Sunday, May 17, 2009

Day One-Hundred Twenty-Six: Important stuff first

I'd like to open tonight by saying that tonight I had one of the most delicious lemonberry slushes from Sonic I have ever had in my life. Probably THE best, actually.

Now that that's out of the way... ;-)

Hey, here's some news that'll make my wife happy.

Monday is my day off. You know what that means: chores, errands, and work-related tasks! Plus, a little bit of sleeping in. That'll be good.

I'm contemplating getting a web site to self-distribute some of my scripts that don't get published/aren't published yet. I've seen several playwrights do this; I'm not sure it ever works, though. I've got one published play with Eldridge, and another is currently under consideration with the folks at Baker's Plays (I think). If Baker's turns it down, I'll send out manuscripts to Dramatic, Dramatists, and Anchorage Press. Still undecided on Playscripts, Inc. If I do get this second play published, I may look pretty seriously into a website.

Or maybe an agent. I'm pretty leery of getting an agent, but it's really stinking hard to get anyone in children's theatre to read an unsolicited script unless they're contacted directly by a literary agent.

Once again, I suppose I need to do some more research to figure out how well this strategy actually works.

I dunno. Why can't I just tell stories and get paid lots of money for it to send my kid through college? I mean seriously, world, is that too much to ask???

I kid, of course.

I've got a play project I'd like to get started on, but I've been at "I'd like to get started" for about a month and it isn't happening yet, so maybe this is the ideal time to rewrite my little NaNo. Four people have read the manuscript now, so I'm growing more confident that it could sprout wings and fly somewhere. And make me rich, so that I can put my kid through college. And then come the movie deals.

Again, I kid. I really never considered writing as a possible occupation, so all of these ideas are quite new and strange to me. Agents. Web sites. Publications. These are words for "real" artists, not generally for me. I'm the guy staying up till 2 a.m. with a word document in one window and the Fuzzy Fuzzy Cute Cute song in the other. (You keep on dancing on that cell phone, you crazy little chicken!)

Nevertheless, I'm learning to accept myself as a playwright, possibly even a writer someday, even if I don't match up to my own preconceived notions of either thing.

I would, however, love to put my kid through college one day. So if, miraculously, there is a way to marry these different ideas together, well, that would just be fantastic. I don't have to be rich of famous; just get my family through college someday.