Perseverance

Keep going.

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.

Especially when one is prepared.

...the Tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and when the Hare awoke from his nap, he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post and could not run up in time to save the race. Then said the Tortoise: "Plodding wins the race."

One does not fail when one encounters obstacles and setbacks; one fails when one ceases to try.

Okay. Enough platitudes. Well, maybe one more. A writer is a person who writes, not a person who used to write, nor a person who talks about writing.

Writing is a discipline, a practice. To get better, one must continue to write. There are a lot of books that say you should set aside a certain amount of time each day, at the same time, to define your discipline. Sometimes that works. For me, my daily goal is to write something. Writing query letters is still writing. Writing theatre reviews is writing. Every time I put words together in thoughtful combinations, I'm working on my craft. I work on ideas in my head. I jot down notes in a constant companion notebook. As much as possible, I try to get those words down in a script. But sometimes, it's just not possible. So, I take whatever opportunities come across to work at the craft of writing. Then, when I am finally able to spend time at working on a script, notes, ideas, and snippets are ready to flow.

It's also a discipline to submit plays. It takes research, letter writing, package assembly, and other seemingly routine tasks to do, but it's part of being a playwright.

The very first play I wrote got published, eventually. I submitted to (and was rejected by) several publishers before success, almost two years after I first began submissions.

There are numerous stories with famous writers whose works were rejected repeatedly by different publishers. Many such works are now classics of literature. Sometimes it's not just a lack of talent or timing, but more a matter of getting the right script to the right publisher. Cast your bread upon the waters. A play can't be accepted, published, or produced unless it is submitted.

I was recently contacted by a play publishing company who came across some of my plays, performed an Internet search, discovered this web page, and contacted me to write plays for them on a regular and collaborative basis, which I'm now doing.

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