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My POV
Brian A. Wilson
?TIS THE SEASON TO BUY YOURSELF SOME GOODIES
The holiday season is upon us. I'm still not sure what happened to July, August and all the subsequent months, but no matter-it's December, and that can mean only one thing: Time to buy stuff.
This year, when you're done with your gift acquisition for friends and family, indulge someone else who deserves it. Indulge the writer within you.
Buy one or more writing goodies for yourself, the professional writer. To wrap up this year, splurge a bit and pour a firm foundation for a fast start on 2003.
Here are some suggestions.
Buy a computer, or upgrade your existing computer. I assume you have access to a computer, since you're reading this column. But maybe it's at the library, or a friend's house. Or maybe you're working on a system that was trendy when the first Star Wars came out. Well now's the time to buy or upgrade. Computers are fast, efficient, easy to use and incredibly powerful. Some of you may scoff that this is a "helpful recommendation," but I know a writer who, until about three months ago, was writing with some daisywheel word processor thang. Don't torture yourself. Writing is hard enough. Get the tools you need, starting with a good computer rig.
Buy screenwriting software. Again, lame advice, right? Apparently not. Another writer was "bragging" about writing his scripts using WordStar and a bunch of macros! To my thinking, this isn't so much "bragging" as "flaunting one's ignorance." C'mon! Final Draft is about $150 or $200. Invest in your craft! And again, stop torturing yourself worrying about margins and sluglines and continued's and all that other stuff that's been worked out for years now.
Get a journal and write in it. Give your subconscious mind a bit of room to roam. Use a journal for dreams, ideas, drawings, pressed flowers-whatever gets your juices flowing and lets all those good ideas in your head flow into reality.
Take a trip. Go someplace-fly, drive, walk-you've never been before. Recharge the batteries. Refill the well. Choose some other metaphor you like, but get out and interact with the world in a new way so you'll have something new to write about.
Buy a cool pen. I've got a slick Waterman that I love. I only use it to sign Hollywood correspondence, in creative endeavors and to sign checks for my writing work. It never signs bill payment checks. When I use it, I feel like a working writer. Try it. Your pen doesn't have to be expensive, just exclusive.
Buy some champagne, a writerly bottle of Scotch or just a tall froofy something special from Starbucks. Toast the success you've had this year and commend yourself for the efforts expended thus far.
Splurge on yourself, fellow writer. You've earned it, I'm sure.
Keep writing.
BW
LA
transtexan@hotmail.com
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