Hard Times - No Better Time to Write

I think everybody is feeling that ripple of fear being cast in all directions by the troubles on Wall Street. It isn't easy to remain optimistic when markets are crashing and people are out of work. What happens on Wall Street affects us all. That's so much more apparent to me at this stage of life than ever before. So much for your burgeoning screenwriting career, right? Better get a part time job at the Piggly Wiggly, right? Wrong. There never was a better time or more important reason to keep writing.

You know what I do when I feel down and I need a distraction? I watch a movie. Comedies in particular have been my in-home therapist when I just needed a good laugh. And sometimes I just need a good cry. I credit WHAT ABOUT BOB for giving me the first real belly laugh in weeks about three years ago when I was on the floor with depression about an event that had occurred in my life. Death therapy, Bob! It works! If even for that short 90 minutes, you can be distracted enough to laugh and remember what's good about life - that's a damn good 90 minutes.

More Americans per capita went to the movies during the Great Depression than ever since. Hard times - and I mean horrible, Dorothea Lange, John Steinbeck hard times actually brought audiences to the theaters in droves. Because for the price of, I don't know, ten cents, you could be distracted for a little while. The Great Depression set the the ascendance of Hollywood as the National Dream Machine in stone. To this day, Hollywood is one of the tiny minority of businesses that actually benefit from economic had times. That and arms proliferation but that's another, more depressing blog post. With such uncertainty in the air, escapism is a great business to be in.

If you feel one iota of guilt about potentially making money in entertainment when others are suffering, stop right now, rush to the video store and rent SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, one of my all time favorite movies.

So often aspiring writers are just so weighted down by the lottery-like chances of actually selling a script. It feels completely hopeless and overwhelming. Like putting quarter after quarter into the slot machine, hoping against hope you'll hit the jackpot. But sometimes you feel like you're scraping the bottom of the bucket and raiding the kid's piggy bank. Rifling through old purses. You know the drill.

Impatience, day jobs, family - other pressing realities not to mention just plain running out of optimism can take a toll on aspiring writers.

But you really could be that one writer with that great script which gets everybody really excited. You really could have a career ahead of you. Yes, it takes time, it takes skills, it takes talent and connections - but it is entirely possible. Because without all those specs flowing into Hollywood everyday, the machine would chug to a halt. And audiences would be the poorer without really great, entertaining movies to see. Movies are humanity looking back at itself and laughing, crying and coming to terms. They deliver inspiration, catharsis, vicarious adventure and romance and sometimes just a great way to kill two hours thinking about something other than your utility bill and the fact that the car needs another repair. Movies are affordable therapy.

Hollywood needs you, aspiring spec writers. It may not woo you with flowers, it may at sometimes seem cruel and uncaring. But it needs you. Particularly when economic times are hard. Redouble your efforts this fall and winter, to put your nose to the grindstone and finish that script and start another. Be jotting down ideas. Think of it as your patriotic duty.

That is all. Now get back to work.

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