Thursday, July 5, 2012

Putting Your Heart Up to Be Shot At


I eat, sleep and breath it because it feels like it is all me. I wrote it, I am producing it, everyone coming out for auditions will probably be a friend of a friend. I need to find a director, but that means I need to show people the script.

And since I rewrote the second version as a different story line than the first, I slept a month thinking through the characters, researching the people they are based on, and fretting about if I was going to be good or not.

I suppose all writers go through this, but as I mentioned in past posts, when you are putting on a play, there is a nakedness you don’t have when writing novels and submitting them to just a handful of people to review.

Of course, once a book is published, there are a lot of miles between you and it, filled with people and their opinions. It is thrilling and nerve-wracking, I’m sure.

That is one of the reasons I have a career, I suppose. Writers come to me for emotional support as much as editing. Someone to help them prepare for publication, prepare them to "put up their heart to be shot at" as Tolkien said.

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