For me, the first step in visualizing a new stage play I’m about to write would be designing the set.

If anyone reads any of my blogs, they know I am huge on visualization of what I’m about to write and proper development of my material prior to writing my first scene. Again, for me, I have to figure out the best layout to tell my story even before I’ve determined how many speaking characters I actually need.

When I’m putting a conceptual set together, there are mostly three things I consider.

1. Space – I never intend to limit the amount of production companies I can submit my work for consideration and an easy way to do that is to make the set requires so grand, a technical director would have a nightmare trying to fit it into a space which would normally be suitable with a few adjustments. I want the play to read easy to produce from a technical standpoint.

2. Blocking – I never want to create a setting which is so complex I’ll confuse myself when making blocking suggestions in the script. Nor do I want my prospective producer to eat confused either. So I make my sets fairly easy in which characters can move around.

3. Description – I lastly want to make sure my set descriptions, which are always described in the first pages of my manuscripts, are easy to describe in the first place. Usually I don’t include a scan of my conceptual set design, so it’s up to me as the author to describe the set with words solely and if I can’t convey the requirements for the story without confusing the reader, than obviously changes need to be made.

These three considerations are usually what I cling to putting my conceptual set design together. And if I’ve done right by myself, I usually have no problems with that aspect of writing the play itself.

I have always said the more preparation you do when developing your script or novel, if that’s your chosen vehicle, the less work you’ll have to do when it’s time to actually write it.  Anything you can do to pre-determine the life and adversity of your characters, their inner motivations and conflicts, etc. will ALWAYS help an author stay focused on his or her voice when the actual writing begins.

Not every one, however, has the ability to develop and pre-plan their work.  For some people, they are more comfortable simply deciding character names and jumping into the first scene or chapter.  Doing that actually makes me break out in hives.  I remember my youthful days when I started writing stories, that’s how I would get started.  The result would be some of my worst and most immature, from a construction stand point, works ever.

My favorite example of an author who knew the importance of development and preparation of a new work is Agatha Christie (Murder On the Orient Express, Death On the Nile).  Christie described much of her process in an autobiography and noted her process over arguably her most popular work, “Ten Little Indians,” originally titled “Ten Little Niggers,” which was re-named for obvious offensive reasons. The book has now been re-titled “And Then There Were None,” because the mention of Indians in the previous title has also become offensive among present-day American culture.

“I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning,” Christie said about that work. “It was clear, straight forward, baffling, and yet had an epilogue in order to explain it.

“It was well received and reviewed, but the person  who was really pleased with it was myself, for I knew better than any critic how difficult it had been.”

She knew the work prior to writing was deeply important, but it was most important to her before any reader or critic.  My early failures due to a lack of preparation did however serve a purpose.

Those early works helped create what is my process today.  I have also come to realize the biggest reason why I rely on all my preparation.  The key for me is visualization.  Visualization refers to an author’s ability to see their work being “acted” out.  Whether its a movie, stageplay or novel, I’m convinced every author must actually see the “scenes,” places and people described and interacting with each other in their minds prior or as it is being written.  Some authors have no struggle with this and it comes as natural as breathing.

For me, it’s usually easy to see my strongest scenes acted out in my mind.  However, occasionally I get stuck.  So again, I devised a step in my development process which helps me make sure I don’t have issues visualizing my work as I’m writing it.  Although I have several steps which I will probably post about down the road, this step is what I refer to as The Morgue, or what I used to call a “Cast Concept.”

In The Morgue, what I’m actually doing is casting the production or movie in my head with whomever actor or actress I feel best matches the character in my head.  Those actors usually have a style all their own, and it helps me find patterns for the way my characters speak, knowing who will be playing them.

When I’m casting, I’m combing Google or images of celebrity actors whom are the same age range of my characters.  I find headshots of them and I take them from the web and put them in a Word file with the character’s name.  When The Morgue is done, I have a visual spreadsheet of the faces of my new play or movie.  I only cast the single speaking roles.  I do not bother with faces of The Company, if one of my shows have one like my musical “Dadly Intentions.”  If one of my roles is the only role an actor in that show is devoted to playing, then I cast it.  Otherwise, I don’t bother.

This usually helps me if I get stuck with a scene of multiple characters.  If the conversation is overlapped and lengthy, I use The Morgue I created to visually see everyone talking in my head.  It’s a simple tool to keep me focused, and putting The Morgue together in the first place is an incredibly fun activity for me which helps me get excited for actually writing my newest project.

I have several other visualization tools which I use but none of the others are a permanent staple of my development process as The Morgue, with the exception of designing a conceptual set.  That is a must for me as well.  When I was working on Fat Farm, I found myself getting lost in some scene with so many characters moving around the commons area.  I started to lose track of where everyone was, so I actually drew out a scale layout of my conceptual set design and I took a small amount of toy Army soldiers and taped little flags to their backs with the names of my characters written on them.

Then as I was writing the most technical scenes, I used the action figures to keep track of where I last physically put characters within a scene.  Basically, I was staging the scene with the action figures as I was writing it.  It slowed down the actual writing of the play, but it saved me hours in the editing process, having to correct the conceptual blocking in later drafts.

Anyways, I feel visualization of your work is a key component to making the actual work flow as easily and with the upmost quality as possible.  I’ve been stuck on a work of writing so many times, I couldn’t even count them or even remember ALL the reasons why, but what I have been able to do is figure out a solution to prevent it from happening again.  I suggest you figure out yours, and since it’s a lot of fun anyways, give The Morgue a try on your next project.

Since I was a teenager, I dabbled in all sorts of creative outlets, from drawing cartoons and an intended comic book, to writing scripts, acting, producing stage and video, writing and performing music…you name it, I pretty much gave it a try at some point.

Over the course of my history, I have created hundreds of works in whatever medium and they have not always seen daylight.  Most of them have been shoved in a drawer or filing cabinet somewhere only for me to dig out when I’m spring cleaning and decide if I need it or not.

Last year, when I was developing my first musical Dadly Intentions, I was starting its process by writing a handful of titles for possible musical numbers.  I figured it would help me with the conceiving my storyline for the show.  As I did so, I was reminded by a friend of a song I wrote and recorded almost 20 years ago.  I called it “Just to Have a Dream,” and the lyrics were about a struggling filmmaker who was in desperate need of focus so he could complete anything creative.

I had completely forgotten about this song, even though I had written several since and even recorded an album, which this song did not appear.  However, I dug the song lyrics out and read them over and instantly I realized it would be perfect for the First Act breakout song to my new musical.  I revamped the lyrics slightly and gave it a new context in its staging and tah-dah, musical number one was completed for my new work.  I hadn’t written a scene yet, but now I knew from where my main character was by the third scene of the show.

The point to this is that anything you have done or plan to do is worth saving.  Even if you don’t show it to anyone, and it’s not coming together the way you had artistically hoped.  Keep it.  You may have a different outlet down the road which may be a perfect fit for it.

Even the title of the musical came from a previous creative endeavor.  While I was neck deep in being a dad to 1-2 year old twins and a daughter two years older then them, I found myself having struggles which I figured I’d start a blog about to see if any other dad’s out there were experiencing similar things.  I also wanted to give mom’s a perspective on what the fathers of their children may be going through in their minds during this journey, allowing them to maybe help stay connected.

I think I wrote one blog, and after two years and no follow up, I shut down the site.  However, I always thought the title was cute, Dadly Intentions.  Obviously this is a play on words from Deadly Intentions, which sounds like some sort of high-budget Hollywood thriller staring Idris Elba.  But Dadly Intentions I thought was cute and memorable, thus when I had the idea for my musical, I knew this title was a perfect fit.  And if you get a chance to read my manuscript for it, I’m certain you’d find the title equally fitting as I do.

As far as keeping creative ideas in a cabinet somewhere, I’ve always done this.  I have a couple of files in my cabinet specifically filled with movie and play ideas I thought of while in college.  Among them was movie idea about a film producer who is in desperate need of finding funding for his latest independent project, so to acquire a name director to the script, he hits up an old mentor who is now in a wheelchair…and now blind.  I thought the idea of a blind movie director was intriguing and possibly hilarious.

However, that’s where I got stuck.  I could develop it enough to decide if I wanted it to be a heavy drama or a situational comedy.  Some years later, even though I kept the idea printed out on a piece of paper and in this file, Woody Allen wrote and directed a movie called Hollywood Ending, in which his character comes down with a case of hysterical blindness while in the middle of directing a big-budget Hollywood feature which could revive his stagnant career.  The movie was hilarious, and I truly felt any idea I fleshed out of my own would only live in the shadow of Woody Allen’s work.  So, that killed that.  But I still have the paper with that idea sitting in my file.  It will never be a full fledged movie, but maybe among those notes there’s a character a can pull from it and use in a different movie or stage script idea.

You never know what your creativity is going to do for you, from you or with you from year to year, so if you create anything, whether it’s a song or a one-paragraph movie idea that will never be fleshed out, hang on to it.  It’s still a part of you and could end up being a part of something bigger and better down the road.

Some say the editing process is where the true mastery of the work is performed.

I tend to see it a different way. For me, the true mastery of creative writing with characters and plot is the work done before the actual writing. For me, it’s the character backstories and back-plot which make or break the quality of what I call finished.

However, obviously the editing process after my first draft is highly important, so here is a quick write up of how I go through it with any of my scripts. I’ve written a post about leaving the first draft in a drawer and not touching it for a month. Let’s assume I’ve already done that. Now I’ve pulled out my first draft and grabbed a handful of colored pencils or pens and a permanent marker to being editing.

I ALWAYS edit my first draft when it’s been printed out on paper. I don’t know why, but for me it’s far easier to catch typos and other major character or plot mistakes or inconsistencies when I see the work on paper. I don’t catch half as many mistakes or needed changes when I’m viewing a PDF copy on my devices. I also keep my printed draft with me almost all the time. Life gets in the way for all artists and creative people. It’s inevitable. My time devoting to this part of the process I perform ANY time I have a spare chunk of time. I’ll work on editing when my kids are in their dance classes. I’ll edit while in the car waiting to pick up my kids from school.

When I’m editing I take an approach to it as if I am being paid by the author to make the script better. When I have my pens out, I mark something on each page. Anything. I’m convinced there’s always something that needs to be corrected on every page whether it’s a spelling or typo error or a line of dialogue that needs changing, added or omitted. If a page doesn’t have a revision mark on it, I missed something. That is my basic approach.

There is also a reason for using different colored pens. I color code my edits depending on what needs to be revised. If I’m editing a stage direction, I’ll use say green to make notes. If it’s a change in dialogue, I’ll use say red. If it’s a revision which ties one part of the script to something in a later or previous scene, I’ll use purple and I’ll noted which page that note is connected to so I know to look for the other scene and match the appropriate changes, also noting the corresponding page number.

By the time I get done editing, the first draft usually looks like a road map legend. Colorful and thoughtful looking, and I am confident my changes have been well processed.

The last step to my editing process and typing in my changes to the original file. However, to make sure I don’t accidentally omit something I should keep when I edit the second draft, I “Save as” the file under the same name with the number of the draft in the file name…so the new file would be “skininthegames2,” for example. Then I have my first draft still in tact to pull material I’d like to re-add if I feel it’s best. Also when I’ve reached my final draft, I know exactly which file to email off for speculation to producers, agents or production companies.

Lastly, when I’m typing in my revisions, I use the permanent marker to put a simple diagonal line through each page I’ve edited as I go and save my work. I don’t think I need to say how important it is to save after every page, because again life gets in the way. I may be typing in edits at home and one of my kids gets hurt or the wife wants to get naked. Knowing I’ve saved the most recent page of edits allows me to simply close the laptop and snap into husband/father mode until the next time I can get back to my work.

The permanent marker slash is strategic. It allows me to know which printed pages have been completed in the new draft and saved without trying to remember of hand. It also allows me to go back to that draft and still be able to read my original draft and revision notes. I’ll keep that draft in a shelf for reference as well as future drafts until I’ve decided the final draft is met, at which point I discard the previous drafts.

That’s my editing process. It works for me. I suggest you find your own process but make it a formal process. Know this part of creative writing is as important as any other part of the process so come up with a formality on which you can rely and know your product is the best it can be.