Friday, November 17, 2006

shortlisting & performing

I know it's not a winning strategy in life to place too much importance on the praise of others, but I can't deny the fact that it is a good feeling. I am performing in a play this week, my character is the comic relief, and making an audience laugh has got to rank up there with one of the best sensations. (However, when they laugh at the part where I am actually being serious.... that's a little upsetting, I am obviously doing something not quite right, will work on that for the last two performances next week).

And along those same lines - and far more importantly in terms of my chosen vocation - it is such a boost when one of my short stories gets somewhere - and this week I found out I have been shortlisted for a competition. It just makes my day, well, my week, really. But there is that downside: when I don't get anywhere, I feel crushed, rejected. That's life, eh? I could try and coast along, not caring whether anyone likes what I write or not, but then I would miss out on the excitement as well as shielding myself from despair. There are no easy answers.

Now my most pressing concern is finding a good quinoa recipe with carrots. Suggestions welcome.

5 comments:

Frances said...

Tania, congratulations! That's great news. :)

Bunny said...

Gosh, rejection is so hard to handle! I try and follow William Stafford's lead - he kept 50 pieces out for consideration all the time. He said rejection wasn't so bad when you had 49 other babies out there still swimming!

Caitlyn said...

Well done for getting short listed. And thank you for your kind comments about Nano. And break a leg with your performance as well.
What kind of plays do you do? Drama is a big part of my life. Not only do I write plays but I am chair person of an am-dram club as well, and we produce my plays more than other people's, partly because I write to order, but mostly because I work cheap!
Have you thought about joining www.critiquecircle.com? It's free, it's fun and it helps your writing tremendously. We're all writers there, we all crit each other's work, constructively and helpfully. We have short stories as well as novels, plays, screenplays, you name it.
Come and have a look.

Tania Hershman said...

50 pieces, eh? I am well below that number. 50 different pieces? I'm going to have to try harder. Thanks for that, b.a. goodjohn. It's good to share writerly advice.
Hilarymack - I have done quite a lot of am-dram, this time I was playing the older sister in Proof, the American play about maths & mental illness etc... Trying to squeeze my British mouth around a Chicago/New York accent was pretty hard. Right now I would rather write plays than be in them. I am trying to adapt one of my short stories into a 10-minute play - it's not easy!
Thanks for the invite to critiquecircle, I will definitely come and check it out. The more crit, the better!

Vanessa Gebbie said...

congrats, T!

vanessa