This morning while at home I stumbled upon a fat black binder covered in dust. Inside I found 5 plays I had written before and during college. I thought to myself: wow! Since my boyfriend recently re-interested me in playwriting, I should check out some of my old work!
Wow. Crap. What utter crap. Looking at it now, I have found all new respect for my professors in school who looked at the pile of shit I shoveled on their desks, stink lines and hungry flies buzzing about, and smiled at me and said "good work! keep it up!"
I mean, really. Pretty terrible stuff. But I take this as a GOOD sign. If I can see how bad they are - that means that I must be better now, right? Right??
Well it certainly means I'm better at knowing crap when I see it, that's for sure.
Which reminds me, I have to get started writing a letter of recommendation for one of my college professors. Complimenting me greatly, he specifically requested that I be one of the recommendation letter writers. With that kind of faith in me, I cannot let him down. So this has to be good.
xoJR
I feel the same way about so many things from long ago. But context means a lot, especially in an academic setting. Those plays may not make you fall out of your chair laughing or bring you to tears, but they accomplished the mission of the assignment.
ReplyDeleteAs a "music major" (it really wasn't a real music major), I had plenty of assignments that I hated the outcome of, but I did well because it was more about learning/following the rules of certain genres rather than making masterpieces.
That said, if you write crap now, you're just bad.