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I'm writing this weekend. I'd like you to join me and we'll have a virtual write-in.

Virtual Write-In Weekend

11/4 - 11pm PST/7am GMT to 12:30am PST/8:30am GMT

11/5 - 1pm PST/9pm GMT to 2:30 PST/10:30 GMT

11/6 - 7am PST/3pm GMT to 9am PST/5pm GMT & 11pm PST/7am GMT to 12:30am PST/8:30am GMT

I'd like to keep this up for the following weeks. For those of you who get your writing in during the week, maybe we can do a couple midweek. Let me know what times are best for you.

On Thursday, we're going to do our first Live Chat Write-in via Google Hangout. If you have a gmail account, you can search for Naplwrimo and then add us to your circle. You can also link through Yahoo, I believe. Time is TBD. Since we're spanning timezones, please throw out a few times in the comments and we'll see what we can come up with. I'm open to having a few sessions througout the day to see who can join up. Have to confess: I love Hangout. It's a great way to work long distance.

I'm inspired by the Watch Me Work performance/sessions with Suzan Lori Parks the Public Theatre hosted last year. They're archived on New Play TV. I recommend using them as a resource - pick a time to write and then go to the archive and write with Lori. I love the sound of her typewriter. There's a Q & A after the session and you'll get some good advice/inspiration from that. SLP is scheduled to be in Amsterdam this weekend for the Nieue Theatre Festival and she's supposed to do a Watch Me Work session there. I'm trying to find out more information about that and whether it's going to be streamed. I'll keep you updated. It would be lovely to participate in a live session.

Thank you all for a great opening week. Every day I check the Forums I'm excited by the energy that's buzzing around. We have an enthusiastic, committed, creative group of playwrights and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks. Keep writing, Rhinos!

After having participated in Naplwrimo for a few years, I know that the first week can either be spent feeling the rush of, as Toni said in one of her posts, zest, or it can be spent feeling totally stuck and unsure of where to begin. You might get a page or two in and then think "what next?" Or maybe some of you out there are thinking, "I really want to take part, but I don’t know what to write about." Or "it’s three days in and I haven’t gotten started yet." Sometimes having a writing prompt I haven’t tried yet helps me get my mind thinking in different ways, even if a whole play doesn’t end up arising out of it.

Here’s a couple I picked up in school:

Write a scene where your characters are having dinner together.

One of my professors gave me this exercise because I was writing a family drama and I wasn’t quite sure on where the plot was going yet. He said not to worry about the plot and just write them sitting down around the table having a conversation and to see what comes out. It doesn’t even need to end up in the play itself—it might just give you some insight on who your characters are and how they relate to each other. I feel like in my current play my first two scenes have largely been this type of exercise, minus the dinner table.

Write a scene (or a ten-minute play) with two characters who have a problem with each other, only you are not allowed to let them speak about the problem directly. The scene is just these two characters, and there has to be a table and chairs, with flowers on the table.

An exercise in subtext! Plus I find that it’s a great prompt to get your mind working—two characters who have a problem with each other is a nice basic foundation for any play. And the random rule of having a flower on the table gives you the added dimension of “how will I work that in?” It also focuses your mind a little so you don’t feel as lost.

Write a monologue about a time in your life when you were very hurt. Write it from the perspective of the person who hurt you.

Great way to get inside the mind of characters who might do horribly hurtful things and think about how their mind works.

Anyone have any other writing prompts that work for them? I’ve done others too—I find that I struggle the most with ones that are designed to be on-the-spot exercises. They force me to get out of my initial panic of "I don’t know what to write!" and just scribble down the first thing that comes into my head, which I am not good at. Sometimes I start with introductory stage directions even if I end up severely cutting them later, because then the first page doesn’t feel so empty and writing the first line of dialogue doesn’t feel quite as intimidating anymore.

If you’re feeling stuck a few pages in, or if you haven’t started yet, it’s OK! The hardest part really is making that first blank page a little less blank. But that can also be the most fun part.

You are here.

It's kind of beautiful isn't it? The possiblity. The freedom. A new beginning.The beginning of a new play. I'm glad that Toni brought this up in the Forums today. Great minds, eh?

I've been thinking of all the ways I could begin. But I haven't put down a word yet. 45 minutes ago I decided to change the title of my play. I'm going to allow myself to do that. Part of my process is to make up little rules for myself. An important one is keep writing, don't look back. Burn through those pages and then think about it later. 

But right now I'm thinking. And enjoying that blank page. Savoring that empty space of possiblity. And I'm cleaning. Sometimes I need to shift the space I'm living in. I used to think this was a delaying tactic (and it can be), but I've come to realize that it's also part of my process. I need to move around and shift things. That's how I came up with a new title. It just popped up while I was moving around the house. This reminds me of one of my favorite poems.

Sometimes I need space.

I remind myself that the writing will get done. I can write in the quiet of late night or early morning. I can write amidst the chaos of the daily motion. I can write while the four year old is screeching his space shuttle around and around in a circle on the floor. Or the dog is howling or the music is blaring. Sometimes I think I could write while the house burned down around me. How's that for an image?

I'm going to try this writing exercise tonight. I found it here. It's a Paula Vogel exercise and it's pretty simple.

1. Describe what the audience will not see in the world adjacent to the stage.

2. Describe what will be seen onstage.

What do you think of Paula Vogel's Bake-off exercise? There are many riffs on this exercise, but the basic idea is this: you're given a list of "ingredients" which you attempt to incorporate into your play. Let me know if you're interested in trying this and I'll put one together or we could see what kind of ingredients we could gather via our Twitter feed (which I guess would be a riff on Stone Soup). I'm curious to see what would happen.