Failure breeds Creativity

 ‘Success is the ability to go from failure to failure, without losing your enthusiasm.’

I don’t know who wrote the quote above, but I would love to know if they have ever failed, because it is certainly easier said than done.

This past month, we have been tasked with writing a 20-minute-long play. Going into it, I felt pretty good as I had been prepared amazingly over the last 10 months to do so. I had a solid idea, knew what I needed to do and was confident I could deliver, at the end of the month, a play.

How wrong was I.

Very, it turned out. My research, interviews and even the writing exercises, went well, but when it came to putting pen on paper, my brain stuck. And when I say stuck, it really stuck! What felt like months followed, as I stared a blank screen for days on end, trying to find the words to create this play, that to me, felt like it didn’t want created. Right up until the night before the deadline, I stared at the screen, with words no-where to be seen.

I tried everything. Every exercise, every scenario, every environment I could find to stimulate my brain into writing and yet, I still came up with nothing.

The longer I tried, the less I came up with. The more stressed I got, the worse my writing became.  I was stuck in this never-ending wheel of failure. And it was then I lost my enthusiasm. All I could think was that I was done. Done with the play, done with the programme, done with writing full stop. That was it. Over.

But it wasn’t.

You see, what you don’t get taught in school, is that you learn more from your failures than your successes. Every time you fail, you come back stronger, more determined and yes, more enthusiastic than before. For me, this was the case, and had I not failed at first, I wouldn’t have the play I wrote today.

I came back with a new attitude, a newfound hopefulness and this is what enabled me to succeed. Yes, I might not have been very enthusiastic the whole way through, but I still got there in the end. The more I think about it, the only real success I have had, where I feel that I have properly accomplished something, is after I failed first.

So, what am I taking away from a month of playwriting? Tips, tricks, advice and creative spirit?

No.

I am taking away a lesson for life.

Lauren Asher

Lauren is part of the Bunbury Banter Young Playwrights Programme 2019-2020