Back at the MoJoe Lounge

I'm here at the MoJoe Lounge, just below me is the box office to the 30 screen AMC theatre here at the Easton Town Center. The large open lobby to my left that I'm lording above is somewhat distracting. There are a lot of people here for a Friday morning. Guess people are starting spring break a little early or something. I don't know. It's about 11:30am and I still have about an hour and a half before heading over to work.

Open in another window is the file of "The Brothers Caramillo," complete with some changes from today. I'm battling with a case of writer's block that is different from the kind I usually experience. This time, I actually WANT to write, I desire getting into the world of the play, but I'm having trouble getting a handle on the story at the moment. I feel like I'm confusing characters and moments and the timeline of the action. I know at this point, I should just be writing and then "fix" any continuity errors when I start revising and really putting scenes in their correct order.

My mind has been trying to fix scenes, to give each character his or her due and purpose. This play has... Let me think... Alex, Dimas, Elian, Theo, Simon, Faith, Lise, Kate... 8 characters. Not too bad. But I need to make sure that each character allows an actor a good opportunity. Lise is a problem character right now... She's Alex's "girlfriend" and isn't serving much more of a purpose than putting Alex in a particular path. I'm considering cutting her, but she does add a nice layer to Alex's character. So far she's only in a single scene, so I'm trying to find a place for her in the second act, someplace...

Theo is also a problem character. He's in the first scene of the play (or what is the first scene of the play right now) and it's a really fun scene for an actor. He's also in another scene in act 1, at the very end of act 1. But I wonder if I need him in the second act... Somewhere... There's a bit of a problem with having him in the second act, which I don't really want to divulge right now since it's the hinge that the play operates on...

And I know, I KNOW, I shouldn't be worrying about any of this right now and should just be writing scenes, building on them and letting the energy of the scenes and the discovery of new character quirks be revealed (because every new scene presents something surprising about the characters). The characters will start rebelling against the pegs I've put them into and will start tweaking themselves into different shapes. I should just let them do the work for me, you know? I feel like part of being a playwright is becoming a stenographer for imaginary people. So, I guess I should just let them talk. Shut the computer and open the Moleskine and get gritty. Let's see what happens.

The Point

I'm at the point in my writing "The Brothers Caramillo" that I love to be at. I have about pages written and am moving towards the end. I have a "first act" that tops out at 52 pages and a "second act" that is filled up by scene titles that are acting as placeholders. These scene titles are mostly names of characters that will be in the scenes: "Elian and Alex," "Dimas and Kate." Some are more descriptive of action: "Dimas Breaks into Faith's Apartment." I always put scene titles as placeholders at this point in my writing, when I know what I'm driving towards and know, somewhat, what dramatic holes need to be filled with a scene. How many of the scenes will survive? How many more scenes will I need to write? I don't know. And I won't know until more and more of the scenes are written, and I can see how the play "plays." But I'm moving with great energy and anticipation and NEED. Since I started my new job at a bank call center in the afternoons/evenings, I've taken to hitting this coffeeshop (The Cup o Joe MoJoe Lounge) in the morning (around 10 or 11). I write for two hours or so and get my body moving. The coffee and the friction of typing on the keyboard of my laptop gives me the energy to get through 8 hours of training in the afternoon. I'm finally getting my life back into a semblance of order.