Writing by the Numbers 2017

Table work on Drift at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference

It's time for the annual summary of my writing stats. I love this time of assessment and goal setting. It's perfect for a numbers geek like me, and it's so important to take a step back and try to look at where I've been and where I'm going. And to take a deep breath.

2017 was an incredible year for me. I was as creatively engaged as I've ever been--I spent a lot of time in the rehearsal room, on many different projects. Blood on the Snow returned for a 12-week (sold out) run. Both/And, my play about quantum entanglement that was commissioned by Central Square Theatre, ran at the MIT Museum all summer. I developed my full-length, Drift, at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference with an amazing group of artists/human beings. Then I won a Brother Thomas Fellowship from the Boston Foundation and was also appointed the next artist-in-residence at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. I started workshopping Mox Nox, a commissioned piece, with Brown Box Theatre Project.  And my full-length play, Blinders, was staged in South Korea. I've been trying to enjoy every minute, because years like this don't come along very often.

Blood on the Snow ran all summer!

Here are my writing/life stats for 2017:  (I'm publishing these a little early, because I'm heading to the National Winter Playwrights Retreat. I will update these stats in mid-January, when the final numbers are in and I have some time at my desk.)


Performances/Audience.
Number of Productions/Readings:  48  (44 productions, 4 readings) 
(These were of 24 different plays, including 4 full-length scripts. )

Number of Performances:  227.  (This includes published plays. I shattered my old record of 151 set in 2015, thanks to Blood on the Snow running for 60 performances.)

Estimated Audience for 2017:  13,092 total. (up a lot from 2016, and a new record for me. This is more viewers than a typical Boston fringe theatre might see in a season, which is an interesting way to to look at it.)

For published plays I estimate low--40 people/performance. The rest of the total audience comes from books sales, plays published in anthologies, etc. I don't track plays used by students in competition. So the actual number is probably much higher.

Books sold:  40+   Books sales continue to be dismal, despite a new cover for Tornado Siren, and book events in VA, MA, and DC for Steering to Freedom.

Blinders ran in South Korea in October

Submissions:

Total:   181   (down from 186 last year)
queries for plays:  36
play scripts submitted:  145   (Last year I sent  142)
no queries or book submissions. I did make a handful of screenplay submissions.

I'd hoped to get to 170 scripts out, but didn't have the time. I'm so grateful for the Binge List for helping me have a couple months where I'm super focused on submissions.  Also, since 2013, I've been working on at least 1 commissioned piece every season, and now it's 2 or 3 at a time. That takes up time and also alleviates some of the pressure to get super high submission numbers. In 2018, I will be working on 3 commissioned projects at once, spread out over the year, and I hope to pick up one more (with a little luck). Getting these projects is more about relationship-building than submitting scripts, and the development/production process for these tends to have me highly involved (which is how I like it).

Big audiences at the MIT Museum to see
the opening of Both/And

Hours spent on writing :  1,338 hours   (last year was 1,223)

• actual writing and research:  371 hours (my goal was 400.  I had 416 last year.)
• reading for work (not fun):  23 hours  
• rehearsals and writing meetings:  468 hours  (includes teaching. last year was 438)
• marketing and admin:  347  hours  (last year was 274)
• New England New Play Alliance and Dramatists Guild:  129  hours  (last year was 67. This year I edited and published the New England New Play Anthology, and I am now the New England Regional Rep for the Dramatists Guild.  )

As with last year, I spent a lot of time working with my hands, on major house renovations--I re-sided and painted half of my house, and also gutted a bathroom. Altogether, I spent about 680 hours on house renovations. (Last year I spent 873 hours on the house.)

Finally finished the exterior!

This gives a total work hours of 2,018 hours for 2017.  (I worked 2,096 hours in 2016.)

One new stat I tracked this year is the amount of time getting to and from meetings and rehearsals. I spent 175 hours getting back and forth to those 468 hours of rehearsals and meetings. (Not a great ratio.) One of the perils of working from home and being self-employed is that it's often easy to say "Sure, I can meet with you." This is an example of how tracking can help shift practice--before I started tracking this number, I'd meet people just about anywhere. But once I saw how many hours commuting was consuming, I made a concerted effort to shift meetings closer to home.

The other time stat that doesn't show up in my overall work stats is play attendance. For me, going to see plays is part of my job. This year, I saw 59 plays, which is about an additional 120 hours of work time not showing up in my totals.  If I were to add commuting and play attendance, my overall work hours grow by almost 300 hours.

As a freelancer, tracking work hours is important--it helps make sure that I'm putting in enough time. But also that I'm not going too crazy--2,000 hours is about the equivalent of a full-time job. I don't make much money, and I also have a family. Plus, I'm a writer--I need to actually live some life, and not just work all the time. Finding some sort of balance is important.


Here's how my time was spent in past years:
2016:  2,096 total hours. 1,223 writing hours (416 writing/28 reading/438 rehearsing/274 marketing-admin/67 New Play Alliance)+873 on house renovations.

2015: 1,596 total hours.  1,035 writing hours (262 writing/52 reading/295 rehearsing/303 marketing-admin/123 New Play Alliance) + 561 on moving and house renovations

2014:  1,556 total hours. 1,426 writing hours (452 writing/109 reading/342 rehearsing/396 marketing/127 New Play Alliance) + 130 hours farming.

 2013:  1,898 total hours.  996 writing hours (394 writing/308 rehearsing/294 marketing)  + 902 hours farming

2012:  1,630 total hours.  896 writing  hours.  (386 writing/278 rehearsing and meeting/231 marketing)   + 734 hours farming

2011: 818 writing hours.  (I didn't break out rehearsals from desk writing time in 2011). My kids were a lot younger back then.


I'd say the hours this year seem about right (I tend to under-report a little). As with last year, the house renovations were a major time sink. Lots of rehearsal and workshop hours also cut into writing time. When I'm spending so much time developing existing plays, it's hard to get to the desk for new stuff. I'd definitely like to bring my writing hours above 400 next year, and cut home renovation time closer to 300 hours. My Mt. Auburn residency will involve a LOT of research time, both reading and time on the ground, which will be fun.

I put in a lot of carpentry hours in 2017.

Writing output:
1 new full-length play (Mox Nox)
A couple new short plays.
Lots of rewrites of a bunch of plays.

Inputs:
Plays watched:  59   (saw 45 in 2016)
Movies/TV series watched:  45   (39 in 2016)
Plays read: 29     (25 in 2016)
Books read:  15  (17 in 2016)

There was just a big poll on Facebook looking at how many full-length plays people have written, and how many of them have been produced. I've written about 21 so far, with 15 of them produced or about to be produced. But my pace isn't super fast--as I progress in my career, I'm becoming involved in projects that have long development processes, or take a fair bit of research. If I generate 1 or 2 new full-length works in a given year, that's plenty. I'd love to be in a place where the world is pushing me to write more, faster, but I'm still struggling to find homes for my spec scripts.

I got to see a lot of plays this year, which was great. Really need to push to read more plays in 2017. I'd love to read 1/week, but I've never come close to that goal.


Gross Income:  $31,343    
published plays:  $940
play production royalties:  $3,623   (for unpublished work)
film projects:  $5,000  (hired to write a script last year--this was the final payment)
play commissions:  $2,750
teaching: $2,158   (I did some consulting/coaching.)
my novels:  $332
Prizes/fellowships: $16,000    ($1,000 from MCC, $15,000 from Brother Thomas/Boston Foundation) 
misc. (essays, panels, editing, other): $0

Expenses:  about $9,715  
I'm spending some of my Brother Thomas Fellowship money on starting a new theatre company (more to come about this) and on a new web site and travel to my productions. Some of this spending has already begun.

Net Income:  $21,628   


I didn't think 2017 had a chance to beat 2016 for income (unless the Steering to Freedom film option got picked up, which it didn't), but then I was awarded the Brother Thomas Fellowship. I'd love to keep gross income over $25K for the next two years. The Mt. Auburn residency is $10K/year for the next two years, so that gives me a solid baseline. Not sure where the rest of the money will come from. I need to find a way to keep the momentum going.

As a playwright who has struggled to make any money for a long, long time, it feels great to finally have two strong years in a row. But I'm fully aware that I've been writing for almost 30 years, and I'm only now at a point where I could possibly support myself (and just me, at a very, very bare bones level) through my writing. My career would have to take a major positive shift to be at a point where I could support my family. But at least I'm able to contribute financially right now, and that's a good thing.

past years:
2016:  Gross Income:  $25,857  Expenses: $11,472  net:  $14,385
2015:  Gross income: $8,662  Expenses: $4,979  net:  $3,682
2014:  Gross income:  $7,974  Expenses $5,580  net:  $2,494
2013:  Gross income:   $7,767  Expenses:  5,758  net:  $2,029
2012:  Gross Income:  $3,844  Expenses:  $2,808  net:  $1,063
2011:  Gross Income:   $2,638   Expenses:  $4,665  net:  $-2,027

The Brother Thomas Fellowship was a huge boost
 to my 2017 income.

Those are my writing numbers. I'm very pleased with how 2017 turned out, writing-wise (though the outside world often feels like it's a giant dumpster fire). I expect 2018 to have many fewer performances and less audience, because I won't have Blood on the Snow and Both/And running all summer long. But I do expect it to be creatively satisfying--I currently have readings and development lined up for the following full-length plays: Mox Nox, Drift, Chore Monkeys, None but the Best, plus the Mt. Auburn project. That will take up a lot of brain space and keep me involved with a bunch of very fun collaborators. I can't wait.


I hope this post is helpful. I find that writers tend to be very secretive about their finances and other numbers, which I understand. We don't want to brag, or we don't want to look like we're giant failures. And we don't actually have a good idea of how other folks are doing, so we don't even know whether our own numbers are relatively positive or negative. This post at least offers the numbers of one playwright (who also writes novels and screenplays), and as you can see, I've had slow years and good years.  I think it's important to keep sharing, so that as writers we can operate from an informed position to set realistic goals and negotiate stronger deals for our work.

Please let me know if you keep track of numbers like this.  If you post about it anywhere, let me know, and I'll post a link below.

These are some friends who have summed up their years:

Adam Szymkowicz year in review

Donna Hoke's 2017 Year in Review

On Beginnings: Trust and Patience

A few weeks ago, I learned that I will be the next artist-in-residence at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. It's a two-year gig, that pays quite well ($10K/year) as these things go. My task is to explore this historic and beautiful place, where 98,000 people are buried with their stories, and create and produce new, site-specific theatrical work to be staged at Mt. Auburn.

I'm the third artist-in-residence, being preceded by filmmaker/multi-media artist Roberto Mighty and composer Mary Bichner. In doing preliminary research for the project, I've had a chance to explore some of the work they created at and for Mt. Auburn--Roberto Mighty's project Earth.Sky  and Mary Bichner's Spring & Autumn Suites. Talk about setting a high bar.  Sublimely beautiful work that meshes so well with the atmosphere and landscape of the site.

Beginning a project like this is an interesting exercise, because it requires both great eagerness and great patience.  An eagerness to dive in and explore is required, but it's just as important to have the patience to hold back on committing to any one structure or story or set of characters. I don’t know what I’m going to find, and I don’t want to go in with too many preconceived notions right now. I need to read and listen and watch, and let the place and the stories of the place wash over me.

Equally important is trust, both in my experience and whatever talent I have. I have to trust that what I find interesting enough to explore and express will find a form that is useful and suitable and beautiful, not just for myself but also for the audience.  If I start thinking too early about how to make it good, or what will the audience think, I’ll crash the car. Sure, I want whatever I make to be excellent and impressive, and better than anything I’ve ever done before. But thinking about that too early in the process introduces the judge and editor to the seedling of an idea, and they will surely stunt it.

I’m getting a sense of the scope of what I’ve taken on, and it’s scary and awesome. And feels more like an honor to have been selected than ever. Doing my best means approaching the project mindfully and with energy and commitment. The rest will follow.

I think both patience and trust are possible only because I've been gaining experience with commissions and site specific work over the past few years. My work with the Bostonian Society on Blood on the Snow, and with the MIT Museum on Both/And were both situations where the initial approach wasn't necessarily obvious, and both required a lot of research on my own, as well as research that was guided by experts. At Mt. Auburn, their staff can help guide me in my explorations and I certainly won't be shy about asking questions.

So if you're looking for me over the next six months or more, you might want to look at Mt. Auburn Cemetery--I'll be wandering and looking and reading and listening and thinking. Which feels like a pretty great job.

Things I Didn't Expect When I Was Starting Out: You Can't Remember Everything

When you’re a new playwright, the struggle is all very much in the here and now. How do I write this play right now? Where do I send it right now? How can I manage this development process and production as it’s happening. Which is all very important.

What was impossible for me to see when I was just beginning is that all of this activity and writing and thinking adds up over time. I couldn't really comprehend that it would take me thousands of submissions, of dozens and dozens of different plays, to start to build a career that has any sort of momentum.  Though even now, I view any momentum with great suspicion, knowing that the doldrums, a full blown dry spell, might be right around the corner.

It also didn’t occur to me that my resume would eventually fill up the page, and as the years moved forward, I would have to leave stuff off. Productions that I loved, with great pride, would slowly drift off the list of my most recent work. Because I wasn’t in academia, I wasn’t initially in the habit of keeping a running list, a vita, of everything I had done. And why would I? It’s all so fresh.
Except that it turns out that it’s hard to remember every production and every cast member, or exact opening date over 20 years, 30 years.  (My first play, The Elevator, was produced 30 years ago, in 1987, by the Pendragon Theatre, in Saranac Lake, New York. But I'd have to dig deep to find the date.)

So a bit of unsolicited advice. Keep a running file on your computer, a vita, if you will, of every project you do, every award, every reading. You will rarely be asked for it, unless you’re applying for academic positions. But when your list of productions moves from a handful to hundreds, its going to be hard to remember the specifics. Though I’ve kept an extensive Microsoft Access database of where I’ve submitted my work over the past many years, with all kinds of fun reports and stats available, I have realized that I need to expand that database now, to keep track of specific details, all in one place, of all the productions and readings I’ve had. So I’m going to need to dig through the emails and my big file cabinets, and start a new section.

I actually have a massive Excel spreadsheet that keeps track of numbers of productions and money and attendance each yet, but it doesn't track names, or casts, or opening dates. And the whole thing is unwieldy.

Things you might want to track on your spreadsheet or database:

• Name of play
• Theatre Company Name
• Venue (not always the same)
• Dates: opening and closing.
• Number of performances.
• How much you got paid.
• Attendance.
• Director name and contact info.
• Producer name.
• Cast.
• Stage Manager.
• Designers.
• Website/links to photos and reviews.

It’s going to take a lot of digging. Which will be fun, but also a lot of work. I’m grateful for each and every one of those productions, and for all the friends I’ve made along the way, and the audiences, and the inspirational collaborators. Now I just need to gather all those names and dates into one place.
You could do this in an Excel Spreadsheet. I like the Access Database, because I can hook up my productions with submissions info, and generate interesting reports and data. Because I'm a number geek.

Which you might already do.  But just in case you don’t, it’s never too early to start.

The 2017 Blood on the Snow run is over

Daniel Berger-Jones as Colonel Dalrymple, Bill Mootos as Royall Tyler, and Lewis Wheeler as Samuel Dexter in Blood on the Snow. Photo by Nile Scot Shots

The 2017 production of Blood on the Snow at the Old State House in Boston is finally over. This is the longest any of my shows has ever run, and that's not even counting the initial 4-week run last year. For the second time, we basically sold out the entire run, which was very exciting. It's a small house (56 seats), which makes for an intimate, immersive theatrical experience. We had more than 3,000 audience members over the course of the run. (Interesting stat--22% of the first year's audience returned to see the show a second time this season.)

Most of our cast returned for the second run, and we were very fortunate to pick up extremely talented replacements and understudies. Our production team of producer/museum liaison Peter Meacham, stage manager Jeremiah Mullane, and director Courtney O'Connor managed a complex casting calendar--with a cast of 10 over 12 weeks, with various scheduled absences--and kept the show running at a high level, seamlessly for the entire run.

I still have a lot to process from the whole experience (and will write about it eventually), but one of the more interesting aspects of such a long run was watching the performances deepen and mature over time. This is a play set in 1770, in a Boston that had a population of only 15,000 and everyone knew everyone. Especially the men in this room. After 3 months of a run (and for some of the actors, 2 years of performing together), there were glances and gestures between these people that really felt like they'd known each other for a long time. The level of detail of performance just kept getting richer and richer, with each passing week.

I'm already missing the cast and crew for this show. It's common to experience a bit of post-partum depression at the end of a run, and this project is one that I'd been working on since 2013. (I'm doing carpentry on my house to keep me from moping around too much.) There's a strong chance that the show will come back again, and I've always got new projects coming up. This production will always be close to my heart.

 In case you want to hear a bit about the show, here's a video of me and Nat Sheidley (Executive Director of the Bostonian Society) at History Camp Boston this spring, talking about the 2016 production.

Design Meeting at Seven Devils

One of the great parts of the Seven Devils script development process is the design meeting. I got to spend part of an afternoon meeting with design fellow Sabrina Reed, my director Christy Montour-Larson, dramaturg Gay Smith, and Seven Devils artistic director, Jeni Mahoney, talking about the physical world of my play, Drift, and how it might be realized on stage. I talked about where the play came from, and about farming, and they asked all kinds of questions about colors and texture, and realism v. non-reality, my best imagined production and my worst.

It's a helpful way to remind a writer who's been living in his head for a while about some of the physical and visual possibilities of the staging of this piece, as it all starts to feel more real. And in the ends, we had a cool drawing of how one designer might set the play.

A rendering of a set design by Seven Devils Design Fellow, Sabrina Reed

Great experience at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference

Table work on Drift. Photo by Maggie Rosenthal

I'm finally getting a chance to catch my breath a little, after an extremely busy start to the year. It was all capped off with a 17-day stay at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference in McCall, Idaho, where I workshopped my play, Drift.  I'd had the good fortune to be selected to work on my play, Flight, back in 2011, but had to leave after only a few days, due to a death in our family.  I'd been working and hoping to get back to McCall ever since.

Sheila McDevitt in the reading of Drift. PHoto by Sarah Jessup.

Jonathan Bangs in Drift. Photo by Sarah Jessup

Mirirai Sithole in Drift. Photo by Sarah Jessup.

Danette Baker in Drift. Photo by Sarah Jessup.

It's a gorgeous place, and the first week I was there, I spent every possible moment working on the play with my director, Christy Montour Larson, dramaturg Gay Smith, stage manager Dana Reiland, and our fabulous cast of Sheila McDevitt, Mirirai Sithole, Jonathan Bangs, and Danette Baker.  I'd get up early and write, then rehearse all day, then come back and write some more. On Saturday night, we had a fully staged reading for a sold-out house. And the audiences there, after 17 seasons of the conference, are very smart and sophisticated when it comes to discussing new plays.

For the second week, I helped dramaturg a new play by Dayna Smith, which had a sit-down reading as part of its development. And I got to see readings of all the other plays by my fellow writers, attend a writer's workshop from Elaine Romero, and go to a bunch of other fun events. And spend some time at the Burgdorf hot springs (super rustic, super relaxing) chilling out after a long week.

Seven Devils is the kind of experience that I'd want to give to every playwright at some point in their career. There's an entire artistic community that forms with an intense focus on helping the playwrights explore, change, and refine their scripts. And they've also engaged the greater community--so local businesses donate space and material and money to help make it all work. Local residents help provide housing for almost 50 visiting artists who are coming in from all across the country.

I stayed in a cozy apartment above a garage about five miles out of McCall, surrounded by miles of pastureland, ringed by snow tinged mountains. It's hard to imagine a more perfect spot to work on this particular play.

Now I'm back to my regular life. Excited to see my family, settling into summer . Working on a new play, with Blood on the Snow still running at the Old State House, and Both/And still at the MIT Museum.

But behind it all, I've still got the afterglow my time at Seven Devils. I made solid strides on Drift, and I got to work with some really great people. I hope to work with them again, and to find a way to get back to McCall someday. We'll see what the future holds for Drift.

Seven Devils 2017! photo by Sarah Jessup

Busy May/June

May is a super busy month for my work.  Here are the events and shows happening around the country. I hope you can check some of them out.  (Please e-mail me if you do, or if you see me, come say Hello.)

• Stop Rain, a short play, was produced at Actors Workshop in Ithaca, NY, on May 3.
• My short play, Spitting Image was at Payson High School in Payson, AZ, on May 4.
• My short play, The Discovery, was produced at the Bethune School, in Bethune, CO, on May 5.
• My short play, Pumpkin Patch, was produced at the Henry W. Grady High School, in Atlanta, May 5-6.
• My one-minute play, Polaroids, will be in the Gi60 International Play Festival on May 13, at the University of Leeds, 7:30 p.m.
• My short play Eden in Chains will be in the Boston Theater Marathon on May 14 at the Calderwood Pavilion Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. This event features 50 ten-minute plays by New England playwrights, from noon until 10 p.m. (My show is in the 9 o’clock hour.) Plus the event supports the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund!
• On Tuesday, May 16, at 7 p.m., Porter Square Books will host the official launch for
  
  StageSource’s New England New Play Anthology, a fantastic collection that I edited, by some of New England’s best playwrights. We’ll have actors read from scenes from the plays.
• On Thursday, May 18, at 6:30 p.m. I’ll be part of the Four Stories reading series at the Middle East Restaurant in Central Square, Cambridge. Actor Marc Pierre will read from my novel, Steering to Freedom, about Civil War hero Robert Smalls.
• My one-act about quantum entanglement, Both/And, continues to run at the MIT Museum. This month it will play on May 20, 21, 29 at 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.
• My one-act, The Next Big Thing, will be at St. Anne’s School of Annapolis, in Maryland, May 24.
• On Tuesday, May 25, at 6 p.m., I will be giving a talk with Stephen H. Case at the New England Historic Genealogical Society about Benedict Arnold and his wife Peggy Shippen and their plot to betray America during the Revolutionary War. We’ll have actors read scenes from a screenplay that I’ve written based on Stephen’s book, Treacherous Beauty.
• And at the end of the month (June 1, actually), Blood on the Snow will return to the Old State House for a 12-week run. Last year the show sold out very fast–this year there will be plenty of chances to see this site-specific play about the day after the 1770 Boston Massacre. (But don’t wait to get your tickets.)

The New England New Play Anthology is now published!

After a very long time, and a lot of work and support, all across the Boston and New England theater community, StageSource and the New Play Alliance have finally published the New England New Play Anthology!

I'm so proud to share these fabulous plays with the rest of the world. Our authors are:
Walt McGough, Melinda Lopez, Marisa Smith, Kirsten Greenidge, Johnny Kuntz, Steven Barkhimer, MJ Halberstadt, and John Minigan.

Special thanks are due to Laura Neill, Julie Hennrikus, Emma B Putnam, Brian Michael Balduzzi, Haley Fluke, Ty Furman, Alicia Bettano, Daniel Begin, Clare Lockhart, Jake Catsaros (who designed the fabulous cover), Naomi Ibasitas, Mary Frances Nosser, Michaela Tucci, Juliet Bowler, Steven Bergman, Ellen Davis Sullivan, Amy Merrill, Lisa Rafferty, Stefanie Cloutier, and Karla Sorenson, Ilana Brownstein, Charles Haugland, Jessie Baxter, and many more.

I hope you'll buy a copy (via StageSource, but bookstores and Amazon also have it), not just to support new plays in New England, but to read these fantastic scripts by some of New England's most talented playwrights.
http://bit.ly/NPAbook

The Binge Tidal Wave: Submission Binge #30 Survey

The Playwright Submission Binge, an online community dedicated to helping playwrights market their work that I started 15 years ago, just finished our 30th "Binge." For each Binge, we take up the challenge of trying to send out a submission a day, every day, for 30 days. After each submission, member are encourage to post to the group what they sent, where, and why (and often share the contact info for the opportunity in question).

 

It's an amazingly positive and supportive group, that now functions year-round as a source information and support. Many of us have become friends, outside the list. Our membership has continued to grow, and our list now has more than 950 playwrights from around the world. Not all of them are active, and not all of them post, but during the binge we had more than 50 different writers post to the group. It's hard to know how many people are actively reading the list and submitting on their own.

Back in 2011 (when the group has only 640 members), we conducted a survey, to see what sort of impact the group was having on its members and on the rest of the theater world. Despite its size, our group seems to operate a little under the radar--I run into playwrights all the time who haven't heard of the Binge. But I guarantee you that when a submission opportunity gets posted to our list, the company receives a solid wave of submissions. If a company posts a call for scripts that feels abusive to playwrights, they will also get strongly worded e-mails from our members with suggestions on how to improve.

I figured it was time to do another survey, and see what the impact is like these days. In some ways, with sites like NYCPlaywrights.org and Playwright Submission Helper, it may be that the notion of a binge of submissions isn't as necessary for some writers. For my own marketing, the Binge helps me get super focused and make marketing a priority at least two months of every year.  (Binges happen in March and September.)

 

For the survey of Binge #30, 90 writers responded. Those writers sent out 1,765 submissions (down from the totals of the Binge #19 respondents), or an average of almost 20 submissions per writer for the month of March. More than 97% of these playwrights have already been produced (93% have been paid for their work), and more than 60% have received productions as a result of past Binge submissions.  More than half of the respondents were women.

All of which continues to make me feel like our group is having an impact on both the writers involved and on the companies to whom they are submitting.  There's some potentially interesting data here, and I might start conducting these surveys after every binge.  (I'm guessing there's a difference between Spring and Fall binges.) 

I'm still considering possible trends. From 2011, the percentage of writers who have been produced and paid has risen. The number of writers actively posting to our group has declined. Two data points don't really give enough information to identify trends more strongly.

I'll post all the data below. Please comment and let me know your thoughts or questions.

 

2017 Binge #30 Survey Results:  (percentages based on people who answered question)

(I am including 2011 percentages in parentheses, for comparison.)

Number of  Writers Who Completed Survey: 90 

Total number of scripts and queries submitted during Binge #30 (by these 90 writers): 1,765

238 queries, 1,527 complete scripts

(In 2011, 74 people responded, with a total of 2,270 submission)

How many years have you Binged? 
First time.  12.5%   (15.1% in 2011 survey)
1-2 years   22.7%    (26.0%)
3-4 years   28.4%   (24.7%)
5-6 years    11.7%   (19.2%)
7-8 years   11.7%    (4.1% )
9-+ years   13.6%    (10.9% )


Has your work ever been produced? 
Yes  97.7%  (94.4% in 2011 survey)
No   2.3%   (5.6%)

Has your work ever been published? 
Yes  72.2%  (69.9%)
No   27.8%  (30.1%)

Has your work ever received a reading? 
Yes  100% (97.3%)
No   0%  (2.7%)

Have you ever been paid for any of the readings/productions/publications of your work? 
Yes  93.3%   (87.8%)
No   6.7%    (12.2%) 

Have you ever received a reading, production, or publication as a result of a Binge submission?
Reading    51.1%    (54.1%) 
Production  61.1%  (67.6%)
Publication  21.1% (21.6%) 
Not yet    27.8%     (27.0%) 

How often do you post to the Binge list?
Often    15.7%  (23.0%)
A couple times each Binge  15.7%   (27.0%)
A couple times a year  20.2%  (14.9%)
Rarely  31.5%   (23.0%)
Never  16.9%  (12.2%) 

Are you male or female? 
Male  43.3%  (39.2%)
Female   56.7%  (60.8%)

Non-Binary Gender  0%    (These two options were added very late, and were not present in 2011.)

Prefer not to answer 0%

Build (and Share) Your Own Writer Marketing Tools: The Binge

I’ve been actively marketing my writing for years. As I do, sometimes I find a glaring lack of tools to address a particular marketing challenge. Sometimes I get lucky and discover that someone else has found the same problem and has already been hard at work to solve it, and maybe I can buy a piece of software or join an organization. But sometimes it’s necessary for me to make the tool myself.

Back in 1993, it was hard for playwrights to find up-to-date marketing information—we had annual guidebooks with listings, but they went out of date quickly. So I started publishing a monthly newsletter, Market InSight for Playwrights, that gave playwrights fresh info. Hundreds of playwrights subscribed and a lot of us got a lot better about sending out our plays to the right places.

I sold Market InSight around 1999  (it lasted under new ownership until 2016), and I kept submitting my work and using the info in the newsletter. But I found it hard to stay motivated. Then I heard about an entire town that was banding together to collectively lose weight. By making it a communal event, and building in layers of accountability and fun, the town found a way to establish healthy habits and get healthier.

I thought maybe I could bring playwrights together to do something similar for marketing our scripts. Thus the Playwright Marketing Binge was born. In 2003, about a dozen of us took the challenge of sending out a play every day, for 30 days. We committed to reporting back to the group every day about what we sent, why, and where. It was a way to have fun doing chores that can often be a real drag. And it worked! We all sent out a lot of scripts and started to get more productions.

 It worked so well, that we started taking the challenge twice a year, every March and September. On March 1, Binge #30, will commence, now with 940 members from around the world. What began as a lark has turned into an extremely supportive and active online community. And a very generous one—where people share submission opportunities all year long. Many of us have met in person, and sometimes members band together to encourage (or demand) that theaters treat playwrights more fairly. Our writers get productions around the world. I submit a LOT more scripts now that I'm involved with the binge, because I have the information at my fingertips, and I'm inspired by my fellow bingers.

Some important lessons to keep in mind from the success of the Binge:

• Sharing works. This group experiences success because people are generous about sharing opportunities. Creating a large and active cloud of opportunity ends up benefiting the whole group. Not everyone posts or shares, but enough people to do make it work.
• Successful tools aren’t always planned. The first Binge was an experiment, with very limited goals—we wanted to have fun and submit more plays. The community that grew up around the events is the most powerful aspect of the Binge, but that wasn’t the initial goal. Part of the reason it ended up working had to do with tone, openness, and the right amount structure (not too much, not too little).
• Tools don’t have to expensive or complicated. There is no budget to run the Binge. It’s free to join, and it doesn’t cost anything for me to run it. (It’s a Yahoo Group.) You can participate if you want, but you can also join and merely lurk. The only thing you can’t do is be a jerk to other members. The goals for each binge are simple: submit something every day for 30 days; but those are only goals—each person uses the group in their own way.
• Consistency helps longevity. The dates used to shift a little. Deciding to make the Binges start on March 1 and September 1 simplified operation. Choosing a software platform that is easy to manage helps a lot. Simplicity of operation is important if you want something to last without burning out the people who are running it. The time required to manage this group is minimal. The benefits, to me and to many, many people, are large—in terms of sharing information, building community, and establishing good marketing habits.

As you make your way through the artistic and business aspects of creating plays, books, and films, consider where you find gaps in resources, information, community.  You are not alone in experiencing these gaps.  Has someone else already found a way to fill that gap? Or is there an experiment that you can try, on a limited scale and budget, that might solve the problem not just for you, but for other writers, too?

Let me know what you try.

If you’re playwright and want to join the Binge, all you have to do is click here and join the group.


Great examples of other tools people have created include Donna Hoke’s Trade-a-Play-Tuesday, and QueryTracker (for fiction writers).

Idea Management for Writers—a new use for Scrivener

One of the most frequently asked questions of all writers is: “Where do you get your ideas?” And the answer, for most of us, is usually both simple and complex at the same time. The simple answer is everywhere, because we’re alive in the world and paying attention. The complicated answer is that we get them from devouring books and movies and plays and television and music, and we listen to conversations on the subway, and read the newspaper, and browse the Internet, and walk in the woods, and have our hearts broken, or see some inspiring act of kindness, and we daydream, and reminisce.

Non-writers don’t understand that 1) ideas aren’t that hard to come by, and 2) we don’t really need that many. I write one or two full-length works a year. That means I only need a handful of major story ideas kicking around my brain at any given time.

The question that might be more useful for aspiring writers to ask is: how do you manage your ideas once you have them?

When you’re just starting out, it seems like you’re going to use up all your ideas as soon as you find them. But from my experience, ideas start to pile up over time. I’ve been writing for a long time (more than 25 years), and some ideas get turned into projects right away. But for every one that I snatch up, a handful of others linger, maybe waiting for the right time in my life or more research or some shift in the world or myself before they’re ready to develop.

Some writers have notebooks they carry with them everywhere. I used to always have a pen and 3x5 card handy, not just for a to-do list, but also jot down a random idea. And a notebook to haul around. I also had a big thick file in my file cabinet, where I would drop newspaper and magazine clippings, and another where I might drop those 3x5 cards, or write up pages or sketches of ideas. And then what if I saw something online? I tried setting up e-mail folders for ideas, too.

What happened was that I had lots of little clips, and scribbles in notebooks, but no way to easily search for them. If I had some vague notion to revisit an idea from 20 years ago, it might take quite a search to find it. Who knows what notebook it might be in. And I never did find a good way to capture and connect links to web sites and on-line research and stories to all the paper files.  Even if I made Word files, it was hard to keep them all straight, and very hard to search or browse.

But I think I’ve found a better way:  Scrivener.

I’ve been a fan of Scrivener for quite a few years (I use the PC version and am still jealous of Mac users for the supercharged version they get to use).  It’s a great piece of software for drafting novels, plays, and screenplays, and especially for research-heavy projects. I write a lot of historical projects, and Scrivener makes it very easy to manage web-based research, images, and a thousand different notes. For adaptations, Scrivener makes it easy to keep track of the exact source material that underlies adapted scenes. I know some people find Scrivener complicated, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of its potential, but I find it worth the learning curve.  (Note: remember that it’s a drafting program, not an output program, so Scrivener is software you’re going to combine with Word or Final Draft for final output.)

Last year, I figured out that I could also set up a Scrivener "Project" solely to help me manage my various idea files. Its ability to separate material into hierarchical cascades of folders, files, and images, let me group types of ideas and then use folders to contain research materials of various types (text, images, web sites, links, etc.).

The great thing is that I can now easily browse or search ideas and not worry about losing track of them over time. I can safely back them up. Using DropBox for file storage gives me an additional layer of security.

In addition, now that there is an IOS version of Scrivener, I can easily add to my Scrivener Notebook through my iPad when I’m on the road, and not have to worry about losing a scrap of paper with an idea when I get home.

Right now, my basic Binder has these folders:  Scenes and Sketches, Blog Post Ideas and Text, Characters, Research, and Notes.  I keep general ideas in the Research folder—I have almost 40 ideas for full-length work in there plus a folder of short play ideas. Material in the Research Binder can’t be easily compiled for output, so when I start to actually play with scenes for an idea, I’ll write it in my Scenes and  Sketches folder.  (A lot drafts of my new short plays get written there.)

Scrivener offers multiple way to view the list of file ideas. So I can color code them (I do it by medium—so I can classify it as a play, screenplay, book, or multiple possibilities), or view them on a corkboard. I can easily jump into any of their folders to read the research that I’ve gathered.

Color coded ideas, by media type

There is plenty of room in my Project Ideas Scrivener Project to both gather many ideas and to do lots of preliminary research. Once I decide to commit to more fully-developing an idea, then I create a new stand-alone Scrivener Project for that piece. The nice thing about having my initial research already in Scrivener is that I can easily copy and paste it from my Ideas Project into the new Project.

Sometimes I still like to noodle and sketch out ideas using a pen and paper. And I still often have a notebook in my bag. But eventually, I make sure to capture those sketches and paper daydreams, either by scanning, taking a photo, or typing up a summary.

Keep in mind that Scrivener plays well with many other programs (including Scapple, but more about that in another post). As an example: I’d made a list of possible blog posts for 2017 in a Word file, but I quickly saw that using a Word file to serve as a reference file/list was going to get awkward. Instead, I started a new folder in my Scrivener Ideas Project just for blog post ideas. And I was able to Import the list directly into Scrivener and automatically generate a new text file for each listed item. If you choose to start using Scrivener for your own idea management, it’s not that hard to input material from your old systems.

Once I decided to use Scrivener for my own idea management, it did take some start up time to go through my email folders and old manila folders full of scraps of paper and printouts. But that time has already paid off by refreshing my memory about ideas that I liked but had faded from view over time. I’m new to this system, but I am convinced it will help me become both more efficient and creative.

I’d love to hear how you manage your writing ideas. If you end up trying to use Scrivener for this purpose, let me know how it goes.

Feel Better/Write More: The Joys of Time Tracking for Writers

I can be a bit of a numbers nut. I keep stats for script submissions, writing income, and lots of other things. But one of the most important things I track is my time. I’ve been writing seriously for more than 25 years, and I have a busy life, with a house and kids and a spouse. I’m involved in many different groups and productions, which entails lots of meetings and rehearsals.  Which all impede on the one thing I need in order to write:

Time.

If I don’t actively make time for my writing, it doesn’t get done. But I’ve discovered that one of the most important habits for building discipline, and for not beating myself up too much when I feel like I don’t get enough writing done, is tracking my time.

Lots of writers feel constantly frustrated, because they don’t get as much written as they want to. But my first question to those writers is: how much time do you actually spend writing? Most of them don’t know. Which means, maybe they’re wasting time, or maybe they don’t have as much time to write as they think they do. The one thing I do know is that complaining won’t get that next script or novel written. Writers need to be realistic about what they actually should be accomplishing.

If you only spend 2 hours a week writing, that’s not nothing. That’s 100 hours a year. Which is enough to write some short stuff, or maybe a draft of a full-length play (or more).  But, remember it’s going to take you a year to get that written. And you’re not going to write two novels, or a whole bunch of new plays plus rewrites.

My goals this year is to spend 400 hours of ass-in-the chair writing time.  (I count journal writing, because that’s writing practice. More about that in another post.). That should be enough time to create the projects that are important to me. I will probably spend another 800-1,000 hours on other parts of my writing life.  I also track time spent reading for work (not recreational reading and not project research), meeting/rehearsal/teaching time, marketing/admin time, and time I spend on theater ecosystem/volunteer work (like the New England New Play Alliance).

I also track my various side jobs/projects, which are sometimes farming or fixing up my old house.  It helps me to know how much balance I’ve got in my life.

Isn’t it a pain in the ass to do so much tracking?  The answer is a definite No. I use a simple excel spreadsheet that I open it at the start of every work day, and I close it at the end of the day. Whenever I move on to a major new task, I just open the window, and enter my starting time and expected end time.  When I finish that task, I update the end time.

 (I really do more than just write in my journal.)

There are a few reasons why this habit is especially effective:

• It makes me focus on one task for a certain block of time. Shifting back and forth between projects, minute-to-minute is not a productive way to work.
• By entering the end point when I start, it creates a sense of self accountability—the mere process of writing down that I’m going to work for one hour on my play puts me on the hook. I’ve made a commitment to sit at the desk and work on that manuscript. Going back and having to enter a lesser number is demoralizing, so I’d rather just do the work. I find that if I’m modest about my initial goal, I will often work past my expected end-time—so if I pledge to write for one hour, once I get going I can’t stop, and suddenly it’s two hours.  
• I can see whether I'm really doing my job.
• It allows me to set specific goals, that are useful whether I'm outlining, drafting, or revising. Many writers set productivity goals around pages or words per day, which works great for writing first drafts. But what about early stages, when you just need to think and outline and node? What about revisions? Tracking time is a more universal measure of your writing efforts.

Some of you might say this is too much trouble. I can only suggest that you give it a chance and try to make it a habit.

Others might say that having a time sheet feels too much like I’m doing a “job” and that's icky.  The tricky thing about working for yourself as an artist is that you have no one to answer to.  The external rewards for the work are often very far off, if they come at all. No one is there to make you do this, and no one really wants to hear you complain. You have to be your own boss/producer/editor/publisher/taskmaster.

The other advantage of tracking is that you start to get a sense of how long it actually takes you do stuff. And how long you are capable of working on a given project at a time. My wife will tell you that I am notoriously bad at estimating how long it will take me to do a household project—say replacing a light fixture. Should be simple—half an hour! Two hours later, I’m just finishing up.

That’s okay when you’re puttering around the house. But what about if someone wants to commission you to write a play? Do you have enough time to complete the commission?  How much should you charge?  You need to know how long it takes you to write something.

And you also need to have a sense for how long you can write at a time. Is two hours your upper limit?  I find that 3-4 hours of solid writing time is pretty tiring, so I plan for creative work in the mornings, and then admin/marketing after lunch. If you work a day job or have small kids, you shouldn't arrange your schedule to give you one 8-hour block of writing time every week or month, when you can't write for longer than 3 hours.

I hope some of you will give this a try, and let me know if it works. Also, if you'd like a blank writing timesheet, I'm happy to e-mail you a blank copy of my excel template.

Just for kicks, I’m going to see how many hours I spent on various writing projects (I’ve been tracking writing time since 2010.  (I have a series of annual blog posts where I write about the numbers.)   

Here's how my overall time has been spent over the past few years:

2016: 1,223 hours (416 writing/28 reading/438 rehearsing/274admin/67 New Play Alliance+873 home renovation
2015:  1,035 hours (262 writing/52 reading/295 rehearsing/303 admin/123 New Play Alliance) + 561 on moving and house renovations
2014:  1,426 hours (452 writing/109 reading/342 rehearsing/396 marketing/127 New Play Alliance) + 130 hours farming.
 2013:  996 hours (394 writing/308 rehearsing/294 marketing)  + 902 hours farming
2012:  896 hours.  (386 writing/278 rehearsing and meeting/231 marketing)   + 734 hours farming
2011: 818 hours.  (I didn't break out rehearsals from desk writing time in 2011).

I just put together a big spreadsheet of hours for each of my projects over the past 7 years.

(Click here to see the PDF.)

Here are numbers for a few specific projects:

Full-length Plays:  (this is writing time only, not rehearsal time in workshop/rehearsal)

Chore Monkeys:    95 hours

Blood on the Snow: 145

Distant Neighbors: 151

Drift:  77 hours 

Fire on Earth: 150  (it was more, but my data stops at 2010)

Flight:  180  (this includes workshop time)

Lost in Lexicon: 96

None but the Best: 134

Short plays generally take me 3-7 hours to write.

Novels:

Steering to Freedom:  680 hours

Moving:  91 (revisions only)

The Secret of Spirit Lake:  125 (revisions only)

Keep in mind, this is time at the desk time, not the additional noodling and walking around the neighborhood time that goes into a project. Short plays look like they don't take very long to write, but I'll often think about them for many hours before I sit down and actually write them.

Thoughts after compiling all this info:

• It reminded me that I work on a LOT of projects. At least 38 projects over the past 7 years, of all lengths.
• I made a grid of all projects, over the years. It's interesting how many years it takes to craft a full-length play. Typically, I put time into them over a 3-4 year span.
• History and research intensive projects take a long time. Steering to Freedom is a Civil War novel, and at 680 hours, it took about 2 solid years worth of my writing time. (I worked on it over a span of more than 6 years).
• Keep in mind that even if a full-length play takes a 150 hours, I'm lucky to get 15 hours per week on a single project. So that's 10 weeks worth of work. And I am typically working on 2-3 projects at once. Which is why it sometimes feels like it takes a long time to finish a piece.

Let me know if you try any of these tracking techniques. Or if you do, what kind of numbers you find. How long does it take you to write play?  A novel?