A world full of talent

Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes. I write fictional novels, which my fans tell me are not bad. My wife’s young second cousin is a talented hockey player, despite his diminutive size. An ex-cousin in law is an extremely good horror story writer. Both of my soon to be daughter in laws are talented photographers. My youngest son is an electronic music producer and motivational speaker.

My brother can do things with a welding rod and metal that amaze me. I must have half a dozen cousins and my father who are talented musicians. More are folk and contemporary dancers.

One thing that is common to all these people. They love what they are doing. It takes hours and hours of practice and dedication to do what they do. Most of them will never be famous or obtain vast riches from what they are doing. Yet all of them do it anyway and we are the beneficiaries of all that talent.

In my case. It takes about two years from the initial idea for a novel to the final published product. Constant and never ending editing and rewriting. Getting rid of one scene and putting in another. Then shipping off what I think is a pretty good product to a professional editor and getting my rear end handed to me and seeing all the red ink and slash marks and starting all over again. Finally, agonizing for days, my finger bouncing over the enter button and putting it out there for the world to see.

I know the chances of me becoming famous are extremely slim. For one thing, I have a very narrow genre and am targeting a very specific market. But I am not writing to become famous or rich. I write because it is what I like to do and hopefully, those who do read my material enjoy it and do not feel they have wasted their time and money buying and reading it.

Last night I had the privilege of attending my niece, Emily Seymour’s, co-production of Irresponsibility. A two hour comedy skit production, co-produced with her friend Emily. Not only did she perform on stage, but she wrote, directed and produced it. It takes a tremendous amount of work, especially in comedy, to bring all that together so that it works.

Was it perfect? No. I was at the first performance. Everyone was nervous and the house was packed. One thing about live audiences, is that you get instant feedback on what works and what doesn’t. Timing in comedy is everything and some of the skits were not smooth. But for me, I was entertained enough to be happy with the money and the time I spent to attend the production.

But one thing I give everyone kudos for, is the courage to put it out there. To take that risk, that awful awful risk of rejection. I remember the first time I had to go on stage in front of a packed house of strangers for a motivational program I had written and produced. I was terrified! How I was able to coherently babble my material was beyond me. But I did and people benefited from what I had to say.

So, to the two Emily’s. Keep at it! Smooth out the rough spots, eliminate the dead skits. Hone the product. It has good bones and the whole troop is very talented. No two audiences are going to react to your material the same way. Work and practice. Keep at it!