roof over my head, the Beloved, free wi-fi, good friends, to those who’ve paved the way before me, and even to those younger who pass me along the way. Gifts of plenitude.

Don’t forget to feed those who are hungry. Some of them are theatre people.

Marsha Norman, by the way, is from Louisville.

It’s all about Opera. Actually, it’s all about Dame Kiri this week, with a little ALW thrown in.

I have not put pen or keyboard to the play in fourteen days, the external rituals of life needing my attention. My birthday came last week. Interviews with people I hope will hire me to write their documentation have come and gone. Plays requested have been mailed. The Beloved’s birthday came yesterday. Today, my muscles ache from, oh for God’s sake, bowling for the first time in however long its been.

For the first time in ten years, I returned to Western Massachusetts in order to attend a friend’s memorial. I was glad for the opportunity to say good-bye to her, even if she were already gone. I haven’t seen her since my last visit to Western Mass, yet I can still hear her say my name, still see the mischief in her eyes, still remember the way she walked across a room, and still wonder at her common sense approach to life. The Beloved reminds me of her sometimes. My friend was a good twenty-five years older than me. There were no real hurts between us. No lies or
evasiveness. Just support, love, and kindness. I call her my one uncomplicated friendship. Maybe that’s why it was easy to keep pushing calling her to the bottom of my list. A small regret remains. Me, a person who shuns regret as a rule.

I returned, knowing there was someone I hadn’t spoken to even more time that’s past would be present. A more complicated friendship, banished by betrayal, imagined or real. Which? It no longer mattered. I was determined to amend the separateness between us should the opportunity present itself. It did. I said too much, I’m sure, cried too much, I know, intense as I always have been. Glad for the moment all the same. The time to say good-bye, and hello again to other women, from a very important time in my life. My first loving tribe. Older than me, I am their age now.

I have always thought it strange that I turned out to be a playwright. I have always thought I was a loner, quiet, alone, and shy. Theatre is a communal effort, beyond the play. In Massachusetts I realized theatre is my way of creating community. I still need a tribe.

Because there’s more to life than Mel.