Writing something can be easy or difficult. (usually the latter) But once you finish something, you are faced with a challenge that is often even greater.

I just completed the first draft of a full-length musical comedy I've been working on for years. I am very proud of it, and it is simply brimming with potential. But as I sit here with the hefty script in front of me, I ask myself a question that puts fear in my heart...

"Now what?"

As long as I was writing something, I was active. In play. Happening. I was self-contained. But now that it is finished, I have to step into the real world and try to get it produced. For starters, I have to organize readings. (followed by rewites based on the feedback) Then more readings. Submitting to agents and producers. More readings. Backer's readings. And so on...

If I'm lucky enough to have a producer interested, then an entire new world of challenges and tasks opens up.

Of course, while all this is going on, I'll be writing something new and (hopefully) wonderful. And once that's done, I will again be faced with the question, "Now what?"

Gary Apple

The Writer's Block