Steps to Writing a Musical || Lin-Manuel Miranda

Step Seven: Don't Compare Your Work to Others

"Describe Hamilton's stage presence in five words or less. Go!"

"Um, Eminem meets... Sweeney Todd."

"Are you serious right now?"

Lin was finally finished act one. As act two came along, he suggested that they start making descriptions for every character. He knew he had a lot of time before he had to start workshopping. However, he was a professional when it came to jumping ahead of the game.

Of course, when he drew a blank on character descriptions, he showed up on your doorstep. You both began throwing out celebrity names that you thought would match the personalities of Lin's characters.

Neither of you had forgotten what happened after the gala, but Lin worked every day to make it up to you. He knew he didn't deserve to be your friend anymore, but he'd be damned if he didn't try.

"I'm one hundred percent serious!" He told you as you laughed. "I'm not saying Hamilton is gonna go around killing people—"

"That's Burr's job."

He let out a feigned sound of shock, "Too soon!"

"Please, it's been two hundred years." You countered. "Continue."

"But he has the determination of Sweeney and the rap flow of Eminem."

"Not to mention the self deprecation." You added.

"See?" He joked. "I knew you'd agree."

"Yeah yeah."

You were glad that you both were finally back on good terms. It took a long time, the better part of a year. There were still lots of arguing and compromising, but it seemed like everything was back to normal. Back to how it was before Lin made that huge mistake last year.

"Okay, you." Lin pointed at you, indicating that it was your turn. "Description for Thomas Jefferson. Three, two, one, go!"

You considered the two songs Lin had written with Jefferson in them and blurted out an answer, "Harold Hill meets Drake."

"I'm surprised you know who that is." Lin said, trying to contain his chuckle.

You smiled as you took his pen and pad to write the note, "Don't be rude. It makes sense though, he has the jazziness of Harold Hill, but the flow of Drake. You know, confident, bordering on arrogant."

"Bordering?" You both knew Jefferson's character was the epitome of arrogance.

"I'm trying to be nice to Drake." You laughed.

Lin took his pad back and smiled at you, "We'll keep it. For now. We can run it by Alex and Tommy next week."

"Speaking of next week," You started nonchalantly, "Can we reschedule that writing session?"

"Sure." Lin shrugged. "I'll just let the boys know. Why?"

You took a deep breath, letting a shy smile take hold of your lips, "'Cause I have a date."

Lin's eyes were wide, his lips shaped like an 'o'. He didn't know what he expected you to say, but that wasn't it. Neither of you had mentioned your love lives at all, but it was, of course, because you both liked it each other. However, as time went on, you thought that Lin was not interested, that he just wanted to be friends. And you were okay with that. Rather, you would be eventually.

You knew yourself. You knew that he only way you were going to get over Lin was to start seeing someone else. Haley convinced you to make a Tinder account, and you met a really nice guy. You got along really well, had a lot of the same interests, and he wasn't too bad on the eyes. He finally asked you on a date, you were actually pretty excited about it.