Not many may know this about me, but I love hockey and I am a huge fan of the New York  Rangers.  Hockey’s in my blood and has been all my life.  I played hockey with my brothers growing up every weekend.  I became a fan of the Rangers because when I was young I was into theatre and theatre equaled broadway which equaled New York.  So, I picked the New York Rangers as my favorite NHL team and I have followed them religiously for most of my life.

The Rangers just lost in the playoffs and were 2 wins away from going to the Stanley Cup Final.  The last time they won the cup was 1994 and on the day they won the cup, I was on a plane to Italy so I had to watch the final on tape when I got back.  There’s a sign hanging in Madison Square Gardens where the Rangers play that says BELIEVE.  All year long the Rangers have been a team that has often been down and have always managed to come back up.    And I truly believed they would come back, win a couple more games and get to the final.   It may be just a sport, but the idea of “believing” it will happen can be motivating and devastating (when it doesn’t happen).

And so I think of my writing…and how each time a script gets rejected or doesn’t advance in a competition, a sort of emptying feeling fills me up.  It lasts for a day or two, until I start believing again.  I’ve just spent the last couple weeks re-reading and re-editing my script Walk. It was 103 pages and is now 100 pages.  I managed to cut 3 pages out from what I thought was an already tight script.   I love what Truman Capote said about writing:  “I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil”.  

A script never feels finished; particularly after you’ve left it for a couple months, then go back to it with fresh eyes.   I’m sending Walk out to get a professional critique so that I can further refine what needs to be done and send it out to specific competitions which would benefit the script.

The moral of the story?  Like my Rangers…pick yourself up….keep believing.