Short Scripted End of the Year Holiday Party

Because the martini glass was not already precarious enough.

Tomorrow I will post my fifty-second scene of the year. Some if not all are fine examples of bad dramatic writing. But just so you know, that’s only because I wrote, like, all of them in, like, ten minutes (hair toss).

I launched this project in order to introduce routine and accountability into my writing life, and it fulfilled its role of being a royal pain in the ass for much of the year. But a pain in the arse turned out to be a great way to churn out some stage-talkin’—for better or worse—and for that, I am glad I committed to the blog. And I’m glad the blog hung over my head like a yearlong morning after three martinis. Made with well gin.

This portfolio of scenes contains a lot of failed ideas but it also contains, I hope, a few starts that, with some time and attention, could sprout into happy little actual plays with something to say. To borrow words from Raymond Carver, I wanted to “get up early one morning, at least/And go to my place with some coffee and wait/Just wait, to see what’s going to happen.” I wanted to commit to a year’s worth of weekly scenes to see what happened. And here we are; it happened.  

I don’t plan to continue adding (at least as) regularly to Short Scripted in 2012. I’m going to take on a more enlightened goal like abs of steel or eating out less. Just kidding, of course. Given that the end of the world is scheduled for May 2011 October 2011 next May, I’ll be maxing out my final days by friending everyone I can on Facebook so I can say I went out with as many relationships as possible.

Thank you to those of you who visited my quirky array of characters and me over the course of the past year. It’s been fun.

Mary