The Writer's Stairway

Featured in the Drama Newsletter - February 5, 2009

All of his life, as long as he could remember, Dick had been writing.  When just a young lad, he had written poems for his mother on Mother's Day cards; later expanding his audience to the objects of his earliest crushes.  As he grew older, his interest expanded to writing stories of fantastical, and sometimes horrifying, creatures that captured his imagination.  The goal of becoming a Writer always loomed before him like a shining staircase stretching upward and disappearing into the ether.

By the time Dick was a teenager, he was submitting his manuscripts to various publications; silently enduring the pain of a growing pile of rejection letters.  Finally, he decided to run his stories by friends before submitting them.

"Wow!  That's some story!"

"Good job, man!"

"You should get this stuff published somewhere!"

Dick sent the stories out and nervously waited for the responses, only to have to swallow even more rejections.

One day a story made its way onto paper that elicited smiles, even some chuckles, from his small readership of friends.

"That's some good stuff, man," one enthused.

Encouraged by their response, Dick sent it out.  A few days later he was elated to receive notification of its imminent publication.  Praise from friends, family and neighbors showered down upon him.

"Yes!" he shouted.  "I just gotta make 'em laugh!"

So Dick took a step upward on that Shining Stairway and concentrated on writing comedy.


Months passed while Dick wrote jokes, amusing anecdotes and funny stories.  A few small checks began coming in and Dick took another step upward.  His circle of friends now included other aspiring writers.


As the years crept by, Dick noticed that his writer friends began selling more and more for bigger and bigger payoffs.  Slowly, they passed him on the stairway, moving higher and higher until they were out of reach and then, out of sight.

"How do they do it?"  he asked himself.  "How can they sell so much while I'm still selling next to nothing?"

He began to read his former friends' work and discovered that even though some of them were funny, many were not.  Some were happy, yes, but others were extremely sad and some were even horrifying.  He read and he pondered.


All at once, a brilliant light broke through the clouds of dismay - the Stairway glittered above him.

"That's it!" he shouted, pumping his fist in the air.  "You gotta make 'em feel!"