Wendy and I played dinner hosts this past Sunday night. Since early spring I have been meeting regularly with three other artists who are on their own creative journies. Two of them are musicians, the other a writer. Over the course of our spring together we each set a goal of finishing one personal, creative project.

My project was “Ham Buns and Potato Salad,” a play script which I started two or three years ago. I got about 20 pages into it and then it stalled. So, I pulled it out of moth balls on my hard drive and began to plug away at it. A few weeks ago I finished the first rough draft and on Sunday night the guys and their wives came over for dinner and had a table reading of the script after the meal. Afterwards, one of our fellow compatriots shared a CD of three songs he’d written as his personal creative project.

The meal and conversation around the table and late into the night were awesome and would have been enough to make it a memorable feast. To hear the songs our friend wrote was incredible. The chance to hear my script read and to get thoughts and feedback of others was a blast for me. It’s one thing to hear the words in your head as you’re writing them, but there’s always a fear that what you imagined was funny or dramatic will sound die on the page when they are read by others. To my delight, people laughed at the jokes and were surprised by the twists. I was also encouraged by very specific questions and constructive criticism from our guests. The script was a first draft and I knew going in that there is a lot more work required to make it ready for any kind of production. The feedback on Sunday night gave me a blueprint for where I need to start and where I need to go. More than that, it affirmed for me that I have a good start.

Artists need other artists. We need encouragement. We need accountability. We need deadlines. We need honest feedback. To get that and a really good dinner party is a blessing. It’s been good to share this stretch of the creative journey with these three other men and to see the fruit that’s being produced from our time together.