Monday 30 June 2014

Plate-spinning



Remember plate-spinning? It used to be one of the staple acts of TV variety shows in the 70s. For the benefit of the uninitiated: a man sets a china plate spinning on a stick. Then he does it again with a new plate and a new stick…and he does it again…and again…until there’s a whole row of plates merrily spinning away. But the fun hasn’t even started yet, because now he must keep all the plates spinning. Every time one starts to wobble, and believe me they do, he has to jiggle its stick. When all the plates start wobbling, it gets pretty intense out there. Google it – it might be just the thing to liven up your next party. 

My improvising got very wobbly recently. I hadn’t played or performed for a while. I was starting to lose confidence. What if the audience didn’t laugh or, worse still, didn’t care? What if I walked into a scene with no ideas and stayed that way? 

Now I know the real cause of the problem: my writing. That had been poetry in motion (or prose, if we’re being picky) for weeks, so why would I need anything else creative or inspiring in my life—demanding time and attention, making me lose focus—when I had the equivalent of one perfectly-spinning plate? It was beautiful. I was mesmerised. I lost the plot. The writing started to wobble. How could it do that to me? I’d been giving it all my attention. Spurning all distractions. How could it be so fickle after everything I’d sacrificed? I tried hard. I tried harder. The more I tried, the more it wobbled. 

So, I turned some of my attention to improvising. Just enough to get it going steady again. I started to do some regular exercise - walking and cycling, a bit of swimming. Anything with a natural rhythm. I picked up a book and read it. Picked up another one. And when I went back to the writing, it didn’t seem nearly as wobbly.

And the lesson I’ve learned from all this? It can be great having just one metaphorical plate spinning well for a while, but when that goes – and eventually it will - all you’ll be left with is a row of empty sticks and a lot of broken china.

1 comment:

  1. I've been wobbling a little myself lately, so this is a great read. Thank you!

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