My good friend and fellow writer, Annmarie Morais was in town recently for a quick visit.  And when I say quick – we saw each other for half-an-hour.  Then she left to go back home – a good 16 hour drive out east where she now resides.  I’ve known Annie for many years since we first met back in our York University days. Over those years she has had several projects produced including her own movie How She Move and the award winning series The Porter where she was one of the main writers and show-runner.  Along the way she has written on other tv shows and movies-of-the-week.

We’ve been through many “war stories” regarding our writing where the disappointments out way the victories.  We are a glutton for punishment because when you do get to work on a project that truly excites you, it changes your whole perspective.  You are quickly reminded of the reasons why you love the craft of writing.  Having said all that, though we do talk about writing quite a bit, it certainly is not the main focus of our conversations. Life is busy and ever-changing.  There is always lots of other “life stuff” to talk about and some things are a little more exciting than the grind of writing.

Speaking of writing, after spending well over a year brainstorming, outlining, panicking mixed with a dash of procrastination that visits every writer – I have finally begun the actual writing of my new play called THE ROCKER.  I’ve said this on my blog throughout the years – the first draft of any script I write is written NOT on the computer, but in good old cursive writing.  To the right, I thought I would give you a taste of what my first page of THE ROCKER looks like (and what the rest of the draft will look like).  It’s a sloppy, beautiful mess with scratches every- where,  arrows and numbers/letters directing you where to read next.  When I go to transcribe this, even I have a hard time typing it into my laptop. But this is what a first draft looks like for me – it’s meant to be a kind of organized chaos.

At this point in the process, because I’ve prepared a detailed outline, the play writes itself.  I start out telling myself I will not spend too much time being so specific with detail in my outline – but it never happens. I know writers who write three pages of an outline and off they go to the script.  That’s Annie.  She has the big picture – beginning, middle and end and then she starts writing.  I have that too, but I work out a ton of detail between the beginning, middle and end.  Annie works that detail out when she writes the actual script.

There is no right or wrong way to write a script.  If you’re a writer,  just write and the story will come. If you don’t start writing, you can’t edit a blank page.  Jodi Picoult is a prolific American writer and I leave you with this quote she said about writing.  This is for writers, but it can apply to anyone who wants to start a new adventure in their lives. You need something in front of you in order to mould and shape it into something that you’re proud of and gives you purpose. It takes focus and some courage to will yourself to start something, but as you move through that process, that purpose becomes strength. And you become a better person. We are all looking to fill the blank pages in our lives.