small "h" huzzah!

So I finished Act I yesterday! It's one of those weird, let-downy kind of things, because I had been feeling very very optimistic about things, thinking, "wow! this is really ticking along, for a first draft." Everything was developing quite well, there was some humor, a little bit of emotion, and, of necessity, I had been doing a LOT of editing as I went, trimming every syllable that wasn't absolutely necessary, so it had a lovely, astringent crispness to it that is really not typical of my writing, but which worked beautifully with the early '60s "look and feel" I was going for. But it was all going so well that I felt compelled to end the act on a really strong note, and I think I wanted that so badly that I kind of doomed myself to failure. Which is absolutely fine, obviously, because it's just a first draft, and everything else feels pretty tight, and of course I can fix it. But the main reason I was rushing to wrap it up was that I had promised pages to the composer ages ago and hadn't followed through, and I just didn't want to hold off anymore. And that means someone else is going to be reading it, and he's going to be seeing it in a state I'm not 100% happy with.

ANyway, I made this other decision recently that I want to have a director associated with the project even before we start to write songs, which sounds weird. But I want to do at least one or two readings of just the book before we start thinking about music and lyrics. The whole idea is to make sure the script is really working before proceeding to the next step (it's so much easier to cut/edit/revise dialogue than songs), and I think it makes sense to hear the script read in order to determine that. And I have been forceably restraining myself from e-mailing the director I hope will work with us on that, because I don't want to do anything prematurely.

On the other hand, I at least want to make sure her e-mail address is still good, since I haven't been in touch with her in over a year. So I think I'll wait until I hear back from Bob (the composer), at least acknowledging that he's got the script and hasn't changed his mind, and then e-mail the director and make sure I have the right contact info for her.

Oh, and look! I have updated this blog again, and it's less than four months since my last post!