Creative Alcohol Shots
It was good – enough for Shakespeare!
One of the basic conflicts for creators of all kinds is the tug of war between art and commerce. Frankly, an artist has to make money, and are best done from his office.
A writer who must work a full time job to support himself will have to fight to find the time to work, and often gives time at all. On the other hand, being able to write about a project can polish all valuable skills, and teach one of the rules of the publishing industry.
On the other hand, I've known writers who were clearly working on projects, or toiling in a race that was burning their souls. I remember meeting one such writer. Your business card reading "Freelance hack and mechanical literature." Sadly, but not entirely unexpected, was dead of alcoholism in a year.
How to prevent wear these? Well, in my own career, and wrote the books I mattered more, I've written for Batman comic books, a Star Trek novel, Star Wars and a tie-in. In my career in television, in addition to writing "Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, "also wrote four episodes of" Baywatch "(!)
And never for a moment I felt myself was selling. Let one thing clear: Shakespeare wrote for money. You can keep a watchful eye on the bank account, and still reach the heights of the vessels. But again, how?
In my case, the answer is quite simple. Imagine the thought process like this: I draw two circles. In the first everything you like to write (and there are always dozens of projects in the hopper of mind!). The second is all that someone else is willing to pay. When the two circles overlap, what I write. In other words, there are projects that I love writing, but can not get paid? Oh yeah, and I usually do not write unless they are quite short. And there are projects that the producers or publishers would want me to do, but do not touch my heart to everyone. Having learned from experience that there are limits to my flexibility creative, in turn downward.
But occasionally, an opportunity arises that is in the no man's land between the circles. There is money, but the project not exactly something you ever considered writing. What then?
So one wonders if the project is something that I could be proud. If you read it, or someone I respect that they did. For example, when my agent called and said that the producers of "Baywatch" wanted to talk to me, I had post office more than six hours of video on the show. I sat in the living room couch and watched with my daughter, who was six at the time. After a few episodes, I asked him what he thought. She liked it. I asked him why. She said: "For people of good hard work to make the beach safe for us. 'I in it, and then replied: "You know, there are worse things in this world, by far." and decided to try writing for it.
Each program each project has its limitations. You must use certain characters, you must bring them to certain types of situations, and should avoid certain topics. This can be restrictive, but also may decide to take it as a challenge. After all, you could give Fred Astaire a stage of any kind, and the support of any kind, and I would find a way to create dance. Should be committed to a lower level of skill and vision? No.
You must find ways to have fun while writing, to stretch their skills to deal with something you've never done before, empathy with a younger audience if necessary-ever written "down" to his audience. That art is death. But if it can be really flexible you will find that more doors are open to you, the more opportunities arise, and that ring comes around brass more often. A writer ready to jump at any opportunity to demonstrate their skill, and considers that it is easy to fall in love with about a project often better results than a fragile "genius" must have everything exactly the way to write.
And if that approach is sufficiently good for the bard is good enough for me.
About the Author
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