Putting together the pieces

It's really amazing to feel the buzz of writing again. All the little pieces have come together and I have a real sense of where I'm going next creatively.

I always feel a little less than whole when I'm not writing consistently . . . at sea in a way . . . not non-functioning by any stretch just . . . something is missing. So I work through those periods and trust that something will smack me upside the head.

I've been reading, doing little writing exercises (the scenes I mentioned previously for example) and almost without even knowing it, the pieces have fallen together and I'm engaged in a new play.

Actually it's my screenplay (also previously mentioned) The Craftsman. After reading it for the first time in a while yesterday I felt there was really something there . . . that it actually could be a play . . . but adjustments have to be made . . . some things have to be considered. I don't want it to come across as in any way misogynistic for example . . . so I have to take some care. But I worked on the core scene today and it felt good . . . we'll see what happens.

A lot of ingredients have been stewing for a while . . . I've been listening to more music (specifically Little Feat,which is one of the great bands of the '70s - Lowell George was a great and unusual songwriter . . . they go into very unexpected directions); I was reading some interviews with writers on the way in to the city yesterday . . . there was some nice stuff in there about what it means to be a writer . . . and indeed . . . the NY Philharmonic, which was the reason we went in last night . . . amazing music (Prokofiev).

And of course we saw Phantom Thread the other day . . .

Creativity is an incredible thing to experience and being in the zone where you are working on it is exquisite. I love acting; creating a life on stage is a unique thrill and communicating the play to an audience is . . . giving voice to the writer . . . it means so much to me and always will . . .

. . . but nothing tops sitting down and creating those worlds . . . it's lonelier, but it really is the art of theater. You sit there facing the canvas of the blank page . . . and you start . . . and you are talking to someone very directly . . . that someone may be a hundred years from now . . . but you're talking to them.

That shouldn't be wasted.

Make it count.