Rough cuts can be sanded and shaped.

That'd be a wood working metaphor. I like making things with wood, but I'm not the steadiest of hand. So often I'll just hack close to the line and then come back and trim the excess, sand down to the line, stuff like that. I'm mostly thinking of curves, like when I made my daughter a rocking horse. This play has me feeling the same way.
All but one of my other first draft plays have 3 or 4 actor requirements. Ninguna Verdad has five. Ms Tittle's House for Retired Circus and Sideshow Folk has nine. There are so many balls in the air as I write. Have I gotten Ameerah the stage time she needs? Who'd I forget in the last twenty pages? How's the story line between Howard and Maybelle developing? Have I lost that thread? Then, I've also written from the front of Act I, the back of Act II, and now the front of Act II.
I can see the rough areas. I have an idea of what needs to be fine tuned or trimmed away. But right now I need to get the whole thing done, even if it's ragged around some of the more complicated curves.
So far there are 37 pages of Act I written, and 21 pages of Act II. I'm not yet half way to the end of the month and I'm a few pages over halfway to the end of the first draft.
In other news, I read over Dr. Edgar's Brains last night and this morning. This is the play that will get a developmental table ready in February. As it stands, it needs a little light sanding to remove the spelling errors and word choice errors. There's some reworking that I know will come up. It's not the first draft by far, but it's also rarely been shared. It's going to be quite a learning experience to sit there and listen and then discuss a whole full-length play with just actors and a dramaturg. Their points of view will be different from a room full of playwrights who "wouldn't have written it that way."
Here's some of today's work on Ms Tittle's:

-----

 FEUR

Hey, James. Been here all day?

JAMES

(Checking the time.)

Hm. Seems like most of it. Time flies.

FEUR

Even if you're not having fun. Speaking of which, I'm sorry about earlier. I guess we've been pushing too much.

JAMES

You have. But I appreciate the sentiment. I get that you are all doing it because you care.

FEUR

Yeah, none of us have anything like a son or daughter out there. Except for Howard and Maybelle who have parents still asking after them, the rest of us seem to be on our own.

JAMES

Age has that affect. As does living an isolated life. But I haven't minded it. You have.

FEUR

I didn't think I did, but yeah, a little bit. Remember, we traveled all the time. A week here, a week there. Sometimes coming in late at night, rain and darkness, pulling the tent up more by feel than sight. The long days on the sideshow. I'd stink of soot and alcohol by the end of the day.

JAMES

That's what you miss?

FEUR

No, I miss the change. No audience was the same, despite being the same. Knowing in another week we'd be somewhere else. For the last twenty years we've been here. Just here. Hell, we haven't gone anywhere.

JAMES

No one's stopped you.

FEUR

I know. And I wonder about that, too.

JAMES

(Going to side bar.)

How's the food taste?

FEUR

SH! She'll be here in a few minutes.

JAMES

Relax, I was just asking. I asked before, too, if you remember.

FEUR

Sorry, yeah. I remember. I've also just learned that I've been over salting things for decades. It's a wonder I don't have high blood pressure.

JAMES

You have to tell her soon, she's going to figure it out.

FEUR

I know.

JAMES

Ameerah might tell her, just to spite you.

FEUR

She doesn't know. Does she?

JAMES

She has the sight.

FEUR

Oh, thpht!

BARBA

(Entering)

Sounds like you two are having another mature conversation.

JAMES

Are not.

FEUR

Are, too.

JAMES

Are not.

BARBA

Please, do stop. Oh, a lovely casserole. Very nice. Good flavors. Like it, Feur?

FEUR

(Slightly panicked but quickly recovered.)

What? How – how would I know. Can't taste anything. Decent texture. As always.

JAMES

I think it tastes good.

BARBA

Thank you James. So have we decided what to do?

FEUR

Part time jobs? Is that still on the table?

JAMES

Feur wants a part time job as an airline flight attendant.

BARBA

What?

FEUR

I do not.

BARBA

Ah, this is about the moving around thing again. I thought so. I've been seeing the signs again.

JAMES

Travel brochures?

BARBA

Hidden under his mattress, like a naughty boy.

FEUR
How'd you know that?

BARBA

You need to tuck them all the way under, unless you want them seen. Back to the ideas? There's plenty of part time jobs in town. I could work as a hostess at a restaurant. If they'd hire me.

-----

Still chugging along.