Thank you to readers who continue to discover this blog even though I haven't posted in a long time. That is changing now.
I remember the professor in the business of writing course at USC looking over the full classroom and saying "Of everyone in this class six, maybe eight of you will become full-time screenwriters." The students would complete their master's degrees in a couple of months and our final test was to create a five-year roadmap into the industry. I wonder where they are now? I hope many are happily creating work in their favorite genre but last week I saw in a Vanity Fair article, "Desperately seeking Emmys in the era of peak TV, more than 450 scripted series debuted in 2016.
Learning how to break through the noise is one of my favorite topics, and I will continue to explore it here. But you can't break through if you have no content!
One of my top personality traits is achiever. According to the Strengthsfinder theory, for achievers, every day starts out at zero, including weekends and holidays. After working for about 16 days straight with just two days off (Memorial Day and last Saturday), I enjoyed taking this past Wednesday through Friday off.
For an achiever this meant taking the car for repairs and an oil change, and sorting through paperwork and laundry that had grown at home over the past three weeks. A few fun things reminded me about what is renewing and wonderful about life: completing a four-mile hike followed by the deliciousness of a drink of water, eating out with friends and taking time to connect with people I met as I ran errands.
I remember the professor in the business of writing course at USC looking over the full classroom and saying "Of everyone in this class six, maybe eight of you will become full-time screenwriters." The students would complete their master's degrees in a couple of months and our final test was to create a five-year roadmap into the industry. I wonder where they are now? I hope many are happily creating work in their favorite genre but last week I saw in a Vanity Fair article, "Desperately seeking Emmys in the era of peak TV, more than 450 scripted series debuted in 2016.
Learning how to break through the noise is one of my favorite topics, and I will continue to explore it here. But you can't break through if you have no content!
One of my top personality traits is achiever. According to the Strengthsfinder theory, for achievers, every day starts out at zero, including weekends and holidays. After working for about 16 days straight with just two days off (Memorial Day and last Saturday), I enjoyed taking this past Wednesday through Friday off.
For an achiever this meant taking the car for repairs and an oil change, and sorting through paperwork and laundry that had grown at home over the past three weeks. A few fun things reminded me about what is renewing and wonderful about life: completing a four-mile hike followed by the deliciousness of a drink of water, eating out with friends and taking time to connect with people I met as I ran errands.
One of my favorite things to do is to walk up to a checkout and think: "I've never met this person before, but before I leave I'm going to make them laugh." This is fun for me because customers are rushing, multitasking or late to another appointment, in the same mindset as I used to be when I worked for a temp agency and was rushing to secretarial jobs in downtown LA during college. Right away a twinkle in the eye, making eye contact changes the dynamics in the brief meeting over the cash register. In future posts I'll write about times I've made someone laugh. When I've been determined to make it happen, I can't remember a time it hasn't worked. This reaffirmed my belief in my ability to create entertaining content that will connect with an audience.
For achievers, there's no such thing as an overachiever, and using vacation time and planning for work life balance can create a full life.
