Radioactive Kryptonite

So the reason why some blogs win and some blogs fail? Two words - radioactive kryptonite. Some blogs are simply dangerous to the touch and do absolutely nothing for the reader. A wasteland of pages in the world wide web, clutter creating agents if you will.

The reader has to glean something out of a blog for it to be of use. It can't be filled with so much overwrought angst and snarkiness that you completely alienate the populace. You must speak from the heart. It must enlighten the masses. Excite them. Make them want to turn on their computers, go online, and find out what their favorite blogger wrote about that day.

At least, that's how I feel whenever I read three of my favorite blogs:
johnaugust.com, whywewrite.com and wordplayer.com. These blogs inspire me. They teach me how to be a better screenwriter. How to get the words on the page. How to map out a story, create more interesting characters. They show me that there are other people out there who are interested in this kind of thing.

You know, before I moved to New York I had not met a single person who was interested in writing a movie. Not one. All of my writer friends had essentially quit writing by the time I made it out to the East Coast. Looking back, this worked to my advantage. It wasn't until I'd written my third script that I discovered how many people wanted to write movies, tried to write movies, desired to sell that million dollar spec script. I had no idea that a script could even sell for that kind of money. It sounded ludicrous. Who in their right mind would pay that much for a stack of paper? Idiots. But that was what actually lured some people to become writers.

That to me is absolutely crazy. Having worked as a professional writer and editor, I can tell you that while it pays OK it ain't gonna make you rich. You actually have to want to do this because you like telling stories, not because you hope Steven Spielberg will pluck you out of the ether to write "Indiana Jones 5. " That's why I do this. I write because ever since I was a kid I've lived in my own head, imagining my own characters interacting with the world, going on wacky adventures. If I didn't write comics, novels, screenplays, if I didn't draw pictures or storyboards, I'd make cardboard cutouts, or origami people, or postage stamp plays, or something completely nuts just to get my vision out there.

My goal in all of this is to finish my work and get it sold so that I can do this full-time, instead of working in retail or clerical jobs I hate. My goal is to be able to look back and say, yeah, I did this and now you can rent it, put the poster on the wall, recite the lines. And my goal is to chronicle the experience, so anyone else who comes after me, wanting the same goal, can see someone who accomplished it and go, "yeah, she did it. I can do it too."

That would make it all worth while.