A story could have many different outlets.
I read an essay that playwright Marsha Norman wrote, basically saying that if you can express a story to somebody and all that means in a telephone conversation, then you should just do that. Don’t write a play or screenplay. Just call somebody.
(I’m paraphrasing here.)
If the story warrants the amount of time and depth, and it must be expanded into something larger, then by all means, get to it. But not everything has to be an opus. Some of the best poems are only a few lines long, after all.
That’s why I wonder sometimes if I should just quit writing plays and screenplays and try to write folk songs.
Really.
Folk songs can brilliantly convey story and depth in the span of a few minutes. And people are more likely to give you three minutes of their time to listen to the melody of a folk song then they are to sit in a darkened room with you for two hours.
Maybe its just because this guitar I want to buy inspires me to write folk songs.
I don’t know.
But I’ll say this…I’m glad it’s Friday.
(By the way, that title was the words on Woody Gutrie's guitar...)
