| [BACK]
My Fellow Writers,
I've been writing so much lately that my fingers are sore. And yet I persist. I should warn you up-front -- this won't sound like a story about writing until a couple of paragraphs down. But it eventually gets somewhere.
I grew up on a farm part of the time. We used to get up at 4:30 a.m. to move irrigation pipes around, then feed animals for two hours. Then we'd have five minutes for breakfast before heading off to my family's glue and paint plant to work all day. After work on the assembly line ended at 5:00 p.m., we'd feed the animals again for two hours, eat ourselves, then pass out somewhere. Now, to those of you who talk about child labor laws, know that they don't apply equally to family members, so my siblings and I worked our butts off.
This isn't one of those "I walked ten miles in the snow" stories. I'm not old enough to tell one of those stories. But there is a point - I know hard work.
And now, working on the series I am, I'm working harder than I ever have before in writing. I haven't really had a day off for at least a month - more like since February, when this assignment started. Twelve-hour days are the short ones. Sleep is in short supply. Deadlines are everywhere, and you have to deliver, because it's going to be shot the next week.
I'm not complaining, of course -- I absolutely love it and will stay on it as long as I possibly can, given the possible strike and, well, the end of the shooting season.
To those of you out there who are fighting the fight to write, I just want to inspire you to greater heights. I'm working at this every day, often writing at least six hours, and sometimes eighteen. In order to work, you have to be more talented and working harder than the writers you're trying to replace. And you have to be able to prove it with a great sample script.
So my message is this: if you're serious, treat writing like a full-time job as much as you possibly can. Make yourself a schedule and stick to it. I know that many of you have to make your living a different way - I was a development executive for a number of years before I started writing, so I know how hard - how impossible, really - it can be.
Know, however, that if you love writing, and you give it an honest and wholehearted and sustained effort, that your chance will come. No matter what you think, it will take you a lot longer than you thought it would, and you will know more failures than successes in trying to get those first projects sold. However, if you are one of those nutjobs who actually loves the process, I can't think of a better way to make a living.
I only have a chance at one draft of this column today, because I have a deadline I have to hit before the strike, if there is one. So I hope that my above words come across as the encouragement that they're meant to be. There are lots of great talents out there, and I don't want anyone giving up the fight who loves this. It's a long-and-hard battle, but one worth fighting.
Best of luck.
Back to the words,
Grady
P.S. By the way, if you want to know the fastest way to start your writing career, read my first column again - in it, I give away what I believe is an important secret. I was shocked to see how few people are keeping their own writing streaks alive. I'm telling you, folks, it works. I want to hear about more writing streaks. I'm at EmailGrady@aol.com.
|
