Progress and Passion

Since we last spoke I have added at least one more number to my vast list of songs. That is Old Dan Tucker. I am also working on Spanish Fandango and The Wreck of the Old '97. I know, that's not a whole lot, which brings me to the question of passion. I have been re-reading Stephen King's On Reading in preparation of my assignment by my daughter and granddaughter to write a novel during the month of November. Mr. King says that he writes 2000 words a day. He recommends that new writers try for 1000 per day. If I am to write 50,000 words during a month with 30 days, that's 1666 words a day. However, I will be missing for at least five of those days, so that leaves 25 days. 50,000 divided by 25 is 2000 words per day. That is roughly ten pages a day, seven days a week for the time that I have. Writing that much will probably take at least several hours, I am guessing, if I think of something to write; a considerable commitment.

Mr. King also says that to be a writer, you must be passionate about it. He means that you must be serious about the business of writing and get yourself down to it, no fooling around. I think he is quite correct, and if you are passionate, the getting down to it part won't seem like work. That is true with writing just as it is true with playing a musical instrument or doing anything else in life. Everyone doesn't have to be a writer or a musician. Thank God. There are already enough lousy ones of each out there.

I think that I am not very different than many other people who aspire to write or to play a musical instrument. I like to do both, but there is a certain lack of passion and my commitment to each is spotty. Whenever I read about a good writer or a good musician, or a good whatever, the common thread is that they practice their craft all the time. Patrick Costello (www.dailyfrail.com) is the person who has had the most influence on my banjo playing. He is an excellent folk musician who expresses himself with a banjo or guitar. His banjo playing is suburb, but he has practiced his craft for 25 years or more, passionately. He tells of the hours he walked up and down his driveway practicing the frailing strum. He has a real love for what he does and he had the passion to spend the hours and hours that it took to get him where he is today. Stephen King has a passion for writing. He likes what he does. But where does this passion come from? What do you do if you don't have the passion to practice for hours at a time, or to write for hours at a time?

So far, I can play the banjo for a half hour at a time and be somewhat content. I know that if I play more, I will make more progress. I would like to get to the point where I am more familiar with the fingerboard and have all of the chords, movable and otherwise, mastered. I guess I had better stop writing and get playing. I don't know about those 2000 words of writing every day for a month. I may have to accept that I may not achieve my goal of becoming a world famous author of best selling novels. I believe that all of this came about because I just got a call from our piano tuner to make an appointment to tune ours. Mamma Mia, another musical instrument being neglected by the resident players!