Tenth Draft

Tonight I finished and sent off the tenth draft of my adaptation of “The Odyssey” — a few weeks back the director sent me a lot of notes, some major and some minor, to consider. I’m a week or so late on the draft, but I took all of his notes (with one exception) because, looking back through the script, I realized how much I was just writing in the dark. I’m willing to follow any flicker from the outside and, when it comes right down to it, Bob’s the one who has to direct the damn thing after all.

But it’s done and I know that there’s at least one more draft to do before they go into rehearsals.

Problem number one, it’s too long.

Problem number two, the language is awful in some places . . . just horrible.

Problem number three, it’s too damn long.

I might try to do a little informal reading in a week or so, just to hear how it sounds.

——-

I was talking with my son on the phone tonight and he asked me what I was doing, so I told him I was writing and he asked what I was writing and I said I was finishing up the tenth draft of a play.

“You’ve done ten drafts?”

“Yeah.”

“We only have to do two drafts of something at school.”

“Well . . . I’ve been working on it a long time.”

“How long?”

“About two and a half years.”

“Jeez. Why are you writing so many drafts?”

“Well . . . because a lot of people will be working very hard to bring it to life for all of the people who will come to see it. I have a responsibility to all of them to make it as good as I possibly can. And it’s going to have my name on it when it’s finished. I have a responsibility to my name as well.”

After a long moment, he said “I saw a turkey buzzard today.”