4 Jan 2013

   I finally decided to go ahead and blog.
   I used to send email posts to about 25 friends, I did that for maybe six years. They said "you should blog" and I said "nah". I didn't tell them that "nah" was code for "I have no idea how to do that."
    Two dead desktops and a dead laptop later, I figured I could just write blatherings on facebook. It seemed to be working. If by "working" you mean occasionally facebook will randomly freeze up 150 words into the writing and I can't save it, or copy and repaste, it's just gone forever. I also can't get it to copy once I've finished writing so it can save in a word doc.
    Maybe this will work.

   So I have nothing to say of value at this moment, because I fear it will freeze up, or not save, or tell me I have to Leave This Page before I'm finished. If I can get this to work, then cool. I will post and maybe people will read. Who knows?

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     Well, the test run worked. Not only did I figure out how to create a blog, but I successfully posted it to facebook, returned to the blog and fixed my typos. In my world that is successful.
Since reading On Writing by Stephen King ten years ago I've tried,with varying degrees of commitment, to write 2,000 words a day. I discovered early on that journaling is something I cannot do without a Big Chief and a Starkey. After being in theatre I needed an audience. So I did email rants, called them "Square State Mom" and sent to about 25-30 people over the course of six years. That was only about twice a week, then it petered out completely when a student set up a facebook for me. Several friends had suggested blogging, but I had no idea how to set it up, and my relationship with computers is pretty cantankerous. I had no doubt I would go to All Kinds Of Trouble to set something up that would then disappear, or crash, or both. I got away from writing once I took over the theatre five years ago. Or I didn't have anything to say, I guess. Edward Albee had a pretty deep impact on my life and I hear him saying "Writers write because they have to. They have something to say and they must get it out." I figured when I stopped playwriting that I had nothing more to say.
     Then I figured I really had no idea what my voice was. I went back through the email postings and discovered I had, sort of, kind of, found a voice. That was an exciting moment, and then I realized I could not retrieve about half of the postings. So much for putting everything in one place and publishing it and getting rich and famous, the Next Erma Bombeck.
    I have read Tina Fey's book Bossypants eight times. Eight. I carry it in my car to revisit when I have to wait somewhere. I figured I didn't need to write ever again, Tina Fey was doing it for me. She has the same voice that I do and shares similar experiences and is much funnier and also, famous. Why bother writing when Tina Fey is doing it? I had the same epiphany during O2V as I was wrestling V. Woolf's Orlando into a stage version in 2009 and heard that Sarah Ruhl was also writing an adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando. That thing made me crazy, took up all of my summer and it never really worked, Why Did I Bother--Sarah Ruhl's got this one. Let the pros do what they do and the rest of us will stay home and watch 30 Rock.
    Ah, well I'm sure I have more to say, but Harper just called and needs a ride home from her sleepover. This keeps popping up with a pink error that says "An Error Occurred While Trying to Save Or Publish Your File". If I walk away will it save? I have no idea. I tried to publish it and the warning popped up again. So I'll paste it into the first blog. HA! See how technology hates me?