Vacation Diary

July 5. Overcast and dreary. I went to bed at 2 AM last night after watching 1776 on Turner Classics Movies. Everyone else went to bed at 3. I get up at 9 and start writing. Three cups of coffee and two hours later I've finished touching up Act One, extending the brief Hamlet/Ophelia scene in I,3 and adding some fortification chatter to Fortinbras. Still have to go back and give Phyllida some Dad stuff to chew over, but I won't do that till I write their scene and discover just what it is she's so pissed off about. The rest of the day is lazy. Nobody wakes up before 3 PM. I make notes for the Phyllida/Fortinbras scene, read the first 200 pages of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, watch the Red Sox lose to the Yankees, and actually see Allyson's Duracell commercial while my brother-in-law is watching COPS. I take a walk around 10 PM and talk to myself about the play while I'm snapping pictures of Ocean Street. Go to bed at midnight and try not to disturb the cat, who ends up sleeping on my feet.

July 6. Up at 7:30. Gather up all my notes for the Phyllida/Fortinbras scene and start writing them out in sections. Junk about four-fifths of what I've written and discover what they're arguing about as I piece the five best exchanges together into one scene. I can now go back and give Phyll a couple of definite Act One Dad moments to chew on. Finish typing up the new scene at 9:30, just as the sun makes its first appearance in two days. Twenty minutes later it's hazy again. Head out to the back yard to make notes for the big Act Two Scene 2 rewrite. Which is going to be more of a first draft than a touch-up, since pretty much all the opening chatter has to go, and Ophelia's mad scene needs to end with every volcano onstage erupting at the same time. As usual, I will have no idea how I'm going to do this as I talk to myself and transcribe as many different dialogue exchanges as I can. And as usual, it will all make sense tomorrow morning when I start to edit them together. Memo to self: this is how you need to live.