So you know that whole virtual learning course I was
taking? With 3 veterinarian events that require house
arrest for a certain Doodle, surprising things are happening there.
First off, I’ve spent a lot of time writing in my head. Many writers do this anyway, but early in
the process, I usually need to write things down, have a tangible hard copy to
work on. Being deprived of that seems to
bypass my cognitive brain.
As a result and against my will, my
antagonist staged a coup ousting my protagonist and became my main character, bringing
a complexity, if not a depth, I hadn’t anticipated to a (third) catalyst character.
The other consequence of Doodle duty is that my reading
assignment is getting done in 2-3 minute intervals. Thus, passages that I would’ve sped through –
I’m so smart, I already know all of this – now have my extended attention.
For instance, I’d just finished reading about outdoor vs
indoor scenes when it came time to abandon all hope & cross the threshold
into We Do Not Race Maniacally Thru The House Until The Stitches Come Out, i.e.
a fortuitous attempt to reduce MY physical world by containing the pup.
My WIP associated with the course, Night Vigil, deals with how our childhood shapes our
limitations in adulthood, as seen in the death watch of an abusive man by his
wife and son. Reading about
outdoor/indoor gave me the idea of reaching past the stage into possibilities
for both son & mother that wait for them after the man’s death. There are already musical off-stage voices,
but I now look for how to extend both the mother and son by being heard off
stage , looking out windows, opening doors, as they try to escape where life
has restricted them at the moment.
Then props. I’d written
in the father’s violin as shortcut to a lot of his history. Obviously a prop to look at, especially one
connected with a character who keeps his family in its particular status. What more work could it do besides telling us
the father is a musician? And so the violin
becomes an animate thing to the son and his sibs when they were children, and
is still a way of knowing if their father were home by its presence or absence.
Also, like many abusers, this father is charming. In other words, Voice is a significant aspect. The violin’s song. The father’s song. The choice of melody played, in this case, one that’s initially playful
but has minor tones in it, suggesting something darker even though pizzicatto. Lastly, holding the violin, aligns
any character with the father.
These are more than, Far Out, Man, devices. Signifying the violin and being aware of the
expansion or compression of space both give another tool when developing the
plot. I get stuck, I ask myself where all
the characters are, where should they be, and of course, where’s the blasted
violin?
As alluded to above, there were two characters whom I always wonder – are they needed? They were in a first scene at the son’s
house, one as the mother’s foil and the other as the son’s ally. But were they needed for the rest of the play
and if not, why introduce them at all?
But a Doodle Nurse moment collided with a reading section on
how silent observers could change what would be a sombre moment into a comedic
one. I’ve had this lifelong fascination
with witnessing for people during anonymous but significant life
events. It made sense that the
witnessing of any intense moments in a play could change the quality of those moments, and in other directions besides comedic.
I then wrote an argument between mother and son that
digresses through a momentary crumble in the mother’s cognition, but ends in a loving moment. Quite a
complicated emotional nosedive, but having it witnessed, allowed me to stop the
action and give the audience time to assimilate what happened. I did this by having the son and his ally exit,
leaving the mother and her foil alone in an awkward silence, followed by an exchange
between the two women that furthers understanding of the mother.
So this play that started as static – a mother
and son changing their
relationship by sitting a death watch – gets energised via trying to keep a frenetic but recuperating
puppy from being energised in my own life.
Beyond all that I’ve learned about writing plays, I think
I’ll slow down my technical reading in future, let things simmer more. My only complaint is no 3D people to discuss
this with!
