continued: How Long Should You Keep Working on One Story?

I made the decision to learn to write. After all, I worked as an actress, I had my own original band, I wrote songs, how hard could it be? I enrolled in play writing classes and script writing classes to learn about structure, story and so forth. I did everything the teachers said. I sat down and, using my cool and funny flat mates as the basis of my story, I pumped out a script about three girls who wanted to marry rich but learned that they could depend on themselves. I even had a director who ask to read it.  And so the tug of war between interest and disappointment began.  My ideas were deemed interesting yet the execution continually let me down. Why was I not getting this right? No one who taught, or set themselves up as an expert, was able to sort out what the problem was. (That was before I knew about Hollywood coverage, a brutal and enlightening process when done correctly.)

The genesis of The Perfect Tear began simply enough. I had been in a ridicules relationship for a few years, however, the break up was still traumatic. I had come to believe I needed this person to be successful. A few weeks later, alone in my room, I was watching a news program, where, a teacher being interviewed, expressed dismay that her young female students felt Cinderella was the female they aspired to be most like. They wanted the fairytale. I was outraged. Why were these children still being read these stereotypical, "I need a man to take care of me," type of stories?  I sat down and wrote a song called Cinderella, in which she laments that she never learned to read and was trapped in loveless marriage through ignorance. People seemed to like the song and I got interested in exploring what happens when the books close, what comes after Happily Ever After?  I read a lot of great books, like, Women Who Run with the Wolves and The Cinderella Complex to discover more about the dark side, a place I had been for a long time. The songs flowed and when I told a friend what I was doing, she said I should write a musical. I scoffed at first, but then I thought about my skill set, combined with my experience and I thought she might be right.

I sat down and began to write a story around my collection of thirteen songs. I used the characters of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Blue Bear's Wife  and Sleeping Beauty. I put a singing group together called The Fairytale Girls. People loved the idea and we even did gigs showcasing the songs. It was fun and exciting until a producer came along and attempted to steal it from me. She wanted the songs, but she was going to hire a writer to rewrite the whole thing. Her proposed story line had absolutely nothing to do with my theme of self esteem and independence. Her idea was silly and offensive to me. She even suggested I should be happy with the fact I could write good songs and leave the real writing to the professionals! However, after much sould searching, and though we had raised over $1000,000 from sponsors (we sang for them) I had to say no. I told her I was happy to get help in shaping the story, but, it was my story. Another story, with my songs, would make no sense and I was not prepared to do it. Said producer had a major meltdown and told me in no uncertain terms to jump in the lake. She took the money raised by my story and songs, and produced a completely different play. Needless to say, the sponsors were confused and disappointed and swore never to sponsor the arts again. (Way to go, Producer!) It was a an emotional roller coaster for me, but I realized I had a very strong belief in my story and the goal was to learn to write, so I set out with even more determination to learn how to write it. Over the years, other producers came and went, the project hit every wall there was and I was at my wits' end. But, every single time I tried to put the story away for good, something would happen and I would have to get back to work. I was singing full time by now, so creatively, I was fairly fulfilled, but deep inside, I knew I supposed to keep going.

To be Continued....This blog is going to document the journey of The Perfect Tear and what it took to get it this far!