Wayfarer on the Creative Path

Writer's Block

I wrote a play last Spring. I did it for a local playwriting contest and submitted it in the summer.

Good news: I'm one of the finalists.
Bad news: I got the script back last month and it was drowning in red ink from one of the judges. Now I'm down to two weeks to do rewrites and resubmit it for the finals.

I feel a bit paralyzed at the moment. I've been letting the judges' comments rattle around in my head for weeks and have mentally torn the play apart and put it back together - but I haven't done much more than that. I know I need to sit down at the computer and just start working on it. As Julia Cameron puts it, "just show up at the page".

I'm too busy.
I've got other priorities right now.
I'm not ready.
I don't know where to start.
Maybe the judges were all wrong - it's just fine.
What if I tear it apart - do the rewrites and it's worse?
What if I tear it apart and I can't get it back together?

I need another cup of coffee.

Flickr photo courtesy of Col.Sanders

Artists Have a Harder Time at Holiness?

Andy Rau at the site ThinkChristian had a recent post in which he quoted poet Czeslaw Milosz as saying that artists have a more difficult time living a holy life in some respects. I don't buy it. Artists (no matter what our medium) are famous for our moodiness. But I think we've created a false image of the starving artist, the suffering artist, the tortured artist - and I think it's b.s.

I believe that artists feel things more acutely and see things in a different perspective, which leads to feeling like an outcast at times. Nevertheless, to push this to the point of saying that artists have a harder time being holy - that we have a greater bent to sin - is just silly. In fact, I think it's pride. "Oh look at me! See how hard life is for me? Take pity on me the tortured artist! I've got it harder than all of you! My life is more difficult because I'm an 'artist'! [rolling my eyes]

Technorati Tags: Artist, Starving Artist, Sin, Holiness