Don’t underestimate your writing.

I learned this lesson recently. It was late December, and the submission window for entering a script in a theatre festival in New York was rapidly approaching. It was a festival that produced one of my plays in 2017 — my first ever production in New York City. It was a big deal to me.

Since I had a modest, one-year history at the festival, I wanted to submit again for the 2018 version. But I ran into an issue. What script? Last year it was an easy decision. It was a script I really liked. It was about issues current in the news. It was timely, funny, and profound at the same time. I thought it was one of my best, so I was delighted when it was chosen.

But for this year, I just felt like I didn’t have a script that was as good as 2017. I hemmed and hawed and eventually decided, on a whim, to send off a script I had written a while back but never did anything with it. I re-polished it and sent it off before the December 31 deadline.

I had no expectations.

Then it happened. Earlier this week I received an email from the theatre in New York saying they loved the script I sent and wanted to produce it for their June festival. I was shocked. They loved the script? They chose the script? I had no idea that it would have been chosen.

After this happened, I read it over with another person, and this person told me how much she liked the script. Suddenly, it was starting to grow on me. A script I thought was just “ok” was really not that bad. I started seeing it for its uniqueness, its quirkiness, its unusual story. It started sounding funny to me as I read it and …

What’s going on?

Suddenly, the simplest of principles once again smacked me in the forehead–everyone has a different perspective. This is not something new. I know this. As a novelist whose novels have been reviewed by many individuals, I know that each person brings their own take and opinions when assessing a creative work. I’ve seen them all–“Brilliant” and “I couldn’t finish it.”

So I learned a lesson: just get the work out there!

It may be liked more than you think. It may have hidden potential that you can’t see. It may also fall flat on its face. But I’d rather have it fall flat on its face than live a digital death on some hard drive.

Guess what I’ve been doing this week? Sending more of my plays and writings to various contests around the world. Nothing may become of any of them. But you never know until you try.

Don’t underestimate your own writing. Put in the time, give it all you got, then release it to the wind and let it float where it may.