Hillary DePiano's Blog, page 48

We’re 50% done with this year! How’s 2014 treating you and your writing so far?

hourglass_cropped (Photo credit: openDemocracy)

Tomorrow is the exact middle of the year. That just blows my mind because it does NOT feel like we are halfway through this year and also fills me with panic. There’s so much I wanted to do this year and, while I have gotten a lot done, there have been several stretches, and I’m in the midst of one right now, when I have gotten next to nothing accomplished because life was b-a-n-a-n-a-n-a-s. But I thought I’d take my own advice and take stock of...

Keeping a good balance between different types of writing projects with a chaotic schedule

Balancing Rocks (Photo credit: Viewminder)

One of the biggest things I’ve struggled with in my writing life is keeping a balance between the types of writing i have to do. I tend to get laser focused and obsess over a certain project and, while that meant I finished it, it meant that I’d completely neglected everything else. I needed a way to make sure I was devoting the same amount of time to each type of writing I had to do but how could I possibly measure that? When I actually got a minute...

People who liked Hillary also liked a bunch of really weird names

“Traditionally, Hilary was the form used for males and Hillary for females, but since there are so few boy Hilarys these days, that tradition has fallen by the wayside.”

-

I was extremely excited to see this little note because I was always told that two Ls was the female version growing up but this is the first evidence I’ve ever seen of that being something more than just “random things people told little Hillary.” I now feel completely validated for all the smug sup...

Writers: Harness plot bunnies by doing the project hop!

When Plot Bunnies Attack (Photo credit: nodigio)

Once you harness your plot bunnies, productive writing feels like cheating and the words come easier. Let me explain.

I keep mentioning that my new percentage based writing goalis really working well but I’ve never really explained why. Let’s go into that, shall we?

To catch everyone up, my new system is pretty simple. I have a single word count goal forthe year and I’ve augmented that with some percentage based benchmarks. In English, it means th...

Half hour of The Love of Three Oranges, a half hour of Sesame Street

Sesame Street (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I just thought this was funny. That almost the same day as I announced the new shortened version of The Love of Three Oranges that comes in at about half an hour, PBS announces that they’re going to start airing a trimmed down version of Sesame Street each day that will run at, you guessed it, half an hour.

Muppet fanatic that I am, I just thought that was neat in a weirdI am in sync with the Muppet universe kind of way.

On a related note, The Love of Thre...

The Love of Three Oranges Act 1, Scene 1 alternate King Silvio and Pantalone scene

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“Censored” rubber stamp (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the biggest FAQs I get is about the scene in Act 1, Scene 1 between King Silvio and Pantalone and the double entendre speech. Many schools and theatres find that speech to be a bit too racy for their tastes and want to rework it. To that end, I wrote an alternate version that cuts the offending bits out.

It used to be that you had to email either myself or Playscripts to get the alternate version but I’ve decided that’s stupid and to just...

I sold another play! Actually, I sold the same play. Again. Kind of.

The Love of One Orange (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have some exciting news! For as much as I yammer on about my various works in progress, I’ve had a secret project going on in the background all this time and I’m so excited to finally be able to tell you about it.

I sold another play! Actually, I sold the same play. Again. Kind of.

Let me explain.

Ever since Playscripts picked up my play, The Love of Three Oranges, it’s consistently been on their bestseller lists for both full length high school...

Oh, sleep. I’m sorry that I ever took you for granted.

A baby sleeping. Not my baby, mind you, because she never actually does that. (Photo credit: bitzcelt)

New parents don’t get any sleep. That’s the cliché, right? Because newborns wake up every 4 hours to be fed or sometimesmore often than that because they are babies and why shouldn’t I be awake right now, human slaves? Serve me! Look how cute I am, you are powerless to resist!

This is all true. Except that it’s actually not the whole story. Because many women, far more than would ever admit it...

Win a paperback acting edition of New Year’s Thieve in the Goodreads giveaway!

Want a free paperback book? If you’re already a Goodreads member, and it’s free and quick to sign up if you aren’t, you have a chance to win a copy of theacting edition of my new play,New Year’s Thieve, in a special promotional giveaway. It’s free so you’ve got nothing to lose and entering couldn’t possibly be easier!

There’s three copies up for grabs so your chances of winning are pretty darn good…

Here’s how to enter:

Visit the New Year’s Thievegiveaway page on Goodreads.
Click the “Enter to Wi...

When will I feature your production of The Love of Three Oranges?

The Love of Three Oranges in action(Photo credit: CHRIS HARVEY PHOTO)

You’ll notice I’m somewhat random about when I share things from recent The Love of Three Oranges productions and that these posts tend to come in spurts. That’s because, unless someone specifically calls my attention to articles, reviews, video clips or photos from a production, I don’t see them unless I happen upon them myself. And since the time I have to randomly surf the internet for The Love of Three Oranges stuff is f...