OH SO CURSED AND NOT REAL MAGIC!!!*

I love art theory.  I love art manifestos. I read this crap all the time... for fun!

I am my mother's son.

I talked about the revolution that was my first produced play.  I was told that the play was to be my vision.  I'm glad I turned "my vision" over to the director and actors.  The vision they created from my words was a revelation to me.  It changed the way I write.

I've always been drawn toward DaDa and the Surrealists.  Over the years, I've read a lot about them.

After the revolution, I read about Sturm und Drang.  Loved it.

I wanted to move away from the cynicism that I see in Post-Modernism.  I wanted something more authentic.

I also listen to a lot of music, especially when I'm writing.  Some new, some old.  I look for new stuff, but I am very picky.

I was shopping for a gift for my niece in college.  She wanted Heavy Metal Vinyl.  I dislike Heavy Metal, but thought I might try and broaden her taste with some Punk.  All girl punk.  Riot Grrrls.  I don't always like Punk, but there is something about the Riot Grrrl aesthetic that I like.

And Punk is authentic.  It's raw.  It's raucous.  It's what I'm looking for in my art.

Oh yea, and then there's my writing.  I wrote a piece last summer that I think embodies what I'm looking for in my writing.  I wrote it for the upcoming FronteraFest Short Fringe, but I'm still relatively new to the theater business here in Austin.  I have struggled to find a cast and a director, but I did strike up a working relationship with a woman, an actor, that I really like.

And I have a personal life that is sometimes at the mercy of the State of Texas, and my wife and I got kicked in the teeth by the state.  They really didn't kick us, they kicked a young woman we know, we care about.  It was very painful to be a part of.

So I wrote a new piece.  A one-woman piece.  Twenty-five pages in five days.  From nothing, no idea, no plan, no plot, to the end of a good first draft.  I can write fast.

I wrote in earlier blog posts about my process.  There are really two processes.

The first, and the most common for me, is relatively analytical.  I plot. I plan. I write outlines and character description. I collect ideas and quotes.  I build a script.  I may spend as much or more time on this part of the process as I do on the writing.

The second process is emotional.  I haven't written many pieces of work this way.  I want to.  I am just not grab by a piece of material that often.  I may do a little research.  A little plotting and planning, but I don't usually need much.  The idea comes nearly full blown.  It's not like a flash of insight... it's just... there.

And I write.  It always goes quickly, even quicker than I plan.  I think most of my best work is written this way, but I'm don't want to sit around waiting for "inspiration."  I need to keep my tools sharp, so more often than not, I am plotting and planning.

The plotting and planning always bleeds over into the emotional stuff.  And more and more, I find the emotions creeping into the plotting and planning.

And I have a new piece for FronteraFest, that my friend has said 'yes' to.

And, except for the ache in my heart for the lost young lady, I am... <sigh> happy...

(If you are offended by bad language or think that our current state government is doing a bang up job of taking care of the children of this state, stop here.)

FUCK YOU, STATE OF TEXAS!  Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.


*Ha Ha Ha - The Julie Ruin