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In the Spotlight
You Need a Crane to Build Your Career
by Jaden
Whether you are a screenwriter in Budapest, or a cinematographer in Hollywood, or a fiction writer in Buenos Aires, there will be difficult days when you want to resign.
Maybe you struggle financially. Maybe no one wants to look at your work. Maybe you can’t figure out a scene to connect the beginning to the end of your story and three months have passed without typing a single word. Or maybe, after ten years, you still don’t know what the heck you are doing.
Think about your favorite writers or artists; what if they had given up their craft one single day too soon?
You need to have a sturdy crane in your life who has true confidence in you and will help to lift the heavy materials on the days you are feeling weak.
This friend or family member reminds you: You’re just having a bad day, you can do this. You have come too far to give up now. Who else can [fill in blank] as good as you? The way you [fill in blank] is like nothing I have ever seen. You’ll get there, just keep at it. Be patient. Learn more. Educate yourself. Find that missing key.
Lots of people don’t have the crane person in their lives. It is essential to have support. Strangers like me can be your crane. On the Internet, you can find people with similar goals and interests to root for you. Connect with them. Open up and talk to people. Share your conflicts and obstacles. A support group will help you on your way quicker and more efficiently than when you are alone.
Having a network of support while you are building your career relieves the angst of hard days and keeps you on track.
When To Call It Quits
by Jaden
When do you call it quits?
For actors in Hollywood, this is the big question after many painful days or years of hunger and rejection.
Actors are not the only ones asking when to throw in the towel.
In our endeavors and relationships, we all have points of frustration when we ask ourselves: Why? Why am I doing this? Should I even bother? What’s the point? Will there be light at the end of this tunnel?
Usually, at that point when you are standing on a cliff pondering your entire existence and self worth, something happens. Something happens that pushes you in one direction or another.
Maybe someone tells you that you are the worst writer on earth, your computer dies ten minutes later, and you are too broke to buy a new one.
Or maybe someone tells you how you have inspired them and how important you are in their life, you make a new friend, and you learn something life-changing.
We are always affecting people positively or negatively, but often we don’t know it.
From my little map widget, I can see visitors to my site from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, and South Africa; who are you people? Say hello. I want to know you and learn about your country. Khorasan? I have never heard of this place — are you an American soldier trying to figure out how to write a screenplay or a woman seeking a new life?
My mysterious visitors are silent. I know Hollywood is geographically and culturally far away from these places. I can only guess that I am providing them with some kind of useful information or fulfillment, which is why they visit.
As nice as feedback and approval can be, we cannot rely wholly on others for guidance or self-esteem. I have seen great individuals shot down by idiots and I have seen idiots placed on pedestals by bigger idiots. Being loved by the masses or hated by a few is no indication of your true essence. Almost all successful artists have stories of countless rejections and struggling years, hence the “starving artist” cliché.
Your drive to continue on your path has to come from inside yourself.
Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh gave up his life before he gave up his art. He was an outcast and didn’t fit in anywhere. He could not hold a job. He moved a lot. He was rejected by everyone. He said stupid awkward things that isolated him from people. I mean, the guy cut off his ear and mailed it to a girl! He was eccentric and weird. His art did not become known or valuable until his gallery-owning relatives decided to sell it after he died in poverty.
When do you quit?
If you do not love what you are doing, once you have lined up something else to sustain your living, I suggest quitting. Becoming disgruntled and dissatisfied does not benefit anyone.
If you love what you do: never quit. Figure out how to make it work in your life so that you are secure. By being happy, you will be able to spread joy and knowledge.
If you subtract from your life the one thing that truly gives you joy because it is causing you hardship, what do you really have? Empty comfort? No thanks.
Van Gogh may have died miserably thinking he was the biggest loneliest loser on earth, but by doing what he loved until his dying day, he has touched more people than he could have ever imagined. That’s beautiful.
As a reminder of our connectivity and importance through the ages and distances, below is beautiful song written by Don McLean, 1971, about artist Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890).
“Vincent”
Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer’s day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.
Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they’ll listen now.
Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning fields of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand.
Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they’ll listen now.
For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.
Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can’t forget.
Like the strangers that you’ve met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.
Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they’re not listening still.
Perhaps they never will…
.
.
{Woman Sitting 
photo credit: tanakawho }
Sunday Picture Post 9 / Tip: Fear
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: DON’T LET FEAR HOLD YOU BACK
There are many fears that can hold you back from completing your script: fear of success, fear of failure, fear of offending someone, fear of lost time, fear of someone stealing your idea (which I will talk more about soon), and fear of the unknown.
It is truly a very long road from the time of inception until the time your script unveils on the screen. During that time, many of your concerns will resolve themselves.
When fears start to take hold of you, just remember that none of them really matter at the current time. When you cross those roads where you might have to deal with success or failure or confrontations, you can deal with them at that time. Worrying in advance only absorbs your time unnecessarily. We all do it. Try not to do it.
Get your mind back where it needs to be: focus on making your script the best it can be.
Sunday Picture Post 8 / Tip: Eat & Sleep
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: EAT & SLEEP
This is going to be one of those “do as I say, not as I do” advice bits.
Exhausted and starving at the time of writing this post, having eaten a bowl of pea soup and a fruit shake today, I can only muster enough brain power to tell you to eat 3 healthy meals a day and to get at least 6 hours of sleep so you don’t get stuck reading the same sentence 50 times, like I am write now. (Oops, I mean, right now.) Lack of food and rest will give you a scuttle brain, resulting in loss of productivity and creativity.
Turning Bad Guys into Good Characters
by Jaden
The image is from the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, which was adapted from a novel by Anthony Burgess.
Researching Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, I discovered that he had a traumatic childhood and distressed adulthood. Born in England 1917, Burgess was an infant when his mother and sister died; his father was a drunken absentee. As a young adult, Burgess endured and served in World War II. For the rest of his life, Burgess blazed a rebellious path: a drinker, heavy smoker, and tax evader — just to skim the surface.
Alex, the anti-hero of A Clockwork Orange, divined by Burgess, and played by Malcolm McDowell, is one of the greatest bad guys of all time.
When it comes to creating bad guys or vixens, there is nothing like first hand experience to lend believability to characters.
Pulling from your own dark fantasies or unruly youth is one way to add truth to your fiction.
Another primal way to create an earnest villain is by fashioning him or her after some dastardly person you have known.
If you and everyone you know are goody-two-shoes, you can observe rude or deplorable behavior in public. Explore the imaginary reasons why these people developed as they did and what happened to them on that particular day.
If your entire town is wholesome, then you need to get out and travel. Come to Hollywood for an endless source of evil-doers to inspire you.
Basing fictitious characters on the traits of real people enhances credibility.
What little devils come to your mind?
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