Slobby Days

So, I've taken a few slobby days because I haven't felt like doing much. You know those days when you wake up and you just don't have the drive or the want to do anything at all? Well, I had a few of 'em.

Mainly it's because this playwriting book is kind of a bust. I just want to get to the juicy playwriting stuff! And he keeps throwing lame tasks at me. It's starting to become more of a chore, and playwriting shouldn't be that. If it's becoming laborious and tiring, you know you're not heading in the right direction with your writing.

So I'm hoping with this little break I can come back strong.

I've done a couple of practise drawings, nothing special. Firstly one of the designs of the dress I'm planning to FINISH SEWING tomorrow. Bring it on! (It's actually gonna be a maxi dress, possibly with sleeves)

And another one of Danny from Bravest Warriors, a show on Cartoon Hangover on youtube, it's awesome.

And uh, yeah that's it! Hopefully I'll come back with more exciting things tomorrow.

Day 5

Good news or bad news first?

Bad news - I've basically given up on this playwriting malarky for today. (Only for today though!) It's just more tasks about seeing things from your character's point of view, which wouldn't be too bad if they WERE ACTUALLY FICTIONAL. So annoying that they're not. I might re-do the tasks with characters I have actually invented before. We'll see.

Good news - I did some sewing today! Pause for applause. Thank you, thank you very much. I've only sewn the bodice together so far, needs some adjusting but yay! Happy days.

Also, I worked out how to save my drawing!! So here it is:

The legs are annoying me more and more, but try not to look!! But overall I'm pretty happy with it. Hoorah.

Day 4

It is day 4, right? Just kidding. So, these tasks seem to be getting more and more inane. I thought there was a little glimmer of hope when I was asked to 'expand my snapshots' to include another character and write about it from their viewpoint. I thought maybe (!) my characters were actually going to be these secondary characters, the people still involved with the scene but observing it, so that I could create a character and make them my own rather than having them be people I actually know. Because then I can't let my mind make up crazy stuff about them because it's just like, "No, they wouldn't do that." Huff.

I'm thinking of doing these tasks with the play that I actually started working on at uni. Maybe it would help me with that. But in all likelihood, it probably won't.

Aside from that, I made leaps in my drawing today! I used to sketch what I wore everyday for a few months back when I was sixteen. Because that's what teenagers do, y'all. At least in my world they did. And so when it came to what I would draw, the narcissistic part of my brain was like 'duh, draw yourself!' So I did. And scanned it into the computer. And then had no bloody clue what to do because I've never coloured on gimp before. Tutorial time!! After which I was all wised up and probably over-confident, to be honest. Anyway, it turned out really nice and I can't wait to post it tomorrow, after I work out how on earth to save it without all these darn layers...

Day 3

Each day I keep saying to myself, "I'm going to sew a dress today". But I never do. Story of my life. So tomorrow, maybe? Haha.

Today I did the 3rd unit in the playwriting book. It's still just weird tasks and writing prose. Eh, we'll see where it goes. It does miff me off that he tells you to identify people you know in real life in relation to the theme and then almost create them as characters. It just feels strange writing about people I know. Anyway, I might actually share a bit today since yesterday's post was so teeny tiny.
The three people I identified as linking with my theme were my best friend, a youtuber I love and my friend who is also a youtuber. And one of the tasks was to think of a 'snapshot' and write 75-100 words describing what is happening in that snapshot.

Now my friend worked on a mini series called 'Unnecessary Otter' and it's amazeballs. One of my snapshots was him discovering the otter:

(I changed his name, btw. Just in case. Although I'm pretty sure I don't need to protect his identity as I don't think the mafia are after him.)

"You have a really cool flat" Roger says to his friend, as he stops to look around. The room is filled with weird and wonderful ornaments and knick-knacks, the group of friends have to crane their necks to admire it all. "Do you want a cup of tea? Anyone?" asks Jason, the owner of the flat. He is answered with a series of nods. "Whoa, whoa. Hang on a minute!" exclaims Roger, "What in God's name is this?" He's pointing at a stuffed otter, tucked away on a high shelf. "Oh, I dunno. Got it from a charity shop, I think." But Roger had already fallen in love...

Don't ask me why I chose Roger. And I know it ain't brilliant prose but give me a break! It's only a little fun task. Anywho, till the morrow.

Day 2

Ugh, there are some days which I hate winter. You wake up and before you know it, it's dark again. I woke up, went food shopping, came home and watched Tangled then boom - darkness falls. Not so good when you're feeling a bit rubbish and don't feel like being creative. So all I have today is one drawing and there is not way in heck I'm uploading it. Mainly because I can't be bothered to scan it. So toodle-oo, until tomorrow chums.

Day 1 - playwriting

So, I may be technically 3 hours late on this one, since it's now 3 in the morning on the 1st December. But I say phooey, I haven't gone to sleep yet, therefore my day is not over. Today I downloaded a book called 'Write a Theatre Script in 25 days & 10 hours' by Tony Craze, wacky name and all. Now I'm not going to post the evidence on here today because so far it's just preparation and character development with a few strange exercises thrown in.

It's a little different because he asked us to pick a random theme first of all and base characters off real people that we know (a task which I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with yet) but it's getting me to be a little creative so what the heck. The theme I chose was self-worth (I wonder if you can guess why) and so far I have.... not much. But hopefully by the new year I'll have a completed theatre script. Here's hoping!

Creativity

So, I've been doing a lot of thinking recently. Not voluntarily. I've been forced into doing a lot of thinking by finding myself unemployed. I've just finished uni, my summer job is over and now I have to face the big, bad world and decide what I actually want to do in it.

It's got me thinking a lot about creativity. Now, I used to consider myself a creative person and I'd like to think I still am but I find myself day to day just wasting my time on the internet, playing games, scrolling through facebook, not knowing what to do with myself. Time which could (and should!) be spent being more productive.

And in light of this, I've decided to challenge myself to be a little more creative each day and put the evidence up on this blog (hopefully I can stick to that! Let's see how long that lasts). What are these wonderful creative activities I will be venturing into, you ask? Well, they will consist of drawing (which I am pretty awful at); sewing (which I am mediocre at, but in the world of actual proper sewing I am awful at); playwriting (which I think I might be good at with time but at the moment I have a sneaking suspicion I am awful at); and possibly making videos.

YouTube is one of those things I've always wanted to get into but never gave myself the chance - probably because I'm too insecure but mainly because I'm scared about not being good enough. But it seems like one of those things that when I'm older I would have regretted in my life, not taking the chance when I'm young and have the opportunity to do whatever I wish to with my time.

I've spent years watching all these inspiring people on youtube like Carrie Fletcher @itswaypastmybedtime, or Charlie McDonnell @charlieissocoollike, or my friend Sammy @ICOEPRproductions. You, if you ever read this, were pretty inspiring to me especially when I was going through a hard time at uni. And all that time I have wanted to BE them, to live a life like theirs. It all just seems so exciting to me. So rather than getting a job in a shop over Christmas (the horror - think of boxing day!). I'm going to take the first step in discovering what I'd like to do with the many, many hours that I will be provided with in my life. (considering I don't get run over by a bus tomorrow). So, here goes...