The Blank Page

People have bridge nights, poker nights, book clubs and sewing circles and they all seem to have the same thing in common. It is an excuse to get together with a common goal in mind. I'm all for it because man is a pack animal. In modern times we don' have to team up to for a hunt or prepare the village feast but we still need reasons to get together. I think humans are just hard wired for that.

Well for me, I don't play bridge, stink at poker and dyslexia makes me a slow reader so book clubs are too much pressure. Sewing circles would be okay except for the fact I really don't know any Metro sexual males that bond on that level, even here in So.California. I actually sew pretty well, probably as good or better at it than my wife. I have inherited several of my Mom's sewing machines and puppet making skills over the years. But I just don't ever see me joining or forming a sewing club. You see even talking about sewing this much makes me a little uneasy. Boys who grew up in Texas, aren't really comfortable touting their sewing skills. And just in case the ghost of Stephen F. Austin is listening in.... I am also a very good shot with a rifle and can throw a knife and stick a target at 20 feet. I guess I could find a shooting group or a knifing club to join, but some how I don't think I would ultimately have that much in common. Still the natural DNA pull to group is very strong.

All that being said, I am finally involved in a group that works on an intellectual level as well as on the level of a pack mentality. It is a writers group. Specifically we are working on a musical, which sets us apart from the thousands of lonely screen writers sitting at Starbucks for most of the day. We get together once a week and kick around the story, the songs and the "meta narratives". Two of the members take turns bringing bagles, one brings the coffee and I provide the meeting place. I'm not sure how all this structure was established, but by now it is part of the process.

Now when I say one of the guys brings the coffee, I mean it is a ritual akin to mixing a potion for the creative process. He buys the green coffee beans wholesale direct from the grower. He roasts the beans himself at home for just the right amount of time until they are just the right fragrance. He brings them almost hot off the roaster to my house where he grinds them with an other ritualistic technique. I have to admit, it is superior coffee on any level you can think of. But I digress from the writing.

Now writing is generally not thought of as a club activity. Most of the time writing is a solitary act. As a matter of fact it is early in the morning right now, no one is around and I am alone writing this piece. So how does this writing group really work? It becomes as much a reading group as it does a writing group. Everyone contributes to an idea, someone writes it then we read it and we see if that idea was serviced.

Now a lot of the actual writing in this group falls to me. Again, I'm not sure how all that became structured but there is more reason for that coming to pass, than who brings the bagles. I am the blank page guy. I always have been, and I think of it as a blessing. The thought of a blank page of paper or a empty computer screen with a blinking cursor terrifies some. I don't seem to have that fear. I have always been able to face the blank page and fill it with something. If I can not master the page with words then I will master it with pictures. But fill it and master it I will. I think the blank page is perhaps my natural enemy.

With every collaborator I ever collaborated with this blank page role became mine. Once something, anything really, is down on paper then it becomes the focal point for a discussion. Before that moment there is nothing to talk about or reshape. Now the original project for which the group was formed is slowly taking place. It is a musical, based on a true story and although I know the real story, trying to shape a commercial story out of the real events is sort of a mine field. I suppose that is really a good thing, this project really doesn't have a deadline and as long as we don't finish we can continue to meet and have great coffee and bagles.

One of the guys in our group worked on a musical for 12 years. No one liked each other and it got no further than the public reading stage. I 'm not sure how long this one will go, but with good coffee, good bagles, a blank page guy, and this herd mentality... it could serve us for a very long time.
As you were,
Jay