Today I received a fantastic message. My publisher has read my (children's) play and finds it 'Fun, educational and salable'. That is why he is going to publish it, just like my four previous pieces, and I hope to receive some copyrights from him again soon. Of course I am very happy with that and also proud.
Proud:that I was born with an inexhaustible fantasy and pride:that I can also articulate it well.
I sometimes hear people say that I write visually and that they really experience my stories, and of course I'm very happy to hear that. That's what I do it for (among other things). What most people don't know, however, is that this writing started as a therapy for me.
I am a real emotional person and emotionally incontinent. That means that I quickly take a lot of things personally and can suffer from that (High Sensitive). For example, I used to empty boxes of tissues when I watched “The Little House on the Prairie” and I can't even watch a nature series with dry eyes to this day. I avoid war films like the plague and if such a cute calf is once again being chased and torn apart by a predator, I quickly switch the TV to another channel.
Unfortunately, the damage is done and the horrific images remain haunt me for the rest of the day.
Once the doctor advised me to write everything down, because that could help me. So as a seventeen-year-old I wrote poems about all the injustice in the world and (yes, yes…) they were sometimes read by our own Jan van Veen in the Candlelight program! It makes me laugh a little now, but THAT was the beginning of it all. Since that time I have written quite a bit and I can tell you:It really helps! Yet one thing still bothers me and I now have to go with the proverbial "buttocks exposed!"
I probably didn't pay enough attention in school or did I not care (was I in the hallway too often?), but my knowledge of grammar is not perfect! Fortunately, I am smart and I have now managed to gather the necessary people around me who help me and that is why my columns are (usually) flawless.
A play is a completely different story, because then I am talking about more than one A-four. I really don't dare to ask my friends that. I think I would have to pay for that, because otherwise my guilt will be sky high.
So… I read my plays five, ten or sometimes fifteen times very carefully. Out loud and very slowly! Until I can dream it and it drives me crazy. Finally, I throw in the spell checker, also installed an App on my Phone called “Dees and Tees” and when I finally hit the send button, I can only hope that all the mistakes are really gone.
If my play is placed on his site by my publisher on such a beautiful day as today (which I hope he would also read carefully) and I hear through an acquaintance that there is still a very serious error able, I am completely off the leg. Of course it will be improved immediately, but I'm really disappointed.
It is clear that my script is fun, which many children playing in the theater will enjoy. But oh… that grammar!
I've thought about quitting, but I can't. It has now become a kind of addiction and also my therapy.
So I continue to learn from my mistakes and I am ashamed and I promise you that when I am eighty, all my messages will be error-free.
I'm very grateful to my friends (dear D and T) and if I'm REALLY going to earn, I'll be sure to let you enjoy it. Until then, I'll keep writing, trusting you and my own growing knowledge of grammar.
