It is Monday and I am back in the blogging world. I am going to start out with a quote this week, to mix things up. It was posted by my good friend Evan Sesek on FACEBOOK a few days back. It was originated by Gary Garrison. "Okay. You've identified why you can get anywhere in your writing or won't even go near your computer or typewriter. Now wad this up and go flush it in the toilet. These are weak excuses that keep you from doing what you're meant to do. Writing's hard. Re-writing's harder. Submitting your plays out into the universe is a nightmare. But you're a playwright, damn it. It's what you have to do to be heard by as many people as possible. Stop with the excuses. Now, go to work."
This got me to thinking, "why do I write?" The answer that came to me was plain and simple: It's what I love to do. I believe I have had the obsession with writing since I was very young. I remember being in the second grade and writing a story about running away from home to see the Boston Red Sox play a baseball game in Boston. In that story, from what I can remember, it took me nearly 40 nights to get to Boston, but I made it. The writing only continued from there. I wrote a short story about the last wolf in the world. In my creative world at the time, the title was Lone Wolf. The early versions of this story were probably completed in the sixth grade and later re-edited. Even the fantasy novel that I am in constant pursuit of finishing had it's first incarnation while I was in the eighth grade.
Sports were prevalent in my high school years and once it was realized that I didn't quite have a college future in these, I turned once again to writing. Playwriting became my college major and eventual degree. Writing has been the one constant in my life that I have always counted on.
And yet, there are times I wonder what has writing done in return for me. For years my work went unnoticed and rejected by countless theaters, publications, and contests. There were times that because of this I simply stared at the computer with a glass of whiskey in hand and come up with nothing. On those nights I simply had lost the will to continue at this thing I've been so dedicated to. On those nights I simply wanted to give in and retire to the mainstream of the world.
I could not let myself do it. I love writing and creating stories too much. Whether it's a full length play, a fantasy novel, a poem, or a blog entry, writing is the path I've chosen not only because I love it, but because I believe it's what I was born to do. The rejections are still mounting, but the acceptances are sneaking in there day by day. After ten years, small dents have begun to be made in the wall of life. With each day and each submission, I only hope those dents became holes and the flood gates can open. I know the path I have chosen is difficult. That may even be cliche to say at this point, but it's true. I will continue to fight and continue to submit myself to the universe. Why, you may ask? Because that's the only thing I know how to do...
Jason
"I think we have all experienced passion that is not in any sense reasonable."- Stephen Fry
This got me to thinking, "why do I write?" The answer that came to me was plain and simple: It's what I love to do. I believe I have had the obsession with writing since I was very young. I remember being in the second grade and writing a story about running away from home to see the Boston Red Sox play a baseball game in Boston. In that story, from what I can remember, it took me nearly 40 nights to get to Boston, but I made it. The writing only continued from there. I wrote a short story about the last wolf in the world. In my creative world at the time, the title was Lone Wolf. The early versions of this story were probably completed in the sixth grade and later re-edited. Even the fantasy novel that I am in constant pursuit of finishing had it's first incarnation while I was in the eighth grade.
Sports were prevalent in my high school years and once it was realized that I didn't quite have a college future in these, I turned once again to writing. Playwriting became my college major and eventual degree. Writing has been the one constant in my life that I have always counted on.
And yet, there are times I wonder what has writing done in return for me. For years my work went unnoticed and rejected by countless theaters, publications, and contests. There were times that because of this I simply stared at the computer with a glass of whiskey in hand and come up with nothing. On those nights I simply had lost the will to continue at this thing I've been so dedicated to. On those nights I simply wanted to give in and retire to the mainstream of the world.
I could not let myself do it. I love writing and creating stories too much. Whether it's a full length play, a fantasy novel, a poem, or a blog entry, writing is the path I've chosen not only because I love it, but because I believe it's what I was born to do. The rejections are still mounting, but the acceptances are sneaking in there day by day. After ten years, small dents have begun to be made in the wall of life. With each day and each submission, I only hope those dents became holes and the flood gates can open. I know the path I have chosen is difficult. That may even be cliche to say at this point, but it's true. I will continue to fight and continue to submit myself to the universe. Why, you may ask? Because that's the only thing I know how to do...
Jason
"I think we have all experienced passion that is not in any sense reasonable."- Stephen Fry
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