7 Plays 7 Days

"Growing to be Grown" by Christine D'Epiro Abbott

There are just 7 Plays and 7 Days left in 31 Plays, 31 Days. I can't believe it's the tail end of things. I feel like I just started doing this. I suppose that's a good thing: to feel as though I've just started toward the end. That means I still have somewhere to go. I'm not finished. Will that mean that on September 1st, I'll write a new play? And another on September 2nd and so on and so on? I don't think so. But will I write a scene? A bit of dialogue? Yes. Get something onto the page every day. Good or bad. That's important to remember.

This past week was a bit of a struggle. I had a rough time getting the work onto the page. I would think and worry all day and feel empty, and then when the time came to actually get words on the page, I struggled. But I did it. I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes and stretched my back and wrote. I wrote, even though my brain was saying, "Wow, Chris, this play is really terrible. Who are these characters? This is pretty unimaginative. You're trying too hard. This is pretty boring. Are you seriously going to put these online for people to read?!" To answer that: Yes. These plays, which I struggled to get on the page and which weren't all that bad when I reread them to type them from my longhand, are available to for you to read.

One of the plays that actually came out really well was Day 23. My word was "Single." I initially saw three people in a cafe, all sitting at separate tables. I drew a picture of it on my dry erase board. And I hated it. I didn't like that idea at all. That evening, we went to a reception at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center for our friend Christine D'Epiro Abbott's art exhibition called "This Island We Live On." There were some mixed media pieces and paintings, some that took up an entire wall, some that were small and shared wall space. I wrote a play about two people in a gallery, looking at a group of 4 collages. It was easy to write. Much easier than all the others (Day 24, "Juxtaposition," was grueling). 

What have I learned?

1. Surrender to the process
2. Don't judge the work while it's being born. You wouldn't walk up to a woman who just gave birth and say, "Your newborn child is ugly, unworthy, and never going to amount to anything." Right? Don't tell yourself that your writing is ugly. It may not be fully formed or fully realized or fully anything, but don't judge it right after it's hit the page.
3. Be proud of what you've accomplished. I've written 24 plays. 2