Thursday, February 18, 2016

Walking the Walk

From time to time I put myself out there as a writer. Oh, don't get me wrong, most of what I do is hardly risky; for example posting every day is simply a way to make sure I have a clue about what my students are facing. And to be honest, in most cases, "putting myself out there as writer" isn't very high stakes either.

A while ago, I saw a challenge sponsored by the Kennedy Center to write a "tiny play" of 500 words or less to commemorate the centennial of JFK's birth that thematically speaks to some aspect of his legacy, and I passed it on to my writing group as a fun little prompt we might all try for our next meeting. Sure, I'd never written a play before, but how hard could it be? And only 500 words? Cinch!

Not so much... in retrospect? That's a tall order on a tiny plate! It took me weeks to even come up with a concept, and I mostly stuck with it because it was

my

damn

idea.

But eventually I did prevail, composing around 450 words with 3 characters. (Who just happened to be middle school students... Coincidence? You decide!) Nobody else in the group wrote a tiny play, which is a clearly a failure of the exercise, not the people, but when they heard mine they told me I had to enter the contest. "Sure," I shrugged, because really? Why not? It's not like I expect to win.

And yet,

today, when I revised my little drama to meet tomorrow's deadline, I do admit that my heart raced a bit before I pressed the SUBMIT button. And when I received the confirmation email?

I could barely read past the salutation,

Dear Playwright,

They mean me, I grinned.

2 comments:

  1. Yay! Glad you entered, you playwright you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Me too! That's awesome. Congratulations! Fingers crossed.

    ReplyDelete