On my recent trip to California, a friend took me on a hike near and around the mountains where the Hollywood sign stands. It takes about 45 minutes to get to the top of this particular mountain trail. It begins nice but about half way up, your legs start feeling heavy, each step is harder than the last, your breathing deepens and you start feeling more and more spent. As you get closer to the top, hope wells up in you. But those last few steps are killers as your legs/feet are now burning and all you want to do is sit down.
I’ve begun writing a new draft of my play Circus (which has a new title – ANIMAL). Before writing the actual script, I mapped out a 20 page synopsis of the play – a scene by scene break down of action and dialogue. At this point in the process I’ve written 61 pages of Animal but as I glance at my synopsis outline, I realize I’m only on page 4 (do the math; there’s 16 pages to go). This means one of two things; either I’m writing too much (yes, definitely) or this play is going to be an epic. Animal is probably going to land somewhere in-between both scenarios. Regardless, the mountain top is still a ways away; I’m not even half-way up the trail. It would be a mistake to look back because you may find it easier to stop and turn around. You need to keep moving forward, one step (one page) at a time. A week ago I was on page 1. Today, 61. Next week, 120.
Yes, writing can be mentally challenging, but the climb is worth it because anything worth something is going to have some growing pains. It’s important to remain patient, determined, disciplined and along the way do your best to enjoy the journey. You may feel tired, get intimated by what’s left ahead, but let your goal be that mountain top. Keep your eye on that price. Climb. Get stronger. You’re better for it.
I came across two quotes by Ernest Hemingway this week – one is a life quote which relates to themes and ideas I like to explore in my work and the second quote is about writing:
“The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong at the broken places.”
“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.”
Hey Romeo, how very comforting your words are at such a critical juncture as I start a brand new screenplay and rewrite two others. Feels like the mountain in front of me is Everest! Doesn’t matter tho’ cause your words have encouraged me to plant strongly my feet on that first step towards another climb. In addition to your beautiful Kairos Prize award, I hope to cheer you when you win your Oscar or Tony or Emmy for writing, but know that some of the best words you ever laid down were the ones that fell upon our hearts in these blogs that urged us literary soldiers onward to use the gifts God gave us. Thank you for your time and generosity of spirit:)
Keep climbing Romeo. The view is worth it!