Is that gig really worth it? A guide to how I figure it out. Part Two

All aspects of our lives are composed of relationships, including business, and none more so than entertainment.

All of your actions and choices reflect upon those relationships - building them, altering them, sometimes severing them.

There are more people asking for one's time an expertise than several lifetimes can fill. How on earth to choose which relationships to cultivate, which to stand on the sidelines for, and which circumstances it makes sense to walk away from?

The number one way I figure this out is: does this person need me? The answer, which you might think strange, should always be 'no'.

Huh?

Let me explain. The people that I want to work with are talented and motivated in their own right. They don't need me holding their hand every step of the way, and will manage whether they have my assistance or not. They'll want to work with me because our sensibilities mesh well, we share a goal, we can help each other.

I have both personal and professional friends in this category that I'll go out on a limb for, go the extra mile every time because I believe in them just as much as they believe in me. We do great work together. But if I were hit by a meteorite tomorrow, their projects would move on, whether I'm there or not.

That is the person I want to work with. These are the people that I'll fly across the country for, that I'll volunteer time and effort to help.


The other sort, are the ones that like the idea of fame and fortune, rather than the process of making something. They expect that merely knowing someone who works on films is enough to make them a famous actor, a top tier writer, whatever. (These are most often the strangers that want you to work for free, too!) Somewhere, they think making films is like playing lotto, at whatever stage. Some have the 'great idea' that's been floating around for a decade, unwritten. Some have even gotten to the 'made a movie' stage, but didn't realize how much time, effort, and expertise goes into one until it is far too late.

I suspect you have friends like this too - 'I could write a novel, if I only had the time', 'I have this great idea...', 'I could be an artist/graphic designer/pro blogger but...', and a slew of others.

I'm not a pro blogger (obviously). I have no one to blame but myself for the unwritten words to my novel. I'm not really an expert anything - that's right, I'm NOT an expert. I do share observations on life and work that have worked for ME. They're designed to be helpful, so hopefully I can save you some of the heartache that I've gone through on my path. That's all.

Confessions of a literary voyeur

I love reading other people's blogs - mostly informational blogs: GalleyCat, ERECsite, Miss Snark, The Evil Editor

Sometimes, it'll be things like Forgotten New York, or the tidbits of obscure history from Cracked.com - interesting pieces of history and the human condition that may spark stories of my own, or introduce me to places that I can actually go visit and find out more about on my own.

Lately, most of my online reading has been personal blogs and anecdotes from complete strangers.  It's as though a million characters have opened their windows in this immense apartment building, graciously allowing the peeping tom outside a peek into some pastiche of their life.  More than allowing, I suppose.  They set out the fine silver and china, for many, painting ideological portraits of memories.  Others bring out the heavy metal posters and toss the mattress onto the floor (which you suspect was perfectly well made only moments ago) and sensationalize some event until it has all the believability of a morning talk show guest.

The ones that get my attention the best are a balance.  They don't so much sugar coat events as find that soft spot that makes us still love crazy Uncle Jemmy (not a real person) even though he pours Bud Light over his corn flakes every morning.  The trials and frightening parts of life are matter of fact, often responded to and written about with the wry humor of a survivor.

When writing fiction, it seems part of the difficulty is making the story compelling and human.  Creating fully dimensional characters with strengths, weaknesses, talents and foibles.  The more information you have to draw from, the easier this becomes.  Writing convincing fiction is difficult from a vacuum.

Don't plagiarize,  but do open your eyes and ears to all different kinds of stories, from all sorts of people.  The only way to make your imaginary characters feel real, is to make them 'real'.

Word count, and new blog.

Shoggoth is up to 20,400. Not a huge jump, but it's been that kind of week.

Crashed a party at a yacht club. The people were boring, but the food was good.

I started a blog/fiction about a vampire...a most unusual one.

For those of you who know me better, you might have heard about the whole dermatology adventure - turns out, I'm allergic to the sun. Didn't know you could do that. Many colorful jokes were made, of course.

Being the writerly type, it got me thinking - what if that is the first symptom of something else? I think that's the most important question a writer has in their arsenal, the one with the most potential.

So, here's the first entry:

http://bloodandwhine.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/introduction/

(Its also a great excuse to check out different blog features.)

I hope you find Libby an engaging, fun, and human character. She'll probably be posting once a week or so. Let me know what you think. (The link is also in the title of this post.)