Thoughts on Rewrites

 UPDATE:

I'm adding to this post as needed.

6/1/25

So today, I was exploring what I found. I believe these files were, in fact, the last ones I worked on. I will still be trying to extract the files from my G3 Pismo, one way or another. It would be best if I could get the computer to boot. That was a really nice laptop. 

   I'm finding out that Apple is dropping any support for all of their Intel computers except the 2019 Mac Pro. So that's a drag. It forces us into another realm, the realm of monthly charges for the programs we need to operate. Fortunately I still have nine operable computers that have the proper operating systems, discs and programs. All but two of them are off-line, so I may need to fire up these work-stations. It's interesting to think that one of the older computers that you used all the time, is now so slow and antiquated that it is hard to use, because we end up operating them to the max and the older machines now seem so slow. We also become accustomed to the bells and whistles of the newer programs that it's hard to imagine that the older programs seemed so much ahead of their time. 

   Oh well. That's the way it goes. At least I can kick my writing up to .docx and go from there.

    Interestingly enough, I found that one version of my WORD programs will open Claris files and convert them to .docx. So I've been able to open one version of the files I have saved over to the G5.  I don't know exactly what version it is, but I am certain that it was the version just before I removed a portion of it and turn4d it into "Nunc Licet".  It sounds crazy, but "Nunc Licet" has gone through fourteen revisions.

As it turns out, what I found was the last version I worked, decades ago, before I started writing "Nunc Licet", which took up 25 years of effort. Then I started *The Gnomes of New Hope" in 1996. Actually, I think I was working on NL and A&O at the same time, and even The Gnomes, because the version of A&O says 1999.

   I remember that we considered presenting NL and A&O sat the New Hope Performing Arts Feastival, but it be came too hard to do that. That's actually why I started writing The Gnomes of New Hope. I wanted to do something simpler. Of course, that's not so simple anymore. It figures.

So I am in the process of saving everything as .docx files.

I'm expecting to build a new structure based on what was written but including the newer understanding of the Word that I have gained and spacing it for the proper length of a presentation.

ARCHIVE:

 As I move into the final stages of the Illustrated Storybooks of "The Gnomes of New Hope's, I am beginning to think a lot about "I Am Alpha & Omega" again. It has been many years since I last worked on A&O, but it also has been my one life goal to finish this project. Now, as I have mentioned before, The Gnomes was started just after (actually during)  my stint as Technical Director for The New Hope Arts Commission. 

   Part of the reason I started The Gnomes, was because the two other projects I was working on at the time, were becoming too complicated and were both theologically based. I wanted a simple story that would have a broader, non-religous appeal. I presumed that such a project would generate a substantial amount of income and thus fund the operations of "I Am Alpha & Omega" and "Nunc Licet". Of course, saying that doesn't to take into account that funding those projects can only happen after The Gnomes recoups it's substantial investment. But there is the fact that; resources gathered for publishing and production of the Gnomes, becomes available for other things. So that means that; building the studio, as I have been doing, also builds the resources to implement a production of both "Nunc Licet" ( a drama) and "I Am Alpha & Omega" ( a multi-media theatrical presentation ).

   Back to the subject of rewrites. I am discussing the musical aspect of "A & O" with a person of talent, who I have been trying to connect with for years. We are finally discussing the project in depth and our conversations are pushing me to redress the written material again. So I have been searching my computers and hard files for the script materials. I am on a mission to gather together everything that has been done in the past. You might think that is an easy task, but no, it's not. 

You see, I have used multiple computers to write this project and I have had most of those computers die on me or abandoned them when I moved up the ladder of upgrading my systems. I also have had numerous critical hard discs fail, essentially wiping out the information on those discs.

So it is that, I have discovered files on A&O that I saved over to my G5 that go back to OS9. Of course, I don't have an operable OS9 machine sett up right now. Fear not though. For I still have all the computers I have ever had, know that I might need one for just this reason. So I will be getting a few more workstations set up using these older machines. I do have one G3 setup in my editing suite, which unfortunately I do not have immediate access to, but hope to soon.

   I am setting up another production office, so I figure it would be best to set up an older machine there, but I could get one going and integrate it into my main workstation. I need to remember how to do it, as my mind has not been active with this older technology for some time.

    So that is a summary of the tasks before me, in regard to getting set-up to begin rewrites on A&O. This time around, after having written The Libretto for The Gnomes, A&O will gain from the experience and be structured my like a viable Libretto than a screenplay.

More later.  AG