It All Comes Out of the Piano

By Rom Watson
c. December 22, 2012

Were anyone to ask me how I write a play, I would answer, “It All Comes Out of the Piano.”  Which is the name of a song, music by Frank Lazarus, lyric by Dick Vosburgh, from the Broadway musical A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine.

The song posits that the music is created by the instrument on which it is played.  Music composers may take offense at this theory, as it seems to negate their input.  However, the song does have a point.  If you sit at the piano and begin to push on the keys, sounds will emanate.  If you make it a point to sit down at the piano every day and continue to push on the keys, using your skill and taste to edit and select, eventually the sounds you make will become music.  As my music mentor Donald Eaholtz said to me on many occasions, “Repetition is the mother of creation.”  Likewise, if you make it a point to sit down in front of the computer keyboard every day and continue to push on the keys, using your skill and taste to edit and select, eventually the words you make will become a play.  Repetition is the mother of creation.  The trick is to sit down in front of the keyboard every day and continue to push on the keys.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote an interesting book entitled Outliers.  In it, he states that becoming an expert at anything requires 10,000 hours of practice.  With all the distractions and disruptions of modern life, how does one make time to sit down in front of the keyboard every day?  Where does one find the time to put in the requisite 10,000 hours?  This may be especially challenging if one is married or has children or works a full-time job.

Here is a list of suggestions for anyone who wants to make time to sit down in front of a keyboard.

1.    Bathe as little as possible.

2.    Shave as infrequently as possible.

3.    Wash your hair as infrequently as possible.  (Wear a hat.)

4.    Get your hair cut regularly.  This will save time in the long run as hair tends to need more attention as the cut grows out.  (Think twice about shaving your head, as a shaved head requires a lot of maintenance.)

5.    Wash your car as infrequently as possible.  (Wait for rain to do it for you.)

6.    Never buy clothes that need to be ironed.

7.    Never buy clothes that need to be dry-cleaned.  Not only will you save the time you would have spent traveling to and from the dry cleaners, you will put fewer chemicals into the environment.

8.    Do most of your shopping online.  This includes your prescriptions, as many long-term medications can be obtained via mail service pharmacies.  Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program allows you to set up recurring deliveries of items (tea, granola, etc.), that you use on a regular basis.  You select the items you want, schedule the deliveries by choosing a monthly interval (once-a-month, once-every-two-months, etc.), and receive automatic shipments at a discounted price.

9.    If possible, eat your lunch while you’re working and then use your entire lunch hour to write.

10.    Run errands during the week so you can stay home all weekend and write.

11.    Hire an assistant to run errands for you.

12.    Reduce the time you spend commuting to work.  This may mean arriving at work with your dinner, eating it when you’re through working, and then writing until traffic is less congested.

13.    If you haven’t already, begin writing your scripts using Final Draft soft ware.

14.    If you want to watch a movie at home, rent it through a cable service such as On Demand.  That way you have nothing to pick up and nothing to return.

15.    Don’t play video games.

16.    Send only a handful of handwritten Christmas cards.  Send everyone else on your list a card via e-mail.

Since a good life is made from good habits, consider incorporating these suggestions into your life.

If you use daily affirmations, try this one by Gwen Gillespie: “My mind stays focused on what I am here to contribute.”

Do I practice all of the above suggestions?  No.  I shower every day, wash my hair every other day, and shave Monday through Friday.  I iron approximately one third of the shirts I own.  I buy groceries at the store as opposed to having them delivered.  I do not have an assistant.

Now we come to the most important suggestion for saving time:

17.  Don’t watch TV.

Do I watch TV?  Yes, some, but not nearly as much as most people, if one is to believe statistical reports on television viewing.  And I make it a point to never watch a program while it’s being broadcast.  (This includes the Oscar telecast.)  I record programs on DVR and watch them later so I can fast-forward through the commercials.

Will the above suggestions work?  I’m married and I work a full-time job, and yet I have written six full-length plays, four 10-minute plays, a thirty-minute one-act play, the libretto and lyrics for a musical, and a novel.

“Repetition is the mother of creation.”