Writing has not been a part of my life since I was 12. Aside from your standard class papers, I haven’t really written since my 7th grade pièce de résistance about a man’s last day in prison. My high school English classes put a focus on analyzing rather than creating. A skill worth having, but not a skill I desired. While I entered high school with dreams of writing it didn’t take long for those dreams to turn to performing arts. My parents encouraged me to try out for the junior high musical Fiddler on the Roof. I got in and tried out for every play and musical I could until I graduated. In class I was pursing every music class that would accept me. I sang in every major choral ensemble and took music theory and composition classes. These are the skills that brought me to Loyola. Until a week ago I was a vocal performance major preparing for a life of opera. Unfortunately it took three years for me to realize that opera is not something I want to chase when my dreams are most reachable.
So where does that leave me. Have the past three years of music study been a waste? I tell myself it hasn’t, but it is hard to not feel that way. I am now a music with elective studies major, with an English writing minor. Is there much of a method to my major change? Somewhat. I started writing a film script and a play over the summer on a bit of a whim…and it felt pretty good. It felt better than music had in a long time. So why do I write? Because I’m tired of music.
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ReplyDeletePerforming arts and writing get coupled a lot, so I can't imagine years of performance study to be a waste. Who can write for an actor better than one that has acted?
ReplyDeleteThis is direct and funny, though you mention entering college and go back to your time before it, which is confusing: "While I entered college with dreams of writing it didn’t take long for those dreams to turn to performing arts. My parents encouraged me to try out for the junior high musical Fiddler on the Roof."
Simon, baby, I want to read those scripts.
I really liked the question-and-answer last line; I was previously a Theatre major but I got tired of that, too.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to see a little more fluidity in your structure and sentences--at times it reads jarringly.
But your voice was great and you've got some really good lines in there.
I like the upfront perspective you take when explaining why you write. Instead of giving a generic answer, you explained that you really hadn't written creatively since 7th grade and exposed your fears of what you wanted out of life and whether the paths you've been taking are a waste of time. I like how you described your struggle between realizing your potential to write and your three year path in music. Overall, this was a fresh, quick and to-the-point, enlightening read.
ReplyDeleteDid you write before 12? It's not quite clear what changed for you—why the shift from music to writing now? Don't worry about "wasting time" unless you're doing nothing. Your experience with music gives you material for writing, and ways of looking at and engaging with the world that you wouldn't otherwise have. Consider exploring similarities between the arts (see such writer/composers as John Cage and Anthony Burgess). Explore this further, what elements drew you to music and to writing, and what the two forms may have in common for you.
ReplyDeleteIt was truthful and funny. I'd like to hear more about that man's last day in prison story. What was your script about? Do you feel like writing is a more or less critical venue than performing?
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