New Year, New Effort, New Full-Length Play

Hello.

I don't do this very often, the blogging thing. I should, I know, just in case I become interesting to the world and people want to read what I have to say.
With that in mind, I thought I would make the effort to sort of document my efforts to complete the first draft of a full-length play in one month. The idea is that by the end of January I'll have a full-length play that is ready to share out, get read, receive useful critiques on, and begin the job of fine tuning.
I've been thinking about this play for a long time. Years, to be exact. However, it was only over the last few months that I began to give the play some serious thought. I dug out the original idea notes and added to them and roughed out a very general outline. I went back again and worked on understanding the characters needs and desires, what made them tick, mentally and emotionally.
I went through the general outline and started adding more details. I'd like to say that I completed my outline for the whole play, but such was not the luck, good fortune, or result. However, I did get a lot done. There is enough that I can see some potential problems along the way and I now have the opportunity to thwart them. It would have been more frustrating to have writing - for example - half the first act only to discover that the direction I'd gone wasn't going to get me to a logical conclusion based on the themes of the play.
This morning I started a new outline, using the knowledge I'd gleaned from the earlier efforts. When I was far enough past where I'd hoped to write for today, I stopped working on the outline and began writing the first pages of dialogue and stage directions. I know I have to have at least three pages a day to get the 90+ pages for a full length play. I also know that if I get more pages done in a day I'll have some room to work.
I've also had the good fortune to start this during a holiday when my wife is home to look after our daughter more than she is normally able to do. Therefore I know I need to write as much as I can in these honeymoon days so that I can have room when there's a bad day with my daughter and other responsibilities and nothing gets written.
To top that off, I also have several other writing projects that I'm not suppose to slow down on. This could get interesting.
So, without further ado, here are the first few lines from the work I've written today. (I'm not good at formatting in the bloggy thingy. I hope you'll forgive me.)

-----

MS TITTLE'S HOME FOR RETIRED CIRCUS FOLK

(Lights up on tea room style dining area. There are four small tables with several chairs to each and a sideboard where coffee and chaffing dishes can be set. There is a swinging door near the sideboard that opens on the kitchen, one on the opposite wall that leads to the front door, and a third one that leads to the bedrooms. James enters from the bedrooms door and crosses to the sideboard. He is carrying a newspaper.)

JAMES

No coffee? What time...?

(Checks his cellphone for the time.)

Hm. Weird. Oh, well.

(James goes to his favorite table and sits, opening the newspaper. Tina Tittle enters, carrying a fresh pot of coffee. She is sniffling and making pitiful sounds. James watches in silence.)

TINA

(Setting the coffee pot on the warmer.)

Oh, dear, oh, dear. Why why why?

(Begins to cry.)

I blame you, Gina. I blame you.

JAMES

Gina?

TINA

(Surprised.)

Oh! James. I'm sorry. I didn't see you there.

JAMES

Is your sister in some sort of trouble, Tina?

TINA

(Recovering from surprise and crying.)

Her? No. Gina's always gotten what she wanted. Even this.

(Waves at her side.)

No, she's living the high life. Meanwhile, sister Tina is going down with the ship.

JAMES

'Down with the ship'? Tina, what's going on?

TINA

(Bursts into tears for a few seconds.)

What's going on is that I've been foolish, James. Foolish and stubborn, but more fool than anything else. I thought it would last forever. I never thought -

(Feur enters.)

FEUR

(Heading to the sideboard and the coffee.)

Morning, you two.

TINA (Cont.)

(Moving away from Feur and wiping at her eyes.)

I need to get breakfast out. I'm running late. Not that any of it matters.

JAMES

(As Tina exits through kitchen door.)

Wait, Tina.

FEUR

(Pouring coffee and doctoring it with sugar and creamer.)

Happy birthday. What's with Tina?

JAMES

(As Feur sits and he fetches his own, black coffee.)

Thanks. I have no idea. She's really beat up about something. I've never seen her this messed up.

-----

That's it for now. If anyone actually sees this and reads it, leave a comment. Or drop me an email. I'll try to be consistent through the month and we'll see what happens.