Creative writing

I'm a writer in RL and helping to build a community of writers in SL. I'm also a fiction editor and teach poetry workshops in RL. I'm on SL to help and support writers and will give advice on writing related issues. I'm based at SLiterary - find it on my picks and TP over. We have a full diary of events which you can see on www.sliterary.com/events and we also have a calendar of events for others to use so we don't clash times - use it on www.calendar.sliterary.com

The Act Up group is looking for one act scripts to perform. This could provide an oprortunity for writers to work with actors in developing a presentable sccript.

If any short play is produced, I would be interested in making a video and posting it on YouTube. That would provide beginners -- both actors and wrters -- a way to deveop a portfolio of presentable work. Here is my YouTube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/selbyevans

I am also working with Tom Polum at Broadway Live Island. He has 3 or 4 theatrical venues and I know would be interested in presenations featuring live performances. Tom (Trip Potvin in SL) is an experienced producer on and off Broadway.

I have a TeamSpeak server. I would make it avialable for classes and work in creative writing. I have several people who might be intersted in workshops.
TM

I wll be in contact with you inworld. --TM

Haven't written a play since I was a senior in high school but I have a way with dialogue (as I've been told) and would be available to help with plays....give me a topic or situation and let me give it a try..

inworld - Amalia Broome
or
[email]amaliabroome@myway.com[/email]

I wrote a play, 10 years ago. Horrible little absurbist thing, but I've written one play . If I remember correctly, it is in three separate scenes or acts (do not recall if I broke it up into acts or into scenes).

--
edit: update: oh, and I've been told that I have no ability to write dialogue . None what-so-ever.

edit 2: wow, didn't remembe the layout at all it is two acts with 3 very short scenes in the first act, and the second act has 4 scenes. Probably the worst play I've ever seen (After reading and learning about Coward's "Private Lives" and how quickly he wrote it, I set out to write a play in one day (or less time, don't recall now) - and it looks like something written in one day).

I have been published years ago but its been a bit.
Dialogue can be difficult too for me. I am good with certain things but bad with others.
Biggest thing is trying to figure out how to express the ideas that reader or viewer can understand, relate or suspend disbelief and not be bored with. I keep thinking of ways or what I would share but I keep censor myself or hitting blocks. I also have discover things like grammar and spelling I am very, very rusty with.

This is a job for the Thinkerer
Problem; Dialogue can be difficult too for me. I am good with certain things but bad with others.
Standard solution: Collaborate with someone who is good with dialogue. Look down this thread for Amalia Broome who believes she can write dialogue.
SL solution: Work with actors who will voice your dialogue. Another collaboration -- you give them a script, they help you develop it.
And while you are thinking that over, here are a few start buttons.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Break the job plan into joblets and do the first joblet.
It doesn't matter where you start. What matters is when you start
http://www.thinkerer.org/Cuepons/CueStartButtons.htm

Problem; ... how to express the ideas that reader or viewer ...
Standard solution: get feedback from people like your target audience. SL Solution is the same, but easier to implement. Don't take express to mean tell. Start with the idea that express means show.

Problem: I keep censor myself or hitting blocks.
Standard creativity problem-- Evaluating when you should be creating. Standard solution (from brainstorming rules): Ideation first, evaluation later. Here are some Thinkerer pages that may help
Semi-structured brainstorming: http: //www.thinkerer.org/ToolsProblem/PSSBrain.htm
Doer's block or starting block: http: //www.thinkerer.org/Topics/TopicsDoersBlock.htm

Problem : things like grammar and spelling
Standand solution: You don't need that stuff till you are ready to submit for publication. Create something first. Clean it up later. Do babies have to be clean when they are born?
SL Solution: You can start by writing plays to be produced in SL. The grammar of dialog is not what you learned in school anyway. And don't worry about spelling. The actors can't spell either.

Now one more koan: If you tell yourself what you can't do, you hear a stop sign. If you tell yourself what you can do, what do you hear?

I am highly creative and have lot of ideas.
Pretty good with brainstorming, poetic flow, friend once said I am genius with word sounds, imagery but not sure how this would work with a play.
Thanks for some things to think over. Definitely have some ideas just need to find right collabrators right now I guess.
P.S your links Thinker I am getting error pages but I think I recognize the link from your profile I check it out later when I have more time.

mad cackling, usually...

The software thate runs this forum used to convert urls to live links. It is not doing that now, probably as a security measure to avoid offering mal-llinks. You can paste a url into the url line in your web browser. But that will not work unless you are careful to trim off all the irrelevan marks (such as ) Other option: search with Google, including the site name in the search list.
TM

Here's an example of how to tell a story through dialogue only:

****

“Geez princess, don’ look at me like that! I gotta sit here, it’s the only seat left. Do you think I’d sit across from you if I could help it?”

“You should just go eat your breakfast in the toilet, that’s where your kind belongs.”

“R..i..g..h..t…..Ha! You think I’m stupid so I won’t know what you mean by that but I’m not. I know what you’re callin’ me. Just because my daddy didn’t pay for a fancy private school don’t mean I’m dumb. I know more way more than you.”

“Right! You learned alright. Learned how to sell yourself just like your mother!”

“Shut up!”

“It’s a free country. If you can’t stand to hear the truth…”

“Just shut the hell up about my mother ok? You don’ know nothing about her so just shut the hell up and shove some food in your mouth! I hope you choke you skinny-ass princess. And you should talk. At least what my mom did was to put food on the table for us kids. Your mother sold herself to the highest bidder for a wedding ring and a maid!”

“You bore me.”

“Look at me when I talk to you! You’ve been on my case since you got here. I never did nothing to you, why are you always raggin’ on me?”

“Let’s just say I’m allergic to vermin.”

“You’re a cold one. Bet your daddy was real surprised when he couldn’t buy your way out of that coke conviction. By the way, your nose is running…..”

“It is not. And it wasn’t mine.”

“Right. It was the maid’s…”

“I’m innocent. My father’s lawyer will have me out of here soon.”

“After three weeks you’d think he’d done that already. What’s he waiting for? A two-fer? Maybe daddykins will get arrested for stealing company money and you can BOTH do time.”

“Your class, or lack of it, is showing. Next time you have to sit across from me here, please use deodorant, I’m tired of looking at your sweaty pits!”

SL Playwriters Workshop, promoted by Thinkerer Studios

Friday 11-12 AM New York time (8-9 AM SL time)

Starting Friday, July 13

Organizer: Kierkan Kamachi. Thinkerer Melville will also participate, as will other members of the Act-Up players.

For people who want to write plays for perfomance in Second Life.

The SL Playwriters Workshop is part of the Act-Up live theater group. Act-Up has produced 3 plays in SL. We have experienced actors and directors who will consider producing plays from the workshop.

Requirements to attend -- Serious interest in writing plays in Second Life. No prior experience in writing is required.

Requirements for working on your play -- Publish what you have developed of your play on a blog or website and make it available to the workshop participants. Initial development may be just a story idea or a scenario. The workshop will help you develop it into a finished script. The published version will be used by other participants as a basis for suggestions and testing.

What happens in a workshop? The organizer will select a project to work on and will specify a project objective. A project may use the following content (probably in combintion):

>>existing movies, plays, or other examples of narrrative fiction;

>>existing plays (scripts) in second life;

>>plays under development by the workshop participants.

A project objective would probably be:
1. to identify certain elements of story/script craft as they appear in the selected examples and
2. to use the elements as suggestions for the work of the participants.

What do the organizers know about writing plays for SL?

Kierkan Kamachi: Genesis (http://www.thinkerer.org/Studios/StuStuActUpPlays.htm)

Thinkerer Melville Thinkerer (http://www.thinkerer.org/Studios/StuStuActUpPlays.htm)
Thinkerer studios channel on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/selbyevans)

Is there a wider public outlet for plays done in SL? If a play is suitable for video presentation, Thinkerer Melville will offer to make a video and post it on YouTube.

Who do I contact? Kierkan Kamachi.

Where is the meeting? Thinkerer Quests (Island, on the map)

Do I have to sign up in advance? As of now, no.. But if we have a lot of people, we may have to limit attendance.

Further information will be available on this web page:
Playwriters Workshop
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studios/StuwriteWks.htm

Promotion by Thinkerer Studios. Offers to organize additional writing workshops will be welcomed.