Image this. You've worked for months: writing script, designing sets, making costumes, positioning lights, and rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing.
The big night arrives. You step out onto the stage trembling with fear and excitement. Will the crowd love it? Hate it?
Either way, there'll be a crowd because you invited them all personally - face to face, via email or text - twice. Your friends and family will all be here tonight to witness your triumph. Or tragedy. They'll be here for you just as you've been there for them all these long years, supporting their dreams, cheering them on, meeting their needs. It'll be a full house and you are way past nervous.
You smile as the curtain goes up. You perform your heart out. The show ends. The stage lights, which blinded you throughout the performance, dim. You look out into the audience hoping to see approval.
The theater is empty.
That is a metaphor for what happened to me this week.
What did I do? I cried. And then I started writing again.
Something that's helping me write today: these lyrics sung by the group Chumbawumba - "I get knocked down but I get up again. You're never going to keep me down."
The big night arrives. You step out onto the stage trembling with fear and excitement. Will the crowd love it? Hate it?
Either way, there'll be a crowd because you invited them all personally - face to face, via email or text - twice. Your friends and family will all be here tonight to witness your triumph. Or tragedy. They'll be here for you just as you've been there for them all these long years, supporting their dreams, cheering them on, meeting their needs. It'll be a full house and you are way past nervous.
You smile as the curtain goes up. You perform your heart out. The show ends. The stage lights, which blinded you throughout the performance, dim. You look out into the audience hoping to see approval.
The theater is empty.
That is a metaphor for what happened to me this week.
What did I do? I cried. And then I started writing again.
Something that's helping me write today: these lyrics sung by the group Chumbawumba - "I get knocked down but I get up again. You're never going to keep me down."
4 comments:
Anonymous said...
Regina, hang in. We have all been through the ups and downs in this crazy journey we call writing. My theme song that always helps me get through? I have 2 of them. Fame and the Rocky theme. Cheesy, but it works. You are so incredibly talented!
Regina Richards said...
Thanks, Jen. You're so talented as well as evidenced by the fact your are selling! Can't wait to get my copy of The Tantric Principle when it comes out on 4-1-11!
I admit I am big on theme songs. I have several. Refugee by Tom Petty is the one i often start my morning walk with.
Jen FitzGerald said...
*hugs* Regina.
Regina Richards said...
Thanks, Jen. Remember the toy Stretch Amstrong? Sometimes I think my heart is made of that stuff. The older I get the more it takes to break it. Most things just stretch it out of shape for a while and then it slowly reforms.