It's HARD to write a great play?
Who decided that it is HARD to write a great play?
You did.
Hard is just a story you have made up about making up stories. It is just your belief, and I hallucinate that no matter what I write here in this blog post, hard is the story you will stick with.
So let me tell you a story…
So a guy walks into a psychiatrist’s office, and says to the doctor,
“I’m a corpse.”
The doctor stops for a moment and then says,
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I’m a corpse. Always been one, always will.”
“No, you’re not.” The psychiatrist says calmly.
The man gets very serious and then says firmly,
“Yes I am.”
“Ok,” the psychiatrist says, “If you are a corpse, you don’t have any blood, so if I prick your finger, and there is blood, it will prove you are alive and not a corpse. Do you want to try this?
“Sure. I’m a corpse. What have I got to lose?”
So the psychiatrist pulls out a pin and pricks the man’s finger…
and it starts to bleed.
The man stares at it in horror, frozen in disbelief.
“Oh my God,” he says, “Corpses bleed!”
So are you a corpse? Choosing to reformat life in order to prove your own assertion?
Discredit the speaker: “What does Ken Wolf know?
Use the past as a rock hard reference: “I have written 15 plays and not one of them was easy.”
Use Social Proof: “All of my playwright friends have a hard time writing plays too so it has to be true.
Make $hit up: “This is just a trick question designed to get me to sign up for Ken’s playwriting services!”
And this is my favorite…
Proclaim your individuality: “I am a SERIOUS playwright!”
The drama you connect to your play-making is what makes it hard. What if you were to question the negative emotion that makes playwriting so difficult for you? And what if you were to change that negative emotion to JOY and start there?
Do you see/hear/feel what I am saying?
It is all made up. It is just your judgement about how good or bad, or right or wrong, or hard or easy something is.
“Why, then, ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.” Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2 - Willie the Shake -
It is simply how you have been emotionally programmed since birth.
Wanna change that?
Question everything about Playwriting that urks you, and find three reasons why what urks you is actually good for you or even fun. Again, find 3 real reasons why it is good for you or fun!
Make the choice to look at playwriting like joy or as crazy fun, and not WORK.
Work? Work is something you do that you don’t want to do to pay the bills! Playwriting is fun, joy and good sex rolled up together in one delicious experience.
What’s hard about playwriting?
Writing poorly: Who’s gonna read it, especially if it sucks? If bad writing is deleted, was it ever really there?
Writer’s Block: Wow, now is a great time to check out The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, to experience about some great writing and acting.
I’m a failure. I can’t do this: You are only a failure if you choose to give up. Almost every successful playwright has almost given up at some moment in time. Join the team of successful playwrights!
No one will like it: Who the heck cares if anyone likes it? Write a play that YOU like!
This play will never get produced: Especially if you never finish it!
I am a bad writer: Yes, a bad writer for believing you are a bad writer. What if you were better than Tennesee Williams or David Mamet? How would that feel?
You make it hard, because you make it hard.
If it is not there already, or if it has changed over time, connect your most ecstatic emotions to play writing. Do it consciously every time you sit down to write if you aren’t feeling it. Don’t type a single word, until you connect to the utter amazing joy of creating a live story. And don’t you dare judge yourself as anything but a pro, a creative genius, and a master storyteller.
FEEL IT AS BEING THE TRUTH AND THEN WRITE.
You are not a corpse.
You are a playwright.