NaPlWriMo was created in 2006 by Seattle based theatre artist, Dorothy Lemoult and started with a mere 20 participants.  Apparently everyone had so much fun participating that last year on November 1st the site crashed.  Well, rest assured, the NaPlWriMo is back and better than ever with a beefed up website ready for writers to take on the challenge of writing a play in a month.

Now, I for one, have never written a full-length play in 30 days.  The challenge scares me.  But isn't that the point of taking on a challenge.  To scare yourself a little, push yourself a lot and rise to the occassion. 

You don't have to be a seasoned professional to participate.  You don't even have to have any previous playwriting experience.  Passion will be a must in order to see you through and there are a few simple rules.  Like, start on the 1st, end on the 30th, check in each week by Sunday, follow standard playwriting formats - simple stuff really. 

So, if you don't have anything else to do this month... I mean, besides voting, dealing with relatives at Thanksgiving, watching college football, etc.... consider writing a play!

To sign NOW up for FREE visit naplwrimo.org.

The story must come from the writer himself; therefore, he must look within his own soul in order to create in the outside world. For only then shall he find a voice for the story he wishes to tell. I give you an example. In June of 1994, I submitted my novel to a number of places and got turned down flat. They pointed out the different things that needed work, such as with my incorporation of structure and voice. Without structure, the story runs into dead ends. Through his own thought process, the writer becomes the teacher to his readers. Lack of voice brings about a flat character, because to the audience he doesn't appear real.

Without a realistic approach to a story the reader feels no relation to the character, due to lack of emotion on the writer's behalf. By taking care of my revisions, I soon realized that the series of events that transpired in my life happened for a reason. Somehow everything in life is connected. Symbolism exists not only in fiction, but also in reality. Only by taking the philosophical approach can a writer see symbolism that physically exists in life. He must figure out where his life has been, where it's at right now, and where he's going in the future to enable him to put it all down on paper. From there he brings symbolism to every story he writes.

Without structure and voice my character appeared flat; therefore, I failed to bring out the true potential of the story. Upon receiving my manuscript back, along with numerous suggestions, I set it aside for about a couple months and then returned to it later. At this time I realized that my novel wasn't supposed to get published, because the story itself was incomplete. Aside from everything else, a writer must go through a series of failures in his life, a learning process if you will, because life becomes his teacher and his experiences become his classroom. He holds the key to life's questions, because the answers about life lay within the heart of the writer. As a result, he becomes the tour guide for his readers, taking them on a magical journey. From this point, I conclude that a good writer writes what he knows by turning his experiences into a solid story…an award winning bestseller. In the words of Shakespeare, “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts…”

In the night time the moon and stars replace the sun as the main source of light and imagery. Romeo uses imagery about the moon to evoke his love for Juliet. Juliet though, continuing her words about being truthful, says she does not want Romeo to "swear by the inconstant moon". This is because the moon is not constant because it waxes and wanes throughout the year, it is sometimes strong and others it disappears. Romeo uses the moon as a symbol of prayer as he vows on the "blessed moon" which gives us a nocturnal image and shows that the sun has been replaced by the moon in this private nocturnal world.

As Romeo sees Juliet at her balcony, Romeo connects the pale moonlight with sickness and grief and says that only fools have anything to do with it. He says the moon is "envious" of the light of the sun and is "sick and green". The whole love scene in act 2 scene 2 is based in a moonlit garden which is the night time's sun.

The night is often used as a protector for them from their parents and the trouble they could find themselves in. This is shown after they meet for the first time when Romeo says "I have the nights cloak to hide me from their eyes". This is showing how the darkness is like a cloak, hiding them from their parents eyes. Romeo and Juliet speak of the darkness as something which hides them from the outside world and the feud between their families. They call it a "cloak" and later on a "curtain" which keeps them secret in their private nocturnal world.

The night is their friend as it allows them to be together. However Romeo says that as more and more light appears their sadness grows greater and greater. The night is not just used as a protector but as a hiding place and a secret world for Romeo and Juliet to meet in and to get away from the trouble of their lives.

Shakespeare uses a lot of mythical characters in his play for example in scene two Mercutio talks about Cupid and Venus, two pagan symbols of love as if he knows them by character. Also In act 3 Juliet's long soliloquy, spoken in beautiful poetry, begins with images of galloping horses, fire and speed. She calls upon Phaeton, a character from mythology who almost destroyed the universe by recklessly driving the suns chariot too close to the earth, to "bring in cloudy night" quickly so she can secretly meet Romeo. Juliet also mentions Jupiter, the king of classical gods, as she talks about trust with Romeo. "They say Jove laughs" referring to Jupiter, at lovers who do not trust each other and she does not want them to fall in to the same category.

As well as using mythical characters in this play Shakespeare uses birds to portray changing love. In act three scene five Juliet claims that it "was the nightingale, and not the lark" she hears as she wants Romeo to stay, however Romeo says "it was the lark the herald of the morn". This animal imagery is used to underline their feelings. Juliet does not want the light in the sky to be that of daybreak because Romeo will have to leave for exile in Mantua. Romeo says that he will agree it is not day if Juliet wishes but that this would mean his death if he were to stay and be discovered. Juliet also uses imagery of birds and flight in act two scenes two and how if Romeo was a bird she would kill him "with much cherishing" which shows dramatic irony.

Romeo and Juliet's experience of time is often fast paced and forward looking as when true love occurs time goes slowly. Romeo complains of the light showing that he does not want the day to come. He says "the worse to want thy light" because it shows that their time together is coming to an end as the days fly by. Romeo is afraid that this meeting with Juliet has only been a dream. In act two scene five, Juliet is anxious why the Nurse has been so long. She says love's messengers should travel as fast as fast as the sun when clouds blow over it. She asks the nurse "what says he of our marriage, what of that?" This image connects the themes of haste and light and reminds us of Juliet's observation that some forms of love appear and disappear as quickly as lightning.

There are many images of light within the night especially of that when Romeo meets Juliet and describes her as a "bright angel". This shows that she gives him the thought that she is the light he was looking for and that she is so light and beautiful. The imagery of light and seeing is made obvious in act two scene two when Romeo's love for Juliet is often expressed in terms of light shining within the darkness. The light imagery reaches its climax in this love scene when he says that she, "Juliet is the sun", the source of all light.

Throughout the whole play the nocturnal world is where Romeo and Juliet can seek refuge from their parents and the commotion of the outside world. Shakespeare uses lots of imagery with the light to create the light within night where the moon and stars replace the sun. To show the importance of the nocturnal world, in the whole of the play the lovers only ever meet together at night time.

In the first scene when Benvolio talks with Romeo this courtly love is obvious in his speech when he says "ay me, sad hours seem long" this is typical of this as time tends to go slowly when in courtly love. The rest of the world seems to go so fast as he asks "was that my father that went hence so fast?" showing the strange world he is trapped in. The lists of O's in his poems adds to this type of love ,according to most people, as he says "O brawling love, O loving hate, O any thing of nothing first create". This phrase shows us the rhymed poetry of poor quality typical of courtly love.

Before he sees Juliet he feels heavy saying "with nimble soles, I have a soul of lead" but when he finally sees her he is freed from this feeling and feels all light and happy. In contrast to the time going slowly when in love with Rosaline his love when in love with Juliet time seems to "fly". His meeting with Juliet seems to lift a burden off of him and manages to let himself go and away from the restrictive love with Rosaline.

Later on in the story there are countless times where Romeo and Juliet say goodnight shown when Juliet said "a thousand times good night" this shows that they keep coming back to each other. Their love is impatient in the way that they cannot wait till tomorrow to see each other again. Six hours to their parents is "twenty year" to them as their excitement to see each other again takes over. So may things happen in such a short time which leads them to believe time is going so slowly which leads them to having too much time in their hands which later drives them to fatality.

Romeo and Juliet's parents however have a lot of time in their hands which they use at will. Lady Capulet speaks as if there is loads of time to use when talking to the nurse, as the nurse says "how long till Lammas tide?", lady Capulet replies "a fortnight and odd days" talking like the hours and days are of no importance to her. With Romeo and Juliet they cannot wait from about midnight till "the hour of nine" to see each other and their love takes over their life and destroys their routine of life. Time is precious for Romeo and Juliet whereas for their parents it is at their disposal.

At the Capulet party there is an example of Juliet's father losing track of time saying "some five and twenty years, and then we masked" but actually it was "more" which shows that their parents were not bothered about looking after their time.

So time in Romeo and Juliet's world is valued a lot more than the time their parents have as they know that their time together will not be forever as eventually they will be found out by their parents.