Writing Report November 26, 2017

It’s been a long gap between these writing reports, due in a big part to travel plans.

My wife and I took a three week trip to Italy in October and had a marvelous time.  This is our second trip to Italy together (her third) and we enjoyed it immensely.

A lot of projects had to be put on hold during that trip, of course, and I’ve been playing catch up ever since we came back.

And then of course there was Thanksgiving…

Anyway, as last I reported, I had recently written a short one act play in the grand guignol style.

While doing research on same, I dug up a lot of interesting images / factoids / videos on Le Grand Guignol and that style of play (which is still being performed in various theaters around the world).  It turned over a lot of ideas in my head, one of which was a blending of the grand guignol style with a classic American gangster story.

This was one of many ideas -- and not all Le Grand Guignol connected -- percolating in my head as I wrote the previous play.

Like many writers, the problem isn’t coming up with idea, the problem is finding the time to write them down.

Well, I thought writing that second play would be a snap:  Just take a collegiate notebook and some pens along on the flight from Los Angeles to Milan and by the time I arrived, a brand new play!

Events, as I am wont to observe, conspired against me.

We never experienced a bumpier flight than the trip from Los Angeles to Milan.  I’m not blaming the airline or the pilots; they did a great job of minimizing the turbulence.

And we’ve certainly experienced far more severe turbulence than we suffered on that flight, but nothing as long.

Of the 13+ hours we spent in the air, at least 12 were being buffeted about.

Too much so for me to being able to write.

(The turbulence was so bad that it was impossible to make selections on the seat touch screens -- between the moment you aimed your finger at an icon and it actually arrived, the plane would jerk enough to make an entirely different selection.)

Once we landed and actually began our tour, it was hard to find time to write.  Frequently at night I would be too exhausted to do anything other than check Facebook and upload pre-edited photos to Instagram.

But finally on the last week of the trip I began to find time to write, an hour here, two hours there, a three hour block one evening.

The story progressed well, and on the return trip -- much smoother! -- I had not only enough time to finish the first draft of the play but to dash off a short story (under 1,400 words) as well about a jewel theft in Venice that goes horribly yet comically (or perhaps comically yet horribly) awry.

(The short story needs work; I’m not at all happy with it even though I like the basic idea.  That will be put aside until other, more important projects are done; don’t be surprised if it’s years before I mention it again.)

There’s still much, much more to do on other projects, and I’ll want to polish them up first before doing the same to the new play.

Keep watching this space…

© Buzz Dixon