2008 Round Up, part 1 (creative output)

'Tis the time for looking back at the year, and for me it's a great excuse to add up lots of numbers and count things, which just makes me happy. And to make lists for 2009, which is just more bliss. (Everyone has his quirks.)

I wanted to look at my creative output first, the actual writing that I put out. The business side lends itself to stats and year-end sums, but putting down words on paper is what the writing life is really supposed to be about.

2008 was an especially productive year for me, writing-wise. I was especially diligent about making sure I got up early to write (not so much in December, but the rest of the year, I was very good) and trying to make sure that when the kids were in school, I didn't give away too much writing time to meetings and errands.

What I wrote in 2008:
Four new ten-minute plays. Two of which may never see the light of day, but at least they were written. Two of which, Confirmed Sighting and Recognition, turned out pretty well. Recognition was part of the T Plays festival produced here in Boston, and Confirmed Sighting just won the UMBC international playwriting competition and will be produced in Baltimore in March.

I also rewrote my ten-minute play, Stick Up for Mars, which turned out well and was produced this summer.

I completely rewrote my new novel, enough that it was almost like writing an entirely new one. Then I revised it again. It runs about 84,000 words right now. This kept me busy all year. I think it's pretty close now, finally (I started the first draft in December 2005), and I hope to be sending it out in February.

I wrote a new full-length play, Constant State of Panic, using a bunch of scenes (half of a first act) that I'd never been able to finish. This play still has a ways to go, but it's almost ready to start looking for a few staged readings and workshops. I'm so glad to finally have a complete draft of this play after it's been haunting me for so many years.

I helped write a short film script, as part of the 48 hour film project.

I wrote a bunch of blog posts. (Hey, those are writing, too, you know.)


That's it. I'd be happy to write that much in 2009. And especially if I manage to keep writing stuff that I like and can find an audience.