How's The Progress/Process?

An anonymous reader left that question from the previous blog entry and I thought it was high time I wrote a full on entry.  Well, let's see, I'm back in NYC after a flight cancellation, then a new plane ticket out KC and thunderstorms both out of Kansas City and into New York City.  Talk about making an entrance.  The plane circled around NYC for about an hour and a half and I was grateful for the window seat as I watched storm clouds moving through.

So my new motto is supposed to be "aiming for mediocrity".  Good lord that is not an easy one for me.  I can feel my teeth clench at that notion.  However, soon after I wrote those words I was trying to work on a scene...yes I'm writing another play.  I was sitting there writing it out in long hand since my computer was on the fritz and I kept starting and stopping on the second page.  I could not move beyond page 2 because I was already judging the writing before I even wrote it out.  I thought "this piece is crap, I'm never going to get anywhere with this piece, I should never write a play again".  So I called for back up.  Tony reminded me that it doesn't have to be anything, it just needs to come out.  I took a deep breath and plowed through.  Four hours later I wrote up 10 pages (front and back) of some little story that has been floating in my head for about two years.  I didn't even know so much time had passed.

Right!  So I gave myself a little break, made some dinner and I thought I was going to leave the piece there until the next day.  But as I cooked up some spaghetti, my brain was still mulling over the next scene.  The words were coming and there was no use trying to put it on the back burner.  I scarfed down a small bowl of pasta and went back to work.  Another 2.5 hours later I wrote up another 8 pages and finished the story arc of this very rough draft.  I told myself I was not allowed to judge it, that all I needed to do was transcribe it onto Word document.  I attempted to start transcribing that night but I knew I was too tired to even try.

The next morning, I made myself a quick breakfast and went straight back to work.  I had already re-worked the first scene somewhere in the time between falling asleep and being in front of the computer. So I typed up what I had...it came out to 26 pages in play format.  I was stoked!  And then I read it and I began to dismay over the quality.  I gave myself a hard shake before my mind went too far down that self-doubting road and reminded myself that nothing is written in stone and that I can always revise this piece.

Fast forward to Fri, June 4th, my writing group took a look at my very rough draft and their feedback was so right on point that I have a better idea of what to tackle first.  Having the bones of the story is key because the rest of it is about fleshing out the scenes and some of the characters.  My group was gentle with the draft and it was safe to talk about the piece in the context of where it was, instead of focusing on the final product.  I told someone a couple of weeks ago that I have always wanted to be a writer.  I knew this fact in second grade...yes, second grade....I wrote up a little story and read it in front of the class.  I can still see my teacher's face as she cracked up over my story.  It was supposed to be funny.

Writing up those 18 pages long hand a couple of weeks ago reminded me how much I LOVE to write, how much I LOVE to write scenes and it's been so long since I felt the full on pleasure of it.  Trust me, I found it again.  That love is blossoming.   That is my very long answer to my anonymous reader's very short question.


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