Nothing you write is ever wasted. Any time your brain forms words which you commit to virtual or real paper you’re engaging in the creative process, and you never know where that will lead.
Here’s one example. Some years back I wrote a play for the #CodeRed project. #Code Red asks playwrights to write a short play to commemorate the victim of a mass shooting. Their goal is to collect one play for every American mass shooting. I would like to say that that project has reached its conclusion, but sadly it has not.
My assignment was to write a play about a shooting at a Planned Parenthood office in Colorado. I decided to write a scene that took place before the shooting. I created two characters, Lisa an energetic business major, and Robin her more sober roommate. If you didn’t know what was about to happen, the play could be considered a comedy. The five-minute play was called Waiting Room, and available in the anthology All Too Short.
I thought I was done.
Months later my playwrighting group, The Shelter, did a monologue swap. Everyone wrote and read a monologue around the theme of Valentine’s Day. My monologue concerned a widower named Alan, still in love with his wife, who realizes that he will never be able to share the beauty of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with his wife ever again. I thought I was done.
This is where the magical creative process comes in.
Even more months later I suddenly thought, hey, Lisa and Alan have both experienced loss. What would happen if I put them together? That was the inspiration part. I wasn’t doing anything special, the thought just came to me.
The work part was next. I had to figure out how to get them together, and how to get them talking, figure out a plot. In other words write a play. The completed play is called Comfort Zone and recently had a great reading by the B8 Theatre Company.
I didn’t have any expectations that either of the two original projects would lead anywhere, but they did. This, of course doesn’t always work. I have plenty of random scraps that have led to dead ends. But even dead ends are important.
The moral is say yes to every writing project, and never throw anything away.
You can hear Waiting Room as part of the Jakespeare podcast, and if you stick around you can listen to me ramble.
Here’s one example. Some years back I wrote a play for the #CodeRed project. #Code Red asks playwrights to write a short play to commemorate the victim of a mass shooting. Their goal is to collect one play for every American mass shooting. I would like to say that that project has reached its conclusion, but sadly it has not.
My assignment was to write a play about a shooting at a Planned Parenthood office in Colorado. I decided to write a scene that took place before the shooting. I created two characters, Lisa an energetic business major, and Robin her more sober roommate. If you didn’t know what was about to happen, the play could be considered a comedy. The five-minute play was called Waiting Room, and available in the anthology All Too Short.
I thought I was done.
Months later my playwrighting group, The Shelter, did a monologue swap. Everyone wrote and read a monologue around the theme of Valentine’s Day. My monologue concerned a widower named Alan, still in love with his wife, who realizes that he will never be able to share the beauty of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with his wife ever again. I thought I was done.
This is where the magical creative process comes in.
Even more months later I suddenly thought, hey, Lisa and Alan have both experienced loss. What would happen if I put them together? That was the inspiration part. I wasn’t doing anything special, the thought just came to me.
The work part was next. I had to figure out how to get them together, and how to get them talking, figure out a plot. In other words write a play. The completed play is called Comfort Zone and recently had a great reading by the B8 Theatre Company.
I didn’t have any expectations that either of the two original projects would lead anywhere, but they did. This, of course doesn’t always work. I have plenty of random scraps that have led to dead ends. But even dead ends are important.
The moral is say yes to every writing project, and never throw anything away.
You can hear Waiting Room as part of the Jakespeare podcast, and if you stick around you can listen to me ramble.