I really want to write a lot of things this year. I have been structuring my days lately to get as much stuff done as possible, adjusting my habits constantly. The newest addition to my vast array of planning devices (it‘s mainly the app „Structured“ and a planner book by the brand „Klarheit“ - I‘m strongly recommending both!) is this rudimentary schedule, collecting and describing all the various projects I‘m planning to get (or in the process of getting) done -Dividing them into „Main“ and „Side" projects, with four hours each day going into the current main project, two hours into side projects and the mornings going to exercise, E-Mails, general bureaucracy and Internet stuff like blogging.
I‘m hoping to get more writing done with this clear schedule. Let‘s see if it works out.
Having read me droning on about mundanities like my daily routine, I think you now deserve a sneak peak into what‘s on the schedule.
Main:
On this side, I have assembled the concrete writing projects I am tackling or planning to tackle. I am always writing one of these at a time, and will do so in order.
Queen of the Forest - A chamber Epic in 17 Dreams
This is an English language script for an arthouse-y movie in a style I have used last year, writing the screenplay "Auf dem Weg nach Neuland", which can be heard read aloud in the "Unproduziert" series of my German podcast.
It's heavily inspired by magical practices described in Jonathan Fazer's "The Golden Bough", Greek mythology and the cinema of Bela Tarr.
I'm writing it in English because I want to enter into some screenplay competitions and I know for sure that there is no way to ever get a script for a movie this weird produced in Germany. If it happens, it will definitely be an international undertaking.
Inanna & Dumuzi
Next up on my writing schedule is a play, dramatizing the Mesopotamian legends about the goddess Inanna and her human lover Dumuzi.
It's a story of love, death and retribution and will make for a great stage play - Maybe even one that can be turned into a film one day. I'd like to write several plays on mythological stories.
Not sure yet if I should write this in English or in German.
Das Heiligtum der Höhle 2 & 3
On my German language podcast, I uploaded my Cthulhu-Christmas-Story "Das Heiligtum der Höhle" ("The Cave's Sanctuary" - I know, it's not a catchy title) last year around Christmas. On its own, it's a short novella with some likable characters (I think) who I'd like to write more about.
I'm planning on giving the story a second and third act (whoever listened to my reading knows, there's more to tell), so that it forms a nice, Lovecraftian young adult novel. Hopefully, someone will be interested in publishing it.
One-Act play about witches
This one might become this year's movie project, but will be written as a stage play, first. I've started this stage-play-as-a-foundation-thing with "Man Eater", which, in my opinion, is the best thing I've ever written, so I'll keep the practice going.
I don't know a lot about this yet. I know it's about three Wicca-inspired witches with actual magical powers, I know they come together one night to perform a ritual, I strongly suspect the story will be set in a dystopian future - And I don't know a lot beyond that.
Exciting, right?
Side Projects
Now, these are a bit more complicated and varied and most of them I don't want to give away just yet. Listed among these are my ongoing podcasts that have definite ends at some point ("Ovid gegen Gott", in German, will have 10 episodes, "Mysterium Pictorum", in English, will end after 286 episodes, if we make it all the way through).
There are also many pitch-ideas for various TV-series, which I will start to work into pitch-files to then give to my agency one by one.
The only two projects on this side I really feel like sharing right now are:
Open Air Theater Event
I'm planning on organizing an Open Air Theater event this summer, in the park next to my flat. It's looking pretty good right now and might actually go ahead with a proper budget and all.
The event will consist of an immersive theater experience, inviting the audience to a walk through the park, in which actors will be located on plateaus, mini-arenas and all kinds of makeshift-stages the park has to offer, and perform monologues and poems from all through the history of literature and theater.
Starting with Enheduanna, via Hiob, Aeschylos and company, up to Shakespeare, Schiller, Goethe, Molière, until we arrive in modernity.
This experience is meant to really make the audience feel the necessary, existentially important foundation of every civilization, all around the world, all through history, that culture was and is.
Additionally, on a marvelous Open Air stage in that same park, we're planning on staging "Antigone" - The forever fresh, Greek classic among youth-tragedies.
I really hope our application gets approved, but so far, I have reason to hope.
Short Story Collection
I am writing the occasional horror short story in a notebook dedicated to that exclusive purpose every now and then, and have done so since October 2020. I am not fast, mind you, since I rarely find the time to sit down and do it, but I am planning on presenting my German speaking audience with 24 horror short stories that I will read on my podcast every day through December, leading up to Bücherfest.
Have I told you about Bücherfest?
Maybe tomorrow!