Writer’s Improv, live

As I’m sure you know by now, unless you’ve just stumbled on this site, I am scheduled to do an event as my performance to celebrate being named my county’s Artist of the Year. That event will be a writer’s improv, when online viewers can watch the live writing of a story eventually intended to go into a collection edited by Dana Stabenow.

On Saturday, May 20, at (please note time change) eleven o’e2’80’99clock Pacific Standard Time, anyone wishing to see what LRK is up to has two options. The first takes you to a live video of the story being written’e2’80’94in other words, you see exactly what’e2’80’99s on my screen, taking into account a minor time lapse. That one will be at:

http://www.scparks.com/improv/PRC_Live.asx

If, however, you’e2’80’99d rather sleep in that morning, or if you forget and want to see how it went, you have an alternative on which you can scroll back and see the earlier portions of the short story being written. That one will stay up for a while, then later we’e2’80’99ll shift it to the LRK web site. Its location on Saturday will be:

http://www.scparks.com/improv/improvlive.html

The folks who put this all together suggest you note that the live view (video) of the writing will require Windows Media Player 9 or newer. So you have two days to go buy a new computer for this event.

Also, remember that if you’e2’80’99re watching the HTML page, you will need to refresh it periodically.

I’e2’80’99ll receive my story prompts on Saturday morning, in seven areas: first line of the story, name of a Middle School, characteristics of an imaginary video game, etc. I’e2’80’99ll then let them ferment in my mind for a few hours, so that when I sit down with my laptop in a very pleasant room at the Simpkin Swim Center (Parks Department hdq) in Santa Cruz, the entire story will be laid out before me, right? And I’e2’80’99ll just type smoothly with nary a stumble or hesitation for two solid hours, right? With three-quarters of the story to show at the end of the time, right?

Oh sure. It’e2’80’99s just as likely you’e2’80’99ll see not a thing, just a few abortive words, quickly deleted.

When the kind tech gents, Michael and Maitreya, were setting me up the other day, they offered to include an audio feed, I guess so that dedicated LRK readers could hear their beloved author cursing and shouting irritably for coffee. I declined the audio, so it’e2’80’99ll be okay if your young children are in the room while you’e2’80’99re watching.

I hope you enjoy this. There’e2’80’99s going to be a Q&A at the end of it, but it’e2’80’99s only set up for actual live and present people. Maybe if you’e2’80’99d like to post questions and comments here after you’e2’80’99ve watched, I can answer some of those online as well.

The whole point of this exercise (there is a point, really, beyond the daredevil factor) is to demonstrate the writing process, so students and beginning writers can witness, first-hand as it were, the laborious voyage from original idea to finished story. I hope to get the story actually completed by the end of June, but eventually I’e2’80’99ll post it on the web site, alongside the first draft that I produce this Saturday.

I hope we all have fun with this, and maybe learn something.

(Yeah, like: never volunteer to do something live.)

Yours,
Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year, Laurie R. King

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6 Comments

  1. myninki on May 18, 2006 at 2:47 pm

    You are a very brave woman, very’e2’80’a6.. I’e2’80’99m sure everything will be OK. I will try to be there if my 56kb dial up connection it’e2’80’99s up for the challenge and if I manage to unravel that time thing. Good Luck!

  2. Anonymous on May 18, 2006 at 4:51 pm

    You’ll be great–don’t worry! Afterall, we “hangers-on” here will be thrilled to see how you work and anyone who doesn’t write will just think it’s incredible that you could sit down and do it, given prompts the day of!

    And, thanks for the info on how to watch. Just to make you more anxious, I’m inviting the whole of NaNoWriMo to join in!

    Kim

  3. Dicentra on May 18, 2006 at 6:50 pm

    To clarify one point: Will you be running on Pacific Standard Time rather than Pacific Daylight Time?

  4. Anonymous on May 20, 2006 at 2:09 pm

    Good luck Laurie! I’ll be rooting from New York!

  5. Rebecka Vigus on May 20, 2006 at 3:24 pm

    Congratulations!! Hope all gose well for you. Love your web. Come visit mine sometime.

  6. gitgal on May 20, 2006 at 7:17 pm

    I’m liking the story alot! Watching it unfold adds an excitement dimension I wasn’t expecting, but I guess I should have expected it since I was practically tripping over myself to get to the computer when I realized it had already started. Very cool.

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