The Truant Pen

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
"Fool!" said my Muse to me,
"look in thy heart and write!"
~ Philip Sidney

Gilbert spaketh too soon ~ Sullivan pointed out some inconsistencies and problems the new song created for our characters. So we took the fourth re-write and revised it, salvaging some of the verses and completely obliterating others. Sigh. Well, didn't someone once say that art is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration? Of course, Plato said that art created by means of reason and technical ability alone pales in comparison before the art of inspired beings.

Songs Two and Three of the trilogy are like that ~ inspired. Sullivan and I talked about it last night as we were trying to pry a verse out of our sleep-deprived brains. We both felt like our songs (he wrote Song Two) had been written through us not by us. Almost as if we were visited not only by the Muse but by the characters in our songs, who said - here is our story - now you tell it to others.

Song One is not like that. It is just taking more work, more hours, and more questions like "Hey - what rhymes with strong?" and "What was her story again? Why is she like this and what the heck is she thinking and feeling now?" The most difficult part is figuring out how to tell the story with beauty and simplicity and in harmony with the other two songs. It should feel like one complete story ~ not three separate, unrelated songs we just felt like singing.

Enter Hero from offstage: A Song Writer's Workshop at The Strathmore! To which I have reserved a ticket. It will be a breath of fresh air to be with other aspiring song writers and a pro. Who knows? My lead may yet find her voice before the premiere on the 19th!

Oremus pro invicem,
Mikaela