jive diarrhea

I began another project a couple of days ago. This one is a ten minute (or so) jobby that is a cross between The Twilight Zone and any Tyler Perry movie. I personally think it's gonna be the funniest thing I've ever written- totally over the top with no subtext whatsoever. Sometimes I just need to be silly. I've also almost finished my second "Mixtape" draft. All the extra scenes have been plugged in, now all I have to do is re-read to make none of them are dangling in mid-air. You know that old stage adage, "If you show a gun in Act One, make sure someone uses it by Act Three"? That's what I'm checking for- unused guns.

For the past few days, I've thankfully experienced a burst of creativity that resulted in "Mixtape" being completed, "Potty Mouth" submitted to half a dozen new festivals and my Twilight Zone play bearing fruit. I plan to finish my first draft of Twilight today and send it to one of my trusted readers for feedback. Can't remember if I told you this or not, but I've also started jotting down ideas for a sketch comedy show. Kinda an edgier version of "All That" or "The Roundhouse" (for those of you old enough to remember); that is, written for the tween/ teen market. I don't know what exactly I'll do with the idea. If nothing, I'll have a collection of shorts to sell, right? Man! This is what diarrhea of the brain must feel like.

It hasn't all been go-go-go. Yesterday I took a break from writing. Well, physical writing. I went to the library and checked out some books about southern womanhood for research. I spent a good part of the day taking notes on their phrases, speech patterns and customs. Don't laugh! I firmly believe that it breathes much more life into your characters when you do this vice peppering their speech with "ya'll" and calling it a day. Case in point: a character in "Mixtape" (a minor character, at that) is an old black man who speaks jive. Obscure, 60s-70s jive. I wrote his character in the first draft, then downloaded a jive dictionary and began substituting words. In my humble opinion, this made him- in all his minor character glory- jump off the page and make him memorable.

Talk about diarrhea! I've gotta stop typing or I'm gonna be burned out for later. Be easy.