If my play were a sculpture I think it might look something like this:

Light After Death: Mihoko Ogaki’s ‘Milky Way’ Figures Project Stars from Within

See more Light After Death sculptures at This Is Colossal’s website.

-M

Not so fast now. Or as my dad would say to us kids, “Hold your horses.”

I thought I had finished my Inkwell submission. But no. I haven’t.

Why?

The fine print, my dear, that’s why. Well, it’s not exactly fine, it’s very much out in front for all to see.

I should know better. I was planning on sending them The River Bride, but then I re-read their advice to playwrights:

Your play does not need to be in perfect shape. We are a play development organization, so we are not looking for plays that are just about perfect and are ready for production. In fact, you’re unlikely to get a lot out of our development process if your play is at this stage, and our readers are less likely to recommend the play for The Inkwell’s process. We’re looking for plays with potential and ones that need to put up on their feet to evolve. Just try to be as clear as you can be about what you hope to accomplish through a collaboration with The Inkwell around your play when you fill out our submissions form.[emphasis mine]

It’s a pretty good idea to heed any advice that tells you exactly what they are not looking for, am I right?

And the fact of the matter is The River Bride is in really good shape. So even though I am eager to share it with lots of people, submitting it to Inkwell would likely not be fruitful. Meaning, it would not likely be chosen.

So. What do I send then?

Well, I thought it over and came to the conclusion that I still have a play that needs work, needs to be up on its feet. I’m going to send them Woman on Fire. This means rewriting some of my responses, which I will work on tonight and finish up tomorrow.

-M

I’ve been working on my Inkwell submission for a while now. It takes a “a while” because when a submission requires that playwrights write responses to questions I take my time to craft each question, often reviewing them three or four times over the course of three of four nights. And as my dance card has been quite full lately those nights are not often consecutive.

Anyhoo, I actually found myself a bit stumped by one of the questions and it took some time to figure out my response. But I figured it out.

Last night I finished. And tonight I am going to e-submit my application and play. I don’t know about you, but I am often working on submissions at the end of a long day (long work day that is) so I like to spread out the process so that fatigue does not lead to mistakes or missteps.

So check Inkwell off the Playwriting Work Plan.

Speaking of, I have two more submissions to crank out this week before I can return to query letters that weren’t sent in February and rewrites. Oh yeah…writing.

I have a feeling this weekend will be very productive.

-M