And that dead silence before the notes started coming in sheer agony. But as time went by, I gradually became used to it, or as used to it as I ll ever be. Every once in a while, we d have an opening. Someone who couldn t afford the fee or who couldn t handle the creative exposure would bow out. Each time someone new came in, I could see the sweat, the cringing, the fear.
Many people couldn t take it.
But I viewed the experience as training, figuring that if I could stand workshop criticism maybe I could better stand real world brutality. And I was almost right about that. Receiving notes was only half of it. Gradually, I got better at it and became what I hoped was a valuable contributor. This all served me very well when I eventually segued out of feature writing and into hour-long drama.