Sunday, November 26, 2006

Holbrook, Arizona.

I'm giving notice at my job tomorrow, so this seems an appropriate time to start the "moving-to-LA-to-be-a-screenwriter" blog I've been vaguely planning on starting. Also, John said I should.

February 12th will be my last day.

I hope to find an apartment with availability on the first of March. And maybe a job.

Actually deciding on a date has made the whole thing seem very, very real. It's all I could think about the last two days: all the things I have to do by then, the potential for failure, the inevitability of seeing my friends less.

And how utterly cliche the whole thing is. The guy from the midwest moving to Hollywood to take his shot. There will be ten thousand of me out there, literally. Everytime I tell someone from California about my plans, their eyes glaze over. There's the old joke that you can't throw a stone in LA without hitting eight screenwriters.

Which makes wonder if I have the requisite arrogance to pull this off - to see many thousands of people failing at a task (failing forever, most likely), and believe that I can succeed. I know the odds, the ratio of scripts written to scripts purchased. Believing I can sell a script means believing that I can write a script better than, roughly, 44,700 others.

Ugh.

4 comments:

Stew21 said...

Believing that you can make it, doing what you love, taking the "big chance" is all very admirable and you should be proud of the decision.
If it takes arrogance to believe that you are better than those other screenwriters, so be it. Be passionate, disciplined, and persistent! That's the best you can do. It's worth a shot if you think it is. No matter how many other people you have to be better than. If that's what it takes then do what you can to be better.
No time for self-doubt now, right!
Best of luck to you!
Passion, discipline, persistence.
go for it!

Trish

Jenna said...

No eye glazing here. I hope you kick butt! Can't wait to read your updates.

Kate said...

As someone who spent most of her life not taking any risks, it warms my heart to see someone sticking his neck out.

I grew up with parents who didn't believe in taking risks and I ended up in therapy. It is only now that I am in my fifites that I'm trying to go out and do some of the things I always wanted to do.

Good luck to you!

J m mcdermott said...

I've always been of the opinion that the best way to go through life is to succeed gloriously or fail gloriously.

As long as your failure is glorious, it isn't actually a failure.