Hello Writeineer fans!
I've been busy pushing out content over these past few weeks... I think at peak, I was working on 4 librettos at once!
I've always felt it's better to have 2 or more shows "looking for a producer" than it is to have just 1...
Which leads me to my entry today...
My usual MO is to tackle one project at a time. I've worked that way for the better part of 10 years. But recently, I suffered a minor breakdown and it got me thinking. I wondered if maybe I was "too" focused on the story I was trying to tell.
I put it away.
All I needed was one final scene and a song to go with it, but no matter how hard I focused, no matter how hard I forced myself to sit at the keyboard. The scene wouldn't come to me.
I believe there is something called over-saturation. Maybe the years of thinking about this story have over-saturated my thinking. Every where I went, I would either see a person who acted like one of my characters, or I'd get an idea for a scene or hear a sentence from a stranger that prompted an idea... I thought I was being productive.
I walked away from the story.
As per my usual, I grabbed my plot books and my non-fiction writing books and printed two outlines that I've been steadily adding to for the past year. I sat in bed with my outlines, determined what I needed to do to get them to the writing stage, opened up my books, identified the plot of each and started completing the outline.
The result was a complete outline for a new story that I'm now about 25 pages into writing and further development on another outline.
I didn't believe I could juggle two stories at once, but my brain seems to be doing it pretty good this week.
My only complaint is that I have to carry around the materials for two stories instead of one -- and I'm the kind of person that has binders for each story plus a couple books that go along with it. I look like a freshman with a booked solid course load walking around the house to my various "writing" zones.
I'm going to continue on both stories -- maybe even add a third to it -- and see how this plays out. At best case scenario I'll have two completed librettos in the time I normally would have one and at worst case scenario I'll have two complete outlines...
In my current state of mind, maybe Quantity is better than Quality for now...
Alan Saunders, WRITEineer.com
Friends told me I was late to the game for writing musicals, even though I've been writing them almost my entire life. so this blog is my journey into writing professionally for the stage.
Check out WRITEineer.com for how-to articles and resources for writing your own musical for the stage!