WEDNESDAY'S WORD 5-31-06

Today's word is "commonplace" as in "The troubles you are experiencing as a writer are commonplace." Which, in a way, is reassuring.

I'm a writer. I don't make a living doing it, but I do it a lot. I've had pieces produced on stage, recorded and played on screens, printed in newspapers, published in compellations and, of course, the internet.

In September I have my first ever solo play performed. It's... not quite done. It's not even a solid 2/3's done. And it opens in September. And I don't know a LOT about the play world, but I'm pretty sure they need a script a day or two before the first show. Actors are real prima donnas that way.

So it was nice today to find out while shooting the breeze with two other writers that the problems I've been having are the same problems all writers have. "I have too many ideas all trying to get out at once." "I want to write, but when I sit down all of my ideas leave me." "I owe the mob $5,000 and a baby!" We all, in the brotherhood of writers, share these problems. And that's good to know.

It doesn't make me any less certain that my show will suck hard and the poor actors will be booed off the stage shortly before the theatre is burned to the ground, but hey, at least my concerns are not unique.