…Two words I’m constantly battling. They work off of each other. I would say they’re friends. And to make them enemies would be a mistake. I need patience to continue to work on the craft of writing because I am not the writer I know I can be. And I need perseverance to not get tired as I patiently work on the next script.

That next script currently is giving me a few headaches. When my play Overtime closed at the Toronto Fringe Festival on July 11, the next day I jumped into another production, auditioning actors for a Christmas production.   With these seasonal productions, which I’ve been doing the past few years, I cast the play first as I am working with a group of volunteer actors. On the weekends of July 12 and 19, I held auditions and completed casting. I’ve begun the task of writing parts for these chosen actors. I have all their names on cue cards spread on my desktop with their faces and voices swimming in my head. At this point in the process I’ve written over 30 pages of brainstorming notes as I try to make sense of what this play will be.

It’s been a week of distraction – perhaps the hot, sunny weather outside is to blame for what’s going on inside.   Starting a new script from scratch is delicate work that takes dogged determination. Whatever the reason, I have not been as productive and it’s beginning to wear on me. It’s not like I haven’t been sitting at my desk, trying to come up with fresh, new ideas. I’m just not quite feeling that flow where the ideas are coming at me from left and right.

Patience – back to that word. You need to persevere in the patience, in whatever you do in life. Ideas, thoughts, need to breathe and deepen before they can take real root and grow into something beautiful. It can be a frustrating, and at times, even a boring process.

By the end of this past week, I felt I had made a breakthrough with a story, and characters I’m getting to know – characters that start talking, taking shape and coming to life. Suddenly I wasn’t so bored anymore. I had something I could work on. I’m certainly not at the stage where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but at least I’m finally entering the tunnel.

And what a tunnel it is. Writing a new script is a journey of discovery. I like to plan. I know what each scene will look like, but like in life, you never really know where you’re going to end up. Each time I write a script, a brand new world is created and the details can overwhelm. My 30 odd pages of notes are filled with a lot of these details. In less then a week I’ll begin to actually write this play with characters and dialogue. I look forward to seeing that light at the end of the tunnel.

In the last few months I’ve re-written two of my screenplays: Play Ball and Who is Molly Steele? Play Ball is with producer Pat Patterson in New York and within the next year, I believe it will go before the cameras.   And with Molly Steele, it is just a matter of time before this screenplay is officially optioned by a producer.

So I wait….with patience. But while waiting, I’ll keep writing…with perseverance.