Writing is Fundamental

One of the things my Dad would be proud of during this whole year of his illness and then his death would be that I managed to stay busy and productive.  I had a 3 week play workshop when he first got sick and went to the hospital.  That kept me going.  I've also written another full length play, a sample of GLEE, and I'm finishing a new pilot this week, starting a one act musical which I have to write in three weeks and then I'm on to the next pilot.  That should take me to the Fall.    This is turning out to be the most productive year I've had ever.  But it fills me with purpose, not only to be productive but to survive.

I'm heading straight on into the next phase of my life with full speed. 

I have always tried to write with some intention.  I have a hard time working out just for the sake of vanity and I have the same problem with writing just for the sake of career advancement.  I think both are necessary when they are combined with some sense of greater purpose.  I write because it's how I make sense of the world.  It's what I did when I was 12 and it's what I've been doing ever since.  My writing is truer to my authentic self when that's the case.

I'm writing this pilot about women in the later stages of their lives because I'm concerned and interested in how my Mother is going to handle this next stage of her life after my Dad died.  And I'm inspired by another woman in my life, my best friend Alanna's mom.  She's been like a second mother to me most of my life.  And she's kind of at the other spectrum of things.  My mother is overly maternal and Sid is the bold, authoritative, intelligent woman who's the opposite of that.  Sid's still maternal and my mother is incredibly intuitive, but the combination for me has represented a certain kind of completeness.

The play I wrote was about open marriage and the nature of fidelity and honesty.  I relate to that because of my relationship with the Drummer.  When we decided to be more open in our relationship at the beginning, I had a bunch of questions.  And I got to explore those questions in my play. 

The GLEE sample was about trying to get a job, but it was essentially about artistic integrity, which is of great concern to me.  And it was a Prince tribute, so it was also about sexual expression.  Both two things which I'm absolutely in love with.

I have no idea what this musical is going to be about.  I get three songs back tomorrow so I can start thinking about what the play's going to be about.

And the other pilot, will be inspired by some other piece of great literature.  Something I relate to, I suppose.

It all has to relate in some way.  It all has to teach me something about myself.  It all has to have an engine that makes me want to sit down and write and write and write even though it's gorgeous outside.