Doing it Write

For 2012 I resolved to meditate for at least 10 minutes every day, work out for 45 minutes or more at least five days a week, and write for an hour or more at least five days a week.  In order to keep myself honest, I've set up a "resolution tracker" in my Bento data base library. There it is, every day, three boxes to check (or not check) and two explanation text boxes to describe what I wrote, if I wrote, and how I exercised, if I exercised.  Here at the midpoint of February, I can proudly say I'm still on track.  The biggest challenge, I've found, relates to the exercise resolution, not because I don't want to exercise, because I do, but because of travel or illness.  I'm not a runner at heart, especially in really cold or really hot weather.  Running would be pretty easy to do while traveling.  But workout facilities in most hotels I are not that great and room carpets are gross enough that I hardly want to walk on them, let alone get down and do calisthenics or Pilates on them.  I've needed to count long walks as exercise to meet my goals while traveling, a small concession in the overall scheme of things.


Of all my resolutions, my writing resolution has surprised, and delighted me, the most.  I started out the year working on a one act play that had been kicking around in my head for a few months.  By following my resolution, I had a very credible first draft done by the end of January.  I'm now moving ahead with a private reading, to help me hear my words and make the next round of edits, and planning a public reading later in the spring and a full production in the summer.  An hour a day, five days a week, is all it took.  But it took a commitment to do that, a discipline.


I like to describe myself as a writer, even when I don't write often.  I come up with lots of great ideas for plays, sermons, essays, blog posts, and so on, and turn them around in my head endlessly.  That's writing, isn't it?  Well, no it isn't.  I came up with a great idea for another play nearly two years ago and, as of today, not one word of it is on paper.  Admittedly, I've done a lot of "pre-writing" work on it, including research on religious fanaticism, bible quotes supporting violence, and so on.  I've done an outline of the plot and come up with character names.  But I haven't started writing the play.  Why?  There are several good reasons, reasons that I bet I share with other budding writers:

• I'm afraid the words I put on paper won't be as good as the concept I have in my head.  This fear probably has a lot of truth to it, but if I'm committed to improving my writing, the fear is no excuse for not getting started.
• It is a lot easier to read than to write.  I love to read.  I read novels, newspaper columns, non-fiction books, spiritual and self-help books, you name it.  The effort it takes to read 75 pages is roughy equivalent to the effort it takes to write about five. Right now I'm reading "The Devil's Star" by Jo Nesbo, one of a fantastic series of crime novels featuring a brilliant alcoholic Norwegian police inspector named (unfortunately, in translation) Harry Hole.  I could have read at least 25 pages in the time it's taken me to write this much of this blog, and don't think I wasn't tempted.
• Knowing good writing when I see it, I'm afraid I'll never measure up, so what's the point?  A side effect of my voracious reading habit is that I know good writing when I see it.  I know I'll never write the "great American novel."  This blog can't hold a candle to what Gail Collins, Tom Friedman, Maureen Dowd, and Paul Krugman write in the New York Times every week.  My plays do not make Edward Albee or Tracy Letts look over their shoulders.  But I don't need to be a huge success or make a lot of money for my writing to be of value to myself and others.  There is something about the endeavor that is its own reward, and reaching only a relatively few people with my writing, and affecting their lives with it, is enough for me.

So the resolution has made me write despite my excellent excuses not to bother.  As always, the process is teaching me something valuable about myself, my fears, my insecurities, and also my capacity for joy.  The challenge of staying on track will go up next week when I start rehearsal for a new acting endeavor (Peppermint Creek Theatre's upcoming production of "Next Fall").  I'm looking forward to seeing if time spent at one passion can give me energy for another, rather than stealing energy from it.  I think I already know.  Some day, in order to honor my commitment to write, I may even share the answer with you in this space.