Marking Milestones

I’m a big believer in setting goals.  And an important part of setting goals is creating tasks that move you towards those goals.  Instead of having a vague goal that you have no control over like “I want to be a famous playwright”; you create something that you can achieve, like “I will write 2 full length plays this year.” 

Ideally, you set long range goals and short range goals.  There’s nothing worse than only setting long range goals and feeling the despair that sets in when the achievement of the goal is too far to be invigorating.  You need baby steps, too.

In a way, you need to cultivate a regular state of dissatisfaction.  To become great at something, you need to be continuously improving.  So, as a goal is reached, it is important to have new goals ready to keep pushing you onward.

However, it is also important to acknowledge and celebrate the achievement of big and little goals.  You need to pause every now and then to take stock.  Are you on the right track?  Did you meet a goal?  Can you feel yourself moving forward?

I want to celebrate the fact that I received my first official royalty cheque the other day.  Some students put on my play “Laund-o-mat at the End of the World” for the Sears Festival and I got paid to let them use my play.  Awesome!  This is the first time one of my shows has been put on without my direct involvement.  I feel fantastic!  I feel like a big boy now. 

And no the royalty cheque isn’t that big, but that’s not the important thing.  It is another milestone towards my career as a playwright.  I was tempted to frame the cheque, but I decided to scan it, instead.  I can frame the jpeg, if I want.  J  What’s the fun of getting money and not spending it?

The next day, I found out that I came in third place for the Hamilton Fringe Playwriting Contest.  That’s the first time that I have “placed” in a contest!  Obviously, I would have preferred to win, but I’m pretty happy with being in the top three.  Another milestone!  Yay for me!!

Both of these events are encouraging me to strive harder.  I’m working on a rewrite, so that I can submit to another contest.  And there is yet another contest that I had submitted to that should be publishing their results soon. 

For today, however, I am pleased as punch.  I’ve received two concrete reinforcements for being a writer.  I’ll be sure to check back at this blog entry on the days when things aren’t going so well.  ;-) 

Getting up again

There’s a proverb that goes “Fall down seven times, get up eight times”.  I’ve fallen “off” the daily writing habit.  Again.  It’s been over a month since I was writing daily, so I’m going to dust myself off and start the habit again.

I know why I fell off.  Usually when I complete a first draft of a piece, I take a break.  Unfortunately, that break usually becomes extended.  When I finished writing my play Laund-o-mat at the End of the World, I didn’t write for almost a year.  I didn’t even write in my journal.  I really don’t know why that was, but the same thing has happened after all the other plays that I’ve written.

I finished the first draft of my fifth play just before I broke my daily writing habit.  The good news is that period of non-writing seems to be shrinking with each new work.  Maybe it’s a psychic recovery period.  Maybe I’m just lazy and need to catch up on my tv watching.   Whatever it is, I don’t like it.

At least this time, I kept up with some writerly pursuits.  I took part in a World Theatre Day celebration and wrote a mini-adaption as part of an exercise with my writing group.   I had a reading of my newest play.  I saw some high school kids perform Laund-o-mat as part of the Sears Festival (they won their division and are moving on to the Regionals) -- they did a great job, by the way.  I submitted my play Mulling Kilt Attire for dramaturgy at Pat the Dog.  I’ve entered a couple of contests.  I went to a couple of drop-ins at the Predella Open Studio.  I saw Linda Griffiths speak about playwriting.  I went to a masterclass with Judith Thompson.  Whew!

So, even though I haven’t been doing my daily pages, I can honestly say that I have been still busy with my  playwriting.  But, let’s face it: to be a writer, you have to write.  So, I’m renewing my daily writing habit.  I’m getting up, after falling down.

I kind of feel like I’m back to where I was at the beginning of January.  I’ve also put back that weight that I had lost.  Oh well.  Keep moving forward, right? 

As part of this do over, I will commit to writing at least one blog a week.  I may end up writing more, but the goal is to do at least one per week.  That way, I will have at least 52 blog entries next year at this time.  And hopefully another play or two.  ;-)