There is never a shortage of ideas when it comes to writing. The hard part is what to do with all those ideas? I was often asked during the run of Blue how I came up with the story and characters. That’s not an easy question to answer, particularly since half the time; I don’t even know where it all comes from. A great quote I read the other day sums it up nicely: “Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” — Orson Scott Card

With that in mind, I do think if you keep at, at some point in the writing process, all those great ideas do come together and sort themselves out and when that happens, the story and characters begin to write themselves. That is a magical place to live in. Characters that were once 2 dimensional and boring become real people who dictate themes and plot. You will know when you come to this magical place when you look back and say to yourself: “Did I write that?” There were times during the run of Blue that I felt a deep sense of satisfaction. Blue was performed 7 times and I sat in on all the performances. My emotions were so twisted up inside, but after awhile, I started enjoying not having any control anymore. I just had to sit there and trust the actors on stage and watch my words come to life. And no matter how nervous I’d get, there was no other place I wanted to be except in the dark confides of the theatre observing an audience take in my play. It’s a treat to witness how an audience interprets your work and how certain words and phrases affect people differently.

Blue had a solid run. And all those involved with the play are now feeling the “blueness” of leaving a great experience behind. All the hard work put into molding the script and the direction Jane gave the actors paid off in a big way. This entire process rejuvenated my joy of writing. Don’t misunderstand me…writing is hard work and most of the time it doesn’t come easily. But when you enter that magically place where the written word becomes more than you could ever imagine and takes a life of its own, you realize at that very moment, all the struggles and uncertainties were not only necessary, but worth it.