OctoMusiWriMo

October Musical Writing Month

In the spirit of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, held in November of each year), in 2016 I decided to dedicate October as OctoMusiWriMo. I worked on my musical (intention was to work on it daily--didn't quite achieve that goal), and sent out brief missives throughout the month to a small group of supportive friends.

Stay tuned...OctoMusiWriMo 2017 is on its way!

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Just a note to say that I have now enabled comments on the blog page.

Today was a difficult day. In terms of getting to the writing. I procrastinated. I stalled. I dawdled. I goldbricked. And then I wrote. Because I promised I would. I wrote for two hours. About the musical. I probably wouldn't have written if not for the artificial (but oh-so-real) conceit of OctoMusiWriMo. And all of your kind cheers and encouragement. As Scarlet said, "tomorrow is another day."

Today's Tidbits: In looking back at notes I wrote about another idea for a musical (these written on June 8, 2014 at Blazing Laptops), my character starred in a third-grade production--directed by his way-gay teacher--that was an all-male version of Mary Poppins entitled Larry Poppins.

Was looking at Sondheim lyrics (always an inspiration) in his second volume of collected lyrics (Look, I Made a Hat). At the end, he wrote the following:

On the last page of Ulysses, James Joyce wrote: "Paris-Zurich / 1911-1918." I've always envied that pretension and I see no reason not to take this opportunity to do the same. (If only books were as good as the length of their gestation...) New York-Roxbury / 1994-2011.

This is the first day of OctoMusiWriMo--October Musical Writing Month. I made it up. I took my inspiration from NaNoWriMo--National Novel Writing Month--a well-established non-profit organization that encourages writers all over the world to write a 50,000-word novel from November 1-30 each year.

I have been looking for a way to motivate myself to do more writing on a project that is important to me. I want to write a full-length musical. So I decided to begin today and have set a goal to write every day this month. Since the shape and structure of a musical is different from a novel, rather than set a goal of 50,000 words by October 31st, I am setting these two goals:

1. I will write for a minimum of two hours every day of the month. That writing will be focused on creating the libretto of the musical. Depending on the muse and circumstances, I may also write song lyrics.

2. I will post to this blog each day to keep myself accountable, and to engage with a select group of supportive friends who are in my corner.