Day 1: Concept(ion)

I've decided to write a play. Or, as the word playwright indicates, wright a play, the way iron is wrought, as creating a play is about far more than just writing. I've never done this before, so I'm curious about what this process will be like and want to keep a record of it. Perhaps you will find this process interesting as well. At least, that's my hope.

How - or perhaps more importantly why - does someone decide to write a play? That's a long story, which I may tell later but as I've learned in playwriting class, I don't want to start off with too much exposition before my audience cares about my characters (me, in this case). So suffice it to say that I've decided to write a play. This is the "inciting incident" or problem that begins the action, as writing a play is certainly a very big problem.

I've also learned that adding layers of conflict or obstacles to solving the problem makes things more interesting, so I'm setting up some conflicts for myself:

1) As creating a work of theater is as close as I ever plan to get to creating a life form (and inspired by the friends I have who are currently pregnant or trying to get pregnant or desperately wanting to get pregnant), I'm going to attempt to "give birth" to a play in 266 days, the typical length of human gestation from conception. As today is January 15th, my "due date" is October 8th. I aim to have a public reading of my play on that date. This is a bit ambitious, but I am nothing if not ambitious.

In addition to the element of a deadline, the other layers of conflict I have are inherent in my life and the process:

2) In addition to my creative pursuits as a singer, actress and now writer, I also work 3 jobs, have a very active social life with my chosen family of friends, and have an amazing boyfriend who deserves my time and attention. So merely finding TIME will be a challenge.

3) I have never written a full-length play before, so I don't really know what I'm doing. As a singer/performer I've co-written cabaret shows and the book for a hybrid theater-cabaret show for children, plus I've written a dozen or so 10-minute plays for my playwriting class. But a full-length play is quite a different beast and a task far more daunting. Lack of experience is another challenge.

But here I go. While I won't claim that the later stages of giving birth to a human child is easier than giving birth to a play, I can definitely say that at least with getting pregnant you know how to start. How does one start writing a play? What on earth will I write about? I guess we'll find out.