A Dream to Big to Contain

Neither of us was sure how this collaboration was going to work, so we took it one step at a time. 

I started writing short pieces that resembled poems on a printed page — but I hesitate calling what I wrote poetry, because real poets would get mad.

I developed several different pieces, to try to figure out what Katherine wanted.  Afraid of her reactions, I held my breath and closed my eyes as she read each one.  I tried to reassure (i.e., beg) her that I could adapt to whatever she wanted, I was just trying to figure out exactly what she wanted.

She loved (yes, loved) them all.  She was drawn to one piece, in particular, which told a story through emotions and she thought it could be used as a catalyst for several other pieces.  We decided that we could develop a themed-CD that would hold a collection of similar emotional songs.

Our collaboration started from that point.

I can’t begin to describe the feeling that came over me during that period.  The floodgates broke open and I couldn’t stop the flow of words, thoughts, emotions, and story lines that came crashing through.  The pieces started writing themselves.  It was all I could do to keep up with them.  Between working a full-time job during the day and writing throughout the night, I was exhausted and exhilarated.

To get some peace of mind, I would flood Katherine’s email box with the pieces as quickly as they flooded my brain.  It was a period of extreme creativity and a feeling to which I’ve become very addicted. 

It didn’t help that Katherine loved every piece I sent her.  The plan for one CD of stand-alone songs became a plan for a 2-CD set.  Then that 2-CD set developed into a Rock Opera where all the songs would be interrelated and sung by a cast of singers/characters. 

With this twist, a story-line narrative had to be developed to organize the songs and allow the story to flow from song to song, sung by different characters/singers.  I’ve never done this before, but I just loved the idea.  I developed short narratives that described scenes for each of the songs I wrote along with adding more pieces to fill in the holes in the story.  I was, literally, trying to transform a full-length music video that was playing in my head onto the printed page for others to visualize.  It was challenging and exciting.

On the flip side of this dream of ours was that more musicians, singers, composers, production staff, etc. had to be sought out and convinced of our project.  It wasn’t just the two of us anymore.

So, yeah...our Rock Opera project developed into something WAY too big for us to manage, too time-consuming to accomplish with what we were already juggling, and financially prohibited — so, there the dream sits, waiting for its day in the sun. 

But when that day finally does arrive, all we have to do is pick up where we left off…

In the meantime, that creative floodgate that busted opened wouldn’t close.  The words, thoughts, emotions, and story lines were still pulsing their way through me.  They wouldn’t leave me alone.

I needed another project to focus this energy.