gratitude

Naplwrimo started as a joke between friends. That doesn't mean we don't take what we do here seriously, but it does mean that we try not to take ourselves too seriously. We have an image of the tortured writer alone in his or her garret, freezing and starving. While there is some truth to that stereotype, it's also worth trying to explode and open it up a little bit. Especially the alone part. Obviously, you've got to do the writing. But you can come here for support, encouragement and advice.

The spirit of Naplwrimo is about jumping in and writing. Will you have a play that's fully developed by the end of November. No. We all know it doesn't work that way. Don't we? Oops. Sorry if I burst your bubble. Yeah. It takes a time. Time to develop characters, expand ideas, find structure, figure out how the second act begins or if there's even going to be one. Time is funny when you're writing though. It expands in the moment when you're connected and the pages are filling up and it contracts when the words aren't coming and you're scrambling to make it to the finish line.

Maybe you won't have a finished script at the end of the month. Maybe you will. Maybe you'll have a few pages of a glorious something that you can keep working on and nurture into a larger piece. That's what's happened for me. I've actually "won" Naplwrimo exactly once and I've done it every year for five years. But here's a few things I found through Naplwrimo:

1. Friendship and community. I met Dorothy Lemoult when she moved to San Francisco and have become friends with her and her husband, Jeremy. I'm so grateful for her friendship and her presence in my life.

There's a great group of people involved in Naplwrimo and they show up every year and participate in whatever way they can. For someone like me, who felt pretty isolated, Naplwrimo gave me a venue to "meet" other writers and feel connected to a larger artistic community. I want to keep nurturing this community and watching it grow.

2. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. It was hard for me to put myself out there and participate in the online community at first, but I made myself do it and then I volunteered to help out. Yeah, you can do that too, just email me - info@naplwrimo.org -  if you'd like to write a blog post, contribute a writing exercise or have some other mad skilz you'd like to share with us. Your participation makes our community vibrant and deepens your connection to it. Sensing a theme here?

3. Naplwrimo gave me a writing schedule. My life is pretty crazy. Is yours? I have a family (three kids - ages 11, 7 and 4). And a dog. So finding the time to write is kinda tricky. I started doing Naplwrimo because it guaranteed that I'd at least be working on a play one month of the year. I'd either get a rough draft out or get some pages that were working.

One year I wrote 35 pages about a woman who turns into a tree. Based on that writing sample, I got a commission to write Care of Trees for Shotgun Players 20th Anniversary Season. I can't guarantee that will happen for you. But I can tell you that it definitely won't happen if you don't write. Maybe Naplwrimo is one baby step you can take to get started.

4. Naplwrimo is a place to experiment and take risks. This is a new thing on my agenda here at Naplwrimo. I want this to be a place where you can explore new ideas and try out new ways of working and creating plays. Obviously, we kind of favor a writing process over a devising process - but you know, it's worth having a conversation about how we might challenge ourselves and open up the community.

The play I finished that first year isn't all that great, to be honest. But it laid the ground work for the work that came after. This is a place to do your R & D without the pressure to do a reading, or make a production deadline. You can just write and explore.

I'm personally interested in asking one basic question right now: what is a play? It's easy to take it for granted, to think we know what that form is and it's kinda comforting. We have a three act form, we have a two act form (that contains the basic three act structure) and we just write it. Yes. You can do that and if you'd like, you can push the boundaries. I want to explode them. I'd love to have some company and input from other like-minded writers.

Our mission is that we foster community and nurture playwrights and the creation of new works on a global level (Global level? That's a topic for another blog post). Experimenting with form and content is key to the mission.

Your participation in the community is primary.

I hope you'll join us.

Dear Rhinos,

If you're in the U.S, I am sure you are all taking the day to be grateful and eat and be with loved ones.

Though the source of this holiday is quite awful, Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. As a French person, when I first moved here, this holiday had no meaning for me whatsoever and so it quickly became the holiday where I don't have any obligations to anyone and I can do whatever the hell I want !

Since then, I've spent many Thanksgivings doing whatever I want. Some years, I've been with family, some years I've been with friends, some years I've been by myself. Some years, I just wrote all day.

But every year, it has been a great time of feeling gratitude for my life and for the people in my life.

At the risk of sounding sappy, I want to truly express how grateful I am for Chris Baty creating Nanowrimo and for their support as well as the support of Script Frenzy in sending people over to our little Rhino corner of the world.

I also want to take a moment and thank a few people who have been absolutely instrumental in the NaPlWriMo's creation and growth. Click to see...

Finally, I want to give extra special thanks to Joshua Conkel, our amazing forums moderator this year and to Elizabeth E. Spreen, our dramaturg as well as our bloggers, Chris Leyva, Dusty Wilson and Karen Jeynes.

And finally, to all of you, readers and playwrights of NaPlWriMo who have been and are playing and winning this game full on, while supporting others. This is the community I had in mind when I created NaPlWriMo and you are making it happen.

On this day of gratitude, I want to turn your attention to the future of our children.  Elizabeth E. Spreen has been a part of an effort to help a classroom of little ones attend their first theatre show. How could they ever want to become playwrights if they never even get a chance to see theatre ? Many people complain that theatre is dying but if we don't give our kids a chance to discover it, we can't expect them to like it !

I urge you to please take a moment and dig up even 5 dollars to help these little ones have access to theatre. I just gave 25 dollars in the name of NaPlWrimo and we can't afford it, but that's how it works. If you think you don't have enough of something, let it go and give it up. Holding onto it tightly only makes it slip away more.

Try that with your time and your page count too and see how it totally works !!!

Have a fabulous day and see you at the finish line !!!