Emily Golden is an award-winning young playwright.
A typical first-draft sentence for me looks something like
this: The long, verbose blog post was playfully written with convivial humor
and mirthful metaphor.
Needless to
say, brevity has never been my strength.
 |
| EMILY GOLDEN |
It takes a tremendous amount of
work for me to weed out all of the extra description and just leave the distilled
meaning of what I’m trying to say. With some brutal rewriting I usually end up
with something fairly concise. However, rewriting my reputation takes a bit
more effort.
As a young
writer I’m constantly struggling against modifiers. I’m always “a great writer
for my age” or “excellent for a college student.” I’ll win the student or young
writer division in a competition. When I first started writing I relished being
the exceptional new kid. I loved the feeling of being the only high school
student who managed to get into a night of ten-minute-plays. Now that I’ve
graduated from college, I find myself trying to break away from such phrases,
but it isn’t easy.
Even more
important than outward perception are the modifiers I place on myself. Recently
while having a conversation with my dad I referenced the two successful
playwrights who graduated from my college. After asking whom the second one
was, he was surprised to discover that I hadn’t included myself in that list. But,
in reality, it hadn’t even crossed my mind that I was now joining their ranks.
Being a “student writer” is my
comfort zone. It gives me a constant fallback if I’m unsatisfied with my work.
It’s okay if my last play felt mediocre because I’m still young and I have
plenty of time to improve. Now, by trying to break away from this label, I have
to also let go of it in the way I see myself. I have to become comfortable
saying “I am a playwright” rather than treating it as something I’m trying to
become in the future.
I’m
starting a new period in my writing and, in fact, my life, in which I’m going
to have to embrace a brand new list of modifiers. The words “early career” and
“emerging” are starting to find their way close to my name, and I’m going to
have to get used to seeing them there.
I think
that’s one of the biggest struggles that young writers face—figuring out who
they are once the “young” goes away and they simply become writers. I don’t yet
know how I’m going to handle this change, but I’m excited to give it a shot.
PEANUT BUTTER AND PLAY WRITING In a June post, Emily Golden uses a metaphor to explain how she became a playwright.
5 comments:
Welcome back, Emily!
No one would refer to me as 'young' but as I come ever closer to being published, I think I understand the shift you are describing. Who will I be when I'm no longer 'yet to be published?' And like you, even though I'm many decades older, I'm excited to find out.
When it comes to reimagining ourselves, is there really any such thing as 'an age gap?'
Great post! Good luck in your career as an emerging playwright!!
Emily,
Sadly, this is not exclusive to young writers, or to unpublished writers. It was not until recently that a colleague pointed out to me, in a high dudgeon, that I should have 'best-selling sci fi romance author' in my signature.
Have I made the NYT list? No, but I did hit the top lists on the internet. Wish all my books would do that!
All this to say, continue to ask respected colleagues to remind you to take credit for what you've done at all stages in your career. Or heck, have your mother monitor reviews for you. She'll let you know when you should be blowing your own horn!
best of luck in your play writing!
Cathryn Cade
http://www.cathryncade.com
Good to hear that this isn't something exclusive to young writers. I know that at this stage it's easy to feel like a small fish in a very, very large ocean. I suppose there are always not transitions to be made and stages to be reached, no matter where in a carrier a writer might find herself.
I enjoyed your post, Emily. Great title!
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