All day. Nothing. Just need 600-800 words for a No Shame five minute play. I got nothing.
Do you own a small recorder?
Take it along and go for a walk.
Talk into it all your ideas, or sketch out a scene with dialogue.
Come home, listen, and type up only what sounds useful.
Keep trying that.
You get fresh air, exercise, and eventually good copy.
Happy New Year.
Yo Kev!
Happy New Year.
You’re in the queue at Walmart.
You’re next in line at the checkout.
Behind you, is a woman, 11 months pregnant. Behind her is an overtly gay man.
An expensively dressed, attractive young woman, is before you, on the other side of the checkout, watching, as the cashier scans each item of a fairly large (numerically, not size), purchase, but making no effort to bag the items as they come towards her. Eventually, the build up of items, makes it impossible for the cashier to scan any more.
At this point, the woman starts to bag the items, but in such a way, that the rest of the queue think they’ll al lbe there till 2012. She slowly scrutinises her purchases, as if looking for one particular item. When it appears she has found that item, she places it, ever so carefully in a bag, then repeats the procedure with the another item, then another, and another, with different types of items, apparently having their own designated bag. Eventually, the incredulous looking cashier, can resume scanning the remainder of the obtuse customer’s purchases.
Having completed the bagging process, the young woman proceeds to pay the bill, using, not a card or cash, but…a chequebook. Throughout the encounter, the cashier has managed valiantly, to keep control of her tongue, but the expression on her face says it all.
The glamorous customer enquires of the cashier, “Do you know what date it is?” But before the cashier can answer, the gay man says bitchily, " Well! When I came in, it was thirteenth of January, but I’m sure it must be around the fourth of October now…"
The pregnant woman is on the verge of collapse, muttering obscenities to herself
You’re trying to think of the most offensive comments you could make, such as denigrating her obvious sexual/animal magnetism…etc. etc. etc.I’m referring to the good-looker, here, not the poor pregnant woman, bless her.
I’m more than certain you could flood this scenario, or something similar, with great dialogue.
All the best for 2011
Take care
Vic
Maybe we should see what Kate Fox has to say about it…?
ps
I suppose, this is what’s referred to, as, CROSS-THREADING 
Well, I was at one of the vegan grocery stores last week, because that’s the only place I can get the hard white wheat that I prefer for baking. In front of me was an old hippie lady who’d taken the recycling thing too far. All her produce in a motley collection of plastic bags. She insisted on taking things out of the bags one by one, and wouldn’t let the checker arrange stuff on the scale. She had to stare intently at the register display, as though seeing it anew each time for every item.
I wanted to smack her with her tofu. I still want to cuss when I think about it. I’ve learned that working nights means that I have to run my errands when it’s just the old people and mothers with young children in the shops.
I am tired, lonely, depressed, and my giveashitter just don’t work anymore…
Just a thought: if it didn’t work how would you know? It must be working for you to even understand that your reaction might be questionable (at least to people who aren’t vic-k).
Hang in there.
Kev,
They’re both great scenario, screaming out for some, coruscating, acerbic and eviscerating banter/repartee. Y’s couldn’t get one more suited to a five minute run. So stop the procrastinating and get to it!!
Vic 
Well, we’ll be doing brainstorming sessions tonight. I hope to bring something home that I can work on.
You didn’t have to spell this out; it’s very plain that you’re sad.
Go see a counselor. Let’s not go Tucson on thrifty old ladies and young moms.
Remember, women buy 65% of USA books!
You may need help, and nice as L&L folks are, we’re not health professionals.
Droo’s right Kev,
You need someone who knows what they’re doing, even if it’s just to tell you, that what you,re experiencing is perfectly normal under the circumstances, and par for the course. Of course it’s handy if they can tell you how to cope, as well.
I’ve just had a quick flit around the counselling scene in Eugene. It seems reasonably well resourced.
You do need to talk about things at a time like this. The counsellor notion is a good one, Kev. Look into it.
Take care, son,
Vic
Gents, I do appreciate your concerns. I’m touched, truly. But alas, there is no form of counseling that will put money into my bank account, and that is the one problem that must be solved. Everything else is secondary to that. Hard labor combined with ghastly working hours is the only solution available to me at this time.
There are ways to find other widowed persons out there in the intertubes, and that is where I have been getting my support for the last… well, eleven months now, I believe. I reasonably happy and reasonably adjusting before my finances tanked. I’ve even lost a stone or two of the excess weight that bereavement so generously bestowed upon me.
Stage Eight of the Hero’s journey: The Ordeal.
Ah, but counseling can help you restore the energy to find the thing that makes you dough. And, in the meantime get more involved with theater—it’s glorious fun!
Best
Dave
To K’s point, counseling isn’t free. As he has openly shared he can not afford it.
Sorry Kev.
Surely there are charities that run free, but reputable, Bereavement Counselling, services.
vic
I have been unable to find any such thing around here. The only help I ever got was from Hospice, and they had nothing for me after Maura was gone.
That’s a very sad state of affairs, Kev. I wish I had some words to help turn your situation around, but sadly I haven’t.
What is certain, is that you need a break from the shit, even if it’s only fleeting. Like Dave said, theatre is alive and fun, grab as much of that kind of stuff as you can. Humour, even in minute quantities, is therapeutic. Make yourself get involved, even if you don’t feel inclined.
How did the brainstorming go?
Take care
Vic.
How did it go? Well, it was good to get together with the No Shame crew again, as always.
I didn’t take anything home from the sessions, but I might have gotten an idea while I was there. But now it’s the weekend, which is when I work the double shifts. I’ll be rather busy, I’ll just have to let it stew in the background.
Welcome to the country that claims “the best health care system in the world”! While I am as anti-socialism as any republican, if health care is a human right then it must be free. Kev has as much right to mental health as every other person.
Too bad the Obama plan won’t actually fix this.
You know that for a fact, do you?
Medicare works. Everyone should be on it.