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How I Traded Soul Extortion for Soul Searching So I Could Write My First Solo Show

6/6/2018

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I believe in the journey, the complications, the lessons humanity has to learn...I believe in learning how to speak from and to our highest selves...i believe that things that are worthy, right, enlightening don't often make money because they're not in style...and I believe that most things are driven by the need to make money or the attention that will eventually make you money...
i believe that the things we write, think about and say need to not always be easy to hear...
I believe that often we have to go places where no one really wants to go and look at things we really don't want to see to create real transformation. To undo some shit we've been doing over and over again for decades and getting nowhere.

I believe that when you step out of your comfort zone (and not just what you preach to the world as your beliefs), but when you begin to deal with stuff in ways that are different from your parents and what went before...that you begin to make some huge leaps in understanding the beliefs you hold onto that no longer serve you and are in fact are holding you back. That's when you break new ground....but those places are not easy to excavate....they're complicated and scary....

And no one wants to go there...because it really takes a long time to get through that...and in the system we live in, if it doesn't make money fast, then it's not valuable....see how that shit works...
I'm learning a lot about my inherent value and what I feel is truly valuable....I always had a sneaking suspicion that what I had to offer was not fully valued...but now I'm clear about it because I've stopped giving it away...I've stopped giving me away for free.

I'm having aha moments about this mostly because I stopped.
Just stopped giving time, energy, life to things that didn't celebrate my values...that ultimately didn't celebrate what was important to me...and in that process, I found amazing, amazing allies, teachers, students, sages, shamans who all taught me as I was teaching them what it means when you give the gift of you to someone, your all out, fierce self...all your wisdom, all your foibles and you take a ride with someone to figure out (not what i want to teach them), but rather, what they want to learn and how I can adapt what I know to fit what they need.
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That exchange is incredibly powerful...it's not something that many people want to go through...that journey....but i just realized, I'm not interested in people who don't want that journey...not personally or professionally.......it's not that I don't like them, they're simply not very interesting to me...and since I only got a little while here in this realm... I gotta concern myself with what interests me deeply, profoundly...what makes me feel of use...what makes me feel like there's sunshine on my face....

Why are you waxing poetic about these things, April?
  • ​Well, because I keep getting the question, 
  • How do I write a solo show people will even care about?
  • What makes a solo show compelling?

And the key is that you actually have to have a unique story to tell that comes from the part of you that MUST write about your heart's desire which is a completely different story from the one you think you SHOULD write.
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As Rainier Maria Rilke writes in "Letters to a Young Poet," 

"You must write the story that wants to be told."

In other words, there's a story you've got right now that you want to write about, yes?

Great....write it down for me by answering this question: 
  • Why do you want to write a solo show?


Great...

Did you write it down?
  • Now, write down why you haven't written it.


Time, blah blah, blah....I don't know how, etc.

All of those are excuses...

You haven't written it because you haven't learned how to get out of your own way and allow the story that wants to be told to emerge.
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This is the sexiness that I'm going to be discussing in this Saturday's FREE How to Write a Solo Show class.  We're going to learn how to get out of your own way and allow the story to emerge...

Want to join me for a FREE Live online class? 

Great, then you need to keep up with the 3 videos I've released....

IF YOU MISSED THE FIRST VIDEO, CLICK HERE NOW TO CATCH UP

This coming Friday, I'll be sending out a short 3 question quiz...the folks that answer the questions get to participate in the class, free of charge...we'll write, I'll guide, give you feedback on your story and help you get out of your own way. 

Sound like a plan?

Let's. Do. This. 

Love, Light, Power & All that Goddess Shit, 


April & TheBadAssWriter Team



Please sign me up for this Saturday's FREE How to Write a Solo Show Class


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    TheBadAssWriter
    Blog


    is a place to find resources for playwrights & screenwriters.

    So I created this space for people who are actually writing as a practice, not just talking about it or dreaming about it, but are actually doing some badassery on the regular...

    meaning write every day...rain, shine, work, sleep, drunk, too tired, too many kids, blah blah...


    BadAssWriters just fucking write...


    April Yvette Thompson
    Tony-winning producer, writer, actor working across media.

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