Writing is annoying…

Or it can be. When it’s not going well. I get cross and impatient and want whatever I’m writing to be fantastic in a very short time.

Which rarely happens. There are occasional flashes of inspiration which create a fully-formed joke in a couple of minutes of frantic scribbling. But mostly I end up doodling in my little black book or staring at my laptop screen, trying to avoid looking at Facebook.

I was exactly the same as a kid when rehearsing an audition piece or a show made me crazy. It was like drawing nails down a blackboard – I felt frustrated and annoyed and embarrassed and tetchy. Which didn’t help anyone. Pretty soon I realized that the only way to give a superlative performance was practice, practice practice. And now I love rehearsals. I think of it as play – how many different ways can I do this? Which one is the best? I miss doing theatre and having those glorious few weeks to play.

I’m still working on this in my writing. I haven’t quite got to the point where I see it as play. It’s more like work. I have to force myself stick at it. Stay there and not get caught up in Scrabulous or WordTwist or Elven Blood or any of the other treats Crackbook has in its candy store of distraction. Even writing this blog entry has been a little bit of a diversion from working on my set for Tuesday night.

Nope. I just gotta sit here. And work at it. Re-write. Over and over and over again. Hurumph!

Related posts:

1. Loving the writing process
2. What to do when you don’t feel like writing
3. I’m doing a stand-up course!
4. Preparing for an audition
5. The great iambic pentameter experiment