Inspiration
The Beginnings of Writing
The other thingthat inspired me was when I was a kid, my father used to show me old movies and he showed me the Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney movie Boys Town where I saw simple people putting on a show for themselves and I realized that it was something that I really wanted to do. I could imagine seeing my name in the credits as a writer of musicals and plays. But more than that, I could imagine getting a bunch of friends together and put on a show. That’s what I enjoyed the best. I enjoyed getting my friends together and even if there wasn’t an audience, we were the audience and we would make each other laugh. We could hang out for hours and just make jokes and almost entertain each other, theater is very much the same except higher stakes and more people can see it. So I began to ask myself: How do you write a show? My mom took me to see Broadway shows constantly! From when I was 10 until maybe when I was 16, my mother would take me on 3 vacation trips to New York City to see Broadway shows: in February, July, and December and the primary reason was to see Broadway shows. We would take a bus from Peabody and travel in one day to New York, usually stay in New Jersey and, yes do the sightseeing stuff but also see musicals and shows. I saw a ton of shows with some very good performers like Nathan Lane, Bebe Newuirth, and Michael Crawford. I was enjoying seeing these shows like Oklahoma, Urinetown, and Annie Get Your Gun, but I also had an alternative reason: I wanted to learn more about shows. I really wanted to learn how to write a show. I also used to visit the play bookstores and buy tons of books about playwriting and shows but also plays and musical librettos and I would read through them constantly to try to learn how to write my own show. I never bought a How to book, I always bought the librettos of the musicals and just read them from cover to cover multiple times and just try to learn how to write from that. Starting at 12-year-old, I began to try to write my own show to disastrous results. I began to learn how to write songs and my first writing partner was a kid called Marc Krupsky. Marc was a composer and a lyricist of his own, but we wrote together as Marc the composer and Matt the lyricist. I learned how to play keyboards, but I never took a music theory class, so I never really knew how to write music down, but Marc knew how to so that’s why I trusted him to take care of that. We found we loved early rock bands like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, and Led Zeppelin. So, we decided to try to write a show together and we called it The 60’s Story. It was going to be about the Vietnam War and it was like Miss Saigon mixed with Hair. We wrote a few of the songs and I wrote the book, but it got bogged down by my stupid lyrics. I read it now and it makes me embarrassed but that’s what happens with most people’s early work. I wasn’t ready yet. Marc and I tried to write a few more musicals but life took us in different paths so I began writing by myself but since I couldn’t really write music, I decided to learn how to write plays. The first play I wrote was called Wouldn’t Have Missed it for the World and it was terrible. Then I wrote a play called Stupidity Run Amuck which again was me trying to be Neil Simon and I came off like a bigger schmuck, but I was still learning. I also fell in love with Kaufman and Hart, and I tried to write plays that took place in only one place, but I hadn’t discovered dialogue and how dialogue should sound. I would just write scenes that wouldn’t go anywhere, and may I remind you, reader, that I was 12 and 13 so I wrote like a 12 or 13 year old with your mom jokes and random stupid juvenile jokes. Then I discovered Stephen Sondheim...
By Matthew Garlin2 years ago in Writers
There Can Only Be One Winner
Introduction The 2023 Vocal Writing Awards is causing a lot of anguish among Vocal Creators. It is an amplified version of their normal challenges but significantly more expensive. There are a number of categories so there will be multiple winners, but that will not condone the ones who feel that their work has been ignored.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 2 years ago in Writers
Don’t Give Up!
The writing industry is ruthless. Not only is there all the difficulties linked to writing in itself, you also need to fight to get your book published. And even if you finally publish a story, there's absolutely no telling what will happen. You can get scammed and loose your story, loose all the merit of writing it. Or your story might not get seen at all, with all the competition there is, it's hard to get attention for your book. It's even worst when you self-publish, because then there are costs linked to it which might not be worth what you will receive from it.
By Calie Judy Brooks2 years ago in Writers
When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?
Getting my first check from my first job working at college doing work-study. I had never gotten a check before let alone, been given so much money before. I felt so responsible and grown-up. It always feels good knowing your hard work is being paid off in some way. I have always been the type of person who saves their money for a long time, so spending it all at once wasn’t a concern. It did feel good knowing I didn’t have to go to other people, like my mom, for things I need or want. I could just buy it myself. It’s a different feeling knowing the money you are spending is your own. You don’t have to feel bad or guilty, like you would if you were spending someone else’s money you borrowed, or they loaned to you. That’s why I always work hard to make sure I can pay my own way or take care of my own needs. My first check motivated me even more to want to be independent and do my own thing.
By Brestylefire2 years ago in Writers
"The Alchemy of Fiction: Crafting Immersive Worlds". Top Story - October 2023.
The allure of fiction beckons us for a myriad of reasons: it offers entertainment, unravels mysteries, transports us to distant planets, and elicits fear, laughter, tears, contemplation, and deep emotional connections. But when it comes to crafting fiction, how do you ensnare your readers, drawing them so profoundly into your narrative that they momentarily forget their reality?
By Alisa İnnokate2 years ago in Writers
Can Science Fiction Be A Topic For Blogging?. Content Warning.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this new blog. Today, we'll be looking at how to create a fantasy blog and operate it successfully. I'll provide you some basic and sophisticated techniques on how to grow your blog list to a large number of individuals in a short period of time.
By Aditya Singh Tharran2 years ago in Writers
Winners of the "Lost in a Story" Challenge. Top Story - October 2023.
The Vocal + Assist Lost in a Story Challenge made a big splash. Twenty One Vocal Creators enjoyed crafting their personalized narrative within the framework of a well-known story, film, or television show. Imagine the delight of inserting yourself into C.S. Lewis’' renowned "The Chronicles of Narnia" series or becoming a character in one of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. It's a fun way to engage with familiar stories.
By Rick Henry Christopher 2 years ago in Writers
