#5

Cresting the fifth of these little wrestling matches between me and a text field comes with a strong feeling of clarity. I feel as though I've got my sleeves rolled up, now. I like having my sleeves rolled up, generally speaking. 

Early this spring I decided to write a play. I thought it might be a fun way to pass the time and I was living with a fully articulated and actively working person of the theater who was amenable to new and untried works. I came over all cock of the walk about generating a play for him, filled both of our heads with high-concept nonsense, and spent the summer not writing the play I had imagined but something else entirely. The original play is now closer to being a type of computer program, and I have a lot of notes about procedurally generated content. Creation is a tricky business, and one reason I rarely work with others is my very tenuous grip on the steering mechanism.

The second play, which is my first play, is ninety percent complete and shall be the third book I make, to be available as a product for consumption no later than the first of October.

I never meant to write a play, as a younger man. Didn't think I ever would. Thought I had no reason to write a play. Perhaps I still haven't; took no consultation on this project. This is how I am. Plunging onto a course plotted on a guess and an instinct. No compass, no goal, no explanation for why I've done what I've done; already working on the next thing.

--JL