Category Archives: stage play

Script Frenzy RE: Formatting one sided telephone calls

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RE: Formatting one sided telephone calls
Tierra wrote:

I’m writing a stage play and in some of my scenes the main character is talking on the phone but you don’t actually here what the person on the other line says. When my MC is listening to the response should I say that she pauses or just right the next line?

MAIN CHARACTER
Hi, how are you. (beat) That’s good to hear.
MAIN CHARACTER
Hi, how are you. (pause) That’s good to hear.
MAIN CHARACTER
Hi, how are you. (pauses) That’s good to hear.
MAIN CHARACTER
Hi, how are you.
(pauses)
That’s good to hear.
MAIN CHARACTER
Hi, how are you. That’s good to hear.

I’m thinking it’s not the last one so do I say beat, pause or pauses (as in she pauses). Also would it be right in the dialogue or as what Celtx calls parenthetical (which if I’m correct is for character action in their dialogue).
__________________________

Not sure if this would be correct or not, seeing how I seem to do things slightly different than standard some times, but I would use this:

    MAIN CHARACTER Hi, how are you. (pauses) That’s good to hear.

or this:

    MAIN CHARACTER Hi, how are you. (pauses to listen) That’s good to hear.

or this:

    MAIN CHARACTER Hi, how are you… …That’s good to hear.
WickedJenny wrote:

Using an ellipsis (…) is more common in stage plays than parentheses with beat or pause.

Also, just FYI, despite the guide lines Script Frenzy provides, stage play formatting is more typically character name all caps, justified left, full colon, dialogue, with the following lines of the paragraph tabbed in. Example here: http://www.brightstarplayscripts.com/GTdialogue.html

Even in the SF example you will note that the dialogue is given a much wider field. Dialogue is generally 90% of a stage play’s text, making it a thin strip in the middle of the page is a waste of space and more difficult to read since you are much more likely to have long sections of dialogue in a stage play than in a film script. Having character names centered above the dialogue can be difficult to read (a short line of dialogue might not even make it over to the character name, and the eye is constantly having to change its “justification” without benefit of space on the page).

The only exception to this that I know of is young people’s theatre in which a modified version of film script format is sometimes used because it does leave a lot more space on the page, which is less intimidating and dialogue tends to be shorter anyway.

I noticed this as well. When I was looking at the SF formatting guide for stage plays and saw the character names centered, I went: “Huh – that looks weird, it’s shouldn’t be like that should it?”
I’ve always seen scripts written character name justified left, and then dialog below it, indented slightly.
__________________________ 

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Script Frenzy RE: Celtx ain’t loving description…advise? (Writing Comic Scripts)

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Celtx ain’t loving description…advise?
I think this is the right place (since I hope this can be fix with me tweaking formatting), sorry if it’s not.

Okay so, for those who don’t know, Celtx splits the page in two, in the tpe set, that being description of panel (I’m doing a comic) one side, and dialogue/captions on the other in a box that I can best describe as a table on word.

I’m on the descriptive side, almost to the insane at times, sometimes, it can even take a whole ‘description half’ of a page for me to write out a panel.

The problem is, whenever I write MORE than that, it doesn’t automatically continue onto another page. it continues in the ‘box’ but the box won’t continue onto the next page. It’s like, I bet if I scrolled, I’d find all I’ve written, but that’s not exactly helpful is it? I just get a blank page of script with nothing written on it (grr).

It’s an irritating problem… a way to solve it is to cut the description as if it was another panel, which is okay when I’m writing a splash page but is only going to be confusing for any other page ie. ‘PANEL 2, well it says that but it’s PANEL one carrying on, panel 3 is 2 and…’ . And I can’t change the side ‘PANEL 2′ to say PANEL 1 cont.’

Any advise on how to fix this? Asides from the obvious ‘less description’ because well, I shouldn’t have to try and cut back on something so important because my softwear is being a pain.

I might be able to screen cap, if anyone needs it to understand my problem, so… help?
__________________________


RE: Celtx ain’t loving description…advise?
I know what your problem is – I’ve had the same problem myself. I’m afraid, I have yet to find a cure, other than to drastically shorten my descriptions down.

Unfortunately, Celtx Comic is using “Marvel Format”, which is called by that name, because there is ONLY one publisher who accepts scripts written in that format. Want to try and guess which publisher is the ONLY publisher that accepts Marvel Formatted script. Yep, you guessed it: Marvel! So if you are writing Spidy or X-Men than Celtx Comic is great, but if you are writing Donald Duck or Batman – forget it!

So, if you want to get professionally published, by any company OTHER than Marvel, you won’t be able to use Celtx Comics format for your script.

I dislike writing in Marvel Format, probably because I’m used to writing for Disney, which uses tradition comic format. Traditional comic format looks a lot like a Stage Play script (I recomend using Celtx’s Theater format for this), only instead of reading: Act 1; Scene 1, you would type Page 1; Panel 1. Than just type character dialog and scene description, same as for a stage play.

If you are planning on writing for Disney, DC, Dark Horse, etc (any publisher OTHER than Marvel) you are going to want to use Celtx StagePlay/Theater for writing comic scripts. Only use Celtx Comic format if writing for Marvel.

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Script Frenzy RE: Is anyone here serious about screenwriting?

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RE: Is anyone here serious about screenwriting?
hemlock wrote:

First let me just say that I’m aware that Script Frenzy is not about producing masterpieces. I know the point is just to get that first draft on the page.

However, from what I’ve seen in the forums so far it seems most people’s goal is not to get a potentially good script out at all, it is simply to write 100 pages of nonsense.
I mean no offence but why the hell are you including 7 pages of song (or some other equally dumb crap) when you could be writing something that’s actually relevant to the plot? Do you want to write a movie or do you want to write 100 pages of shit in script format? I understand people get stuck sometimes but, honestly, writing a bunch of crap is not gonna help — going back to your outline is a far better solution.
I think Script Frenzy is a great motivation boost but I question how many people here actually take their scripts and this craft seriously.

I completely agree with you.

The thing you are referring to is called “Word Padding”. Word Padding sucks. It sucks so much that I wrote a rant about how much I hated it and all the reasons why no legitimate writer in their right mind would ever even consider using it.http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2789136/nanowrimo_reaching_5000… The article was aimed at NaNoWriMo of course, but yep, even here on SF, it still sucks and I still hate it.

I’m a professional writer. Writing is my career. Writing pays the bills and buys the food. I can not afford to write crap or use Word Padding in my work. Therefore I treat both NaNo and SF as vital parts of my career and both are treated very seriously on my part.

That said – not every one is a professional writer. If you are planning to publish/produce than word padding is going to do more harm than good in the long run. HOWEVER: If you are not a professional writer, and you are only writing for practice or for yourself or friends, than really, who cares what you write or how you write it? Not every one here has a professional writing career in mind when they join the contest, and that’s okay. I think those of us who do this sort of thing for a living should strive for high standards, but I don’t ask that of others, because that’s not why they joined – they joined to have fun.
__________________________ 

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Script Frenzy RE: WAY TOO EASY???

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WAY TOO EASY???
So, this is my first year and it seems way too easy. I already have forty pages. Does this mean that I’m not trying hard enough, or is dialogue something I’m pretty good at? I was also wondering if there were any other people out there who had never tried this before and now feel like it is simply too easy.

RE: WAY TOO EASY???
Been doing NaNo since 2004 – won the last 5 of them. I’ve singed up for Script Frenzy since 2006, this is my 4th try, but it’s also the first year some major event did not stop me from starting (flood took our house in May 2006, a funeral the next year, etc.) So this is my ACTUAL first year doing Script Frenzy, even though I signed up to do each year before. However, my lack of actually starting, had nothing to do with how easy/hard script writing is.

NaNoWriMo is a BIG challenge for me, and those 5 wins are the only 5 novels I’ve ever written. I’m a professional writer. I am not a novelist though. I write short stories, Disney shorts (comic books), how-to articles for ezines, stage play shorts for small theater, full production ballet scripts, etc. In other words, while writing scripts is something I do all the time, writing novels is something I have never done outside of NaNoWriMo.

I think that is why I’m so diligent about getting started with NaNo, but not so diligent about getting started with Script Frenzy. NaNo is a challenge for me. NaNo is hard for me. NaNo is doing something I’m not used to doing – writing in a formate that normally I don’t use. Script Frenzy on the other hand, is a format that I use all the time anyways. It’s not that big of a challenge for me, it’s me doing what I would be doing every month anyways, so I for some reason don’t see Script Frenzy as a challenge, because I can have 100 pages of script written in a week, simply because this style of writing is second nature to me.

Another thing is Script Frenzy is only 3 pages a day and I write that much in a half hour. Keeping in mind that for comics – 3 pages a day is only 300 words a day. Rarely do comics have more than 100 words per page. And even a screenplay is not often going to see 200 words per page, so at the most a 100 page script is only 20,000 words – less than half the word count of NaNo, and is more likely to be 10,000 words which is only 1/5 of NaNoWriMo! So time wise – once you get the hang of formating, SF is going to be a lot easier than NaNo for most people, just because of the huge difference in words per month.

NaNoWriMo, my first 2 years, were big fails. I just could not get into the whole novel writing format. It was really frustrating for me to get a handle on writing all the long descriptions and I was constantly writing dialog out with stage play format instead of novel format, I’ve yet to write a novel with any *he said* or *she asked* or other such dialog tags and there wouldn’t be a quotation mark in sight – I had to go back after the contest and edit those in. I was writing NaNo going:

    NAME:
    Things the character had to say.

and than I’d go back and say “damn I’m writing in script again! Got to go fix that – this is supposed to be a novel”
But than with Script Frenzy I was like: “Oh that’s easy – well, I got to do this and that right now, so I can do SF next year.”

Anyways, for me personally, I find script format a lot easier to write than novel format, so Script Frenzy is a lot easier for me than NaNoWriMo is. But that’s also considering that I write scripts not novels on a daily basis anyways, too. I suppose for some one used to novel writing, getting a handle of script format could be just as hard for them, as it was for me to switch from scripts to novels, so it’s all a matter of perspective and what you are personally used to doing.
__________________________ 

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Screnzy RE: What would Pixies want??

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What would Pixies want??
My story will include Pixies. They have something very important, which will break a vampire’s curse put on a gargoyle’s true love.

The gargoyle is going to have to do some tough bargaining with these Pixies to get this special item. The Pixies are demanding all kinds of things..so far… various shades of glitter, little furniture, trained dragon flies to ride, and high quality miniature musical instruments, a bigger supply of toadstool dew (their version of alcohol/drug)

What else could a Pixie demand?? I want to make it really hard on this poor gargoyle. BTW – he lives in a rural area with just a general store.

RE: What would Pixies want??
Pixies are noted for being very vain and greedy and esp desirous of fine clothes of an eccentric and outlandishly expensive nature. If they were mine, I’d have them asking for utterly impossible things like “waistcoats woven out of rubies”, “shoes made of diamond dust” or “robes made of silk-moth wings”.

They have a great love for horses and for braiding and unbraiding horse tails, and may demand certain specific horses be given to them — horses that your character would have to steal from some wealthy ruler most likely, in order to satisfy the pixie’s whims.

They don’t like to give things away for nothing and will want to “test” your characters “worth” and would add such notations to their requests, such as “but only the one found in the belly button of the great octopus of the Bermuda triangle” or “which is at the bottom of dead mans gorge, from whence no one has ever returned”.

Pixies are also fickle, and are said to have brains so tiny that they can think of only one thought at a time, thus they may easily forget that they sent your character on a quest, and/or no longer want the particular item by the time your character returned with it, and keep sending your character after first one item than another, before your character is finally able to return with an item quick enough to get it to the pixie before they changed their mind again.

They are also nasty tricksters, and after one pixie gets what s/he requests, they would say, “now got to ___ (another pixie) and he will tell you where to find what you seek”. Your character may have to go through 4 or 5 different pixies in this manner before eventually being directed to the correct pixie that actually had the item you character needs.
Once your character finally got to the right pixie and was actually given the item needed, s/he would also have to worry about getting glamored. S/he may take the item, put it in their pocket, and return home; but once home find their pocket full of acorns or stones or dried leaves instead. Than s/he’d have to seek out the pixies all over again, and have to use trickery to get the REAL item away from the pixies.

Pixies, leprechauns, loki, and far-darrigs are all tricky like that, which is why they are called Tricksters.

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Screnzy RE: My MC has a stutter, and he does it almost EVERY line. Do I have to specify every time he talks?

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Quick Question
My MC has a stutter, and he does it almost EVERY line. Do I have to specify every time he talks?

MICHELLE
(stuttering)
Don’t blow up anything too important.

Or can I just say it in his character description?

MICHELLE, an eighteen year old boy-next-doorish-looking guy with a STUTTER….?

Is there a standard on this sort of thing? I’d think you wouldn’t have to say it every time, but SOMETIMES he doesn’t stutter (under certain, specific circumstances). However, I’m going to have to specify that he isn’t stuttering regardless — because otherwise someone reading it might just think I forgot to say he was stuttering…. Anyone know?

RE: Quick Question
I would mention it in the cast/character description.

    MICHELLE, an eighteen year old boy-next-doorish-looking guy with a STUTTER….?

And than every once in a while add a quick “stutter” into the dialog, just to remind the actor they are supposed to be stuttering.

    MICHELLE
    D…D…don’t blow up anything too..too im…important.

I wouldn’t do it too often, say maybe only once every 10 or 12 lines. Of course, writing the stutter in, every time you want the character to stutter, would ensure that the actor stuttered on the right words at the right time.
I would not use this: (stuttering)

    MICHELLE
    (stuttering)
    Don’t blow up anything too important.

because I think it would be too redundant, for the actor to keep seeing it every line.

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>Screnzy RE: My MC has a stutter, and he does it almost EVERY line. Do I have to specify every time he talks?

>
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Quick Question
My MC has a stutter, and he does it almost EVERY line. Do I have to specify every time he talks?

MICHELLE
(stuttering)
Don’t blow up anything too important.

Or can I just say it in his character description?

MICHELLE, an eighteen year old boy-next-doorish-looking guy with a STUTTER….?

Is there a standard on this sort of thing? I’d think you wouldn’t have to say it every time, but SOMETIMES he doesn’t stutter (under certain, specific circumstances). However, I’m going to have to specify that he isn’t stuttering regardless — because otherwise someone reading it might just think I forgot to say he was stuttering…. Anyone know?


RE: Quick Question
I would mention it in the cast/character description.
    MICHELLE, an eighteen year old boy-next-doorish-looking guy with a STUTTER….?

And than every once in a while add a quick “stutter” into the dialog, just to remind the actor they are supposed to be stuttering.

    MICHELLE D…D…don’t blow up anything too..too im…important.

I wouldn’t do it too often, say maybe only once every 10 or 12 lines. Of course, writing the stutter in, every time you want the character to stutter, would ensure that the actor stuttered on the right words at the right time.
I would not use this: (stuttering)

    MICHELLE (stuttering) Don’t blow up anything too important.

because I think it would be too redundant, for the actor to keep seeing it every line.

NaNovel 2008 For Fear of Little Men by Wendy C Allen
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Screnzy RE: My MC has a stutter, and he does it almost EVERY line. Do I have to specify every time he talks?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird


Quick Question
My MC has a stutter, and he does it almost EVERY line. Do I have to specify every time he talks?

MICHELLE
(stuttering)
Don’t blow up anything too important.

Or can I just say it in his character description?

MICHELLE, an eighteen year old boy-next-doorish-looking guy with a STUTTER….?

Is there a standard on this sort of thing? I’d think you wouldn’t have to say it every time, but SOMETIMES he doesn’t stutter (under certain, specific circumstances). However, I’m going to have to specify that he isn’t stuttering regardless — because otherwise someone reading it might just think I forgot to say he was stuttering…. Anyone know?


RE: Quick Question
I would mention it in the cast/character description.
    MICHELLE, an eighteen year old boy-next-doorish-looking guy with a STUTTER….?

And than every once in a while add a quick “stutter” into the dialog, just to remind the actor they are supposed to be stuttering.

    MICHELLE D…D…don’t blow up anything too..too im…important.

I wouldn’t do it too often, say maybe only once every 10 or 12 lines. Of course, writing the stutter in, every time you want the character to stutter, would ensure that the actor stuttered on the right words at the right time.
I would not use this: (stuttering)

    MICHELLE (stuttering) Don’t blow up anything too important.

because I think it would be too redundant, for the actor to keep seeing it every line.

NaNovel 2008 For Fear of Little Men by Wendy C Allen
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Script Frenzy RE: Cutting characters off? & How write two people saying the same thing at the same time?

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Quick! How do I…
write two people saying the same thing at the same time?
I just realized that my main characters are going to be doing this a lot.
__________________________

Cutting characters off?
How do I cut my characters off?

Example:

JOHN:
I like eggs their so delic-

MARY:
(cutting John off)
No way! Cheese is better!

Is that the correct way to do it? Or no?
__________________________

RE: Cutting characters off?
I’d do it this way:

    JOHN
    I like eggs they’re so delic…

    MARY
    No way! Cheese is better!

But if you have a lot of characters overlapping, instead of just once, I’d do it this way:

    Characters speaking in overlapping banter:


    JOHN
    I like eggs they’re so delic…

    MARY
    No way! Cheese is bet…

    Gary
    You’re both wrong, orang…

    Orson
    Now wait a minute, why can’t you have cheese on your eggs?

I find that characters cutting each other off, works best if the sentences are super short, and nearly identical, running on the same train of thought, as though the characters were one character speaking a single sentence. I’ll show you what I mean.

Here is how I did it. This is copied from the script I am writing right now. In this part, there are 3 black cats talking to one another, and in the last line, they scream out the same word, all at once. Here is how I wrote it:

    BLACK CAT #1
    Listen!

    BLACK CAT #2
    Can it be?

    BLACK CAT #3
    Yes, I do think it is.

    BLACK CAT #1
    Are you sure?

    BLACK CAT #2
    It sounds like…

    BLACK CAT #3
    It is!

    BLACK CAT #1
    BLACK CAT #2
    BLACK CAT #3
    EMMETT!!!

__________________________ 

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Script Frenzy RE: Cutting characters off? & How write two people saying the same thing at the same time?

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Quick! How do I…
write two people saying the same thing at the same time?
I just realized that my main characters are going to be doing this a lot.
__________________________


Cutting characters off?
How do I cut my characters off?

Example:

JOHN:
I like eggs their so delic-

MARY:
(cutting John off)
No way! Cheese is better!

Is that the correct way to do it? Or no?
__________________________


RE: Cutting characters off?
I’d do it this way:
    JOHNI like eggs they’re so delic…
    MARYNo way! Cheese is better!

But if you have a lot of characters overlapping, instead of just once, I’d do it this way:

    Characters speaking in overlapping banter:
    JOHNI like eggs they’re so delic…MARYNo way! Cheese is bet…GaryYou’re both wrong, orang…OrsonNow wait a minute, why can’t you have cheese on your eggs?

I find that characters cutting each other off, works best if the sentences are super short, and nearly identical, running on the same train of thought, as though the characters were one character speaking a single sentence. I’ll show you what I mean.

Here is how I did it. This is copied from the script I am writing right now. In this part, there are 3 black cats talking to one another, and in the last line, they scream out the same word, all at once. Here is how I wrote it:

    BLACK CAT #1Listen!
    BLACK CAT #2Can it be?BLACK CAT #3Yes, I do think it is.BLACK CAT #1Are you sure?BLACK CAT #2It sounds like…BLACK CAT #3It is!BLACK CAT #1BLACK CAT #2BLACK CAT #3EMMETT!!!

__________________________ 

NaNovel 2008 For Fear of Little Men by Wendy C Allen
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Script Frenzy RE: Writing characters that can’t talk?

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Characters that can’t talk?
One of my characters can’t talk, but the person who’s talking to her doesn’t know that, so she’s asking her questions and waiting for a response. How do I indicated that she’s not responding? Do I just write that there’s a pause, or what?
__________________________


RE: Characters that can’t talk?
tjmagee wrote:

You could just put a brief description of what the non-speaking guy does after someone says something to him – he shrugs his shoulders, smiles, or whatever it is he does when someone talks to him.

That’s what I do.

In the script that is in my excerpt section on my profile, you will see how I did it. That one is a ballet – NO characters talk in a ballet! LOL! =P However the ballet was based on a book I wrote a few years ago, and one of the characters, the merman, never speaks. I don’t know if he can’t talk, or won’t talk, or just doesn’t know English, but anyways, he never speaks.

I’m also writing a play version of the story too, (I haven’t started in yet), but in that one, when it comes time for him to “speak” in the script, I’ll type his name in the “character slot” and than instead of dialog, I’ll write in a stage/scene description underneath telling what he is doing.
__________________________ 

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Horror Shorts and The Alien Bible – Script Frenzy 2010 – My Plot – At the Moment At Least

It’s that time of year again – 100 pages in 30 days, and we are just 30 days away from the starting line! YAY! The first writing contest of 2010 is about to start! Are you ready for yet?

THE “I’m Writing a Stage Play in 2010″ SHOUT OUT!

Well, I’m here this year.

After missing 3 years in a row I’m determined to do it this year.

Not entirely sure what I’m doing yet, but I do know this:

#1: I’m writing a stage play.
#2: It’ll most likely be horror.
#3: I will probably end up writing ten 10 min plays instead of one 100 min play.

Right now I’m thinking about doing one or more of these (all are horror):

Emmett: A scam artist traveling preacher takes shelter from a storm in a house haunted by were-cats. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Artist: A prostitute is rescued from an attacker by a young artist named Jack (who does not know she’s a prostitute). Jack falls in love but gets his heart broken by the girl, than takes his art career to a whole new level when he becomes known as Jack the Ripper.

The Pearl Necklace: Shipwrecked on a deserted island, a young woman awake to find a strange string of pearls around her neck and an island that is not as deserted as it at first seemed. (Based on Scandinavian Legend).

InuGami: A faithful dog returns from the grave to avenge his mistress’s murder. (Based on Japanese Folk Tale).

The Hand: A boy lost in the forest discovers a dismembered hand which beckon him to follow it. (Not sure where it comes from, Scandinavian, I think.)

The Castle of Blood: Women in the kingdom are mysteriously disappearing, all of them last seen in the company of the king. Three sisters set out to find out is happening. (Based on Blue Beard.) (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

Shiver: A retelling of “The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About Fear”. (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

The Tailypoe: A hunter’s worst nightmares come true when the ghost of a wild cat he killed, comes back to get revenge. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Juniper Tree: When famine strikes the kingdom, families send their children to safety in another country. Oddly, one family seems to have an unending supply of fresh meat. (Based on a German Folk Tale). (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

My goal, as it stands right now, is to rewrite each of these, the bloodiest and most gruesome of all the classic fairy tales, as a ten minute play, each just ten pages long.

Of course, I’ve also got a few ideas about rewriting Bible stories, using my trademark surreal freak out style. Which means picking out several Bible stories in which God, an Angel, or Jesus plays a main roll, and than telling it from the perspective of God, the Angel, or Jesus, but here’s the catch – they are extraterrestrial aliens come to Earth. In other words – events like Sodom and Goahmorra’s “fire from heaven” and Mary’s immaculent conception, would actually be a UFO shooting laser beams and an alien abduction. Just a random mix of weird twisted up versions of Bible story. I’m thinking of calling it: The Alien Bible and writing it to be a bunch of one act plays that could be done seperetly or together as a whole.

And that’s what I’ll possibly, maybe, be doing for Script Frenzy 2010. Not sure – it could change. I mean, I’ve still got 31 days to change my mind, and if this goes anything like last year’s NaNoWriMo I’ll be changing my mind on the hour, every hour, every day! LOL!

What about you? Got any plans yet?

NaNovel 2008 For Fear of Little Men by Wendy C Allen
Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

>Horror Shorts and The Alien Bible – Script Frenzy 2010 – My Plot – At the Moment At Least

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

It’s that time of year again – 100 pages in 30 days, and we are just 30 days away from the starting line! YAY! The first writing contest of 2010 is about to start! Are you ready for yet?

THE “I’m Writing a Stage Play in 2010″ SHOUT OUT!

Well, I’m here this year.

After missing 3 years in a row I’m determined to do it this year.

Not entirely sure what I’m doing yet, but I do know this:

#1: I’m writing a stage play.
#2: It’ll most likely be horror.
#3: I will probably end up writing ten 10 min plays instead of one 100 min play.

Right now I’m thinking about doing one or more of these (all are horror):

Emmett: A scam artist traveling preacher takes shelter from a storm in a house haunted by were-cats. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Artist: A prostitute is rescued from an attacker by a young artist named Jack (who does not know she’s a prostitute). Jack falls in love but gets his heart broken by the girl, than takes his art career to a whole new level when he becomes known as Jack the Ripper.

The Pearl Necklace: Shipwrecked on a deserted island, a young woman awake to find a strange string of pearls around her neck and an island that is not as deserted as it at first seemed. (Based on Scandinavian Legend).

InuGami: A faithful dog returns from the grave to avenge his mistress’s murder. (Based on Japanese Folk Tale).

The Hand: A boy lost in the forest discovers a dismembered hand which beckon him to follow it. (Not sure where it comes from, Scandinavian, I think.)

The Castle of Blood: Women in the kingdom are mysteriously disappearing, all of them last seen in the company of the king. Three sisters set out to find out is happening. (Based on Blue Beard.) (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

Shiver: A retelling of “The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About Fear”. (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

The Tailypoe: A hunter’s worst nightmares come true when the ghost of a wild cat he killed, comes back to get revenge. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Juniper Tree: When famine strikes the kingdom, families send their children to safety in another country. Oddly, one family seems to have an unending supply of fresh meat. (Based on a German Folk Tale). (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

My goal, as it stands right now, is to rewrite each of these, the bloodiest and most gruesome of all the classic fairy tales, as a ten minute play, each just ten pages long.

Of course, I’ve also got a few ideas about rewriting Bible stories, using my trademark surreal freak out style. Which means picking out several Bible stories in which God, an Angel, or Jesus plays a main roll, and than telling it from the perspective of God, the Angel, or Jesus, but here’s the catch – they are extraterrestrial aliens come to Earth. In other words – events like Sodom and Goahmorra’s “fire from heaven” and Mary’s immaculent conception, would actually be a UFO shooting laser beams and an alien abduction. Just a random mix of weird twisted up versions of Bible story. I’m thinking of calling it: The Alien Bible and writing it to be a bunch of one act plays that could be done seperetly or together as a whole.

And that’s what I’ll possibly, maybe, be doing for Script Frenzy 2010. Not sure – it could change. I mean, I’ve still got 31 days to change my mind, and if this goes anything like last year’s NaNoWriMo I’ll be changing my mind on the hour, every hour, every day! LOL!

What about you? Got any plans yet?

NaNovel 2008 For Fear of Little Men by Wendy C Allen
Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

Horror Shorts and The Alien Bible – Script Frenzy 2010 – My Plot – At the Moment At Least

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

It’s that time of year again – 100 pages in 30 days, and we are just 30 days away from the starting line! YAY! The first writing contest of 2010 is about to start! Are you ready for yet?

THE “I’m Writing a Stage Play in 2010″ SHOUT OUT!

Well, I’m here this year.

After missing 3 years in a row I’m determined to do it this year.

Not entirely sure what I’m doing yet, but I do know this:

#1: I’m writing a stage play.
#2: It’ll most likely be horror.
#3: I will probably end up writing ten 10 min plays instead of one 100 min play.

Right now I’m thinking about doing one or more of these (all are horror):

Emmett: A scam artist traveling preacher takes shelter from a storm in a house haunted by were-cats. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Artist: A prostitute is rescued from an attacker by a young artist named Jack (who does not know she’s a prostitute). Jack falls in love but gets his heart broken by the girl, than takes his art career to a whole new level when he becomes known as Jack the Ripper.

The Pearl Necklace: Shipwrecked on a deserted island, a young woman awake to find a strange string of pearls around her neck and an island that is not as deserted as it at first seemed. (Based on Scandinavian Legend).

InuGami: A faithful dog returns from the grave to avenge his mistress’s murder. (Based on Japanese Folk Tale).

The Hand: A boy lost in the forest discovers a dismembered hand which beckon him to follow it. (Not sure where it comes from, Scandinavian, I think.)

The Castle of Blood: Women in the kingdom are mysteriously disappearing, all of them last seen in the company of the king. Three sisters set out to find out is happening. (Based on Blue Beard.) (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

Shiver: A retelling of “The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About Fear”. (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

The Tailypoe: A hunter’s worst nightmares come true when the ghost of a wild cat he killed, comes back to get revenge. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Juniper Tree: When famine strikes the kingdom, families send their children to safety in another country. Oddly, one family seems to have an unending supply of fresh meat. (Based on a German Folk Tale). (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

My goal, as it stands right now, is to rewrite each of these, the bloodiest and most gruesome of all the classic fairy tales, as a ten minute play, each just ten pages long.

Of course, I’ve also got a few ideas about rewriting Bible stories, using my trademark surreal freak out style. Which means picking out several Bible stories in which God, an Angel, or Jesus plays a main roll, and than telling it from the perspective of God, the Angel, or Jesus, but here’s the catch – they are extraterrestrial aliens come to Earth. In other words – events like Sodom and Goahmorra’s “fire from heaven” and Mary’s immaculent conception, would actually be a UFO shooting laser beams and an alien abduction. Just a random mix of weird twisted up versions of Bible story. I’m thinking of calling it: The Alien Bible and writing it to be a bunch of one act plays that could be done seperetly or together as a whole.

And that’s what I’ll possibly, maybe, be doing for Script Frenzy 2010. Not sure – it could change. I mean, I’ve still got 31 days to change my mind, and if this goes anything like last year’s NaNoWriMo I’ll be changing my mind on the hour, every hour, every day! LOL!

What about you? Got any plans yet?

NaNovel 2008 For Fear of Little Men by Wendy C Allen
Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

ScriptWriting Software or No . . .

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

I just got the following chat message on FaceBook:

hey
can u tell me which software u use for scripting?

Just got your message – sorry, my computer was on, but I was in the other room, so I wasn’t actually online. Not sure if you meant scripting like play/screen writing or scripting like html/java (I do both) so I’ll answer for both.

For a play I use several different ones, back and forth, all of which are listed on this page: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/software Of those I find Scibbed easiest to use. However, I rarely use any of the traditional Scriptwriting softwares at all. Usually I type everything up using yWriter5 (can download free from here: http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=design ) Than After I type it up there I copy and paste it into MSWorkd Word Proseccor and just manually format it using basic formatting such as this one: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/howtoformatastageplay

For html/java, I don’t use software, I learned it from chatting with web scripters on this forum: http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=design

Hope that helps. Good luck!

Waiting for Emmett to come.

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

>ScriptWriting Software or No . . .

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

I just got the following chat message on FaceBook:

hey
can u tell me which software u use for scripting?

Just got your message – sorry, my computer was on, but I was in the other room, so I wasn’t actually online. Not sure if you meant scripting like play/screen writing or scripting like html/java (I do both) so I’ll answer for both.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=spacedock13-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0573699216&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
For a play I use several different ones, back and forth, all of which are listed on this page: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/software Of those I find Scibbed easiest to use. However, I rarely use any of the traditional Scriptwriting softwares at all. Usually I type everything up using yWriter5 (can download free from here: http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=design ) Than After I type it up there I copy and paste it into MSWorkd Word Proseccor and just manually format it using basic formatting such as this one: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/howtoformatastageplay

For html/java, I don’t use software, I learned it from chatting with web scripters on this forum: http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=design

Hope that helps. Good luck!

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=spacedock13-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0321430840&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
Waiting for Emmett to come.

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

ScriptWriting Software or No . . .

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

I just got the following chat message on FaceBook:

hey
can u tell me which software u use for scripting?

Just got your message – sorry, my computer was on, but I was in the other room, so I wasn’t actually online. Not sure if you meant scripting like play/screen writing or scripting like html/java (I do both) so I’ll answer for both.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=spacedock13-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0573699216&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
For a play I use several different ones, back and forth, all of which are listed on this page: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/software Of those I find Scibbed easiest to use. However, I rarely use any of the traditional Scriptwriting softwares at all. Usually I type everything up using yWriter5 (can download free from here: http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=design ) Than After I type it up there I copy and paste it into MSWorkd Word Proseccor and just manually format it using basic formatting such as this one: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/howtoformatastageplay

For html/java, I don’t use software, I learned it from chatting with web scripters on this forum: http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=design

Hope that helps. Good luck!

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=spacedock13-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0321430840&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
Waiting for Emmett to come.

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

>Getting Ready for Script Frenzy 2010 – Anyone else?

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Getting Ready for 2010 – Anyone else?

I’m getting ready for next year. After missing 3 years in a row I’m determined to do it this year.

I know it’s only December 2009, but heck, it took me four months to figure out my NaNoWriMo plot, so why not spend four months plotting my Screnzy plot right?

Not enirely sure what I’m doing yet, but I do know this:

#1: I’m writing a stage play.
#2: It’ll most likely be horror.
#3: I will probably end up writing ten 10 min plays instead of one 100 min play.

Right now I’m thinking about doing one or more of these (all are horror):

Emmett: A scam artist traveling preacher takes shelter from a storm in a house haunted by were-cats. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Artist: A prostitute is rescued from an attacker by a young artist named Jack (who does not know she’s a prostitute). Jack falls in love but gets his heart broken by the girl, than takes his art career to a whole new level when he becomes known as Jack the Ripper.

The Pearl Necklace: Shipwrecked on a deserted island, a young woman awake to find a strange string of pearls around her neck and an island that is not as deserted as it at first seemed. (Based on Scandinavian Legend).

InuGami: A faithful dog returns from the grave to avenge his mistress’s murder. (Based on Japanese Folk Tale).

The Hand: A boy lost in the forest discovers a dismembered hand which beckon him to follow it. (Not sure where it comes from, Scandinavian, I think.)

The Castle of Blood: Woman in the kingdom are mysteriously disappearing, all of them last seen in the company of the king. Three sisters set out to find out is happening. (Based on Blue Beard.) (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

Shiver: A retelling of “The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About Fear”. (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

The Tailypoe: A hunter’s worst nightmares come true when the ghost of a wild cat he killed, comes back to get revenge. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Juniper Tree: When famine strikes the kingdom, families send their children to safety in another country. Oddly, one family seems to have an unending supply of fresh meat. (Based on a German Folk Tale). (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

My goal, as it stands right now, is to rewrite each of these, the bloodiest and most gruesome of all the classic fairy tales, as a ten minute play, each just ten pages long.

And that’s what I’ll be doing for Script Frenzy 2010. What about you? Got any plans yet?

Waiting for Emmett to come.

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

Getting Ready for Script Frenzy 2010 – Anyone else?

Getting Ready for 2010 – Anyone else?

I’m getting ready for next year. After missing 3 years in a row I’m determined to do it this year.

I know it’s only December 2009, but heck, it took me four months to figure out my NaNoWriMo plot, so why not spend four months plotting my Screnzy plot right?

Not enirely sure what I’m doing yet, but I do know this:

#1: I’m writing a stage play.
#2: It’ll most likely be horror.
#3: I will probably end up writing ten 10 min plays instead of one 100 min play.

Right now I’m thinking about doing one or more of these (all are horror):

Emmett: A scam artist traveling preacher takes shelter from a storm in a house haunted by were-cats. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Artist: A prostitute is rescued from an attacker by a young artist named Jack (who does not know she’s a prostitute). Jack falls in love but gets his heart broken by the girl, than takes his art career to a whole new level when he becomes known as Jack the Ripper.

The Pearl Necklace: Shipwrecked on a deserted island, a young woman awake to find a strange string of pearls around her neck and an island that is not as deserted as it at first seemed. (Based on Scandinavian Legend).

InuGami: A faithful dog returns from the grave to avenge his mistress’s murder. (Based on Japanese Folk Tale).

The Hand: A boy lost in the forest discovers a dismembered hand which beckon him to follow it. (Not sure where it comes from, Scandinavian, I think.)

The Castle of Blood: Woman in the kingdom are mysteriously disappearing, all of them last seen in the company of the king. Three sisters set out to find out is happening. (Based on Blue Beard.) (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

Shiver: A retelling of “The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About Fear”. (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

The Tailypoe: A hunter’s worst nightmares come true when the ghost of a wild cat he killed, comes back to get revenge. (Based on Civil War Slave Folk Tale)

The Juniper Tree: When famine strikes the kingdom, families send their children to safety in another country. Oddly, one family seems to have an unending supply of fresh meat. (Based on a German Folk Tale). (Brother’s Grimm Story Retold).

My goal, as it stands right now, is to rewrite each of these, the bloodiest and most gruesome of all the classic fairy tales, as a ten minute play, each just ten pages long.

And that’s what I’ll be doing for Script Frenzy 2010. What about you? Got any plans yet?

Waiting for Emmett to come.

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

Script Frenzy RE: Need a TITLE for my PLOT!!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

RE: Need a TITLE for my PLOT!!

FrostPrincess
Posted
August 24, 2009 – 17:08

Need a TITLE for my PLOT!!
Well, seeing as how I’m 13, and my plot could be about something not really age-appropriate for me, I can’t ask my family for a title, so… Can anybody help me?? Here’s the plot:

When a rendezvous turns sour, a young French/German prostitute has to escape from her “buyer”. She runs into Jack Weller, a budding British artist who is trying to imprint his art on the world, and he learns that she is trying to get away, but doesn’t know why. He decides to let her come with him and they both leave on a train. (This takes place in 1870s) They both begin to fall slowly in love.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course, Maria, the girl, doesn’t tell Jack that she’s a prostitute. She lies and says that the man she is running away from is her ex-husband (Or maybe just her husband..). Of course, I might change the plot to be more like:

She’s still a prostitute, but when she runs from the man, she first runs into Jack when he’s at an artist convention at the hotel she’s at. She happens to be dressed like a maid, so he thinks nothing of it. Then after managing to stay hidden from the man, she sees an add in the newspaper for a helper to an artist. She visits the address to discover that the artist is Jack. She’s familiar to him, but he doesn’t remember where from, so she lies and says she’s never met him.

He accepts her as his “apprentice” and they head off to another convention in England. As the man chases her at the train station, she lies to Jack and says that is her crazed ex-husband that she is trying to get away from.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think I like the second one the best, but I need some advice on which to choose. I also need a title, as I advertised in the title. Any help?

My first thought was this:

prostitute + British guy named Jack + 1870′s + rendezvous gone bad = Jack the Ripper

So reading your plots, I thought – what if the guy she was running from wasn’t half as bad as the guy who was helping her? What if her Jack was Jack the Ripper? What if her new lover was a charming artist by day and prostitute killer by night? He’s falling in love with her, thinking she’s a “good girl”, but than he finds out she’s a prostitute and becomes enraged and now she’s trapped with him and has to escape him too before he kills her. Or what if, it’s BECAUSE he finds out that she’s a prostitute that he than gives up his art career and becomes Jack the Ripper and that’s the reason he only targets prostitutes?

WOW! I like that – I’ve always wanted to write a Jack the Ripper story, I may write that one out myself! LOL! I write horror, so, yeah, I read your romance plot and saw it as a horror plot. =P

ANYWAYS – the title I thought of was “The Artist”. Others “Train to My Heart”, “Love on the Run”, “Night Flight”.

Did they have art conventions in the 1870′s? and if so, would it have been at a hotel? I’ve no idea. I can’t say as I’ve ever heard of such a thing before.

I like the idea of having the whole story take place on the train. The opening scene is her running on to the train as is pulling out of the station, she’s not watching where she’s going or even thinking about what she’s doing and it’s a few moments before she even realizes that in her panic she jumped on to the train. She runs down to lane to hide from the conductor collecting tickets and runs into Jack, sending him and his attache of art supplies to the floor. Realizing she’s running from the conductor he quickly makes an excuse about having lost her ticket and buys one for her and that’s how she ends up joining him on the trip. Unknown to her, while this is going on, her attacker is running after the train, leaps and grabs the caboose ladder at the last second. . . . Wow. You’ve got a plot rolling in my head now. (Jack before he became The Ripper.) I must go write it down before I forget.

I’m probably not being very helpful to you, seeing how I took your plot and stuck a crazy serial killer in it. Oh well. I guess you can tell I like writing about serial killers.

Waiting for Emmett to come.

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

>Script Frenzy RE: Need a TITLE for my PLOT!!

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

RE: Need a TITLE for my PLOT!!


FrostPrincess

Posted
August 24, 2009 – 17:08

 

Need a TITLE for my PLOT!!
Well, seeing as how I’m 13, and my plot could be about something not really age-appropriate for me, I can’t ask my family for a title, so… Can anybody help me?? Here’s the plot:

When a rendezvous turns sour, a young French/German prostitute has to escape from her “buyer”. She runs into Jack Weller, a budding British artist who is trying to imprint his art on the world, and he learns that she is trying to get away, but doesn’t know why. He decides to let her come with him and they both leave on a train. (This takes place in 1870s) They both begin to fall slowly in love.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course, Maria, the girl, doesn’t tell Jack that she’s a prostitute. She lies and says that the man she is running away from is her ex-husband (Or maybe just her husband..). Of course, I might change the plot to be more like:

She’s still a prostitute, but when she runs from the man, she first runs into Jack when he’s at an artist convention at the hotel she’s at. She happens to be dressed like a maid, so he thinks nothing of it. Then after managing to stay hidden from the man, she sees an add in the newspaper for a helper to an artist. She visits the address to discover that the artist is Jack. She’s familiar to him, but he doesn’t remember where from, so she lies and says she’s never met him.

He accepts her as his “apprentice” and they head off to another convention in England. As the man chases her at the train station, she lies to Jack and says that is her crazed ex-husband that she is trying to get away from.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think I like the second one the best, but I need some advice on which to choose. I also need a title, as I advertised in the title. Any help?

To the world, you are one person. To one person, you are the world.

My first thought was this:

prostitute + British guy named Jack + 1870′s + rendezvous gone bad = Jack the Ripper

So reading your plots, I thought – what if the guy she was running from wasn’t half as bad as the guy who was helping her? What if her Jack was Jack the Ripper? What if her new lover was a charming artist by day and prostitute killer by night? He’s falling in love with her, thinking she’s a “good girl”, but than he finds out she’s a prostitute and becomes enraged and now she’s trapped with him and has to escape him too before he kills her. Or what if, it’s BECAUSE he finds out that she’s a prostitute that he than gives up his art career and becomes Jack the Ripper and that’s the reason he only targets prostitutes?

WOW! I like that – I’ve always wanted to write a Jack the Ripper story, I may write that one out myself! LOL! I write horror, so, yeah, I read your romance plot and saw it as a horror plot. =P

ANYWAYS – the title I thought of was “The Artist”. Others “Train to My Heart”, “Love on the Run”, “Night Flight”.

Did they have art conventions in the 1870′s? and if so, would it have been at a hotel? I’ve no idea. I can’t say as I’ve ever heard of such a thing before.

I like the idea of having the whole story take place on the train. The opening scene is her running on to the train as is pulling out of the station, she’s not watching where she’s going or even thinking about what she’s doing and it’s a few moments before she even realizes that in her panic she jumped on to the train. She runs down to lane to hide from the conductor collecting tickets and runs into Jack, sending him and his attache of art supplies to the floor. Realizing she’s running from the conductor he quickly makes an excuse about having lost her ticket and buys one for her and that’s how she ends up joining him on the trip. Unknown to her, while this is going on, her attacker is running after the train, leaps and grabs the caboose ladder at the last second. . . . Wow. You’ve got a plot rolling in my head now. (Jack before he became The Ripper.) I must go write it down before I forget.

I’m probably not being very helpful to you, seeing how I took your plot and stuck a crazy serial killer in it. Oh well. I guess you can tell I like writing about serial killers.

Waiting for Emmett to come.

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>NaNoWriMo RE: Anybody taking on a Big, Fun, Scary Blogging Project? (Plays and Script Frenzy)

>
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RE: Anybody taking on a Big, Fun, Scary Blogging Project?


ohmynoti
Anybody taking on a Big, Fun, Scary Blogging Project?
Winner!
51,942 / 50,000
Official Participant
Joined: Oct 17, 2006
Location: Sackville, New Brunswick
Posts: 88
Posted on:
Dec 11, 2009 – 16 34
I know I am!
I’m going to write 100 tiny plays in 2010.
Some Reasons:
-I’m a young playwright, and I need a lot of practice. (And after about 3 years working on my big pretentious magnum opus, I could use some tiny practice.)
-I’m trying to figure out how theatre can be more like music (without necessarily being “musical theatre”), so creating some song-sized theatre seems like a good place to begin.
Some Rules:
-I must post at least 1 play a week (and at least 2 most weeks, in order to meet the goal).
-Each play must be a self-contained entity. (If it is impossible for an outsider to grok, I fail.)
-The plays must be tiny. (We will use a sliding scale on this, but if one can’t be reasonably expected to read the play over breakfast, it’s a fail in the tiny department.)
Some Rights:
-I get to write plays that are not so good sometimes.
-I get to revisit characters and situations.
-I get to be as vulgar or as sentimental as I want.
-I get to make the occasional non-play post, provided a) it is about theatre, and b) it is not boring.
***
Anybody else apparently gone nuts in similar fashion?
———-

Great minds think alike! LOL!

Your goal is similar to one of mine. I posted my list on the stickied thread with lots of lists on one thread if you want to read my entire, huge long list. The list I posted doesn’t go into details though, it just lists off each thing I want to do this year. One of those things, was to “expand my playwright career”, I said I planned to write a bunch of “mini-plays” this year. But that’s all I said. I’ll expand on that now and explain what I plan to do.

I was thinking how, plays that are “too long” get boring and I don’t want to fall into the trap of writing boring plays. Than I started thinking how songs are able to tell an entire story in as little as four minutes, so why can’t a play do the same? So, I decided that I wanted to write an anthology of mini-plays this year – my goal was at least one anthology with at least ten, 10 minute plays.

Than, the more I started thinking about it, the farther I expanded my goal.

My next idea was to go one step farther and write several anthologies of 10-minute plays, each anthology being one a single theme. The themes I came up with so far are:

    Valentines Plays Easter Plays Halloween Plays Christmas Plays Princess Tales Brothers Grimm Retold Beach – Ocean – Under the Sea

I’ll think of more most likely but those are what I came up with so far.

I was than farther thinking of doing a set of 12 volumes – one for each month, and publishing those for the grade school market – for classroom plays for kids.

So, you can see I’m still working out just exactly what it is that I want to do, but my goal is basically the same as yours: to write several mini-plays through out the year.

Incubus: Fear the Night!

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

NaNoWriMo RE: Anybody taking on a Big, Fun, Scary Blogging Project? (Plays and Script Frenzy)

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

RE: Anybody taking on a Big, Fun, Scary Blogging Project?

ohmynoti
Anybody taking on a Big, Fun, Scary Blogging Project?
Winner!
51,942 / 50,000
Official Participant
Joined: Oct 17, 2006
Location: Sackville, New Brunswick
Posts: 88
Posted on:
Dec 11, 2009 – 16 34
I know I am!

I’m going to write 100 tiny plays in 2010.
Some Reasons:

-I’m a young playwright, and I need a lot of practice. (And after about 3 years working on my big pretentious magnum opus, I could use some tiny practice.)
-I’m trying to figure out how theatre can be more like music (without necessarily being “musical theatre”), so creating some song-sized theatre seems like a good place to begin.

Some Rules:

-I must post at least 1 play a week (and at least 2 most weeks, in order to meet the goal).
-Each play must be a self-contained entity. (If it is impossible for an outsider to grok, I fail.)
-The plays must be tiny. (We will use a sliding scale on this, but if one can’t be reasonably expected to read the play over breakfast, it’s a fail in the tiny department.)

Some Rights:

-I get to write plays that are not so good sometimes.
-I get to revisit characters and situations.
-I get to be as vulgar or as sentimental as I want.
-I get to make the occasional non-play post, provided a) it is about theatre, and b) it is not boring.

***
Anybody else apparently gone nuts in similar fashion?
———-

Great minds think alike! LOL!

Your goal is similar to one of mine. I posted my list on the stickied thread with lots of lists on one thread if you want to read my entire, huge long list. The list I posted doesn’t go into details though, it just lists off each thing I want to do this year. One of those things, was to “expand my playwright career”, I said I planned to write a bunch of “mini-plays” this year. But that’s all I said. I’ll expand on that now and explain what I plan to do.

I was thinking how, plays that are “too long” get boring and I don’t want to fall into the trap of writing boring plays. Than I started thinking how songs are able to tell an entire story in as little as four minutes, so why can’t a play do the same? So, I decided that I wanted to write an anthology of mini-plays this year – my goal was at least one anthology with at least ten, 10 minute plays.

Than, the more I started thinking about it, the farther I expanded my goal.

My next idea was to go one step farther and write several anthologies of 10-minute plays, each anthology being one a single theme. The themes I came up with so far are:

    Valentines Plays
    Easter Plays
    Halloween Plays
    Christmas Plays
    Princess Tales
    Brothers Grimm Retold
    Beach – Ocean – Under the Sea

I’ll think of more most likely but those are what I came up with so far.

I was than farther thinking of doing a set of 12 volumes – one for each month, and publishing those for the grade school market – for classroom plays for kids.

So, you can see I’m still working out just exactly what it is that I want to do, but my goal is basically the same as yours: to write several mini-plays through out the year.

Incubus: Fear the Night!

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

Screnzy RE: Split play into 3 or persevere?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

lemonstar
Posted
September 20, 2009 – 04:32

Split play into 3 or persevere?
I’ve not written a play on this scale before and I think I may be too ambitious. I’m trying to sketch out a plot but I have three main ideas I want to include but it’s still very confusing to me exactly what I’m trying to do – I simply woke up one day with the idea that I wanted to write something. The 3 ideas centre around:- READ MORE…

I think they would work best individually. You got to remember that a play is limited to no more than 2 set changes (three sets and two 15 minute intermissions) and even that is rare. Most theaters prefer working with a play that needs only 2 sets, thus one scene change. Keeping in mind that for every scene change there has to be a 15 minute intermission, while the carpenters/stagehands move stuff around. And small regional theaters often require only one set through out the entire play (no scene changes at all).

Okay, so for me at least, reading your ideas, I can see too many multiple scene changes getting in the way of the flow of your story, if you try to put them all in one play. In a novel or a screenplay, that would not be a problem, but if you are planning a stage play, than yeah, create three different plays.

Or, you could make a “play set”. (I’m not sure what the proper word to call them is.) I’ve heard of playwrights doing that before. It’s where they write multiple plays, like one really big play, but each part is really it’s own play.

For instance, you have three ideas right? And you want them all one story. So, what you could do is write one play divided into 9 separate acts. So it would break down like this:

NAME OF PLAY

-PART I
——-Act 1
——-Act 2
——-Act 3

-PART II
——-Act 1
——-Act 2
——-Act 3

-PART III
——-Act 1
——-Act 2
——-Act 3

Than each of the three parts could be written so that each could stand on it’s own as a separate play, without the need to see the other two. But should a theater come along that had the budget to produce the whole thing in one (Broadway for example) all three parts would flow together as one big play as well.

You could break this down one step farther, by writing 9 separate 10 minute plays, each of which able to stand on it’s own, but when stung together produce one big 90 minute play. This is what a lot of playwrights seem to be doing the past few years. It allows the playwright to write a big multi scene play, while still allowing the theater to have the option of producing only one or two acts from it.

Anyways, that’s what I’d do if it was me. I’d go ahead and write one big play, but divide it into small parts that could each stand alone as it’s only mini play.

Incubus: Fear the Night!

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

>Screnzy RE: Split play into 3 or persevere?

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird


lemonstar

Posted
September 20, 2009 – 04:32

Split play into 3 or persevere?
I’ve not written a play on this scale before and I think I may be too ambitious. I’m trying to sketch out a plot but I have three main ideas I want to include but it’s still very confusing to me exactly what I’m trying to do – I simply woke up one day with the idea that I wanted to write something. The 3 ideas centre around:- READ MORE…

I think they would work best individually. You got to remember that a play is limited to no more than 2 set changes (three sets and two 15 minute intermissions) and even that is rare. Most theaters prefer working with a play that needs only 2 sets, thus one scene change. Keeping in mind that for every scene change there has to be a 15 minute intermission, while the carpenters/stagehands move stuff around. And small regional theaters often require only one set through out the entire play (no scene changes at all).

Okay, so for me at least, reading your ideas, I can see too many multiple scene changes getting in the way of the flow of your story, if you try to put them all in one play. In a novel or a screenplay, that would not be a problem, but if you are planning a stage play, than yeah, create three different plays.

Or, you could make a “play set”. (I’m not sure what the proper word to call them is.) I’ve heard of playwrights doing that before. It’s where they write multiple plays, like one really big play, but each part is really it’s own play.

For instance, you have three ideas right? And you want them all one story. So, what you could do is write one play divided into 9 separate acts. So it would break down like this:

NAME OF PLAY

-PART I
——-Act 1
——-Act 2
——-Act 3

-PART II
——-Act 1
——-Act 2
——-Act 3

-PART III
——-Act 1
——-Act 2
——-Act 3

Than each of the three parts could be written so that each could stand on it’s own as a separate play, without the need to see the other two. But should a theater come along that had the budget to produce the whole thing in one (Broadway for example) all three parts would flow together as one big play as well.

You could break this down one step farther, by writing 9 separate 10 minute plays, each of which able to stand on it’s own, but when stung together produce one big 90 minute play. This is what a lot of playwrights seem to be doing the past few years. It allows the playwright to write a big multi scene play, while still allowing the theater to have the option of producing only one or two acts from it.

Anyways, that’s what I’d do if it was me. I’d go ahead and write one big play, but divide it into small parts that could each stand alone as it’s only mini play.

Incubus: Fear the Night!

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659