Tag Archives: New Years Resolutions

2020 Resolutions to Keep … or Break

playwriting, , , ,

Kitty interviewed Marie Kondo for LA Talks Live on Spectrum Cable.
Do half-written plays spark joy?

by Kitty Felde.

There’s something about a new year. It’s a new start, a “do-over,” a chance to be a better version of ourselves. As playwrights, it’s a good time to set a few goals.

Or not.

May I offer my own Top Ten List for 2020.

1. Stop being so hard on myself.

Last year, there was too much chaos in my life to even think about writing a new play, let alone revising an old draft or sending out scripts. And the fact that there wasn’t enough bandwidth in my brain to think about theatre in 2019 doesn’t mean I’m a bad person or a lousy playwright. Life happens. I vow to do better this year. But if life throws a curveball, I will be forgiving and kind and encouraging: the same way I am to every other writer but myself.

2. Write 500 words a day, five days a week.

I think I can commit to this goal. Five hundred words may not sound like much, but those words add up. They don’t even have to be any good. But as Jodi Picoult famously says, “you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

3. Submit.

The same way you can’t edit a blank page, you can’t get a play produced if you don’t show it to someone. Send it out. Set a goal of 20 rejections in 2020! Or 100 rejections!

4. Look at ALL of my unfinished, bad drafts, ideas. Decide which are worth my time.

This is a great way to cheat. I may not have a new play dying to be written, but I know I have a decent first act in some computer file somewhere. If I can find it, and find a way to finish it, half my work is done. Or I can look at it and decide to trash it and move on. Either way, it feels very Marie Kondo of me to pick up a piece of old writing and ask myself whether it still “gives me joy.”

5. Go see more theatre.

We are blessed with dozens of terrific theatres in Los Angeles. How many have I visited? Not enough.

I know traffic is horrible and most theatres seem to be on the other side of the hill. But last year, I started making the rounds, seeing some terrific shows in 3 new-to-me theatre spaces. I will continue to make my way around town in 2020.

6. Read other people’s plays.

This is not only polite, it’s also a great way to see how other writers construct an evening of theatre.

It’s also a way of creating community. Writing is lonesome work. Knowing that someone else is laboring to create good work is a small comfort. There’s even a Facebook group that reads plays and makes recommendations. So far, I’ve been a lurker in the NPX Challenge Group. This year, I’ll start reading and recommending.

7. Celebrate the small victories.

I need to count all of my blessings, large and small. It may not be a Tony Award, but my day got a whole lot better when my cleaning lady showed me the book report her granddaughter wrote about MY book. I felt like a New York Times bestselling author. Yay.

8. Have coffee with people.

I used to tell my summer interns back in Washington that D.C. was a coffee kind of place. I’ve sat in Starbucks and Caribou Coffee and Coffee Bean stores all over DC, overhearing job interviews, congressional staff meetings, even lobbyist meet and greets. If you want to do business there, you start with “a coffee.”

To re-establish myself here in Los Angeles, I need to follow my own advice and start setting up coffee dates.

9. Think outside the box.

I’ve never really been interested in pop culture. I was the odd kid who organized the “Save Star Trek” campaign in elementary school, got busted in high school for wearing skirts that were too LONG, and became a groupie for “Bonanza” star Pernell Roberts because “every balding middle aged actor should have one diehard fan.”

So why did it surprise me to look at everything I’ve written over the years and discovered that none of it was “top ten list” material. It’s all quirky, quiet, and important to me.
So why am I kicking myself that none of my work is being picked up by Signature Theatre in New York or South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa or any of the other well-established theatres across the country?

I realize that my longest running play isn’t being performed in a theatre at all. It’s a commission I got to write a one-man show about Theodore Roosevelt’s youngest son Quentin and it’s been running every weekend for years, playing on the sidewalks around the White House. I’ve directed plays performed in people’s living rooms, written a play performed in a D.C. National Park that celebrates water lilies, and this past summer, penned an audio play (THE FINA MENDOZA MYSTERIES) that was taped in a library, the L.A. Zoo, and in the middle of a jazz concert in a park.

This year, I vow to continue to look for unusual spaces where I can put my work before an audience. Got any suggestions?

10. Be Persistent. And if the door keeps getting slammed in your face, try another door. Or keep knocking.

For most of 2019, I’ve been trying to get the LA Public Library to carry my book “Welcome to Washington, Fina Mendoza.” It’s carried by lots of other library systems (L.A. County and the DCPL to name but two) but I’ve been hitting my head against the way trying to get LAPL to put the book on their shelves. Today I sent yet another email to their acquisitions person, fully expecting to get yet another rejection. But I asked myself: what did I have to lose? It’s a definite “no” if I don’t follow up. Maybe this time will be different. Maybe.

Five minutes ago, I got a response: “Done!” The book will be on LA Public Library shelves by the end of the month! Maybe 2020 won’t be so bad after all.

Do you have resolutions for 2020 that you’re willing to share?

Work in Progress

Female Artists, Women, Young Women, ,

by Andie Bottrell

10850210_10152947024859122_5948576216374620216_n
My workspace

Welcome to 2015 LAFPI! The start of a new year is when a lot of us take stock of where we are at and where we want to be, re-evaluate our habits and try to kick things into a higher gear because gosh-darnit if we aren’t all full of untapped potential, right? haha. The key to these resolutions, I think, is not letting yourself get swept up in the hype of self-improvement and burn out too fast amidst impossible expectations (there’s that word again). At the same time, it’s a great time to verbalize those way-big dreams and create solid, realistic, chewable bite-sized steps that you can do each day to make them happen. We’re all works in progress, all the time- and in case you weren’t aware- we always will be. The scaffolding never goes down completely, just like in New York City, it simply pops up on another building down the block.

I am extremely fortunate in that I got a super exciting, head-start boost before my New Years reflections started. A new job! No longer confined to my cubical prison from 8-5 collecting money, I am instead working part time for a financial planning and investments firm as their client relations manager. I make virtually the same amount of money working less hours, doing a much a more enjoyable job with really great people. This has been HUGE for me. As evidenced by my last year of blogs on here, things had been kinda… down for me. I wasn’t able to create as much as my artsty soul requires to feel alive and kicking. I am incredibly grateful.

When I started thinking about my New Years resolutions this year, I really took the time to consider where I am at, what I want and what I can do to get there. I am not someone who has a high a success rate at keeping promises I make to myself- I may banish all chips from my diet one day, only to have them as the main course the next. I may promise myself to complete 7 screenplays & plays by January 2014, and by January 2014 have completed none. So, it’s all good and well to say to yourself on December 31st, “Self, tomorrow is a whole new day in a whole new year and I am going to be a whole new me,” but the truth is, you won’t be. You’ll still be you. With the same hang-ups and quirks and anxieties that caused you to do those things that kept you from getting closer to achieving your goals last year. So a better thing to say to yourself on December 31st, or any day is, “What haven’t I tried yet?”

Untitled
My “Works in Progress”

 

I decided to only look one month ahead this year, picking two goals and specific deadlines for them throughout the month. This month my goal is to write 50,000 words in my novel (1613/day) and to do a cardio workout 5x a week with yoga 3x a week. I made mini-deadlines every week throughout the month and if I don’t hit those then there are consequences like cleaning my mom’s car or cooking a meal of her choice for her. I talked to my mom about these goals and asked her to help keep me accountable. She also has set goals for this month and if at the end of the month we have achieved our goals, we are treating ourselves to a spa day.

My plan is to do this every month this year. I’ve made up a list of exciting rewards and not-so-fun consequences. For me, it’s important to have both these negative and positive reinforcements, as well as the accountability and encouragement of a support-buddy (I’m trying to rope my friends into joining us as well!) So far it’s really working and I feel so much more at peace with my “work in progress” self because I’m not letting my potential go to waste; I’m working it like clay between my hands every single day. This also means that I am more in touch with where I am at in my process, more attuned to my short-comings, more able to see the glints of my progress and less stuck in between the fantasy of where I expect myself to be, the memories of where I’ve once been, and the exaggerated depression of how it feels when reality hits.

I hope this post is of encouragement and inspiration to you as you start off the new year. I think it is also important to remember, as you look inside and outside of yourself for things you want to improve, that you are exactly, perfectly acceptable just the way you are right at this very minute. Stomach rolls, incomplete drafts, messy house, unwashed hair, etc. You are a beautiful, unique, pre-war historic home with the capacity to provide for other humans. You stand on a gorgeous plot of land, planted on our incredible earth for a finite amount of time. You get to experience and witness millions of tiny and monumental things. You will love and are loved. You are enough. But… if would like to, if you feel so inclined and compelled, you may refurbish the floors, recondition the walls, renovate the exterior. These acts may ad value to your home monetarily, may ad a sense of accomplishment you can carry in your step, may help you become more aware of your own strength and capabilities- all good things!- but always remember, today, tomorrow, next January, you are who you are, where you are, and as you are- and that is perfectly enough.

 

resolve

Uncategorized,

Sara Israel, January 4, 2011

Happy 2011 everyone!

Last week was the time when many people—myself included—crafted some New Year’s resolutions.  (This week is the time when you are bombarded with advertisements and Yahoo “articles” about how you can stick to those resolutions.)

I won’t subject you to my quotidian stuff like not running yellow lights, but here are my four Writer Resolutions for this year.

Reading Is Fundamental: There is so much I am compelled to read (namely other people’s scripts and research for my own writing) that too often I neglect what I want to read just because.  You know, as a human being rather than as a writer.  But of course, being a human being and a writer are intertwined—and so when I do get to the “just because” it always infuses me with creative energy.  Why do I so often forget this?

In 2011 I will read whatever the heck I want, whenever I want.  I won’t worry about the work.  The work will get done; it always does.

Quality Over Quantity, Part One: In 2010, I attended a ten-minute play festival in support of my friend and very talented playwright.  I thought the performance of her piece went pretty well.  She saw it, uh. . . differently.  Afterwards she declared, “I’ve padded my resume enough.  I’m through with ten-minute play festivals.”

Her throw-down strikingly articulated something I had already been thinking about:  What is the benefit of having your work done if it is not done well?   For me, one of the biggest challenges of being a writer of work that exists to be performed is that typically I have minimal control over the performance.  But here’s what I can control:  Who I let perform it in the first place.

In 2011, I will continue my trend of being an informed bestower—aware of who is asking and the quality of their past work.  And I will not feel guilty if, once I think about those aspects honestly, my answer is “no.”  I will approach this on a case-by-case basis, aware that each potential situation brings with it a different cost-benefit analysis.  But I will always remember that the text is mine to give.

As writers we are conditioned to simply be grateful that anyone wants to perform our work at all.  This is ridiculous.  We create valuable commodities, and it is our right—and I think our responsibility—to share them intelligently and strategically.

Corollary: I will not pass judgment on my writer friends who do not adopt this approach.  However, I can no longer invest the emotional and literal time in nursing them back to health when they suffer the consequences.

Quality Over Quantity, Part Two: I saw more than 40 full theater productions in 2010, most of them right here in Los Angeles.  I was participating as an awards voter, and took the organization’s mantra to heart that I should use the opportunity to seek out new-to-me theater companies and artists.  It wasn’t until that experience was completed—and once I’d detoxed from it a bit—that I realized what a toll it took on me as an artist.

The truth is, with most of what I saw in 2010, the best you could say is that it was sometimes “good enough.”  A really great actor-performance here.  A really cool light cue there.  An interesting premise.  A well-detailed costume.  A plucky use of the space.

Some informative experiences, but “informative” is different than “inspiring.”

I love theater because of its ability to inspire.  But when it inspires me, it does so because everything—everything—about it is excellent, and the artists are collaborating together with a singular understanding and vision to create that excellence.

It also turns out that when you’re seeing too much “good enough,” even that starts to feel like less than “good enough.”  And that, in fact, is anti-inspiring.

In 2011, I will only see productions that I truly want to see.  I’m now confident that I am a well-informed theater-goer, and that I also know who to count on as my smart and savvy theater friends who will help me fill in the gaps.  Of course, not everything can be inspiring, but I can make my 2011 yield far, far better.

Dish-Pan Hands: In 2011, I will wash my dishes every single day.  This sounds quotidian, doesn’t it?  And I promised you I wasn’t including quotidian here.  But, for me, dishwashing is really fertile creative-thinking time.  I’ve known this for years.  So why don’t I already do my freakin’ dishes every day?  It’s probably because, unlike tennis, regardless of the benefits, washing them is still a chore.

Here’s to creativity and success—in both writing and chores—for the coming year.