I am currently working on adapting my award-winning one act play I wrote for Sculpted Entertainment's 24hr Playfest '09 (Understanding Polly) into a full length stage play… developing characters, set layout, lines of dialogue, etc., etc. So much so lately that I find myself writing quick one liners and notes on any paper I can find at any moment of the day I happen to come up with an idea. So this morning, as I was organizing myself for a meeting with my producers, I noticed that I have notes on napkins, 2 am sleepless ramblings on several random yellow legal pads, backs of receipts, on envelopes, post-it notes, and on any and every possible slip of paper that was handy at the time so that I can transfer them later to my computer. I also did this when I was writing my novel, Excess Baggage, by the way.
I know, call me crazy, but isn't that what your Blackberry is for, Tracy – to keep my notes and musings organized and in one place? Puh-leez, have you ever tried to type dialogue into a Blackberry Curve in your bed at 3 am. I'm sorry, it can't be done. And no, I'm just not one of those people who likes to dictate into a recorder for playback later. I'll never play it back and therefore, it will never get transferred to my computer later. So much for modern technology, huh?
It occurred to me that I might not be the only one with a crazy writing system. P.G. Wodehouse pinned pages of his current story up on the wall; William Faulkner, however, actually wrote scribblings and outlines on the wall of his house; and Voltaire, used his lover's naked back as a writing desk.
Call me old fashioned, but my system works for me. And maybe it's my way of recycling all those little bits of paper that seem to be lying around here and there... now where exactly did I put that grocery list?
